The Centaurs being the descendants of Centaurus, the son of Ixion,

and Pirithoüs being also the son of Ixion, by Dia, the former,

declared war against Pirithoüs, asserting, that, as the descendants

of Ixion, they had a right to share in the succession to his

dominions. This quarrel, however, was made up, and they continued on

friendly terms, until the attempt of Eurytus, or Eurytion, on

Hippodamia, the bride of Pirithoüs, which was followed by the

consequences here described by Ovid. The Centaurs are twice

mentioned in the Iliad as φῆρες, or ‘wild beasts,’ and once under

the name of ‘Centaurs.’ Pindar is the first writer that mentions

them as being of a twofold form, partly man, and partly horse. In

the twenty-first Book of the Odyssey, line 295, Eurytion is said to

have had his ears and nose cut off by way of punishment, and that,

from that period, ‘discord arose between the Centaurs and men.’

Buttman, (Mythologus, ii. p. 22, as quoted by Mr. Keightley), says

that the names of Centaurs and Lapithæ are two purely poetic names,

used to designate two opposite races of men,--the former, the rude

horse-riding tribes, which tradition records to have been spread

over the north of Greece: the latter, the more civilized race, which

founded towns, and gradually drove their wild neighbours back into

the mountains. He thinks that the explanation of the word

‘Centaurs,’ as ‘Air-piercers,’ (from κεντεῖν τὴν αὔραν) not an

improbable one, for the idea is suggested by the figure of a Cossack

leaning forward with his protruded lance as he gallops along. But he

regards the idea of κένταυρος, having been in its origin simply

κέντωρ, as much more probable, [it meaning simply ‘the spurrer-on.’]

Lapithæ may, he thinks, have signified ‘Stone persuaders,’ from λᾶας

πείθειν, a poetic appellation for the builders of towns. He supposes

Hippodamia to have been a Centauress, married to the prince of the

Lapithæ, and thus accounts for the Centaurs having been at the

wedding. Mr. Keightley, in his ‘Mythology of Ancient Greece and

Italy,’ remarks that ‘it is certainly not a little strange that a

rude mountain race like the Centaurs should be viewed as horsemen;

and the legend which ascribes the perfecting of the art of

horsemanship to the Lapithæ, is unquestionably the more probable

one. The name Centaur, which so much resembles the Greek verb

κεντέω, ‘to spur,’ we fancy gave origin to the fiction. This

derivation of it is, however, rather dubious.’

After the battle here described, the Centaurs retreated to the

mountains of Arcadia. The Lapithæ pursuing them, drove them to the

Promontory of Malea in Laconia, where, according to Apollodorus,

Neptune took them into his protection. Servius and Antimachus, as

quoted by Comes Natalis, say that some of them fled to the Isle of

the Sirens (or rather to that side of Italy which those Nymphs had

made their abode); and that there they were destroyed by the

voluptuous and debauched lives they led.

The fable of Cæneus, which Ovid has introduced, is perhaps simply

founded on the prodigious strength and the goodness of the armour of

a person of that name. The story of Halyonome killing herself on the

body of Cyllarus, may possibly have been handed down by tradition.

It is not unlikely that, if the Centaurs were horsemen, their women

were not unacquainted with horsemanship; indeed, representations of

female Centaurs are given, on ancient monuments, as drawing the

chariot of Bacchus.

FABLES V. AND VI. [XII.536-628]

Periclymenus, the brother of Nestor, who has received from Neptune

the power of transforming himself, is changed into an eagle, in a

combat with Hercules; and in his flight is shot by him with an

arrow. Neptune prays Apollo to avenge the death of Cygnus: because

the Destinies will not permit him to do so himself. Apollo enters

the Trojan camp in disguise, and directs the arrow which Paris aims

at Achilles; who is mortally wounded in the heel, the only

vulnerable part of his body.

