The Metamorphoses of Ovid Part 21

The Cinyphian[13] Pelates, too, was trying to tear away the oaken bar of the doorpost on the left; as he was trying, his right hand was fastened {thereto} by the spear of Corythus, the son of Marmarus, and it stood riveted to the wood. {Thus} riveted, Abas pierced his side; he did not fall, however, but dying, hung from the post, which still held fast his hand. Melaneus, too, was slain, who had followed the camp of Perseus, and Dorylas, very rich in Nasamonian land.[14] Dorylas, rich in land, than whom no one possessed it of wider extent, or received {thence} so many heaps of corn. The hurled steel stood fixed obliquely in his groin; the hurt was mortal. When the Bactrian[15] Halcyoneus, the author of the wound, beheld him sobbing forth his soul, and rolling his eyes, he said, "Take {for thine own} this {spot} of earth which thou dost press, out of so many fields," and he left his lifeless body. The descendant of Abas, as his avenger, hurls against {Halcyoneus} the spear torn from his wound {yet} warm, which, received in the middle of the nostrils, pierced through his neck, and projected on both sides. And while fortune is aiding his hand, he slays, with different wounds, Clytius and Clanis, born of one mother. For an ashen spear poised with a strong arm is driven through both the thighs of Clytius; with his mouth does Clanis bite the javelin. Celadon, the Mendesian,[16] falls, too; Astreus falls, born of a mother of Palestine, {but} of an uncertain father. aethion, too, once sagacious at foreseeing things to come, {but} now deceived[17]

by a false omen; and Thoactes, the armor-bearer of the king, and Agyrtes, infamous for slaying his father.

More work still remains, than what is {already} done; for it is the intention of all to overwhelm one. The conspiring troops fight on all sides, for a cause that attacks both merit and good faith. The one side, the father-in-law, attached in vain, and the new-made wife, together with her mother, encourage; and {these} fill the halls with their shrieks. But the din of arms, and the groans of those that fall, prevail; and for once, Bellona[18] is deluging the household G.o.ds polluted with plenteous blood, and is kindling the combat anew. Phineus, and a thousand that follow Phineus, surround Perseus {alone}; darts are flying thicker than the hail of winter, on both his sides, past his eyes, and past his ears. On this, he places his shoulders against the stone of a large pillar, and, having his back secure, and facing the adverse throng, he withstands their attack. Chaonian[19] Molpeus presses on the left, Nabathaean Ethemon on the right. As a tiger, urged on by hunger, when it hears the lowings of two herds, in different valleys, knows not on which side in preference to rush out, and {yet} is eager to rush out on both; so Perseus, being in doubt whether to bear onward to the right or to the left, repulses Molpeus by a wound in the leg, which he runs through, and is contented with his flight. Nor, indeed, does Ethemon give him time, but fiercely attacks him; and, desirous to inflict a wound deep in his neck, he breaks his sword, wielded with incautious force; and against the extremity of a column which he has struck, the blade flies to pieces, and sticks in the throat of its owner; yet that blow has not power sufficient to {effect} his death.

Perseus stabs him with his Cyllenian[20] falchion, trembling, and vainly extending his unarmed hands.

But when Perseus saw his valor {likely} to yield to such numbers, he said, "Since you yourselves force me to do it, I will seek a.s.sistance from an enemy: turn away your faces, if any of my friends are here;" and {then} he produced the head of the Gorgon. "{Go}, seek some one else,"

