Works of Nonnus

by Nonnus

  Δερβίκων δὲ γένεθλα συνέσπετο Δηριαδῆι

  340 Αἰθίοπές τε Σάκαι τε καὶ ἔθνεα ποικίλα Βάκτρων,

  καὶ πολὺς οὐλοκόμων Βλεμύων στρατός. ἀλλοφανῆ δὲ

  Αἰθίοπες μεθέπουσι τύπον τεχνήμονα χάρμης:

  ἵππου γὰρ φορέοντες ὀλωλότος ἄντυγα κόρσης

  ψευδόμενοι κρύπτουσιν ἀληθέα κύκλον ὀπωπῆς,

  345 καὶ κεφαλὴν βροτέην ἑτέρῳ σφίγγουσι προσώπῳ,

  ἄπνοον ἀσκήσαντες ἐς ἔμπνοον, ἐν δὲ κυδοιμοῖς

  δήιον ἀγνώσσοντα νόθῳ κλονέουσι καρήνῳ:

  καὶ πρόμος ἐκ στομάτων ἀπατήλιον ἦχον ἰάλλει,

  ἵππιον ἀνδρομέῃ προχέων χρεμετισμὸν ἰωῇ.

  [339] Tribes of Derbices were there with Deriades, Ethiopians and Sacai and various nations of Bactrians, and a great host of woolly-headed Blemyes. The Ethiopians follow a peculiar and clever fashion in battle. They wear the top of a dead horse’s head, hiding in this disguise the true shape of their faces. Thus they fasten another face on the human head, and join the dead to the living. So in the battle they startle the unwitting foe with this bastard head; and their chieftain lets out a deceitful sound from his mouth, and gives vent to a horse’s neigh with his manly voice.

  350 οἱ μὲν ἀολλίζοντο καλεσσαμένου βασιλῆος.

  πάντων δ᾽ ἡγεμόνευεν ἐς Ἄρεα κοίρανος Ἰνδῶν,

  ὃν διερῇ φιλότητι πατὴρ ἔσπειρεν Ὑδάσπης,

  Ἀστρίδος εὐώδινος ὁμιλήσας ὑμεναίοις,

  κούρης Ἠελίοιο. φάτις δέ τις, ὅττί ἑ μήτηρ

  355 νηιὰς Ὠκεανοῖο γένος τεκνώσατο Κητώ,

  ἥν ποτε παφλάζοντι διερπύζων περὶ παστῷ

  νυμφίος ὑδατόεντι γάμῳ πήχυνεν Ὑδάσπης

  γνήσιον αἷμα φέρων Τιτήνιον: ἀρχεγόνων γὰρ

  ἐκ λεχέων Θαύμαντος ἐγείνατο δίζυγα φύτλην

  360 Ἠλέκτρη ῥοδόπηχυς ὁμευνέτις, ἧς ἀπὸ λέκτρων

  καὶ ποταμὸς βλάστησε καὶ ἄγγελος Οὐρανιώνων,

  Ιρις ἀελλήεσσα καὶ ὠκυρέεθρος Ὑδάσπης,

  ἡ μὲν ἐπεντύνουσα ποδῶν δρόμον, ὃς δὲ ῥοάων:

  ἄμφω δ᾽ ἀντικέλευθον ἴσην μεθέπουσι πορείην,

  365 Ἶρις ἐν ἀθανάτοισι καὶ ἐν ποταμοῖσιν Ὑδάσπης.

  [350] These were the hosts which gathered at their king’s call. The whole army was led to battle by the emperor of the Indians, son of Hydaspes the watery lover in union with Astris daughter of Helios, happy in her offspring — men say that her mother was Ceto, a Naiad daughter of Oceanos — and Hydaspes crept into her bower till he flooded it, and wooed her to his embrace with conjugal waves. He had the genuine Titan blood; for from the bed of primeval Thaumas his rosyarm consort Electra brought forth two children — from that bed came a river and a messenger of the heavenly ones, Iris quick as the wind and swiftly flowing Hydaspes, Iris travelling on foot and Hydaspes by water. Both had an equal speed on two contrasted paths: Iris among the immortals and Hydaspes among the rivers.