As the Pylian related this fight between the Lapithæ and the Centaurs,

{but} half human, Tlepolemus[48] could not endure his sorrow for Alcides

being passed by with silent lips, and said, “It is strange, old man,

that thou shouldst have a forgetfulness of the exploits of Hercules;

at least, my father himself used often to relate to me, that these

cloud-begotten {monsters} were conquered by him.” The Pylian, sad at

this, said, “Why dost thou force me to call to mind my misfortunes, and

to rip up my sorrows, concealed beneath years, and to confess my hatred

of, and disgust at, thy father? He, indeed, ye Gods! performed things

beyond all belief, and filled the world with his services; which I could

rather wish could be denied; but we are in the habit of praising neither

Deiphobus nor Polydamas,[49] nor Hector himself: for who would commend

an enemy? That father of thine once overthrew the walls of Messene, and

demolished guiltless cities, Elis and Pylos, and carried the sword and

flames into my abode. And, that I may say nothing of others whom he

slew, we were twice six sons of Neleus, goodly youths; the twice six

fell by the might of Hercules, myself alone excepted. And that the

others were vanquished might have been endured; {but} the death of

Periclymenus is wonderful; to whom Neptune, the founder of the Neleian

family, had granted to be able to assume whatever shapes he might

choose, and again, when assumed, to lay them aside. He, after he had in

vain been turned into all other shapes, was turned into the form of the

bird that is wont to carry the lightnings in his crooked talons, the

most acceptable to the king of the Gods. Using the strength of {that}

bird, his wings, and his crooked bill, together with his hooked talons,

he tore the face of the hero. The Tirynthian hero aims at him his bow,

too unerring, and hits him, as he moves his limbs aloft amid the clouds,

and hovering {in the air}, just where the wing is joined to the side.

“Nor is the wound a great one, but his sinews, cut by the wound, fail

him, and deny him motion and strength for flying. He fell down to the

earth, his weakened pinions not catching the air; and where the smooth

arrow had stuck in his wing, it was pressed {still further} by the

weight of his pierced body, and it was driven, through the upper side,

into the left part of the neck. Do I seem to be owing encomiums to the

exploits of thy {father} Hercules, most graceful leader of the Rhodian

fleet?[50] Yet I will no further avenge my brothers, than by being

silent on his brave deeds: with thyself I have a firm friendship.” After

the son[51] of Neleus had said these things with his honied tongue, the

gifts of Bacchus being resumed after the discourse of the aged man, they

arose from their couches: the rest of the night was given to sleep.

But the God who commands the waters of the sea with his trident,

laments, with the affection of a father, the body of his son, changed

into the bird of the son of Sthenelus; and abhorring the ruthless

Achilles, pursues his resentful wrath in more than an ordinary manner.

And now, the war having been protracted for almost twice five years,

with such words as these he addresses the unshorn Smintheus:[52]

“O thou, most acceptable to me, by far, of the sons of my brother, who,

together with me, didst build the walls of Troy in vain; and dost thou

not grieve when thou lookest upon these towers so soon to fall? or dost

thou not lament that so many thousands are slain in defending these

walls? and (not to recount them all) does not the ghost of Hector,

dragged around his Pergamus, recur to thee? Though still the fierce

Achilles, more blood-stained than war itself, lives on, the destroyer of

our toil, let him but put himself in my power, I will make him feel what

I can do with my triple spear. But since it is not allowed us to

encounter the enemy in close fight, destroy him, when off his guard,

with a secret shaft.”

He nodded his assent; and the Delian {God}, indulging together both his

own resentment and that of his uncle, veiled in a cloud, comes to the

Trojan army, and in the midst of the slaughter of the men, he sees

Paris, at intervals, scattering his darts among the ignoble Greeks; and,

discovering himself to be a Divinity, he says, “Why dost thou waste thy

arrows upon the blood of the vulgar? If thou hast any concern for thy

friends, turn upon the grandson of Æacus, and avenge thy slaughtered

brothers.” {Thus} he said; and pointing at the son of Peleus, mowing

down the bodies of the Trojans with the sword, he turned his bow towards

him, and directed his unerring arrow with a fatal right hand. This was

{the only thing} at which, after {the death of} Hector, the aged Priam

could rejoice. And art thou then, Achilles, the conqueror of men so

great, conquered by the cowardly ravisher of a Grecian wife? But if it

had been fated for thee to fall by the hand of a woman, thou wouldst

rather have fallen by the Thermodontean[53] battle-axe.

Now that dread of the Phrygians, the glory and defence of the Pelasgian

name, the grandson of Æacus, a head invincible in war, had been burnt:

the same Divinity had armed him,[54] and had burned him. He is now {but}

ashes; and there remains of Achilles, so renowned, I know not what; that

which will not well fill a little urn. But his glory lives, which can

fill the whole world: this allowance is befitting that hero, and in this

the son of Peleus is equal to himself, and knows not the empty Tartarus.