said Thescelus, "for thy miracles to affect;" and, as he was preparing to hurl his deadly javelin with his hand, he stood fast in that posture, a statue of marble. Ampyx, being next him, made a pa.s.s with his sword at the breast of Lyncidas, full of daring spirit, and, while making it, his right hand became stiff, moving neither to one side nor the other. But Nileus, who had falsely boasted that he was begotten by the seven-mouthed Nile, and who had engraved on his s.h.i.+eld its seven channels, partly in silver, partly in gold, said, "Behold, Perseus, the origin of my race; thou shalt carry to the silent shades a great consolation for thy death, that thou wast killed by one so great." The last part of his address was suppressed in the midst of the utterance; and you would think his half-open mouth was attempting to speak, but it gave no pa.s.sage for his words. Eryx rebuked them,[21] and said, "Ye are benumbed by the cowardice of your minds, not by the locks of the Gorgon; rush on with me, and strike to the ground {this} youth that wields his magic arms." He was about to rush on, {when} the earth arrested his steps, and he remained an immovable stone, and an armed statue. But all these met with the punishment they had deserved: there was one man, however, Aconteus {by name}, a soldier of Perseus, for whom while he was fighting, on beholding the Gorgon, he grew hard with stone rising upon him. Astyages, thinking him still alive, struck him with his long sword; the sword resounded with a shrill ringing. While Astyages was in amazement, he took on himself the same nature: and the look of one in surprise remained on his marble features. It is a tedious task to recount the names of the men of the lower rank. Two hundred bodies were {yet} remaining for the fight: two hundred bodies, on beholding the Gorgon, grew stiff.

Now at length Phineus repents of this unjust warfare. But what can he do? He sees statues varying in form, and he recognizes his friends, and demands help of them each, called by name; and not {yet} persuaded, he touches the bodies next him; they are marble. He turns away {his eyes}; and thus suppliant, and stretching forth his hands, that confessed {his fault}, and his arms obliquely extended, he says, "Perseus, thou hast conquered; remove the direful monster, and take away that stone-making face of thy Medusa, whatever she may be; take it away, I pray. It is not hatred, or the desire of a kingdom, that has urged me to war: for a wife I wielded arms. Thy cause was the better in point of merit, mine in point of time. I am not sorry to yield. Grant me nothing, most valiant man, beyond this life; the rest be thine." Upon his saying such things, and not daring to look upon him, whom he is entreating with his voice, {Perseus} says, "What am I able to give thee, most cowardly Phineus, and, a great boon to a craven, that will I give; lay aside thy fears; thou shalt be hurt by no weapon. Moreover, I will give thee a monument to last forever, and in the house of my father-in-law thou shalt always be seen, that my wife may comfort herself with the form of her betrothed." {Thus} he said, and he turned the daughter of Phorcys to that side, towards which Phineus had turned himself with trembling face.

Then, even as he endeavored to turn away his eyes, his neck grew stiff, and the moisture of his eyes hardened in stone. But yet his timid features, and his suppliant countenance, and his hands hanging down, and his guilty att.i.tude, still remained.

The descendant of Abas, together with his wife, enters the walls of his native city; and as the defender and avenger of his innocent mother, he attacks Prtus.[22] For, his brother being expelled by force of arms, Prtus had taken possession of the citadel of Acrisius; but neither by the help of arms, nor the citadel which he had unjustly seized, did he prevail against the stern eyes of the snake-bearing monster.

[Footnote 1: _Phineus._--Ver. 8. He was the brother of Cepheus, to whom Andromeda had been betrothed. There was another person of the same name, who entertained the Argonauts, and who is also mentioned in the Metamorphoses.]

[Footnote 2: _In the cus.h.i.+on._--Ver. 34. This was probably the mattress or covering of the couch on which the ancients reclined during meals. It was frequently stuffed with wool; but among the poorer cla.s.ses, with straw and dried weeds.]

[Footnote 3: _An altar._--Ver. 36. This was either the altar devoted to the wors.h.i.+p of the Penates; or, more probably, perhaps, in this instance, that erected for sacrifice to the G.o.ds on the occasion of the nuptials of Perseus and Andromeda.]

[Footnote 4: _G.o.ds of hospitality._--Ver. 45. Jupiter was especially considered to be the avenger of a violation of the laws of hospitality.]

[Footnote 5: _Athis by name._--Ver. 47. Athis, or Atys, is here described as of Indian birth, to distinguish him from the Phrygian youth of the same name, beloved by Cybele, whose story is told by Ovid in the Fasti.]

[Footnote 6: _His falchion._--Ver. 69. The "Harpe" was a short, crooked sword, or falchion: such as we call a "scimitar."]

[Footnote 7: _Syene._--Ver. 74. This was a city on the confines of aethiopia, bordering upon Egypt. Ovid tells us in the Pontic Epistles (Book i. Ep. 5, l. 79), that "there, at the time of the summer solstice, bodies as they stand, have no shadow."]

