Works of Nonnus

by Nonnus

  ὣς εἰπὼν προμάχιζεν: ἐπεστρατόωντο δὲ Βάκχαι,

  655 καὶ Σάτυροι πολέμιζον. ὑπὲρ Βρομίου δὲ καρήνου

  αἰθύσσων πτερὰ κοῦφα μετάρσιος ἵπτατο Περσεύς:

  ὑψώσας δ᾽ Ἰόβακχος ἑὸν δέμας, αἰθέρι γείτων

  ἄπτερος ὑψικέλευθος ἀείρετο μείζονι ταρσῷ

  ἱπταμένου Περσῆος ὑπέρτερος, ἑπταπόρῳ δὲ

  660 αἰθέρι χεῖρα πέλασσε, καὶ ὡμίλησεν Ὀλύμπῳ,

  καὶ νεφέλας ἔθλιψε: φόβῳ δ᾽ ἐλελίζετο Περσεὺς

  δεξιτερὴν ἀκίχητον ὀπιπεύων Διονύσου

  ἠελίου ψαύουσαν, ἐφαπτομένην δὲ σελήνης.

  [654] When he had ended, he went on fighting: the Bacchants fell to, the Satyrs joined the battle. Over the head of Bromios Perseus flew in the air, flapping his light wings; but Iobacchos lifted his body and rose wingless on high near to the heavens with larger limbs over flying Perseus, and brought his hand near the sevenring sky, and touched Olympos, and crushed the clouds: Perseus quivered with fear as he saw the right hand of Dionysos out of reach and touching the sun, catching hold of the moon.

  ἀλλὰ λιπὼν Διόνυσον ἐμάρνατο θυιάσι Βάκχαις:

  665 καὶ παλάμῃ δονέων θανατηφόρον ὄμμα Μεδούσης

  λαϊνέην ποίησε κορυσσομένην Ἀριάδνην.

  καὶ πλέον ἔβρεμε Βάκχος ἰδὼν πετρώδεα νύμφην:

  καί νύ κεν Ἄργος ἔπερσε καὶ ἐπρήνιξε Μυκήνας

  καὶ Δαναῶν ἤμησεν ὅλην στίχα, καί νύ κεν αὐτὴν

  670 μαρναμένην ἄγνωστον ἀνούτατον οὔτασεν Ἥρην

  μάντιος ἀντιτύποιο νόθῃ βροτοειδέι μορφῇ,

  καί νύ κεν ὠκυπέδιλος ὑπὲρ μόρον ἔφθιτο Περσεύς.

  εἰ μή μιν κατόπισθε φανεὶς πτερόεντι πεδίλῳ

  χρυσείης πλοκαμῖδος ἑλὼν ἀνεσείρασεν Ἑρμῆς,

  675 καί μιν ἀλεξικάκῳ φιλίῳ μειλίξατο μύθῳ:

  [664] So he left Dionysos and fought with the mad Bacchants. He shook in his hand the deadly face of Medusa, and turned armed Ariadne into stone. Bacchos was even more furious when he saw his bride all stone. He would have sacked Argos and razed Mycene to the ground and mowed down the whole host of Danaans, yes even wounded invulnerable Hera herself, who was fighting unrecognized in the false borrowed shape of a mortal, a seer, and Swiftshoe Perseus would have perished, fate or no fate, — but Hermes appeared behind him with winged shoes and pulled him back by his golden hair, and calmed him with friendly words to avert the ruin:

  ‘Ζηνὸς γνήσιον αἷμα, νόθος ζηλήμονος Ἥρης,

  οἶσθα μέν, ὥς σε σάωσα διιπετέων ἀπὸ πυρσῶν,

  καἰ σε Λάμου ποταμοῖο θυγατράσιν ὤπασα Νύμφαις

  εἰσέτι κουρίζοντα, πάλιν δέ σε χερσὶν ἀείρων

  680 εἰς δόμον ὑμετέρης, κουροτρόφον ἤγαγον Ἰνοῦς:

  καὶ σὺ τεῷ ῥυτῆρι φέρων χάριν υἱέι Μαίης,

  γνωτέ, μάχην εὔνησον ὁμόγνιον: ἀμφότεροι γὰρ

  Περσεὺς καὶ Διόνυσος ἑνὸς βλάστημα τοκῆος:

  μὴ στρατὸν Ἀργείων, μὴ μέμφεο Περσέος ἅρπην:

  685 οὐ γὰρ ἑκὼν ἐς Ἄρηα κορύσσεται: ἀλλά μιν Ἥρη

  ὥπλισε, μαντιπόλου δὲ Μελάμποδος εἴδεϊ μορφῆς

  μάρναται ἀμφαδίην: σὺ δὲ χάζεο δῆριν ἐάσας,

  μή σοι ἐπιβρίσειε πάλιν δυσμήχανος Ἥρη.