  τόσσος ἄρα στρατὸς ἦλθε: πόλις δ᾽ ἐστείνετο λαῷ:

  καὶ στίχες εὐπήληκες ἐμιτρώθησαν ἀίταις,

  τετραπόρων πλήσαντες ἐν ἄστεϊ κύκλα κελεύθων:

  οἱ μὲν ἐπὶ τριόδοισιν ἐπήτριμοι, οἱ δ᾽ ἐνὶ βόθροις,

  370 ἄλλοι δ᾽ ἠλιβάτοιο πρὸ τείχεος, οἱ δ᾽ ἐπὶ πύργων

  νήδυμον ὕπνον ἴαυον ἀκοντοφόρων ἐπὶ λέκτρων.

  ἡγεμόνων δὲ φάλαγγας ἑῷ ξείνισσε μελάθρῳ

  Δηριάδης, καὶ πάντες ἀμοιβαίων ἐπὶ θώκων

  ξεινοδόκῳ βασιλῆι μιῆς ἥπτοντο τραπέζης.

  375 τοῖσι μὲν ἕσπερα δεῖπνα καὶ ἐννυχίου πτερὸν Ὕπνου

  μέμβλετο, καὶ στρατὸς εὗδεν ἐνόπλιος Ἄρεϊ γείτων:

  ἐγρεμόθῳ δ᾽ εὕδοντες ἐφωμίλησαν ὀνείρῳ,

  μιμηλὴν Σατύροισιν ἀναστήσαντες Ἐνυώ.

  [366] So great then, was the host there assembled. The city was crammed with people; helmeted crowds were surrounded by favourite young squires till they filled the circle of the streets that ran all four ways in the city, some thick at the three ways, some in the moat, some on the height of the walls, while others lay quietly on the turrets and slept under arms. The company of leaders was entertained by Deriades in his own hall, and all touched the same table as their hospitable king in turns on rows of seats. Feasting engaged them in the evening, the wing of sleep in the night: the army slumbered under arms on the eve of battle, and slumbering they had to do with battlestirring dreams, as they fought against shadows like Satyrs.

  BOOK 27

  ἕβδομον εἰκοστὸν μεθέπει στίχας, ᾗσι Κρονίων

  εἰς μόθον ὁπλίζει Βρομίῳ ναετῆρας Ὀλύμπου.

  ἄρτι δὲ λυσιπόνοιο τιναξαμένη πτερὸν Ὕπνου

  ἀντολίης ὤιξε θύρας πολεμητόκος Ἠώς,

  καὶ Κεφάλου λίπε λέκτρα σελασφόρα: βαλλόμενος δὲ

  ἀντιπόρῳ Φαέθοντι μέλας λευκαίνετο Γάγγης:

  5 καὶ φυγὰς ἀρτιχάρακτος ἐχάζετο κῶνος ὀμίχλης

  σχιζόμενος φαέεσσιν: ἀπὸ δροσεροῖο δὲ δίφρου

  ὄρθριος εἰαρινῇσιν ἐλούετο καρπὸς ἐέρσαις.

  BOOK XXVII

  The twenty-seventh deals with the array in which Cronion musters the dwellers in Olympos for battle to help Dionysos.

  Now warbreeding Dawn had just shaken off the wing of carefree sleep and opened the gates of sunrise, leaving the lightbringing couch of Cephalos. Dark Ganges was whitened as he met the touches of Phaëthon, and the cone of gloom newly cleft apart fled away torn by his beams; the crops were bathed in the spring morning by the drops of dew from his car.

