Works of Nonnus

by Nonnus

  ‘Τί κλονέεις Διόνυσον, ὃν ἤροσεν ὑψιμέδων Ζεύς,

  ὃν Κρονίδης ὤδινε πατὴρ ἐγκύμονι μηρῷ,

  παιδοκόμῳ δὲ γάλακτι θεητόκος ἔτρεφε Ῥείη,

  ὃν πάρος ἡμιτέλεστον ἔτι πνείοντα τεκούσης

  100 ἀφλεγέες σπινθῆρες ἐχυτλώσαντο κεραυνοῦ;

  οὗτος ἀμαλλοτόκῳ Δημήτερι μοῦνος ἐρίζει

  ἀντίτυπον σταχύεσσιν ἔχων εὔβοτρυν ὀπώρην.

  ἀλλὰ χόλον Βρομίοιο φυλάσσεο: δυσσεβίης δὲ

  σοί, τέκος, ἢν ἐθέλῃς, Σικελόν τινα μῦθον ἐνίψω.

  [96] “Why do you persecute Dionysos, begotten by Zeus the Lord on high, whom Cronides brought forth from a pregnant thigh, whom Rheia mother of the gods nursed with her cherishing milk, who halfcomplete, with a whiff of his mother still about him, was bathed by lightnings which burnt him not? This is the only rival to Demeter mother of harvest, with his fruit of grapes against the corn! Nay, beware of the wrath of Bromios. About impiety, I will tell you, if you wish, my son, a Sicilian story.

  105 Τυρσηνῶν ποτε παῖδες ἐναυτίλλοντο θαλάσσῃ,

  ξεινοφόνοι, πλωτῆρες ἀλήμονες, ἅρπαγες ὄλβου,

  πάντοθεν ἁρπάζοντες ἐπάκτια πώεα μήλων:

  καὶ πολὺς ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα δορικτήτων ἀπὸ νηῶν

  εἰς μόρον ὑδατόεντα γέρων ἐκυλίνδετο ναύτης

  110 ἡμιθανής, ἕτερος δὲ προασπίζων ἕο ποίμνης

  ἀμφιλαφὴς πολιῇσι φόνῳ φοινίσσετο ποιμήν.

  ἔμπορος εἰ τότε πόντον ἐπέπλεεν, εἴ ποτε Φοῖνιξ

  ὤνια Σιδονίης ἁλιπόρφυρα πέπλα θαλάσσης

  εἶχεν, ὑπὲρ πόντοιο λαβὼν Τυρσηνὸς ἀλήτης

  115 ἀπροϊδὴς πεφόρητο ῥυηφενέων ἐπὶ νηῶν:

  καί τις ἀνὴρ νήποινον ἀπείρονα φόρτον ὀλέσσας

  εἰς Σικελὴν Ἀρέθουσαν ἀνὴρ πορθμεύετο Φοῖνιξ

  δέσμιος, ἁρπαμένοιο λιπόπτολις ἄμμορος ὄλβου.

  ἀλλὰ δόλῳ Διόνυσος ἐπίκλοπον εἶδος ἀμείψας

  [105] “Sons of the Tyrsenians once were sailing on or possibly his hair (one way of dressing the hair was called “the horn”). the sea — wandering mariners, murderers of the stranger, pirates of the rich, stealing from every side the flocks of sheep near the coast. Many an old sailor man from the ships which they captured here and there was rolled half dead to his fate in the waters; many a stout shepherd fighting for his herd dyed his grey hairs in his red blood. If any merchant then sailed the seas, if any Phoinician with sea-purple stuffs from Sidonian parts for sale, the Tyrsenian pirate caught him suddenly out at sea, and set upon his vessels laden with riches; and so many a man lost infinite cargo without a penny paid, and the Phoinician was carried to Sicilian Arethusa in chains, far from home, his fortune stolen and gone. But Dionysos disguised himself in a deceptive shape, and outwitted the Tyrsenians.