Even his very shield gives occasion for war, that you may know to whom

it belongs; and arms are wielded for arms. The son of Tydeus does not

dare to claim them, nor Ajax, the son of Oïleus,[55] nor the younger son

of Atreus, nor he who is his superior both in war and age, nor {any}

others; the hope of so much glory exists only in him begotten by Telamon

and {the son} of Laërtes. The descendant of Tantalus[56] removes from

himself the burden and the odium {of a decision}, and orders the Argive

leaders to sit in the midst of the camp, and transfers the judgment of

the dispute to them all.

[Footnote 48: _Tlepolemus._--Ver. 537. He was a son of Hercules,

by Astioche.]

[Footnote 49: _Polydamas._--Ver. 547. He was a noble Trojan, of

great bravery, who had married a daughter of Priam.]

[Footnote 50: _Rhodian fleet._--Ver. 575. Tlepolemus, when a

youth, slew his uncle, Lycimnius, the son of Mars. Flying from his

country with some followers, he retired to the Island of Rhodes,

where he gained the sovereignty. He went to the Trojan war with

nine ships, to aid the Greeks, where he fell by the hand of

Sarpedon.]

[Footnote 51: _After the son._--Ver. 578-9. ‘A sermone senis

repetito munere Bacchi Surrexere toris.’ These words are thus

quaintly rendered in Clarke’s translation: ‘From listening to the

old gentleman’s discourse, they return again to their bottle; and

taking the other glass, they departed.’]

[Footnote 52: _Smintheus._--Ver. 585. Apollo was so called, in

many of the cities of Asia, and was worshipped under this name,

in the Isle of Tenedos. He is said by Eustathius, to have been so

called from Smynthus, a town near Troy. But, according to other

accounts, he received the epithet from the Cretan word σμίνθος,

a mouse; being supposed to protect man against the depredations of

that kind of vermin.]

[Footnote 53: _Thermodontean._--Ver. 611. He alludes to

Penthesilea, the Queen of the Amazons, who, aiding the Trojans

against the Greeks, was slain by Achilles. The battle-axe was the

usual weapon of the Amazons]

[Footnote 54: _Had armed him._--Ver. 614. Vulcan, the God of Fire,

made his armour at the request of his mother, Thetis; and now his

body was burned by fire.]

[Footnote 55: _Son of Oïleus._--Ver. 622. This was Ajax, the King

of the Locrians.]

[Footnote 56: _Descendant of Tantalus._--Ver. 626. Agamemnon was

the son of Atreus, grandson of Pelops, and great-grandson of

Tantalus. He wisely refused to take upon himself alone the onus of

deciding the contention between Ajax and Ulysses.]

EXPLANATION.

Periclymenus was the son of Neleus and Chloris, as we are told by

Homer, Apollodorus, and other authors. According to these authors,

Neleus, king of Orchomenus, was the son of Neptune, who assumed the

form of the river Enipeus, the more easily to deceive Tyro, the

daughter of Salmoneus. Neleus married Chloris, the daughter of

Amphion, king of Thebes, who bore him eleven sons and one daughter,

of which number, Homer names but three. Periclymenus, the youngest

of the family, was a warlike prince, and, according to Apollodorus,

accompanied Jason in the expedition of the Argonauts. Hercules,

after having instituted the Olympic games, marched into Messenia,

and declared war with Neleus. The ancient writers differ as to the

cause of this expedition; but they agree in stating, that Hercules

made himself master of Pylos, a town which Neleus had built, as a

refuge from the capricious humours of his brother Pelias; and that

Neleus and all his children were killed, except Nestor, who had been

brought up among the Geranians, and who afterwards reigned in Pylos.

The story which here relates how Periclymenus transformed himself

into an eagle, and was then killed by Hercules, may possibly mean,

that having long resisted the attacks of his formidable enemy, he

was at length put to flight, and slain by an arrow. It is said that

Neptune had given him the power to metamorphose himself into

different figures, very probably because his grandfather, who was a

maritime prince, had taught him the art of war and various

stratagems, which he industriously made use of, to avert the ruin of

his family.

