Works of Nonnus

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by Nonnus


  τοῖς δ᾽ ἐπὶ θωρήσσοντο Σίβαι καὶ λαὸς Ὑδάρκης,

  καὶ στρατὸς ἄλλος ἵκανε πόλιν Καρμῖναν ἐάσας:

  220 τῶν ἄμα Κύλλαρος ἦρχε καἰ Ἀστράεις, πρόμος Ἰνδῶν,

  Βρόγγου δίζυγα τέκνα τετιμένα Δηριαδῆι.

  [218] Next came the Sibai under arms, and the Hydarcan people, with another host from the city of Carmina. Their joint leaders were Cyllaros and Astraeis the Indian prince, two sons of Brongos honoured by Deriades.

  καὶ στόλος ἄλλος ἵκανε τριηκοσίων ἀπὸ νήσων,

  αἵ τε περιστιχόωσιν ἀμοιβάδες ἄλλυδις ἄλλαι

  γείτονες ἀλλήλῃσιν, ὅπῃ περιμήκεϊ πορθμῷ

  225 δίστομος Ἰνδὸς ἄγων μετανάστιον ἀγκύλον ὕδωρ,

  ἑρπύζων κατὰ βαιὸν ἀπ᾽ Ἰνδῴου δονακῆος

  λοξὸς ὑπὲρ δαπέδοιο παρ᾽ Ἠῴου στόμα πόντου,

  ἔρχεται αὐτοκύλιστος ὑπὲρ λόφον Αἰθιοπῆα:

  ἧχι θερειγενέων ὑδάτων ὑψούμενος ὁλκῷ

  230 χεύμασιν αὐτογόνοις ἐπὶ πήχεϊ πῆχυν ἀέξει,

  καὶ χθόνα πιαλέην ἀγκάζεται ὑγρὸς ἀκοίτης,

  τέρπων ἰκμαλέοισι φιλήμασι διψάδα νύμφην,

  οἶστρον ἔχων πολύπηχυν ἀμαλλοτόκων ὑμεναίων,

  μέτρῳ ἀμοιβαίῳ παλιναυξέα χεύματα τίκτων

  235 Νεῖλος ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ καὶ ἑώιος Ἰνδὸς Ὑδάσπης.

  κεῖθι μελαμψήφιδα διαξύων ῥόον όπλῇ

  νήχεται ὑδατόεις ποταμήιος ἵππος ἀλήτης,

  οἶος ἐμοῦ Νείλοιο θερειγενές οἶδμα χαράσσων

  ναιετάει, βυθίοιο δι᾽ ὕδατος ὑγρὸς ὁδίτης

  240 μηκεδαναῖς γενύεσσιν: ἐπ᾽ αἰγιαλοῖο δὲ βαίνει

  αἰχμῇ καρχαρόδοντι διασχίζων ῥάχιν ὕλης,

  καὶ διερὴν ἀχάρακτον ἔχων γένυν ἅρπαγα καρπῶν

  μιμηλῇ δρεπάνῃ σταχυηφόρα λήια τέμνει,

  ἀμητὴρ ἀσίδηρος ἀμαλλοφόρου τοκετοῖο:

  [222] Another host came from three hundred islands, scattered here and there, or in groups together, which lie about that place where the Indos on an endless course pours out its winding travelling stream by two enclosing mouths, after creeping in its slow curving course from the Indian reedbeds over the plain to its mouth by the Eastern sea, after first rolling down the heights of the Ethiopian mountains: swollen by the mass of summerbegotten waters it increases cubit by cubit with selfrising floods, and embraces the rich land like a watery husband, who rejoices a thirsty bride with his moist kisses and enfolds her in many passionate arms for a sheafbearing bridal, while he begets in his turn other ever-recurrent streams: so Nile in Egypt, and the eastern Hydaspes in India. There swims the travelling riverhorse through the waters, cleaving with his hoof the blackpebble stream, just like the dweller in my own Nile, who cuts the summer-begotten flood and travels through the watery deeps with his long jaws. He mounts the shores, splitting the woody ridges with sharp-pointed tooth; with only a wet ungraven jaw to ravage the fruits, he cuts the cornbearing harvest with this makeshift sickle, reaper of sheafbearing crops without steel.

  245 τοῖα μὲν ἑπταπόροιο φατίζεται εἴκελα Νείλου

  Ἰνδῴου ποταμοῖο φέρειν μένος. οἱ δὲ λιπόντες

  νήσων ἀγκύλα κύκλα καὶ ἕδρανα γείτονος Ἰνδοῦ

  ἄνδρες ἐθωρήσσοντο μαχήμονες, ὦν πρόμος ἀνὴρ

  Ῥίγβασος ἡγεμόνευεν, ἔχων ἴνδαλμα Γιγάντων.

