Works of Nonnus

by Nonnus

  θῆρα τεὸν σκοπίαζε, καὶ υἱέα σεῖο νοήσεις.

  καλὰ φέρεις, Διόνυσε, τεῷ θρεπτήρια Κάδμῳ:

  καλά μοι Ἁρμονίης νυμφεύματα δῶκε Κρονίων:

  255 Ἄρεος ἄξια ταῦτα καὶ Οὐρανίης Ἀφροδίτης:

  Ἰνὼ πόντον ἔχει, Σεμέλην ἔφλεξε Κρονίων,

  μύρεται Αὐτονόν κερόεν τέκος, ἆ μέγα δειλὴ

  ἔκτανεν, ὅν τέκε μοῦνον, ἀώριον υἱὸν Ἀγαύη.

  καὶ μογέει Πολύδωρος ἐμὸς λιπόπατρις ἀλήτης.

  260 μοῦνος ἐγὼ λιπόμην νέκυς ἔμπνοος: εἰς τίνα φεύγω,

  Πενθέος ὀλλυμένοιο καὶ οἰχομένου Πολυδώρου;

  τίς πόλις ὀθνείη με δεδέξεται; ἔρρε, Κιθαιρών:

  γηροκόμους Κάδμοιο κατέκτανες, ἀμφοτέρους δὲ

  νεκρὸν ἔχεις Πενθῆα, καὶ Ἀκταίωνα καλύπτεις.’

  [252] “O Dionysos! A fine return you bring to Cadmos who reared you! Fine bridal gifts Cronion gave me with Harmonia! They are worthy of Ares and heavenly Aphrodite. Ino is in the sea, Semele was burnt by Cronion, Autonoe mourns her horned son, and Agaue — what misery for Agaue! She has killed her only son, her own son untimely; and my Polydoros wanders in sorrow, a banished man. Alone I am left, in a living death. Who will be my refuge, now Pentheus is dead and Polydoros gone? What foreign city will receive me? Curse you, Cithairon! You have slain those two who should cherish Cadmos in old age: Pentheus is with you, dead, Actaion is buried in your soil.”

  265 ὣς φαμένου Κάδμοιο γόον κρουνηδὸν ἰάλλων

  δάκρυσι πηγαίοισι γέρων ἔκλαυσε Κιθαιρών:

  καὶ δρύες ὠδύροντο, καὶ ἔκλαγον αἴλινα Νύμφαι

  νηιάδες. πολιὴν δὲ κόμην ᾐδέσσατο Κάδμου

  καὶ στοναχὴν Διόνυσος: ἀπενθήτου δὲ προσώπου

  270 μίξας δάκρυ γέλωτι νόον μετέθηκεν Ἀγαύης,

  [265] When Cadmos had ended, ancient Cithairon groaned from his springs and poured forth tears in fountains; the trees lamented, the Naiad Nymphs chanted dirges. Dionysos was abashed before the hoary head of Cadmos and his lamentations; mingling a tear with a smile on that untroubled countenance, he gave reason back to Agaue and made her sane once more, that she might mourn for Pentheus.

  καὶ πάλιν ἔμφρονα θῆκεν, ὅπως Πενθῆα γοήσῃ.

  ἡ δὲ μεταστρέψασα νόον καὶ ἄπιστον ὀπωπὴν

  αὐτοπαγὴς ἄφθογγος ἐπὶ χρόνον ἵστατο μήτηρ:

  καὶ κεφαλὴν Πενθῆος ὀπιπεύουσα θανόντος

  275 ἤριπεν αὐτοκύλιστος, ὑπὲρ δαπέδοιο δὲ δειλὴ

  βόστρυχον αἰσχύνουσα χυτῇ κεκύλιστο κονίῃ:

  καὶ λασίους ἔρριψεν ἀπὸ στέρνοιο χιτῶνας

  καὶ Βρομίου φιάλας θιασώδεας, αἵματος ὁλκῷ

  στήθεα φοινίξασα καὶ ἀσκεπέων πτύχα μαζῶν:

  280 καὶ κύσεν υἱέος ὄμμα καὶ ἔγχλοα κύκλα προσώπου

  καὶ πλοκάμους χαρίεντας ἐρευθομένοιο καρήνου:

  ὀξὺ δὲ κωκύουσα τόσην ἐφθέγξατο φωνήν:

  [271] The mother, herself again with eyes that she could trust, stood awhile rigid and voiceless. Then seeing the head of Pentheus dead she threw herself down, and rolled in helpless misery on the ground smearing the dust on her hair. She tore the shaggy skins from her breast and threw down the goblets of Bromios’s company, scoring her chest and the cleft between her bare breasts with red scratches. She kissed her son’s eyes and his pallid cheeks, and the charming locks of his bloodstained hair; then with bitter lamentation she spoke:

  ‘Νηλειὴς Διόνυσε, τεῆς ἀκόρητε γενέθλης,

  δὸς προτέρην ἔτι λύσσαν ἐμοὶ πάλιν: ἄρτι γὰρ ἄλλην

  285 χείρονα λύσσαν ἔχω πινυτόφρονα: δός μοι ἐκείνην

  ἀφροσύνην, ἵνα θῆρα τὸ δεύτερον υἷα καλέσσω.

  θῆρα βαλεῖν ἐδόκησα: νεοτμήτοιο δὲ κόρσης

  ἀντὶ λεοντείης κεφαλὴν Πενθῆος ἀείρω.

  ὀλβίη Αὐτονόη βαρυδάκρυος, ὅττι θανόντα

  290 ἔστενεν Ἀκταίωνα, καὶ οὐ κτάνεν υἱέα μήτηρ:

  μούνη ἐγὼ γενόμην παιδοκτόνος: οὐ Μελικέρτην

  ἔκτανεν ἠὲ Λέαρχον ἐμὴ μετανάστιος Ἰνώ,

  ἀλλὰ πατὴρ ἐδάμασσε, τὸν ἤροσεν. ἆ μέγα δειλή,

  Ζεὺς Σεμέλῃ παρίαυεν, ὅπως Πενθῆα γοήσω:

  295 Ζεὺς γενέτης Διόνυσον ἑῷ τεκνώσατο μηρῷ,

  Καδμείην ἵνα πᾶσαν ἀιστώσειε γενέθλην.

  ἱλήκοι Διόνυσος: ὅλον γένος ὤλεσε Κάδμου.

  ἀλλὰ θεοκλήτου γαμίην μετὰ δαῖτα τραπέζης,

  Ἁρμονίης μετὰ λέκτρον, ἐμοῦ μετὰ παστάδα Κάδμου

  300 ἀρχαίην κιθάρην δονέων πάλιν αὐτὸς Ἀπόλλων

  θρῆνον ἕνα πλήξειε καὶ Αὐτονόῃ καὶ Ἀγαύῃ,

  ὠκύμορον Πενθῆα καὶ Ἀκταίωνα λιγαίνων.

  ἡμετέρης, φίλε κοῦρε, τί φάρμακόν ἐστιν ἀνίης;

  οὔ πω σοῖς θαλάμοισιν ἐκούφισα νυμφοκόμον πῦρ:

  305 οὐ ζυγίων ἤκουσα τεῶν ὑμέναιον Ἐρώτων:

  ποῖον ἴδω δέο παῖδα παρήγορον; αἴθέ σε Βάκχη

  ἄλλη ἀπηλοίησε, καὶ οὐ πολύμοχθος Ἀγαύη.

  μητέρι μαινομένῃ μὴ μέμφεο, δύσμορε Πενθεῦ:

  Βάκχῳ μέμφεο μᾶλλον: ἀναίτιός ἐστιν Ἀγαύη.

  310 χεῖρες ἐμαί, φίλε κοῦρε, τεὴν στάζουσιν ἐέρσην

  αὐχένος ἀμηθέντος: ἀπ᾽ αὐτοχύτου δὲ καρήνου

  αἷμα τεὸν μητρῷον ὅλον φοίνιξε χιτῶνα.