In relation to the story of the death of Achilles, Dictys the Cretan

tells us, that Achilles having seen Polyxena, the daughter of Priam,

along with Cassandra, as she was sacrificing to Apollo, fell in love

with her, and demanded her in marriage and that Hector would not

consent to it, except on condition of his betraying the Greeks. This

demand, so injurious to his honour, provoked Achilles so much, that

he forthwith slew Hector, and dragged his body round the walls of

the city. He further says that when Priam went to demand the body of

Hector, he took Polyxena with him, in order to soften Achilles. His

design succeeded, and Priam then agreed to give her to him in

marriage. On the day appointed for the solemnity in the temple of

Apollo, Paris, concealing himself behind the altar, while Deiphobus

pretended to embrace Achilles, wounded him in the heel, and killed

him on the spot, either because the arrow was poisoned, or because

he was wounded on the great tendon, which has since been called

‘tendon Achillis,’ a spot where a wound might very easily be mortal.

This story of the death of Achilles does not seem to have been known

to Homer; for he appears, in the twenty-fourth book of the Odyssey,

to insinuate that that hero died in battle, fighting for the Grecian

cause.

After his death Achilles was honoured as a Demigod, and Strabo says

that he had a temple near the promontory of Sigæum. Pausanias and

Pliny the Elder make mention of an island in the Euxine Sea, where

the memory of Achilles was expressly honoured, from which

circumstances it had the name of Achillea.

BOOK THE THIRTEENTH.

FABLE I. [XIII.1-438]

After the death of Achilles, Ajax and Ulysses contend for his

armour; the Greek chiefs having adjudged it to the last, Ajax kills

himself in despair, and his blood is changed into a flower. When

Ulysses has brought Philoctetes, who is possessed of the arrows of

Hercules, to the siege, and the destinies of Troy are thereby

accomplished, the city is taken and sacked, and Hecuba becomes the

slave of Ulysses.

The chiefs were seated; and a ring of the common people standing

{around}, Ajax, the lord of the seven-fold shield, arose before them.

And as he was impatient in his wrath, with stern features he looked back

upon the Sigæan shores, and the fleet upon the shore, and, stretching

out his hands, he said, “We are pleading,[1] O Jupiter, our cause before

the ships, and Ulysses vies with me! But he did not hesitate to yield to

the flames of Hector, which I withstood, {and} which I drove from this

fleet. It is safer, therefore, for him to contend with artful words than

with his {right} hand. But neither does my talent lie in speaking, nor

his[2] in acting; and as great ability as I have in fierce warfare, so

much has he in talking. Nor do I think, O Pelasgians, that my deeds need

be related to you; for you have been eye-witnesses of them. Let Ulysses

recount his, which he has performed without any witness, {and} of which

night alone[3] is conscious. I own that the prize that is sought is

great; but the rival of Ajax lessens its value. It is no proud thing,

great though it may be, to possess any thing which Ulysses has hoped

for. Already has he obtained the reward of this contest, in which, when

he shall have been worsted, he will be said to have contended with me.

And I, if my prowess were to be questioned, should prevail by the

nobleness of my birth, being the son of Telamon, who took the city[4] of

Troy under the valiant Hercules, and entered the Colchian shores in the

Pagasæan ship. Æacus was his father, who there gives laws to the silent

{shades}, where the heavy stone urges {downward} Sisyphus,[5] the son of

Æolus.

“The supreme Jupiter owns Æacus, and confesses that he is his offspring.

Thus Ajax is the third[6] from Jupiter. And yet, O Greeks, let not this

line of descent avail me in this cause, if it be not common to me with

the great Achilles. He was my cousin;[7] I ask for what belonged to my

cousin? Why does one descended from the blood of Sisyphus, and very like

him in thefts and fraud, intrude the name of a strange family among the

descendants of Æacus? Are the arms to be denied me, because I took up

arms before {him}, and through the means of no informer?[8] and shall

one seem preferable who was the last to take them up, and who, by

feigning madness, declined war, until the son of Nauplius,[9] more

cunning than he, but more unhappy for himself, discovered the

contrivance[10] of his cowardly mind, and dragged him forth to the arms

which he had avoided. Now let him take the best arms who would have

taken none. Let me be dishonoured, and stripped of the gifts that

belonged to my cousin, who presented myself in the front of danger. And

I could wish that that madness had been either real or believed {so to

be}, and that he had never attended us as a companion to the Phrygian

towers, this counsellor of evil! Then, son of Pœas,[11] Lemnos would not

have had thee exposed {there} through our guilt; who now, as they say,

concealed in sylvan caves, art moving the {very} rocks with thy groans,

and art wishing for the son of Laërtes what he has deserved; which, may

the Gods, the Gods, {I say}, grant thee not to pray in vain.