[Footnote 8: _A huge bowl._--Ver. 82. Clarke calls "ingentem cratera" "a swingeing bowl."]

[Footnote 9: _Sperchius._--Ver. 86. This was probably a person, and not the river of Thessaly, flowing into the Malian Gulf.]

[Footnote 10: _Has declined the warfare._--Ver. 91. This is an ill.u.s.tration of the danger of neutrality, when the necessity of the times requires a man to adopt the side which he deems to be in the right.]

[Footnote 11: _Clings to the altars._--Ver. 103. In cases of extreme danger, it was usual to fly to the temples of the Deities, and to take refuge behind the altar or statue of the G.o.d, and even to cling to it, if necessity required.]

[Footnote 12: _A mournful dirge._--Ver. 118. Clarke translates 'Casuque canit miserabile carmen;' 'and in his fall plays but a dismal ditty.']

[Footnote 13: _Cinyphian._--Ver. 124. Cinyps, or Cinyphus, was the name of a river situate in the north of Africa.]

[Footnote 14: _Nasamonian land._--Ver. 129. The Nasamones were a people of Libya, near the Syrtes, or quicksands, who subsisted by plundering the numerous wrecks on their coasts.]

[Footnote 15: _Bactrian._--Ver. 135. Bactris was the chief city of Bactria, a region bordering on the western confines of India.]

[Footnote 16: _The Mendesian._--Ver. 144. Mendes was a city of Egypt, near the mouth of the Nile, where Pan was wors.h.i.+pped, according to Pliny. Celadon was a native of either this place, or of the city of Myndes, in Syria.]

[Footnote 17: _Now deceived._--Ver. 147. Because he had not foreseen his own approaching fate.]

[Footnote 18: _Bellona._--Ver. 155. She was the sister of Mars, and was the G.o.ddess of War.]

[Footnote 19: _Chaonian._--Ver. 163. Chaonia was a mountainous part of Epirus, so called from Chaon, who was accidentally killed, while hunting, by Helenus, the son of Priam. It has been, however, suggested that the reading ought to be 'Choanius;' as the Choanii were a people bordering on Arabia; and very justly, for how should the Chaonians and Nabathaeans, or Epirotes, and Arabians become united in the same sentence, as meeting in a region so distant as aethiopia?]

[Footnote 20: _Cyllenian._--Ver. 176. His falchion had been given to him by Mercury, who was born on Mount Cyllene, in Arcadia.]

[Footnote 21: _Eryx rebuked them._--Ver. 195. 'Increpat hos Eryx'

is translated by Clarke, 'Eryx rattles these blades.']

[Footnote 22: _Prtus._--Ver. 238. He was the brother of Acrisius, the grandfather of Perseus.]

EXPLANATION.

The scene of this story is supposed by some to have been in aethiopia, but it is more probably on the coast of Africa. Josephus and Strabo a.s.sert that this event happened near the city of Joppa, or Jaffa: indeed, Josephus says that the marks of the chains with which Andromeda was fastened, were remaining on the rock in his time.

Pomponius Mela says, that Cepheus, the father of Andromeda, was king of Joppa, and that the memory of that prince and of his brother Phineus was honored there with religious services. He says, too, that the inhabitants used to show the bones of the monster which was to have devoured Andromeda. Pliny tells us the same, and that Scaurus carried these bones with him to Rome. He calls the monster 'a G.o.ddess,' 'Dea Cete.' Vossius believes that he means the G.o.d Dagon, wors.h.i.+pped among the Syrians under the figure of a fish, or sea-monster. Some authors have suggested that the story of the creature which was to have devoured Andromeda, was a confused version of that of the prophet Jonah.

The alleged power of Perseus, to turn his enemies into stone, was probably, a metaphorical mode of describing his heroism, and the terror which everywhere followed the fame of his victory over the Gorgons. This probably caused such consternation, that it was reported that he petrified his enemies by showing them the head of Medusa.

Bochart supposes that the rocky nature of the island of Seriphus, where Polydectes reigned, was the ground of the various stories of the alleged metamorphoses into stone, effected by means of the Gorgon's head.