  120 Τυρσηνοὺς ἀπάφησε: νόθην δ᾽ ὑπεδύσατο μορφήν,

  ἱμερόεις ἅτε κοῦρος ἔχων ἀχάρακτον ὑπήνην,

  αὐχένι κόσμον ἔχων χρυσήλατον: ἀμφὶ δὲ κόρσην

  στέμματος ἀστράπτοντος ἔην αὐτόσσυτος αἴγλη

  λυχνίδος ἀσβέστοιο, καὶ ἔγχλοα νῶτα μαράγδου,

  125 καὶ λίθος Ἰνδῴη χαροπῆς ἀμάρυγμα θαλάσσης:

  καὶ χροῒ δύσατο πέπλα φαάντερα κυκλάδος Ἠοῦς

  ἄρτι χαρασσομένης, Τυρίῃ πεπαλαγμένα κόχλῳ.

  ἵστατο δ᾽ αἰγιαλοῖο παρ᾽ ὀφρύσιν, οἷα καὶ αὐτὸς

  ὁλκάδος ἱμείρων ἐπιβήμεναι. οἱ δὲ θορόντες

  130 φαιδρὸν ἐληίσσαντο δολοπλόκον υἷα Θυώνης

  καὶ κτεάνων γύμνωσαν: ὑποτροχόωσα δὲ σειρὴ

  χερσὶν ὀπισθοτόνοισιν ἐμιτρώθη Διονύσου.

  καὶ νέος ἐξαπίνης μέγας ἔπλετο θέσπιδι μορφῇ

  ἀνδροφυὴς κερόεις ὑψούμενος ἄχρις Ὀλὺμπου,

  135 νύσσων ἠερίων νεφέων σκέπας: εὐκελάδῳ δὲ

  ὡς στρατὸς ἐννεάχιλος ἐῷ μυκήσατο λαιμῷ.

  μηκεδανοὶ δὲ κάλωες ἐχιδναῖοι πέλον ὁλκοί,

  ἔμπνοα μορφωθέντες ἐς ἀγκύλα νῶτα δρακόντων:

  καὶ πρότονοι σύριζον: ὑπηνέμιος δὲ κεράστης

  140 ὁλκαίαις ἑλίκεσσιν ἀνέδραμεν εἰς κέρας ἱστοῦ:

  καὶ χλοεροῖς πετάλοισι κατάσκιος ἠέρι γείτων

  ἱστὸς ἔην κυπάρισσος ὑπέρτατος: ὲν δὲ μεσόδμῃ

  κισσὸς ἀερσιπότητος ἀνήιεν αἰθέρι γείτων,

  σειρὴν αὐτοέλικτον ἐπιπλέξας κυπαρίσσῳ:

  145 ἀμφὶ δὲ πηδαλίοισιν ὑπερκύψασα θαλάσσης

  Βακχιὰς ἀμπελόεντι κάμαξ ἐβαρύνετο καρπῷ:

  πρύμνης δ᾽ ἡδυπότοιο βαρυνομένης Διονύσου

  οἶνον ἀναβλύζουσα μέθης βακχεύετο πηγή.

  ἀμφὶ δὲ σέλματα πάντα διὰ πρώρης ἀνιόντες

  150 θῆρες ἀεξήθησαν: ἐμυκήσαντο δὲ ταῦροι,

  καὶ βλοσυρὸν κελάδημα λέων βρυχήσατο λαιμῷ.

  [120] “He put on a false appearance, like a lovely boy with smooth chin, wearing a gold necklace upon his neck; about his temples was a chaplet shining with selfsped gleams of a light unquenchable, broad green emeralds and the Indian stone,” a scintillation of the bright sea. His body was clad in robes streaked with dye from the Tyrian shell more brilliant than the circling Dawn, when she has just been marked with lines. He stood on the brow of the shore, as if he wished to embark in their ship. They leapt ashore and captured the radiant son of Thyone in his guile; they stript him of his possessions, and tied Dionysos’s hands fast with ropes running behind his back. Suddenly the lad grew tall with wonderful beauty, as a man with horned head rising up to Olympos, touching the canopy of aerial clouds, and with booming throat roared as loud as an army of nine thousand men. The long hawsers became trailing snakes, changed into live serpents twisting their bodies about, the stayropes hissed, up into the air a horned viper ran along the mast to the yard in trailing coils: near the sky, the mast was a tall cypress with a shade of green leaves; ivy sprang up from the mastbox and ran into the sky wrapping its tendrils about the cypress of itself, the Bacchic stem popped out of the sea round the steering-oars all heavy with bunches of grapes; over the laden poop poured a fountain of wine bubbling the sweet drink of Dionysos. All along the decks wild beasts were springing up over the prow: bulls were bellowing, a lion’s throat let out a fearsome roar.