  καὶ κλόνος ἦν. φαέθων δὲ πυριτρεφέων δρόμον ἵππων

  ἀενάων ἐτέων φλογόεις ἀνεσείρασε ποιμήν,

  10 γείτονος εἰσαΐων κορυθαιόλον Ἄρεος ἠχώ,

  καὶ στρατὸν αἰχμάζειν προκαλίζετο μάρτυρι πυρσῷ,

  θερμὸν ἀκοντίζων ῥοδόεν βέλος: ἀμφὶ δέ γαίῃ

  αἱμαλέης ξένον ὄμβρον ἀπ᾽ ἰκμάδος ὑέτιος Ζεὺς

  οὐρανόθεν κατέχευε, φόνου πρωτάγγελον Ἰνδῶν.

  15 καὶ φονίαις λιβάδεσσιν Ἐνυαλίου νιφετοῖο

  δίψια κυανέης ἐρυθαίνετο νῶτα κονίης

  Ἰνδῴου δαπέδοιο: νεοσμήκτου δὲ σιδήρου

  ἠελίου σελάγιζε βολαῖς ἀντίρροπος αἴγλη.
<
br />   [8] Then came tumult. Phaëthon, blazing shepherd of the everflowing years, checked the course of his firebred steeds, when he heard the sound of flash-helm Ares rattling close by, and summoned the host to spearthrust, shooting a rosy ray with witnessing torch: Rainy Zeus poured down from heaven a rain of blood, a strange shower which foretold bloodshed for the Indians. The thirsty back of black dust on the Indian ground was reddened with those gory drops of battle-shower; the sheen of newburnished steel glittered against the beams of Helios.

  φαινομένας δὲ φάλαγγας ἐπὶ κλόνον ὥπλισεν Ἰνδῶν

  20 Δηριάδης ὑπέροπλος, ἐποτρύνων δὲ μαχητὰς

  μῦθον ἀπειλητῆρος ἀνήρυγεν ἀνθερεῶνος:

  [19] Now the battalions of Indians were seen:

  Deriades the presumptuous made them arm for battle, and encouraged his soldiers as he uttered this menacing speech:

  ‘δμῶες ἐμοί, μάρνασθε, πεποιθότες ἠθάδι Νίκῃ,

  καὶ θρασὺν ὃν καλέουσι κερασφόρον υἷα Θυώνης

  λάτριν ἰσοκραίροιο τελέσσατε Δηριαδῆος.

  25 κτείνατέ μοι καὶ Πᾶνας ἀλοιητῆρι σιδήρῳ:

  εἰ δὲ θεοὶ γεγάασι, καὶ οὐ θέμις ἐστὶ δαΐξαι

  Πανὸς ἀνουτήτοιο δέμας τμητῆρι σιδήρῳ,

  Πᾶνας ὀρεσσινόμους ληίσσομαι, ἕνδοθι λόχμης

  ἕθνεα βουκολέοντας ἐρημονόμων ἐλεφάντων.

  30 πολλοὶ θῆρες ἕασι καὶ ἐνθάδε, τοῖσι συνάψω

  Φῆρας ὁμοῦ καὶ Πᾶνας ὀρεσσινόμου Διονύσου:

  κούρῃ δ᾽ ἡμετέρῃ θαλαμηπόλον ἑσμὸν ὀπάσσω,

  δαινυμένου Μορρῆος ὑποδρηστῆρα τραπέζης.

  [22] “Fight, my servants, and look for our wonted victory! The bold hornbearing son of Thyone, as they call him, you must make the lackey of Deriades, who also bears horns on his head! Kill me those Pans also with devastating steel. Or if they are gods, and it is not permitted to pierce the body of unwounded Pan with cutting steel, then I make prey of the mountainranging Pans, and they shall tend herds of elephants in the wilderness. There are plenty of wild beasts here also, with which I will join the wildbeast Centaurs and Pans of hillranging Dionysos; or I will make them a swarm of attendants for my daughter, and waiters upon the festal table of Morrheus.