  ναί, λίτομαι, Βρομίου δότε μοι δέπας: ἀντὶ γὰρ οἴνου

  λύθρον ἐμοῦ Πενθῆος ἐπισπένδω Διονύσῳ.

  315 σοὶ μὲν ἐγὼ φιλόδακρυς, ἀώριε, τύμβον ἐγείρω

  χερσὶν ἐμαῖς ἀκάρηνον ἐνικρύψασα κονίῃ

  σὸν δέμας: ὑμετέρῳ δ᾽ ἐπὶ σήματι τοῦτο χαράξω:

  ‘εἰμὶ νέκυς Πενθῆος, ὁδοιπόρε: νηδὺς Ἀγαύης

  παιδοκόμος με λόχευσε καὶ ἔκτανε παιδοφόνος χείρ.’’

  [283] “Cruel Dionysos, insatiable persecutor of your family! Give me back my former madness — for a worse madness possesses me now in my sanity. Give me back that delirium, that I may call my son a wild beast once more. I thought I had struck a beast — I hold a h
ead newly cut from the neck, but no lions head, it is Pentheus! Autonoe is happy for all her heavy tears, for she mourned Actaion dead, and the mother slew not her son. I alone have become a childmurderer. Ino slew not Melicertes or Learchos, Ino my banished sister, but the father destroyed the son he had begotten. How unhappy I am! Zeus slept with Semele only that I might mourn Pentheus; Zeus the father childed Dionysos from his own thigh, only to destroy the whole family of Cadmos. May Dionysos forgive me, he has destroyed the whole race of Cadmos. Now may even Apollo strike his harp again as before, as at the marriage feast where the gods were guests, as by Harmonia’s bed, as in the bridechamber of my father Cadmos, let him twangle one dirge for Autonoe and Agaue both, and chant loudly of Actaion and Pentheus so quickly to perish. What medicine is there for my sorrow, O my dearest boy? I have never lifted the marriage torch at your wedding; I have never heard the bridal hymn for your wedded love. What son of yours can I see to comfort me? Would that some other, some Bacchant, had destroyed you, not allwretched Agaue! Blame not your frenzied mother, illfated Pentheus, blame Bacchos rather — Agaue is innocent! My hands, dear lad, are dripping with the dew from your shorn neck, the blood from your head has incarnadined all the robe of the mother who shed it. Yes, I beseech you, give me the cup of Bromios; for instead of wine I will pour the blood of my Pentheus as a libation to Dionysos. For you, untimely dead, I will build amid my tears a tomb with my own hands. I will lay in the earth your headless body; and on your monument I will carve these words: ‘Wayfarer, I am the body of Pentheus; the cherishing womb of Agaue brought me forth, and the murdering hand of Agaue slew her son.’”

  320 ἔννεπε λυσσώουσα σοφῇ φρενί: μυρομένης δὲ

  Αὐτονόη γοόωσα παρήγορον ἴαχε φωνήν:

  [320] So spoke the maddened creature in words of sanity — and while she lamented, Autonoe spoke with a sorrowful voice of consolation:

  ‘Ζῆλον ἔχω καὶ ἔρωτα τεῆς κακότητος, Ἀγαύη,

  ὅττι περιπτύσσεις γλυκερὴν Πενθῆος ὀπωπὴν

  καὶ στόμα καὶ φίλον ὄμμα καὶ υἱέος ἄκρα κομάων.

  325 γνωτή, ἐπολβίζω σε, καὶ εἰ κτάνες υἱέα μήτηρ:

  ἀντὶ γὰρ Ἀκταίωνος ἀμειβομένης ἀπὸ μορφῆς

  νεβρὸν ἐγὼ δάκρυσα, καὶ υἱέος ἀντὶ καρήνου

  μηκεδανὴν ἐλάφοιο νόθην κτερέιξα κεραίην.