“And now, he that was sworn upon the same arms with ourselves, one of

our leaders, alas! by whom, as his successor, the arrows of Hercules are

used, broken by disease and famine, is being clothed[12] and fed by

birds; and in shooting fowls, he is employing the shafts destined for

the destruction of Troy. Still, he lives, because he did not accompany

Ulysses. And the unhappy Palamedes would have preferred that he had been

left behind; {then} he would have been living, or, at least, he would

have had a death without any criminality. Him, {Ulysses} remembering too

well the unlucky discovery of his madness, pretended to be betraying the

Grecian interests, and proved his feigned charge, and shewed {the

Greeks} the gold, which he had previously hidden in the ground. By exile

then, or by death,[13] has he withdrawn from the Greeks their {best}

strength. Thus Ulysses fights, thus is he to be dreaded. Though he were

to excel even the faithful Nestor in eloquence, yet he would never cause

me to believe that the forsaking of Nestor[14] was not a crime; who,

when he implored {the aid of} Ulysses, retarded by the wound of his

steed, and wearied with the years of old age, was deserted by his

companion. The son of Tydeus knows full well that these charges are not

invented by me, who calling on him often by name, rebuked him, and

upbraided[15] his trembling friend with his flight. The Gods above

behold the affairs of men with just eyes. Lo! he wants help, himself,

who gave it not; and as he left {another}, so was he doomed to be left:

{such} law had he made for himself.

“He called aloud to his companions. I came, and I saw him trembling, and

pale with fear, and shuddering at the impending death. I opposed the

mass of my shield {to the enemy}, and covered him[16] as he lay; and I

preserved (and that is the least part of my praise) his dastardly life.

If thou dost persist in vying, let us return to that place; restore the

enemy, and thy wound, and thy wonted fear; and hide behind my shield,

and under that contend with me. But, after I delivered him, he to whom

his wounds {before} gave no strength for standing, fled, retarded by no

wound {whatever}. Hector approaches, and brings the Gods along with him

to battle, and where he rushes on, not only art thou alarmed, Ulysses,

but even the valiant {are}; so great terror does he bring. Him, as he

exulted in the successes of his bloodstained slaughter, in close

conflict, I laid flat with a huge stone. Him demanding one with whom he

might engage, did I alone withstand; and you, Greeks, prayed {it might

fall} to my lot;[17] and your prayers prevailed. If you inquire into the

issue of this fight, I was not beaten by him.

“Lo! the Trojans bring fire and sword, and Jove, {as well}, against the

Grecian fleet. Where is now the eloquent Ulysses? I, forsooth, protected

a thousand ships, the hopes of your return, with my breast. Grant me the

arms, in return for so many ships. But, if I may be allowed to speak the

truth, a greater honour is sought for them than is for me, and our glory

is united; and Ajax is sought for the arms, and not the arms by Ajax.

Let the Ithacan {Ulysses} compare with these things Rhesus,[18] and the

unwarlike Dolon,[19] and Helenus,[20] the son of Priam, made captive

with the ravished Pallas. By daylight nothing was done; nothing when

Diomedes was afar. If once you give these arms for services so mean,

divide them, and that of Diomedes would be the greater share of them.

But, why these for the Ithacan? who, by stealth and unarmed, ever does

his work, and deceives the unwary enemy by stratagem? The very

brilliancy of his helmet, as it sparkles with bright gold, will betray

his plans, and discover him as he lies hid. But neither will the

Dulichian[21] head, beneath the helm of Achilles, sustain a weight so

great; and the spear[22] from Pelion must be heavy and burdensome for

unwarlike arms. Nor will the shield, embossed with the form of the great

globe, beseem a dastard left hand, and one formed for theft. Why {then},

caitiff, dost thou ask for a gift that will {but} weaken thee? should

the mistake of the Grecian people bestow it on thee, there would be a

cause for thee to be stripped, not for thee to be dreaded by the enemy.