  καί τις ἀνὴρ Φρυγίηθεν ὁμόστολος οἴνοπι Βάκχῳ

  35 Ἰνδῴου ποταμοῖο δέμας λούσειε ῥεέθροις,

  ἀντὶ δὲ Σαγγαρίου καλέσει πατρῷον Ὑδάσπην:

  ἄλλος ἀνὴρ Ἀλύβηθεν ὁμαρτήσας Διονύσῳ

  ἐνθάδε θητεύσειε, καὶ ἀργυρέου ποταμοῖο

  χεύματα καλλείψας πιέτω χρυσαυγέα Γάγγην.

  [34] “Many a Phrygian soldier in the train of wine-face Bacchos will bathe his body in the streams of the Indian river, and call Hydaspes home instead of Sangarios; many a soldier who has come from Alybe with Dionysos shall here be a serf — let him forget the water of his silvern river and drink of the goldgleaming Ganges.

  40 χάζεό μοι, Διόνυσε, φυγὼν δόρυ Δηριαδῆος:

  ἔστι καὶ ἐνθάδε πόντος ἀπείριτος: ἀλλὰ θαλάσσης

  Ἀρραβίης μετὰ κῦμα καὶ ἡμετέρη σε δεχέσθω:

  εὐρύτερος βυθὸς οὗτος ἐρεύγεται ἄγριον ὕδωρ,

  καὶ Σατύρους καὶ Βάκχον ἐπάρκιός ἐστι καλύψαι

  45 καὶ στίχα Βασσαρίδων: οὐ μείλιχος ἐνθάδε Νηρεύς,

  οὐ Θέτις Ἰνδῴη σε δεδέξεται, οὐδέ σε κόλπῳ

  ξεινοδόκον μετὰ κῦμα πάλιν φεύγοντα σαώσει,

  αἰδομένη βαρύδουπον ἐμὸν πατρῷον Ὑδάσπην.

  ἀλλ᾽ ἐρέεις: Κρονίωνος Ὀλύμπιον αἷμα κομίζω.’

  50 αἰθέρα Γαῖα λόχευσε χορῷ κεχαραγμένον ἄστρων:

  οὐρανόθεν γένος ἔσχες: ἐμὴ δέ σε Γαῖα καλύψει:

  καὶ Κρόνον ὠμηστῆρα νέων θοινήτορα παίδων

  οὐρανόθεν γεγαῶτα κατέρυφε κόλπος ἀρούρης.

  εἰμὶ δοριθρασέος στρατιῆς πρόμος: εἰμὶ Λυκούργου

  55 φέρτερος, ὅς σε δίωκε καὶ ἀπτολέμους σέο Βάκχας:

  σὸν γένος οὐ κλονέει με Διιπετές: αἰνομόρου γὰρ

  σῆς Σεμέλης ἤκουσα πυριβλήτους ὑμεναίους:

  μὴ στεροπὴν ἀγόρευε Διὸς νυμφοστόλον εὐνῆς,

  μὴ κεφαλὴν Κρονίωνος ἤ ἄρσενα μηρὸν ἐνίψῃς:

  60 οὐ Διὸς ὠδίνοντος ἐμὲ κλονέουσι λοχεῖαι:

  πολλάκις ὠδίνουσαν ἐμὴν ἐνόησα γυναῖκα.

  σὺν σοὶ δ᾽, ἤν ἐθέλῃ, γενέτης τεὸς αὐτοτόκος Ζεὺς

  ἄρσενι θωρήξειεν ἀρηγόνα θῆλυν Ἀθήνην,

  νίκην ἣν καλέουσιν, ἵνα πρηῶνας ἀράξας

  65 Παλλάδος αἱμάξω κεφαλὴν ταμεσίχροϊ πέτρῳ

  ἢ δορὶ τολμήεντι, καὶ εὐκεράων ἀπὸ τόξων

  μηρὸν ἀπειλητῆρος ὀιστεύσω Διονύσου,

  βουκεράων Σατύρων ἡγήτορος, οὐταμένου δὲ

  καὶ Διὶ καὶ Βρομίῳ καὶ Παλλάδι μῶμον ἀνάψω:

  70 εἰ δὲ σὺν ἀμφοτέροισι κορύσσεται ἀμφιγυήεις,

  δεύομαι Ἡφαίστου τεχνήμονος, ὄφρα καὶ αὐτῷ

  τεύχεα χαλκεύσειε πολύτροπα Δηριαδῆι.