  σῆς δ᾽ ὀδύνης ἐλάχεια παραίφασις, ὅττι θανόντος

  330 οὐκ ἴδες ἀλλοῖον τύπον υἱέος, οὐ τρίχα νεβροῦ,

  οὐ χηλὴν ἀνόνητον ἐκούφισας ἠὲ κεραίην:

  μούνη δ᾽ ἔδρακον υἷα νόθον νέκυν, ἀλλοφυῆ δὲ

  καὶ στικτὴν καὶ ἄναυδον ἐκώκυον εἰκόνα μορφῆς,

  καὶ μήτηρ ἐλάφοιο καὶ οὐκέτι παιδὸς ἀκούω.

  335 ἀλλὰ σὺ κυδαίνουσα, Διὸς φιλοπάρθενε κούρη,

  ἀνδρὸς ἐμοῦ σέο Φοῖβον Ἀρισταίοιο τοκῆα

  εἰς ἔλαφον μετάμειψον ἐμὴν βροτοειδέα μορφήν:

  δὸς χάριν Ἀπόλλωνι: μετ᾽ Ἀκταίωνα δὲ δειλὴν

  τοῖς αὐτοῖς σκυλάκεσσι καὶ Αὐτονόην πόρε φορβὴν

  340 ἢ κυσὶν ὑμετέροισιν: ἐσαθρήσῃ δὲ Κιθαιρὼν

  μητέρα καὶ μετὰ παῖδα κυνοσπάδα: μηδέ με δειλὴν

  σῶν ἐλάφων μεθέπουσαν ἴσην κεραελκέα μορφὴν

  ἄγρια μαστίζουσα τεῇ ζεύξειας ἀπήνῃ.

  [322] “I envy and desire your unhappiness, Agaue; for you kiss the sweet face of Pentheus, his lips and his dear eyes and the hair of your son. Sister, I think you happy, even if you the mother slew your own son. But I had no Actaion to mourn; his body was changed, and I wept over a fawn — instead of my son’s head I buried the long antlers of a changeling stag. It is a small consolation to you in your pain, that you have seen your dead son in no alien shape, no fawn’s fell, no unprofitable hoof, no horn you took up. I alone saw my son as a changeling corpse, I lamented an image of alien shape dappled and voiceless; I am called mother of a stag and not a son. But I pray to thee, prudish daughter of Zeus, glorify thy Phoibos the begetter of Aristaios my husband, and change my mortal shape to a deer — do grace to Apollo! Give unhappy Autonoe also as a prey to the same dogs as Actaion, or to your own hounds; let Cithairon see the mother torn by dogs even after the son, but when I am changed to the same horned shape as thy deer, yoke me not, unhappy, to thy car nor flog me fiercely with thy whip.

  χαῖρε φυτὸν Πενθῆος, ἀμείλιχε χαῖρε Κιθαιρών:

  345 χαίρετε καὶ νάρθηκες ἀμερσινόου Διονύσου:

  σώζεό μοι, Φαέθων τερψίμβροτε: λάμπε κολώναις:

  λάμπε καὶ ἀμφοτέροις, Λητωίδι καὶ Διονύσῳ:

  εἰ δὲ τεαῖς ἀκτῖσι καὶ ἀνέρας οἶσθα δαμάσσαι,

  σῷ καθαρῷ πυρὶ βάλλε καὶ Αὐτονόην καὶ Ἀγαύην:

  350 ἔσσο δὲ Πασιφάης τιμήορος, ὄφρα γελάσσῃς

  Ἁρμονίης γενέτειραν ἀνιάζων Ἀφροδίτην.’

  [344] “Farewell, tree of Pentheus, farewell pitiless Cithairon; farewell also ye fennels of mind-deluding Dionysos! Happy be thou, Phaethon men’s delight! Shine on the hills; show thy light both for Leto’s daughter and Dionysos! And if thou knowest how to destroy men also with thy rays, strike with thy pure fire Autonoe and Agaue. Be Pasiphae’s avenger, to plague with a laugh Harmonia’s mother Aphrodite.”

  εἶπε, καὶ ὠλεσίτεκνος ὀδύρετο μᾶλλον Ἀγαύη.