  ἀλλ᾽ ἐρέεις ἀλόχοιο τεῆς μόρον: εὐκλέι πότμῳ.

  690 μαρναμένη τέθνηκε, σὺ δὲ φθιμένην Ἀριάδνην

  ὤφελες ὀλβίζειν, ὅτι τηλίκον εὗρε φονῆα

  οὐρανίης γεγαῶτα καὶ οὐ βροτέης ἀπὸ φύτλης,

  κήτεος ἀμητῆρα καὶ ἱπποτόκοιο Μεδούσης:

  οὐ λίνα Μοιράων ἐπιπείθεται: οὐρανίου γὰρ

  695 κάτθανεν Ἠλέκτρη Διὸς εὐνέτις, ᾤχετο δ᾽ αὐτὴ

  τῷ Διὶ νυμφευθεῖσα κασιγνήτη σέο Κάδμου

  Εὐρώπη μετὰ λέκτρον Ὀλύμπιον, ὑμετέρη δὲ

  εἰσέτι γαστρὶ φέρουσα τεὸν τόκον ὤλετο μήτηρ:

  οὐ Σεμέλη πρὸ μόροιο πύλας ἐπέρησεν Ὀλύμπου,

  700 ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε πότμον ἔδεκτο. καὶ ὀλλυμένη σέο νύμφη

  ἵξεται ἀστερόφοιτον ἐς οὐρανόν, ἡμετέρης δὲ

  Πλειάδος ἑπταπόροιο φανήσεται ἐγγύθι Μαίης.

  τί πλέον ἤθελεν ἄλλο φιλαίτερον ἢ χθονὶ λάμπειν

  αἰθέρα ναιετάουσα μετὰ Κρήτην Ἀριάδνη;

  705 ἀλλὰ σὺ κάτθεο θύρσον, ἔα δ᾽ ἀνέμοισιν Ἐνυώ,

  καὶ βρέτας αὐτοτέλεστον ἐπιχθονίης Ἀριάδνης,

  οὐρανίης στήριξον ὅπῃ βρέτας ἵσταται Ἥρης.

  μὴ πόλιν ἐκπέρσειας, ὅπῃ σέθεν αἷμα τοκήων,

  ὑμετέρης δὲ γέραιρε βοοκραίρου πέδον Ἰοῦς

  710 εὐνήσας σέο θύρσον: Ἀχαιιάδας δὲ γυναῖκας

  αἰνήσεις μετόπισθεν, ἐπεὶ ταυρώπιδος Ἥρης

  βωμὸν ἀναστήσουσι καὶ εὐθαλάμου σέο νύμφης.’

  [676] “Trueborn offspring of Zeus, if bastard for jealous Hera! You know how I saved you from the fires that fell from heaven, and entrusted you to those Nymphs, the daughters of river Lamos, when still a little child; how again I carried you in my arms to the house of Ino your fostering nurse. Then show gratitude, my brother, to your saviour the son of Maia, and still this feud of brothers — for both Perseus and Dionysos are offspring of one sire. Do not reproach the people of Argos, nor the sickle of Perseus, for he arms not willingly for this war. But Hera has armed him, and she is fighting openly in the shape of the seer Melampus. Retire and leave the strife, or Hera irreconcilable may overwhelm you again in her might. But you will urge the fate of your bride. She has died in battle, a glorious fate, and you ought to think Ariadne happy in her death, because she found one so great to slay her, one sprung from heaven and of no mortal stock, one who killed the seamonster and beheaded horsebreeding Medusa. The Fates’ threads obey not persuasion. For Electra died, the bedfellow of heavenly Zeus; Europa herself disappeared after the Olympian bed, the sister of your Cadmos, she who was wedded to Zeus; your mother perished too, while she still carried you in her womb; Semele entered not the gates of Olympos before death, but after she had received her fate. And your bride even in death shall enter the starspangled sky, and she will be seen near Maia my mother among the seven travelling Pleiads. What could Ariadne wish more welcome than to live in the heavens and give light to the earth, after Crete? Come now, la
y down your thyrsus, let the winds blow battle away, and fix the selfmade image of mortal Ariadne where the image of heavenly Hera stands. Do not sack the city where the stock of your parents remains, but still your thyrsus, and respect the country of cowhorn Io. You will praise the women of Achaia by and by, when they shall build an altar to bullface Hera and your charming bride.”

  τοῖον ἔπος κατέλεξε, καὶ ἵππιον Ἄργος ἐάσας

  εἰς πόλον αὖτις ἵκανεν ἐπ᾽ ἀμφοτέροισι κεράσσας

  715 θεσμὸν ὁμοφροσύνης καὶ Περσέι καὶ Διονύσῳ.

