Works of Nonnus

by Nonnus

  νηλέες εἰσὶν Ἔρωτες, ὅτε χρέος, ὁππότε ποινὴν

  ἀπρήκτου φιλότητος ἀπαιτίζουσι γυναῖκας:

  [363] “Maiden, for your love I have even renounced my home in heaven. The caves of your fathers are better than Olympos. I love your country more than the sky; I desire not the sceptre of my Father Zeus as much as Beroe for my wife. Your beauty is above ambrosia; indeed, heavenly nectar breathes fragrant from your dress! Maiden, when I hear that your mother is Cypris, my only wonder is that her cestus has left you uncharmed. How is it you alone have Love for a brother, and yet know not the sting of love? But you will say Brighteyes had nothing to do with marriage; Athena was born without wedlock and knows nothing of wedlock. Yes, but your mother was neither Brighteyes nor Artemis. Well, girl, you have the blood of Cypris — then why do you flee from the secrets of Cypris? Do not shame your mother’s race. If you really have in you the blood of Assyrian Adonis the charming, learn the tender rules of your sire whose blessing is upon marriage, obey the cestus girdle born with the Paphian, save yourself from the dangerous wrath of the bridal Loves! Harsh are the Loves when there’s need, when they exact from women the penalty for love unfulfilled.

  οἶσθα γάρ, ὡς πυρόεσσαν ἀτιμήσασα Κυθήρην

  μισθὸν ἀγηνορίης φιλοπάρθενος ὤπασε σύριγξ,

  385 ὅττι φυτὸν γεγαυῖα νόθῃ δονακώδεϊ μορφῇ

  ἔκφυγε Πανὸς ἔρωτα, πόθους δ᾽ ἔτι Πανὸς ἀείδει:

  καὶ θυγάτηρ Λάδωνος, ἀειδομένου ποταμοῖο,

  ἔργα γάμων στυγέουσα δέμας δενδρώσατο Νύμφη,

  ἔμπνοα συρίζουσα, καὶ ὀμφήεντι κορύμβῳ

  390 Φοίβου λέκτρα φυγοῦσα κόμην ἐστέψατο Φοίβου.

  καὶ σὺ χόλον δασπλῆτα φυλάσσεο, μή σε χαλέψῃ

  θερμὸς Ἔρως βαρύμηνις: ἀφειδήσασα δὲ μίτρης

  διπλόον ἄμφεπε Βάκχον ὀπάονα καὶ παρακοίτην:

  καὶ λίνα σοῖο τοκῆος Ἀδώνιδος αὐτὸς ἀείρων

  395 λέκτρον ἐγὼ στορέσοιμι κασιγνήτης Ἀφροδίτης.

  [383] “For you know how Syrinx disregarded fiery Cythera, and what price she paid for her too-great pride and love for virginity; how she turned into a plant with reedy growth substituted for her own, when she had fled from Pan’s love, and how she still sings Pan’s desire! And how the daughter of Ladon, that celebrated river, hated the works of marriage and the nymph became a tree with inspired whispers, she escaped the bed of Phoibos but she crowned his hair with prophetic clusters. You too should beware of a god’s horrid anger, lest hot Love should afflict you in heavy wrath. Spare not your girdle, but attend Bacchos both as comrade and bedfellow. I myself will carry the nets of your father Adonis, I will lay the bed of my sister Aphrodite.

  ποῖά σοι ἐννοσίγαιος ἐπάξια δῶρα κομίσσει;

  ἦ ῥά σοι ἕδνα γάμοιο λελέξεται ἁλμυρὸν ὕδωρ,

  καὶ στορέσει πνείοντα δυσώδεα πόντιον ὀδμὴν

  δέρματα φωκάων, Ποσιδήια πέπλα θαλάσσης;

  400 δέρματα φωκάων μὴ δέχνυσο: σεῖο δὲ παστῷ

  βάκχας ἀμφιπόλους, Σατύρους θεράποντας ὀπάσσω:

  δέξό μοι ἕδνα γάμοιο καὶ ἀμπελόεσσαν ὀπώρην:

  εἰ δ᾽ ἐθέλεις δόρυ θοῦρον Ἀδώνιδος οἶά τε κούρη,

  θύρσον ἔχεις ἐμὸν ἔγχος: ἔα γλωχῖνα τριαίνης.