  καὶ νέκυν, ὃν κατέπεφνε, φίλη τυμβεύσατο μήτηρ

  πίδακα δακρυόεσσαν ἀναβλύζουσα προσώπου:

  355 καὶ τάφον εὐποίητον ἐτεκτήναντο πολῖται.

  [352] She spoke; and Agaue childmurderer sorrowed yet more. The loving mother entombed the dead son whom she had slain, pouring a fountain of tears over her face, and the people built a goodly sepulchre.

  ὣς αἱ μὲν στενάχοντο κατηφέες: εἰσορόων δὲ

  Βάκχος ἄναξ ἐλέαιρε, φιλοθρήνους δὲ γυναῖκας

  μυρομένας ἀνέκοψεν, ἐπεὶ στοιχηδὸν ἑκάστῃ

  λυσίπονον κεράσας μελιηδέι φάρμακον οἴνῳ

  360 δῶκε ποτὸν ληθαῖον: ὀδυρομένοιο δὲ Κάδμου

  πένθιμον ἐπρήυνε γόον παιήονι μύθῳ:

  ἀμφοτέρας δ᾽ εὔνησε καὶ Αὐτονόην καὶ Ἀγαύην,

  ἐλπίδος ἐσσομένης πρωτάγγελα θέσφατα φαίνων.

  Ἰλλυρίην δ᾽ ἐπὶ γαῖαν ἐς Ἑσπερίου χθόνα πόντου

  365 Ἁρμονίην λιπόπατριν ὁμόστολον ἥλικι Κάδμῳ

  ἀμφοτέρους πόμπευεν ἀλήμονας, οἷς χρόνος ἕρπων

  ὤπασε πετρήεσσαν ἔχειν ὀφιώδεα μορφήν.

  [356] So they mourned in dejection; Lord Bacchos saw and pitied, and checked the dirge of the lamenting women, when he had mingled a medicine with honeysweet wine and passed it to each in turn as a d
rink to lull their troubles. He gave them the drink of forgetfulness, and when Cadmos lamented he soothed his sorrowful moans with healing words. He sent Autonoe and Agaue to their beds, and showed them oracles of god to tell of coming hope. Over the Illyrian country to the land of the Western sea he sped, and banished Harmonia with Cadmos her agemate, both wanderers, for whom creeping Time had in store a change into the shape of snaky stone.

  καὶ Σατύρους καὶ Πᾶνας ἔχων καὶ λύγκας ἱμάσσων

  ἁβρὸς ἀσιγήτοισιν ἐκώμασε Βάκχος Ἀθήναις.

  [368] Then Bacchos with his Pans and Satyrs whipt up his lynxes, and went in gorgeous pomp to farfamed Athens.

  BOOK 47

  ἔρχεο τεσσαρακοστὸν ἐς ἕβδομον, ὁππόθι Περσεὺς

  καὶ μόρος Ἰκαρίοιο καὶ ἁβροχίτων Ἀριάδνη.

  ἤδη δ᾽ ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα δι᾽ ἄστεος ἵπτατο Φήμη

  ἄγγελος αὐτοβόητος ἐρισταφύλου Διονύσου

  Ἀτθίδι φοιτήσαντος: ἀκοιμήτου δὲ Λυαίου

  εἰς χορὸν εὐώδινες ἐβακχεύθησαν Ἀθῆναι.

  5 καὶ πολὺς ἔβρεμε κῶμος: ὁμηγερέες δὲ πολῖται

  εἵμασι δαιδαλέοισιν ἀνεχλαίνωσαν ἀγυιὰς

  χερσὶ πολυσπερέεσσιν: ἀεξιφύτοιο δὲ Βάκχου

  ἡμερίδων πετάλοισιν ἐμιτρώθησαν Ἀθῆναι

  αὐτόματοι: φιάλας δὲ σιδηροφόρων διὰ μαζῶν

  10 στήθεσι μυστιπόλοισιν ἀνεζώννυντο γυναῖκες,