  Τυρσηνοὶ δ᾽ ἰάχησαν, ἐβακχεύοντο δὲ λύσσῃ

&nb
sp; εἰς φόβον οἰστρηθέντες. ἀεξιφύτοιο δὲ πόντου

  ἄνθεα κυματόεντες ἀπέπτυον ὕδατος ὁλκοί:

  155 καὶ ῥόδον ἐβλάστησε, καὶ ὑψόθεν, ὡς ἐνὶ κήπῳ,

  ἀφροτόκοι κενεῶνες ἐφοινίσσοντο θαλάσσης,

  καὶ κρίνον ἐν ῥοθίοις ἀμαρύσσετο. δερκομένων δὲ

  ψευδομένους λειμῶνας ἐβακχεύθησαν ὀπωπαί,

  καί σφιν ὄρος βαθύδενδρον ἐφαίνετο καὶ νομὸς ὕλης

  160 καὶ χορὸς ἀγρονόμων καὶ πώεα μηλοβοτήρων,

  καὶ κτύπον ὠίσαντο λιγυφθόγγοιο νομῆος

  ποιμενίῃ σύριγγι μελιζομένοιο νοῆσαι,

  καὶ λιγυρῶν ἀίοντες ἐυτρήτων μέλος αὐλῶν

  μεσσατίου πλώοντες ἀτέρμονος ὑψόθι πόντου

  165 γαῖαν ἰδεῖν ἐδόκησαν: ἀμερσινόῳ δ᾽ ὑπὸ λύσσῃ

  εἰς βυθὸν ἀίσσοντες ἐπωρχήσαντο γαλήνῃ,

  ποντοπόροι δελφῖνες: ἀμειβομένου δὲ προσώπου

  εἰς φύσιν ἰχθυόεσσαν ἐμορφώθη γένος ἀνδρῶν.

  [152] “The Tyrsenians shrieked and rushed wildly about goaded with fear. Plants were sprouting in the sea: the rolling waves of the waters put out flowers; the rose grew there, and reddened the rounded foaming swell upon it as if it were a garden, lilies gleamed in the surge. As they beheld these counterfeit meadows their eyes were bewitched. The place seemed to be a hill thick with trees, and a woodland pasturage, companies of countrymen and shepherds with their sheep; they thought they saw a tuneful herdsman playing a tune on his shepherd’s pipes; they thought they heard the melody from the loud pipes’ holes, and saw land while still sailing upon the boundless sea; then deluded by their madness they leapt into the deep and danced in the quiet water, now dolphins of the sea — for the shape of the men was changed into the shape of fish.

  καὶ σύ, τέος, δολόεντα χόλον πεφύλαξο Λυαίου.

  170 ἀλλ᾽ ἐρέεις: ῾ μεθέπω δέμας ἄλκιμον, ἀμφιέπω δὲ

  φρικτὸν ὀδοντοφύτων αὐτόσπορον αἷμα Γιγάντων.᾿

  δαιμονίην φύγε χεῖρα Γιγαντοφόνου Διονύσου,

  ὅς ποτε Τυρσηνοῖο παρὰ κρηπῖδα Πελώρου

  Ἄλπον ἀπηλοίησε, θεημάχον υἱὸν Ἀρούρης,

  175 μαρνάμενον σκοπέλοισι καὶ αἰχμάζοντα κολώναις:

  μαινομένου δὲ Γίγαντος ὑποπτήσσων στίχα λαιμῶν

  οὐ τότε κεῖνο κάρηνον ὁδοιπόρος ἔστιχε πέτρης:

  εἰ δέ τις ἀγνώσσων ἀβάτῳ πεφόρητο κελεύθῳ

  μαστίζων θρασὺν ἵππον, ὑπὲρ σκοπέλοιο νοήσας

  180 χερσὶ πολυσπερέεσσι περίπλοκον υἱὸς Ἀρούρης

  ἡνίοχον καὶ πῶλον ἑῷ τυμβεύσατο λαιμῷ.

  πολλάκι δ᾽ εὐδένδροιο δι᾽ οὔρεος εἰς νομὸν ἕλκων

  μῆλα μεσημβρίζοντα γέρων δαιτρεύετο ποιμήν.

  οὐ τότε δ᾽ αἰπολίοισι παρήμενος ἤ παρὰ μάνδραις

  185 συμφερτοῖς δονάκεσσι μελίζετο μουσοπόλος Πάν,

  οὐ κτύπου ὑστερόφωνος ἀμείβετο πηκτίδος Ἠχώ:

  ἀλλά, λάλον περ ἐοῦσαν, ἐθήμονι σύνθροον αὐλῷ

  Πανὸς ἀσιγήτοιο κατεσφρηγίσσατο σιγή,

  ὅττι Γίγας τότε πᾶσιν ἐπέχραεν: οὐ τότε βούτης,

  190 οὐ χορὸς ὑλοτόμων τις ὁμήλικας ἤκαχε Νύμφας

  τέμνων νήια δοῦρα, καὶ οὐ σοφὸς ὁλκάδα τέκτων

  δουροπαγὲς γόμφωσεν ὁδοιπόρον ἄρμα θαλάσσης,

  εἰσόκε κεῖνα κάρηνα παρέστιχε Βάκχος ὁδεύων,

  σείων Εὔια θύρσα: παρερχομένῳ δὲ Λυαίῳ

  195 ὑψινεφὴς περίμετρος ἐπέχραεν υἱὸς Ἀρούρης,

  ἀσπίδα πετρήεσσαν ἑοῖς ὤμοισιν ἀείρων:

  καὶ σκόπελον βέλος εἶχεν, ἐπεσκίρτησε δὲ Βάκχῳ

  γείτονα δενδρήεσσαν ἔχων ὑψίδρομον αἰχμήν,

  ἢ πίτυν ἤ πλατάνιστον ἀκοντίζων Διονύσῳ.

  200 ὡς ῥόπαλον πίτυν εἶχε, καὶ ὡς θοὸν ἄορ ἑλίσσων

  πρυμνόθεν αὐτόρριζον ἐκούφισε θάμνον ἐλαίης.

  ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε τηλεβόλους ὀρέων ἐκένωσε κολώνας,

  καὶ σκιερῆς βαθύδενδρος ἐγυμνώθη ῥάχις ὕλης,

  θυρσομανὴς τότε Βάκχος ἐὸν βέλος ἠθάδι ῥοίζῳ

  205 εἰς σκοπὸν ἠκόντιζε, καὶ ἠλιβάτου τύχεν Ἄλπου

  εἰς πλατὺν ἀνθερεῶνα, κατ᾽ ἀσφαράγοιο δὲ μέσσου

  ὀξυτενὴς χλοάουσα διέσσυτο Βακχιὰς αἰχμή:

  ἔνθα Γίγας ὀλίγῳ τετορημένος ὀξέι θύρσῳ

  ἡμιθανὴς κεκύλιστο καὶ ἔμπεσε γείτονι πόντῳ,

  210 πλησάμενος βαθύκολπον ὅλον κενεῶνα θαλάσσης:

  ὑψώσας δὲ ῥέεθρα Τυφαονίης διὰ πέτρης

  θερμὰ κασιγνήτοιο κατέκλυσε νῶτα χαμευνῆς,

  ἔμπυρον ὑδατόεντι καταψύχων δέμας ὁλκῷ.