  οὐ τρομέω ποτὲ θῆλυν ἐγὼ πρόμον: εἰ δὲ τινάσσει

  ἀστεροπὴν γενετῆρος, ἔχω πατρώιον ὕδωρ.

  [40] “Give place to me, Dionysos! flee from the spear of Deriades! We have a vast sea here also; then let ours also receive you, after the Arabian waves! Ours is a wider deep which spouts its wild waters, enough to swallow Satyrs and Bacchants and ranks of Bassarids. Here no friendly Nereus, no Indian Thetis will receive you and save you, like those hospitable waves, when you flee a second time; for our Thetis dreads the deep rumbling Hydaspes of my home. But you will say: ‘I have in me Cronion’s Olympian blood. But Earth produced the sky dotted with its troop of stars: you have your birth from heaven, but my Earth shall cover you up. Cronos himself, who banqueted on his own young children in cannibal wise, was covered up in Earth’s bosom, son of Heaven though he was. I am chief of a spearbold army; I am stronger than Lycurgos, who drove you away and your unwarlike Bacchant women. Your divine birth does not trouble me, for I have heard of the firestruck nuptials of your ill-fated Semele. Speak not of the lightning which attended upon the bed of Zeus, boast not of Cronion’s head or his manly thigh. The childbed of Zeus in labour does not trouble me; I have often seen my own wife in labour. Let your father help you, if he likes, your father Zeus self-delivered, by arming female Athena, whom they call Victory, to help you the male: only that I may break off cliffs
, and make the head of Pallas bloody with a cutflesh rock or a daring spear, and hit with an arrow from my bow of horn the thigh of threatening Dionysos, while he leads his horned Satyrs; and when he is wounded may fasten disgrace upon Zeus and Bromios and Pallas! And if the Hobbler shall arm to support them both, Hephaistos the artist is the one I want, to make all sorts of armour in his smithy for Deriades also. I fear not the female chieftain: — if she brandishes her father’s lightning, I have my father’s water.

  75 καὶ θρασύν, ὃν καλέουσιν ὁμόγνιον αἷμα Λυαίου,

  Αἰακὸν οὐρανίοιο Διὸς βλάστημα τοκῆος

  Ζηνὶ καταχθονίῳ δεδαϊγμένον Ἄιδι πέμψω:

  οὐδέ μιν ἁρπάξειε δι᾽ ἠέρος ἱπτάμενος Ζεύς.

  καὶ πολέας Κρονίδαο δεδουπότας υἷας ἀκούω:

  80 Δάρδανος ἐκ Διὸς ἔσκε καὶ ὤλετο, καὶ θάνε Μίνως,

  οὐδέ μιν ἐρρύσαντο Διὸς ταυρώπιδες εὐναί:

  εἰ δὲ θεμιστεύει καὶ ἐν Ἄιδι, τίς φθόνος Ἰνδοῖς,

  Αἰακὸς εἰ φθιμένοισι δικάζεται; ἤν δ᾽ ἐθελήσῃ,

  κοιρανίην κεκύων ἐχέτω καὶ σκῆπτρα βερέθρου.

  85 καὶ δολιχοῖς μελέεσσιν ἐπιψαύοντας Ὀλύμπου

  γηγενέας Κύκλωπας ὀλέσσατε μὴ δορὸς αἰχμὴν

  γαστρὶ μέσῃ πήξαντες ἤ αὐχένι, χαλκοβαρὲς δὲ

  ὀφθαλμῷ τροχόεντι βέλος τετορημένον ἔστω.

  μὴ χθονίους Κύκλωπας ὀλέσσατε: καὶ γὰρ ἐκείνων