  οὐδὲ μὲν αὐτόθι μίμνεν ἐπὶ χρόνον Ἀργολὶς Ἥρη:

  ἀλλὰ μεταστρέψασα νόθην βροτοειδέα μορφὴν

  θέσκελον εἶδος ἔχουσα πάλιν νόστησεν Ὀλύμπῳ.

  Ἰναχίῃ δὲ φάλαγγι γέρων ἀγόρευε Μελάμπους

  720 Λυγκέος ἀρχεγόνοιο θεουδέος αἷμα Πελασγοῦ:

  [713] So he spoke, and leaving Argos the land of horses returned to the sky, after he had mingled a league of friendship between Perseus and Dionysos. Nor did Argive Hera remain long in that place; but putting off her pretended mortal body she took her divine form and returned to Olympos. Then old Melampus addressed the Icarian host, he the offspring of divine Pelasgian Lynceus founder of the race: —

  ‘Μαντιπόλῳ πείθεσθε καὶ οἴνοπι σείσατε Βάκχῳ

  σείσατε χάλκεα ῥόπτρα καὶ Εὔια τύμπανα Ῥείης,

  Ἰναχίην μὴ πᾶσαν ἀιστώσειε γενέθλην,

  μὴ μετὰ νήπια τέκνα καὶ ἡβητῆρας ὀλέσσῃ,

  725 μὴ τεκέων μετὰ πότμον ἀποκτείνειε γυναῖκας:

  ἀλλὰ θυηπολίην θεοτερπέα ῥέξατε Βάκχῳ

  [721] “Obey your seer, and shake your tambours in honour of wineface Bacchos, shake your bronze tambours and the Euian cymbals of Rheia, that he may not wipe out the whole Inachian race, that he may not destroy the young men after the little children, that he may not kill the wives after their offspring. Come, do sacrifice to Bacchos and Zeus, and please the gods heart, and dance before Perseus and Dionysos.”

  καὶ Διί, καὶ Περσῆι χορεύσατε καὶ Διονύσῳ.’

  ὣς εἰπὼν παρέπεισεν: ἀολλίζοντο δὲ λαοὶ

  Βάκχῳ νυκτιχόρευτον ἀνακρούοντες ἀοιδήν,

  730 καὶ τελετὰς στήσαντο: θεοκλήτῳ δὲ χορείῃ

  ῥόπτρα μὲν ἐπλατάγησεν, ἐπεκροτέοντο δὲ ταρσοί,

  καὶ δαΐδες σελάγιζον: ὁμηγερέες δὲ πολῖται

  μυστιπόλῳ χρίοντο παρήια λευκάδι γύψῳ:

  τύμπανα δ᾽ ἐπλατάγησεν, ἀρασσομένοιο δὲ χαλκοῦ

  735 δίκτυπος ἔβρεμε δοῦπος: ἐφοινίσσοντο δὲ βωμοὶ

  σφαζομένων στοιχηδὸν ἐπασσυτέρων ἀπὸ ταύρων,

  κτείνετο δ᾽ ἄσπετα μῆλα: καὶ ἀνέρες αἴθοπι βωμῷ

  Βάκχον ἐμειλίξαντο καὶ ἱλάσκοντο γυναῖκες:

  καὶ μέλος ἠερόφοιτον ἐπέκτυπε θῆλυς ἰωὴ

  740 κῶμον ἀμειβομένη ζωάγριον, Ἰναχίδες δὲ

  μαινάδες ἐρρίψαντο λαθίφρονα λύσσαν ἀήταις.

  [727] They did as he bade them. The people gathered together, and struck up a song with nightly dances for Bacchos and performed the holy rites: in the pious dance the tambours rattled, the feet beat the ground, the torches blazed. All the people in company smeared their cheeks with white mystic chalk. Kettledrums rattled, the double tap sounded as the bronze was beaten. Altars were red with bulls slaughtered in rows one after another, a multitude of sheep were killed. At the burning altar men made their peace with Bacchos, women won his grace. Women’s voices resounded in the air echoing in turn the song of salvation; Inachian women and Mainad women cast their deluding fury to the winds.

  BOOK 48

  Δίζεο τεσσαρακοστὸν ἐς ὄγδοον αἷμα Γιγάντων,

  Παλλήνην δὲ δόκευε καὶ ὑπναλέης τόκον Αὔρης.

  αὐτὰρ ὁ πορδαλίων ἐποχημένος ἄντυγι δίφρου

  Θρηικίῃ περίφοιτος ἐκώμασε Βάκχος ἀρούρῃ,

  ἵππιον ἀρχεγόνοιο Φορωνέος οὖδας ἐάσας.