  ἀλλά, τέκος, πεφύλαξο, μή εἴκελα καὶ σὺ νοήσῃς,

  215 Τυρσηνῶν ἄτε παῖδες, ἄτε θρασὺς υἱὸς Ἀρούρης.’

  [169] “So you also, my son, should beware of the resourceful anger of Lyaios. But you will say — I have mighty strength, I have in my nature the blood of the terrible giants that sprang of themselves from the sown Teeth. Then avoid the divine hand of Dionysos Giantslayer, who once beside the base of Tyrsenian Peloros smashed Alpos, the son of Earth who fought against gods, battering with rocks and throwing hills. No wayfarer then climbed the height of that rock, for fear of the raging Giant and his row of mouths; and if one in ignorance travelled on that forbidden road whipping a bold horse, the son of Earth spied him, pulled him over the rock with a tangle of many hands, entombed man and colt in his gullet! Often some old shepherd leading his sheep to pasture along the wooded hillside at midday was gobbled up. In those days melodious Pan never sat beside herds of goats or sheepcotes playing his tune on the assembled reeds, no imitating Echo returned the sounds of his pipes; but prattler as she was, silence sealed those lips which were wont to sound with the pipe of Pan never silent, because the Giant then oppressed all. No cowherd then came, no band of woodmen cutting timbers for a ship troubled the Nymphs of the trees, their agemates, no clever shipwright clamped together a barge, the woodriveted car that travels the roads of the sea, until Bacchos on his travels passed by that peak, shaking his Euian thyrsus. As Lyaios passed, the huge son of Earth high as the clouds
attacked him. A rock was the shield the Alps in some way; the syllable alp-is found in other place-names. upon his shoulders, a hilltop was his missile; he leapt on Bacchos, with a tall tree which he found near for a pike, some pine or planetree to cast at Dionysos. A pine was his club, and he pulled up an olive spire from the roots to whirl for a quick sword. But when he had stript the whole mountain for his long shots, and the ridge was bare of all the thick shady trees, then Bacchos thyrsus-wild sped his own shot whizzing as usual to the mark, and hit this towering Alpos full in the wide throat — right through the gullet went the sharp point of the greeny spear. Then the Giant pierced with the sharp little thyrsus rolled over half dead and fell in the neighbouring sea, filling the whole deephollowed abyss of the bay. He lifted the waters and deluged Typhaon’s rock, flooding the hot surface of his brother’s bed and cooling his scorched body with a torrent of water. Nay, my son, be careful, that you too may not see what the sons of Tyrsenia saw, what the bold son of Earth saw.”

  εἶπε καὶ οὐ παρέπεισεν: ἀταρβήτῳ δὲ πεδίλῳ

  εἰς ὄρος ὑψικάρηνον ὁμόσσυτος ἤιε Κάδμῳ,

  ὄφρα χοροῦ ψαύσειε. σιδηροφόροις δὲ μαχηταῖς

  ἀσπίδα κουφίζων κορυθαιόλος ἴαχε Πενθεύς:

  [216] He spoke, but could not convince; and so with undaunted shoe he hurried to the high mountains with Cadmos, that he might share the dance. But Pentheus in flashing helm, shield on arm, cried to his armed warriors —

  220 ‘Δμῶες ἐμοί, στείχοντες ἐν ἄστεϊ καὶ μέσον ὕλης

  ἄξατέ μοι βαρύδεσμον ἀνάλκιδα τοῦτον ἀλήτην,

  ὄφρα τυπεὶς Πενθῆος ἀμοιβαίῃσιν ἱμάσθλαις

  μηκέτι φαρμακόεντι ποτῷ θέλξειε γυναῖκας,

  ἀλλὰ γόνυ κλίνειεν: ἀπὸ σκοπέλων δὲ καὶ αὐτὴν

  225 μητέρα βακχευθεῖσαν ἐμὴν φιλότεκνον Ἀγαύην

  φοιτάδος ἀγρύπνοιο μεταστήσασθε χορείης,