  405 φεῦγε, φίλη, κακὸν ἦχον ἀσιγήτοιο θαλάσσης,

  φεῦγε δυσαντήτων Ποσιδήιον οἶστρον Ἐρώτων.

  ἄλλῃ Ἀμυμώνῃ παρελέξατο κυανοχαίτης,

  ἀλλὰ γυνὴ μετὰ λέκτρον ὁμώνυμος ἔπλετο πηγή:

  καὶ Σκύλλῃ παρίαυε καὶ εἰναλίην θέτο πέτρην:

  410 Ἀστερίην δ᾽ ἐδίωκε, καὶ ἔπλετο νῆσος ἐρήμη:

  παρθενικὴν δ᾽ Εὔβοιαν ἐνερρίζωσε θαλάσσῃ.

  οὗτος Ἀμυμώνην μνηστεύεται, ὄφρα καὶ αὐτὴν

  λαϊνέην τελέσῃ μετὰ δέμνιον: οὗτος ὀπάσσει

  ἕδνον ἑῶν θαλάμων ὀλίγον ῥόον ἢ βρύον ἅλμης

  415 ἢ βυθίην τινὰ κόχλον. ἐγὼ δέ σοι εἵνεκα μορφῆς

  ἵσταμαι ἀσχαλόων, τίνα σοι, τίνα δῶρα κομίσσω:

  οὐ χατέει χρυσοῖο τέκος χρυσῆς Ἀφροδίτης.

  ἀλλά σοι ἐξ Ἀλύβης κειμήλια πολλὰ κομίσσω:

  ἄργυρον ἀργυρόπηχυς ἀναίνεται. εἰς σὲ κομίσσω

  420 δῶρα διαστίλβοντα φεραυγέος Ἠριδανοῖο:

  Ἡλιάδων δ᾽ ὅλον ὄλβον ἐπαισχύνει σέο μορφὴ

  λευκὸν ἐρευθιόωσα, βολαῖς δ᾽ ἀντίρροπος Ἠοῦς

  εἴκελος ἠλέκτρῳ Βερόης ἀμαρύσσεται αὐχήν...

  καὶ λίθον ἀστράπτοντα: τεοῦ χροὸς εἶδος ἐλέγχει

  425 μάρμαρα τιμήεντα: μὴ εἴκελον αἴθοπι λύχνῳ

  λυχνίδα σοι κομίσοιμι, σέλας πέμπουσιν ὀπωπαί:

  μὴ καλύκων ῥοδόεντος ἀναΐσσοντα κορύμβου

  σοὶ ῥόδα δῶρα φέροιμι, ῥοδώπιδές εἰσι παρειαί.’

  [396] “What worthy gifts will Earthshaker bring? Will he choose his salt water for a bridegift, and lay sealskins breathing the filthy stink of the deep, as Poseidon’s coverlets from the sea? Do not accept his sealskins. I will provide you with Bacchants to wait upon your bridechamber, and Satyrs for your chamberlains. Accept from me as bridegift my grape-vintage too. If you want a wild spear also as daughter of Adonis, you have my thyrsus for a lance — away with the trident’s tooth! Flee, my dear, from the ugly noise of the neversilent sea, flee the madness of Poseidon’s dangerous love! Seabluehair lay beside another Amymone, but after the bed the wife became a spring of that name. He slept with Scylla, and made her a cliff in the water. He pursued Asterie, and she became a desert island; Euboia the maiden he rooted in the sea. This creature woos Amymone just to turn her too into stone after the bed; this creature offers as gift for his wedding a drop of water, or seaweed from the brine, or a deepsea conch. And I, distressed for your beauty as I stand here, what have I for you, what gifts shall I offer? The daughter of golden Aphrodite needs no gold. Shall I bring you heaps of treasure from Alybe? Silverarm cares not for silver! Shall I bring you gleaming gifts from brilliant Eridanos? Your beauty, your blushing whiteness, puts to shame all the wealth of the Heliades; the neck of Beroe is like the gleams of Dawn, it shines like amber, [outshines] a sparkling jewel; your fair shape makes precious marble cheap. I would not bring you the lampstone blazing like a lamp, for light comes from your eyes. I would not give you roses, shooting up from the flowercups of a rosy cluster, for roses are in your cheeks.”