  οὐδὲ χόλον πρήυνε παλίγκοτον Ἰναχὶς Ἥρη

  5 Ἄργεος οἰστρηθέντος, Ἀχαιιάδων δὲ γυναικῶν

  λύσσης μνῆστιν ἔχουσα πάλιν θωρήσσετο Βάκχῳ.

  καὶ δολίας ἀνέφαινε λιτὰς παμμήτορι Γαίῃ,

  ἔργα Διὸς βοόωσα καὶ ἠνορέην Διονύσου

  γηγενέων ὀλέσαντος ἀμετρήτων νέφος Ἰνδῶν:

  10 καὶ Σεμέλης ὅτε παῖδα φερέσβιος ἔκλυε μήτηρ

  Ἰνδῴην ταχύποτμον ἀιστώσαντα γενέθλην,

  μνησαμένη τεκέων πλέον ἔστενεν ἀμφὶ δὲ Βάκχῳ

  αὐτογόνων θώρηξεν ὀρίδρομα φύλα Γιγάντων,

  ὑψιλόφους ἕο παῖδας ἀνοιστρήσασα κυδοιμῷ:

  BOOK XLVIII

  In the forty-eighth, seek the blood of the giants, and look out for Pallene and the son of sleeping Aura.

  Now Bacchos quitted the horsebreeding soil of ancient Phoroneus, and mounted in his round car behind the team of panthers passed in revelry over the Thracian land. But Inachian Hera had not softened her rancorous rage for Argos maddened; she remembered the frenzy of the Achaian women and prepared again to attack Bacchos. She addressed her deceitful prayers to Allmother Earth, crying out upon the doings of Zeus and the valour of Dionysos, who had destroyed that cloud of numberless earthborn Indians; and when the lifebringing mother heard that the son of Semele had wiped out the Indian nation with speedy fate, she groaned still more thinking of her children. Then she armed all round Bacchos the mountainranging tribes of giants, earth’s own brood, and goaded her huge sons to battle:

  15 ‘ Παῖδες ἐμοί, μάρνασθε κορυμβοφόρῳ Διονύσῳ

  ἠλιβάτοις σκοπέλοισιν, ἐμῆς δ᾽ ὀλετῆρα γενέθλης

  Ἰνδοφόνον Διὸς υἷα κιχήσατε: μηδὲ νοήσω

  σὺν Διὶ κοιρανέοντα νόθον σκηπτοῦχον Ὀλύμπου.

  δήσατε, δήσατε Βάκχον, ὅπως θαλαμηπόλος εἴη,

  20 ὁππότε Πορφυρίωνι χαρίζομαι εἰς γάμον Ἥβην

  καὶ Χθονίῳ Κυθέρειαν, ὅτε γλαυκῶπιν ἀείσω

  εὐνέτιν Ἐγκελάδοιο καὶ Ἄρτεμιν Ἀλκυονῆος:

  ἄξατέ μοι Διόνυσον, ἵνα Κρονίωνα χαλέψω

  δουλοσύνην ὁρόωντα δορικτήτοιο Λυαίου:

  25 ἠέ μιν οὐτάζοντες ἀλοιητῆρι σιδήρῳ

  κτείνατέ μοι Ζαγρῆι πανείκελον, ὄφρά τις εἴπῃ

  ἢ θεὸς ἢ μερόπων τις, ὅτι Κρονίδαο γενέθλῃ

  γαῖα χολωομένη διδύμους θώ
ρηξε φονῆας,

  πρεσβυτέρους Τιτῆνας ἐπὶ προτέρῳ Διονύσῳ,

  30 ὁπλοτέρους δὲ Γίγαντας ἐπ᾽ ὀψιγόνῳ Διονύσῳ.’

  [15] “My sons, make your attack with hightowering rocks against clustergarlanded Dionysos — catch this Indianslayer, this destroyer of my family, this son of Zeus, and let me not see him ruling with Zeus a bastard monarch of Olympos! Bind him, bind Bacchos fast, that he may attend in the chamber when I bestow Hebe on Porphyrion as a wife, and give Cythereia to Chthonios, when I sing Bright-eyes the bedfellow of Encelados, and Artemis of Alcyoneus. Bring Dionysos to me, that I may enrage Cronion when he sees Lyaios a slave and the captive of my spear. Or wound him with cutting steel and kill him for me like Zagreus, that one may say, god or mortal, that Earth in her anger has twice armed her slayers against the breed of Cronides — the older Titans against the former Dionysos, the younger Giants against Dionysos later born.”

  ὣς φαμένη στίχα πᾶσαν ἀνεπτοίησε Γιγάντων.

  γηγενέων δὲ φάλαγγες ἐπεστρατόωντο κυδοιμῷ.

  ὃς μὲν ἔχων Νυσαῖον ἐδέθλιον, ὃς δὲ σιδήρῳ