FABLE II. [V.243-340]

Polydectes continues his hatred against Perseus, and treats his victories and triumphs over Medusa as mere fictions, on which Perseus turns him into stone. Minerva leaves her brother, and goes to Mount Helicon to visit the Muses, who show the G.o.ddess the beauties of their habitation, and entertain her with their adventure at the court of Pyreneus, and the death of that prince. They also repeat to her the song of the Pierides, who challenged them to sing.

Yet, O Polydectes,[23] the ruler of little Seriphus, neither the valor of the youth proved by so many toils, nor his sorrows have softened thee; but thou obstinately dost exert an inexorable hatred, nor is there any limit to thy unjust resentment. Thou also detractest from his praises, and dost allege that the death of Medusa is {but} a fiction.

"We will give thee a proof of the truth," says Perseus; "have a regard for your eyes, {all besides};" and he makes the face of the king {become} stone, without blood, by means of the face of Medusa.

Hitherto Tritonia had presented herself as a companion to her brother,[24] begotten in the golden shower. Now, enwrapped in an encircling cloud, she abandons Seriphus, Cythnus and Gyarus[25] being left on the right. And where the way seems the shortest over the sea, she makes for Thebes and Helicon, frequented by the virgin {Muses}; having reached which mountain she stops, and thus addresses the learned sisters: "The fame of the new fountain[26] has reached my ears, which the hard hoof of the winged steed sprung from the blood of Medusa has opened. That is the cause of my coming. I wished to see this wondrous prodigy; I saw him spring from the blood of his mother." Urania[27]

replies, "Whatever, G.o.ddess, is the cause of thy visiting these abodes, thou art most acceptable to our feelings. However, the report is true, and Pegasus is the originator of this spring;" and {then} she conducts Pallas to the sacred streams. She, long admiring the waters produced by the stroke of his foot, looks around upon the groves of the ancient wood, and the caves and the gra.s.s studded with flowers innumerable; and she p.r.o.nounces the Mnemonian[28] maids happy both in their pursuits and in their retreat; when one of the sisters {thus} addresses her:

"O Tritonia, thou who wouldst have come to make one of our number, had not thy valor inclined thee to greater deeds, thou sayest the truth, and with justice thou dost approve both our pursuits and our retreat; and if we are but safe, happy do we reckon our lot. But (to such a degree is no denial borne by villany) all things affright our virgin minds, and the dreadful Pyreneus is placed before our eyes; and not yet have I wholly recovered my presence of mind. He, in his insolence, had taken the Daulian and Phocean[29] land with his Thracian troops, and unjustly held the government. We were making for the temple of Parna.s.sus; he beheld us going, and adoring our Divinities[30] in a feigned wors.h.i.+p he said (for he had recognized us), 'O Mnemonian maids, stop, and do not scruple, I pray, under my roof to avoid the bad weather and the showers (for it was raining); oft have the G.o.ds above entered more humble cottages.'

Moved by his invitation and the weather, we a.s.sented to the man, and entered the front part of his house. The rain had {now} ceased, and the South Wind {now} subdued by the North, the black clouds were flying from the cleared sky. It was our wish to depart. Pyreneus closed his house, and prepared for violence, which we escaped by taking wing. He himself stood aloft on the top {of his abode}, as though about to follow us, and said 'Wherever there is a way for you, by the same road there will be {one} for me.' And then, in his insanity, he threw himself from the height of the summit of the tower, and fell upon his face, and with the bones of his skull thus broken, he struck the ground stained with his accursed blood."

{Thus} spoke the Muse. Wings resounded through the air, and a voice of some saluting them[31] came from the lofty boughs. The daughter of Jupiter looked up, and asked whence tongues that speak so distinctly made that noise, and thought that a human being had spoken. They were birds; and magpies that imitate everything, lamenting their fate, they stood perched on the boughs, nine in number. As the G.o.ddess wondered, thus did the G.o.ddess {Urania} commence: "Lately, too, did these being overcome in a dispute, increase the number of the birds. Pierus, rich in the lands of Pella,[32] begot them; the Paeonian[33] Evippe[34] was their mother. Nine times did she invoke the powerful Lucina, being nine times in labor. This set of foolish sisters were proud of their number, and came hither through so many cities of Haemonia, {and} through so many of Achaia,[35] and engaged in a contest in words such as these: "Cease imposing upon the vulgar with your empty melody. If you have any confidence {in your skill}, ye Thespian G.o.ddesses, contend with us; we will not be outdone in voice or skill; and we are as many in number.