  τοῖον ἔπος κατέλεξε: καὶ οὔατος ἔνδοθι κούρη

  430 χεῖρας ἐρεισαμένη διδύμας ἔφραξεν ἀκουάς,

  μὴ πάλιν ἄλλ�
�ν Ἔρωτι μεμηλότα μῦθον ἀκούσῃ,

  ἔργα γάμου στυγέουσα: ποθοβλήτῳ δὲ Λυαίῳ

  μόχθῳ μόχθον ἔμιξε. τί κύντερόν ἐστιν Ἐρώτων,

  ἢ ὅτε θυμοβόροιο πόθου λυσσώδεϊ κέντρῳ

  435 ἀνέρας ἱμείροντας ἀλυσκάζουσι γυναῖκες

  καὶ πλέον οἶστρον ἄγουσι σαόφρονες; ἐνδόμυχος δὲ

  διπλόος ἐστὶν ἔρως, ὅτε παρθένος ἀνέρα φεύγει.

  [429] Such was his address; and the girl pressed the fingers of her two hands into her ears to keep the words away from her hearing, lest she might hear again another speech concerned with love, and she hated the works of marriage. So she made trouble upon trouble for lovestricken Lyaios. What is more shameless than love, or when women avoid men who yearn with the heart-eating maddening urge of desire, and only make them more passionate by their modesty? The love within them is doubled when a maiden flees from a man.

  ὣς ὁ μὲν οἰστρήεντι πόθου μαστίζετο κεστῷ:

  παρθενικῆς δ᾽ ἀπέμιμνεν: ἀμιτροχίτωνι δὲ κούρῃ

  440 σύνδρομον ἀγρώσσοντα νόον πόμπευεν ἀλήτην,

  κέντρον ἔχων γλυκύπικρον. ἀνεσσύμενος δὲ θαλάσσης,

  ἴκμια διψαλέοιο δι᾽ οὔρεος ἴχνια πάλλων,

  παρθενικὴν μάστευε Ποσειδάων μετανάστης,

  ἄβροχον ὑδατόεντι περιρραίνων χθόνα ταρσῷ:

  445 καί οἱ ἔτι σπεύδοντι παρὰ κλέτας εὔβοτον ὕλης

  οὔρεος ἄκρα κάρηνα ποδῶν ἐλελίζετο παλμῷ...

  εἰς Βερόην σκοπίαζε, καὶ ἐκ ποδὸς ἄχρι καρήνου

  κούρης ἱσταμένης διεμέτρεεν ἔνθεον ἥβην:

  ὀξὺ δὲ λεπταλέοιο δι᾽ εἵματος οἷα κατόπτρῳ

  450 ὄμμασιν ἀπλανέεσσι τύπον τεκμαίρετο κούρης,

  οἷά τε γυμνωθέντα παρακλιδὸν ἄκρα δοκεύων

  στήθεα μαρμαίροντα, πολυπλεκέεσσι δὲ δεσμοῖς

  μαζῶν κρυπτομένων φθονερὴν ἐπεμέμφετο μίτρην,

  δινεύων ἑλικηδὸν ἐρωμανὲς ὄμμα προσώπου,

  455 παπταίνων ἀκόρητος ὅλον δέμας: οἰστρομανὴς δὲ

  εἰναλίην Κυθέρειαν ἁλὸς μεδέων ἐνοσίχθων

  μοχθίζων ἱκέτευε, καὶ ἀγραύλῳ παρὰ ποίμνῃ

  παρθένον ἱσταμένην φιλίῳ μειλίξατο μύθῳ:

  [438] So he was flogged by the maddening cestus of desire; and he kept away from the girl, but full of bittersweet pangs, he sent his mind to wander a-hunting with the girl with ungirt tunic. Then out from the sea came Poseidon, moving his wet footsteps in search of the girl over the thirsty hills, a foreign land to him, and sprinkling the unwatered earth with watery foot; and as he hasted along the fertile slope of the woodland, the topmost peaks of the mountains shook under the movement.... He espied Beroe, and from head to foot he scanned her divine young freshness while she stood. Clear through the filmy robe he noted the shape of the girl with steady eyes, as if in a mirror; glancing from side to side he saw the shining skin of her breasts as if naked, and cursed the jealous bodice wrapt about in many folds which hid the bosom, he ran his lovemaddened eye round and round over her face, he gazed never satisfied on her whole body. Then mad with passion Earth-shaker lord of the brine appealed in his trouble to Cythereia of the brine, and tried with flattering words to make friends with the maiden standing beside the country flock:

  ‘ Ἑλλάδα καλλιγύναικα γυνὴ μία πᾶσαν ἐλέγχει:

  460 οὐ Πάφος, οὐκέτι Λέσβος ἀείδεται, οὐκέτι Κύπρου

  οὔνομα καλλιτόκοιο φατίζεται: οὐκέτι μέλψω

  Νάξον ἀειδομένην εὐπάρθενον: ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὴ

  εἰς τόκον, εἰς ὠδῖνας ἐνικήθη Λακεδαίμων:

  οὐ Πάφος, οὐκέτι Λέσβος, Ἀμυμώνης δὲ τιθήνη

  465 ἀντολίη σύλησεν ὅλον κλέος Ὀρχομενοῖο,

  μούνην ἀμφιέπουσα μίαν Χάριν: ὁπλοτέρη γὰρ

  τρισσάων Χαρίτων Βερόη βλάστησε τετάρτη.

  [459] “One woman outshines all the lovely women of Hellas! Paphos is celebrated no longer, nor Lesbos, Cyprus no longer has a name as mother of beauty; no longer will I sing Naxos which the singers call isle of fair maids; yes, even Lacedaimon is worsted for children and childbirth! No more Paphos, no more Lesbos — the land of the rising sun, Amymone’s nurse, has plundered all the glory of Orchomenos, for one single Grace of her own! For Beroe has appeared a fourth grace, younger than the three!

  παρθένε, κάλλιπε γαῖαν, ὅ περ θέμις: οὐ σέο μήτηρ

  ἐκ χθονὸς ἐβλάστησεν, ἁλὸς θυγάτηρ Ἀφροδίτη:

  470 πόντον ἔχεις ἐμὸν ἕδνον ἀτέρμονα, μείζονα γαίης:

  σπεῦσον ἐριδμαίνειν ἀλόχῳ Διός, ὄφρά τις εἴπῃ,

  ὅττι δάμαρ Κρονίδαο καὶ εὐνέτις ἐννοσιγαίου

  πάντοθι κοιρανέουσιν, ἐπεὶ νιφόεντος Ὀλύμπου

  Ἥρη σκῆπτρον ἔχει, Βερόη κράτος ἔσχε θαλάσσης.

  475 οὔ σοι Βασσαρίδας μανιώπεας ἐγγυαλίξω,

  οὐ Σάτυρον σκαίροντα καὶ οὐ Σειληνὸν ὀπάσσω:

  ἀλλὰ τελεσσιγάμοιο τεῆς θαλαμηπόλον εὐνῆς

  Πρωτέα σοι καὶ Γλαῦκον ὑποδρηστῆρα τελέσσω:

  δέχνυσο καὶ Νηρῆα καί, ἢν ἐθέλῃς, Μελικέρτην:

  480 καὶ πλατὺν ἀενάου μιτρούμενον ἄντυγι κόσμου

  ὠκεανὸν κελάδοντα τεὸν θεράποντα καλέσσω:

  σοὶ ποταμοὺς ξύμπαντας ὀπάονας ἕδνον ὀπάσσω.