  250 οὐδὲ γέρων Ἄρητος ἐλείπετο Δηριαδῆος

  εἰς ἐνοπὴν καλέοντος, ἀνὴρ βαρύς: ἀλλὰ καθάψας

  χαλκοβαρῆ λασίοιο κατὰ στέρνοιο χιτῶνα

  γηραλέου κούφιζεν ὑπὲρ νώτοιο βοείην,

  αὐχένι κυρτωθέντι περικρεμάσας τελαμῶνα.

  255 καὶ στρατιὴν θώρηξεν ἀναγκαῖος πολεμιστὴς

  πέντε σὺν υἱήεσσι, Δύκῳ καὶ ὁμήλυδι Μύρσῳ,

  Γλαύκῳ καὶ Περίφαντι καὶ ὀψιγόνῳ Μελανῆι.

  καὶ πολιὴν πλοκαμῖδα περισφίγξας τρυφαλείῃ

  λαιὸν ἐυτροχάλοιο μετέστιχε δηιοτῆτος,

  260 δεξιτερὸν πολέμοιο κέρας τεκέεσσιν ἐάσας,

  [245] Such are said to be the doings of the mighty Indian river like sevenmouth Nile. These men of war then, from the rounded shores of the islands and from the settlements of the Indos, now came under arms: their leader was Rhigbasos, one of gigantic stature.

  Nor was old Aretos missing when Deriades summoned all to war. A heavy man he was; but he fitted a heavy bronze corselet over his hairy chest, and carried an oxhide shield on his aged back, slung by a strap over his bent neck. He also armed his force under compulsion for the war, he and five sons, Lycos and Myrsos together, Glaucos and Periphas and Melaneus the lateborn. He covered his gray curly hairs with a helmet, and repaired to the left wing of his battle circuit, leaving the right to his sons.

  οὓς φύσις ἀφθόγγων στομάτων σφρηγίσσατο δεσμῷ,

  γλῶσσαν ὑποσφίγξασα σοφῆς ὀχετηγὸν ἰωῆς:

  ὁππότε γὰρ θαλάμοιο παρὰ φλιῇσι χορεύων

  Λαοβίην ζυγίοιο γάμου πιστώσατο θεσμῷ

  265 παιδογόνοις Ἄρητος ὁμιλήσας ὑμεναίοις,

  ἔνθεον ἔπλετο θάμβος, ἐπεὶ γαμίῳ παρὰ βωμῷ

  νυμφοκόμῳ πεπόνητο θυηπολέων Ἀφροδίτῃ

  νυμφίος ἀρτιχόρευτος, ἐν εὐύμνῳ δὲ μελάθρῳ

  δοῦπον ἀνακλάγξασα λεχώιον ἀνθερεῶνος

  270 μάντις ἐπεσσομένων ἐβαρύνετο πουλυτὅ̣̣̓ος σῦς,

  ἀλλοίην καὶ ἄπιστον ἐλαφρίζουσα λοχείην,

  καὶ νεπόδων ὤδινε νόθον γένος, ἐκ λαγόνων δὲ

  ὑγρὴν ἰχθυόεσσαν ἀνηκόντιζε γενέθλην,

  ἀντὶ τόκου χθονίοιο λοχευσαμένη τόκον ἅλμης.

  275 καὶ συὸς ἰχθυγόνοιο πολύστομος ἵπτατο Φήμη

  λαὸν ἀολλίζουσα: πολυσπερέες δὲ πολῖται

  χερσαίην πολύτεκνον ἐθηήσαντο γενέθλην,

  ἰσοφυὲς μίμημα θαλασσοτόκοιο λοχείης.

  [261] These were men whose lips nature had closed with the seal of silence, having tied each tongue, the channel of intelligent speech. For when at the doorposts of the bridal chamber in the sacred dance Aretos pledged his troth to Laobie, according to the rites of lawful marriage, joining with her in wedlock for the begetting of children, a miracle divine was wrought. The bridegroom, fresh from his own wedding dance, had been busy at the m
arriage-altar sacrificing to Aphrodite the Lady of Brides; and while the hall resounded with hymns, a sow big with young in her pain shrieked out the cry of labour from her throat, prophetic of things to come, and dropt an uncanny incredible litter — a bastard brood of marine creatures, a shoal of wet fish she shot out of her womb, spat of the brine not spat of the land! Rumour flew abroad with many mouths, telling of the fishmother sow and gathering the people; farscattered burghers came to stare at this numerous generation of land-creatures, the very image of seaborn spawn.