Either, if vanquished, withdraw from the spring formed by the steed of Medusa, and the Hyantean Aganippe,[36] or we will retire from the Emathian plains, as far as the snowy Paeonians. Let the Nymphs decide the contest." It was, indeed, disgraceful to engage, but to yield seemed {even} more disgraceful. The Nymphs that are chosen swear by the rivers, and they sit on seats made out of the natural rock. Then, without casting lots, she who had been the first to propose the contest, sings the wars of the G.o.ds above, and gives the Giants honor not their due, and detracts from the actions of the great Divinities; and {sings} how that Typhus, sent forth from the lowest realms of the earth, had struck terror into the inhabitants of Heaven; and {how} they had all turned their backs in flight, until the land of Egypt had received them in their weariness, and the Nile, divided into its seven mouths. She tells, how that Typhus had come there, too, and the G.o.ds above had concealed themselves under a.s.sumed shapes; and 'Jupiter,' she says, 'becomes the leader of the flock, whence, even at the present day, the Libyan Ammon is figured with horns. {Apollo}, the Delian {G.o.d}, lies concealed as a crow, the son of Semele as a he-goat, the sister of Phbus as a cat, {Juno}, the daughter of Saturn, as a snow-white cow, Venus as a fish,[37] {Mercury}, the Cyllenian {G.o.d}, beneath the wings of an Ibis.'[38]

"Thus far she had exerted her noisy mouth to {the sound of} the lyre; we of Aonia[39] were {then} called upon; but perhaps thou hast not the leisure, nor the time to lend an ear to our strains." Pallas says, "Do not hesitate, and repeat your song to me in its order;" and she takes her seat under the pleasant shade of the grove. The Muse {then} tells her story. "We a.s.signed the management of the contest to one {of our number}. Calliope rises, and, having her long hair gathered up with ivy, tunes with her thumb the sounding chords; and {then} sings these lines in concert with the strings when struck."

[Footnote 23: _Polydectes._--Ver. 242. Polydectes was king of the little island of Seriphus, one of the Cyclades. His brother Dictys had removed Perseus, with his mother Danae, to the kingdom of Polydectes. The latter became smitten with love for Danae, though he was about to marry Hippodamia. On this occasion he exacted a promise from Perseus, of the head of the Gorgon Medusa. When Perseus returned victorious, he found that his mother, with her protector Dictys, had taken refuge at the altars of the Deities, against the violence of Polydectes; on which Perseus changed him into stone. The story of Perseus afforded abundant materials to the ancient poets. aeschylus wrote a Tragedy called Polydectes, Sophocles one called Danae, while Euripides composed two, called respectively Danae and Dictys. Pherecydes also wrote on this subject, and his work seems to have been a text book for succeeding poets. Polygnotus painted the return of Perseus with the head of Medusa, to the island of Seriphus.]

[Footnote 24: _To her brother._--Ver. 250. As both Tritonia, or Minerva, and Perseus had Jupiter for their father.]

[Footnote 25: _Gyarus._--Ver. 252. Cythnus and Gyarus were two islands of the Cyclades.]

[Footnote 26: _The new fountain._--Ver. 256. This was Helicon, which was produced by a blow from the hoof of Pegasus.]

[Footnote 27: _Urania._--Ver. 260. One of the Muses, who presided over Astronomy.]

[Footnote 28: _Mnemonian._--Ver. 268. The Muses are called 'Mnemonides,' from the Greek word ???? 'remembering,' or 'mindful,' because they were said to be the daughters, by Jupiter, of Mnemosyne, or Memory.]

[Footnote 29: _Phocean._--Ver. 276. Daulis was a city of Phocis; a district between Botia and aetolia, in which the city of Delphi and Mount Parna.s.sus were situate.]