  εἰ δὲ καὶ ἀμφιπόλοις ἐπιτέρπεαι, εἰς σὲ κομίσσω

  θυγατέρας Νηρῆος: ἀναινομένη δὲ γενέσθω

  485 μαῖα Διωνύσοιο τεὴ θαλαμηπόλος Ἰνώ.’

  [468] “Maiden, leave the land. That is just, for your mother grew not from the land, she is Aphrodite daughter of the brine. Here is my infinite sea for your bridegift, larger than earth. Hasten to challenge the consort of Zeus, that men may say that the lady of Cronides and the wife of Earthshaker hold universal rule, since Hera has the sceptre of snowy Olympos, Beroe has gotten the empire of the sea. I will not provide you with mad-eyed Bassarids, I will give you no dancing Satyr and no Seilenos, but I will make Proteus chamberlain of your marriage-consummating bed, and Glaucos shall be your underling — take Nereus too, and Melicertes if you like; and I will call murmuring Oceanos your servant, broad Oceanos girdling the rim of the eternal world. I give you as a bridal gift all the rivers together for your attendants. If you are pleased to have waiting maids also, I will bring you the daughters of Nereus; and let Ino the nurse of Dionysos be your chambermaid, whether she likes it or not!”

  ἔννεπ�
�: χωομένην δὲ λιπών δυσπειθέα κούρην

  ἠέρι μῦθον ἔειπε χέων ἀνεμώδεα φωνήν:

  [486] Thus he pleaded, but the maiden was angry and would not listen; so he left her, pouring out his last words into the air —

  ‘Μύρρης ὄλβιε κοῦρε, λαχὼν εὔπαιδα γενέθλην

  τιμὴν μοῦνος ἔχεις διδυμάονα: μοῦνος ἀκούεις

  490 καὶ γενέτης Βερόης καὶ νυμφίος ἀφρογενείης.’

  [488] “Happy son of Myrrha, you have got a fine daughter, and now a double honour is yours alone; you alone are named father of Beroe and bridegroom of the Foamborn.”

  τοῖα μὲν ἐννοσίγαιος ἱμάσσετο κέντορι κεστῷ:

  πολλὰ δὲ δῶρα τίταινεν Ἀδώνιδι καὶ Κυθερείῃ,

  κούρης ἕδνον ἔρωτος. ὁμοφλέκτῳ δὲ βελέμνῳ

  ὄλβον ἄγων Διόνυσος, ὅσον παρὰ γείτονι Γάγγῃ

  495 χρυσοφαεῖς ὠδῖνες ἐμαιώσαντο μετάλλων,

  πολλὰ μάτην ἱκέτευε θαλασσαίην Ἀφροδίτην.

  [491] Thus Earthshaker was flogged by the blows of the cestus; but he offered many gifts to Adonis and Cythereia, bride gifts for the love of their daughter. Dionysos burning with the same shaft brought his treasures, all the shining gold that the mines near the Ganges had brought forth in their throes of labour; earnestly but in vain he made his petition to Aphrodite of the sea.

  καὶ Παφίη δεδόνητο, πολυμνήστοιο δὲ κούρης

  ἀμφοτέρους μνηστῆρας ἐδείδιεν: ἀμφοτέρων δὲ

  ἰσοτύπων ὁρόωσα πόθον καὶ ζῆλον Ἐρώτων

  500 Ἄρεϊ νυμφιδίῳ Βερόης κήρυξεν ἀγῶνα

  καὶ γάμον αἰχμητῆρα καί ἱμερόεσσαν Ἐνυώ.