  μαντιπόλον δ᾽ ἐρέεινε θεηγόρον: εἰρομένῳ δὲ

  280 ἐσσομένην θέσπιζεν ἀφωνήτων στίχα παίδων,

  εἰναλίης ἴνδαλμα λιπογλώσσοιο γενέθλης.

  καὶ τότε μάντις ἔλεξε προάγγελα θέσφατα κεύθειν,

  ὄφρά κεν ἱλάσκοιτο τανύπτερον υἱέα Μαίης,

  γλώσσης ἡγεμονῆα, σοφῆς ἰθύντορα φωνῆς.

  [279] He asked the prophetic interpreter of God’s will: to the question, he foretold a succession of dumb children to come, like the voiceless generation of the deep sea. And the seer bade him to hide the prophetic oracle, that he might propitiate the longwinged son of Maia, governor of the tongue, guide of intelligent speech.

  285 Λαοβίη δ᾽ ὤδινεν, ἀμοιβαίῃ δὲ λοχείῃ

  τίκτε συὸς βρεφέεσσιν ἰσηρίθμων στίχα παίδων,

  ἰχθύσιν ἀφθόγγοισιν ἐοικότας, οὓς μετὰ νίκην

  Βάκχος ἄναξ ἐλέαιρε, λιποφθόγγων δ᾽ ἀπὸ λαιμῶν

  γλώσσης δεσμὸν ἔλυσε, καὶ ἤλασεν ἥλικα σιγήν,

  290 φωνὴν δ᾽ ὀψιτέλεστον ἐπεξύνωσεν ἑκάστῳ.

  [285] Laobie was brought to bed, and in one birth after another brought forth children equal in number to the sow’s young ones, and dumb like fishes. After the victory, Lord Bacchos had pity on these, and loosed the tie of the tongue in their dumb throats, drove away the silence which had been their companion from birth, bestowed upon each a voice perfected at last.

  τοῖσι συνεστρατόωντο φερεσσακέες πολεμισταί,

  οἵ τε Πύλας ἐνέμοντο καὶ οἳ λάχον ἐγγύθεν Εὕρου

  ναιομένην Εὔκολλα, μαχήμονος ἔνδιον Ἠοῦς,

  καὶ ζαθέην Γορύανδιν ἐύσπορον αὔλακα γαίης.

  [291] Along with these were mustered shieldbearing warriors: those who dwelt in Pylai, and those who possessed a habitation in Eucolla, the district of warlike Eos near the East Wind, and divine Goryandis with soil well fitted for seed.

  295 τοῖς δ᾽ ἐπὶ θωρήχθησαν, ὅσοι λάχον ἄντυγας Οἴτης,

  μητέρα δενδρήεσσαν ἀμετροβίων ἐλεφάντων,

  οἷς φύσις ὤπασε κύκλα διηκοσίων ἐνιαυτῶν

  ζώειν ἀενάοιο χρόνου πολυκαμπέι νύσσῃ,

  ἠὲ τριηκοσίων: καὶ βόσκεται ἄλλος ἐπ᾽ ἄλλῳ,

  300 ἐκ ποδὸς ἀκροτάτου μελανόχροος ἄχρι καρήνου:

  γναθμοῖς μηκεδανοῖσιν ἔχων προβλῆτας ὀδόντας

  δίζυγας, ἀμητῆρι τύπῳ γαμψώνυχος ἅρπης,

  θηγαλέῳ τμητῆρι, διαστείχει στίχα δένδρων

  ποσσὶ τανυκνήμοισιν: ἔχων δ᾽ ἴνδαλμα καμήλων

  305 καὶ λοφίην ἐπίκυρτον, ἑῷ πολυχανδέι νώτῳ

  ἑσμὸν ἄγει νήριθμον ἐπασσυτέρων ἐλατήρων,

  δινεύων στατὸν ἴχνος ἀκαμπέι γούνατος ὁλκῷ,

  καὶ τύπον εὐρυμέτωπον ἐχιδναίοιο καρήνου,

  αὐχένα βαιὸν ἔχων κυρτούμενον: εἷλε δὲ λεπτὸν

  310 ὄμμασιν ἰσοτύποισι συῶν ἴνδαλμα προσώπου,

  ὑψιφανής, περίμετρος: ἑλισσομένου δὲ πορείῃ

  οὔατα μὲν λιπόσαρκα, παρήορα γείτονι κόρσῃ,

  λεπταλέων ἀνέμων ὀλίγῃ ῥιπίζεται αὔρῃ:

  πυκνὰ δὲ μαστίζουσα δέμας νωμήτορι παλμῷ

  315 λεπτοφυὴς ἐλάχεια τινάσσεται ἄστατος οὐρή.

  πολλάκι δ᾽ ἐν πολέμοισι γένυν προβλῆτα τινάσσων

  ἀνέρι ταυροκάρηνος ἐπέχραεν ἠλίβατος θήρ,

  ξείνην καρχαρόδοντα φέρων ἑτερόστομον ἅρπην,

  δινεύων ἑκάτερθε γενειάδος ἔμφυτον αἰχμήν:

  320 πολλάκι δ᾽ εὐθώρηκα μετάρσιον ἀσπιδιώτην

  ὄρθιον ἠέρταζε πεπαρμένον ἅρπαγι λαιμῷ,

  ἄνδρα δὲ καρχαρόδοντι κατεπρήνιξεν ἀκωκῇ

  καὶ νέκυν αὐτοκύλιστον ἐπὶ στροφάλιγγι κονίης

  ὑψόθεν ἠκόντιζε παλινδίνητον ἀλήτην,

  325 αἰθύσσων ἑλικηδὸν ἴτυν σκολιοῖο γενείου

  κάρχαρον ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα παρὰ προβολῇσιν ὀδόντων

  ἀντίτυπον σπειρηδὸν ἐχιδνήεσσιν ἀκάνθαις,

  ἄχρι ποδῶν τανύων κεχαραγμένον ἆορ ὀδόντων.

  [295] After these came armed those who possessed the curves of Oita, woody mother of longliving elephants, to which nature has granted to live through two hundred rolling years, rounding so often the turning-point of eternal time, or even three hundred. Black they are from the point of the foot to the head, and they feed side by side. Each has projecting teeth on his long jaws, two of them, hooked like a reaper’s sickle, sharp and cutting, and he marches through the ranks of trees on his long legs; he has a curved neck like a camel, and on his capacious back he carries an innumerable swarm of riders in rows, swinging a firm foot with unbending knees. He has a short curved neck, and a wide forehead shaped like a snake. The eyes on his face are like the little eyes of a pig. He is towering, enormous: as he rolls along, the skinny ears close to the temple on each side, move like fans in the lightest breath of air. A thin little restless waving tail whips the body with a continual regular movement. Often in battle the mountainous beast shakes a tusk and attacks a man like a pilking bull, striking with the borrowed sharptoothed sickle on each side of his mouth and swinging natural spears on both cheeks. Often when he has pierced a man, he lifts him straight up with greedy throat, armour and shield and all; or he throws one down with sharp-pointed tusk, picks up the body as it rolls helpless in a swirl of dust and throws it hurtling through the air at random; he throws about this way and that way the jagged ring of teeth in his crooked jaw, beside the tusks ranged in strings like the backbone of a snake, and stretches down to his feet the sharp sword of the tusks.

  τοὺς μὲν ἄναξ Διόνυσος ἄγων μετὰ φύλοπιν Ἰνδῶν

  330 Καυκασίην παρὰ πέζαν Ἀμαζονίου ποταμοῖο

  εἰς φόβον εὐπήληκας ἀνεπτοίησε γυναῖκας,

  ἠλιβάτων λοφίῃσιν ἐφεδρήσσων ἐλεφάντων.

  ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν μετὰ δῆριν. ἐς ὑσμίνην δὲ Λυαίου

  Δηρ
ιάδῃ καλέοντι τότε πρόμος ἦλθε Πυλοίτης,

  335 ὀρθοπόδην ἐλέφαντα κατὰ κλόνον ἡνιοχεύων,

  καλλιτόκου Μαραθῶνος Ἀρειμανὲς αἷμα γενέθλης:

  καί οἱ ἐς ὑσμίνην ἑτερόθροος ἕσπετο γείτων

  λαὸς ἐυκρήδεμνον Ἐριστοβάρειαν ἐάσας.

  [329] These creatures after the Indian war Lord Dionysos led to the Caucasian district by the Amazonian River, and scattered those helmeted women, as he sat on the back of a mountainous elephant. But this was after the war. In this conflict, when Deriades sent out his summons to war with Lyaios, the chieftain Pyloites joined him driving a straightlegged elephant into the fray. He was the warlike blood of the race which produced Marathon, one blessed in his children; and he was followed to the conflict by a neighbouring people of different speech, from Eristobareia with her lovely coronals.

 

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