Thy flight, too, (in which, alone, most dastardly {wretch}! thou dost

excel all {others},) will be retarded, when dragging a load so great.

Besides, that shield of thine, which has so rarely experienced the

conflict, is unhurt; for mine, which is gaping in a thousand wounds from

bearing the darts, a new successor must be obtained. In fine, what need

is there for words? Let us be tried in action. Let the arms of that

brave hero be thrown in the midst of the enemy: order them to be fetched

thence, and adorn him that brings them back, with them so brought off.”

The son of Telamon had {now} ended, and a murmur among the multitude

ensued upon his closing words, until the Laërtian hero stood up, and

fixing his eyes, for a short time, on the ground, raised them towards

the chiefs, and opened his mouth in the accents that were looked for;

nor was gracefulness wanting to his eloquent words.

“If my prayers had been of any avail together with yours, Pelasgians,

the successor to a prize so great would not {now} be in question, and

thou wouldst now be enjoying thine arms, and we thee, O Achilles. But

since the unjust Fates have denied him to me and to yourselves, (and

here he wiped his eyes with his hands as though shedding tears,) who

could better succeed the great Achilles than he through whom[23] the

great Achilles joined the Greeks? Only let it not avail him that he

seems to be as stupid as he {really} is; and let not my talents, which

ever served you, O Greeks, be a prejudice to me: and let this eloquence

of mine, if there is any, which now pleads for its possessor, and has

often {done so} for yourselves, stand clear of envy, and let each man

not disown his own advantages. For {as to} descent and ancestors, and

the things which we have not made ourselves, I scarce call these our

own. But, indeed, since Ajax boasts that he is the great grandson of

Jove, Jupiter, too, is the founder of my family, and by just as many

degrees am I distant from him. For Laërtes is my father, Arcesius his,

Jupiter his; nor was any one of these {ever} condemned[24] and banished.

Through the mother,[25] too, Cyllenian {Mercury}, another noble stock,

is added to myself. On the side of either parent there was a God. But

neither because I am more nobly born on my mother’s side, nor because my

father is innocent of his brother’s blood, do I claim the arms {now} in

question. By {personal} merit weigh the cause. So that it be no merit in

Ajax that Telamon and Peleus were brothers; and {so that} not

consanguinity, but the honour of merit, be regarded in {the disposal of}

these spoils. Or if nearness of relationship and the next heir is

sought, Peleus is his sire, and Pyrrhus is his son. What room, {then},

is there for Ajax? Let them be taken to Phthia[26] or to Scyros. Nor is

Teucer[27] any less a cousin of Achilles than he; and yet does he sue

for, does he expect to bear away the arms?

“Since then the contest is simply one of deeds; I, in truth, have done

more than what it is easy for me to comprise in words. Yet I shall

proceed in the order of events. {Thetis}, the Nereid mother, prescient

of coming death, conceals her son by his dress. The disguise of the

assumed dress deceived all, among whom was Ajax. Amid woman’s trinkets I

mixed arms such as would affect the mind of a man. And not yet had the

hero thrown aside the dress of a maiden, when, as he was brandishing a

shield and a spear, I said, ‘O son of a Goddess, Pergamus reserves

itself to fall through thee. Why, {then}, dost thou delay to overthrow

the mighty Troy?’ And {then} I laid my hands on him, and to brave deeds

I sent forth the brave. His deeds then are my own. ’Twas I that subdued

Telephus, as he fought with his lance; ’twas I that recovered him,

vanquished, and begging {for his life}. That Thebes has fallen, is my

doing. Believe me, that I took Lesbos, that I {took} Tenedos, Chrysa[28]

and Cylla, cities of Apollo, and Scyros {too}. Consider too, that the

Lyrnessian[29] walls were levelled with the ground, shaken by my right

hand. And, not to mention other things, ’twas I, in fact, that found one

who might slay the fierce Hector; through me the renowned Hector lies

prostrate. By those arms through which Achilles was found out, I demand

these arms. To him when living I gave them; after his death I ask them

back again.

“After the grief of one[30] had reached all the Greeks, and a thousand

ships had filled the Eubœan Aulis, the breezes long expected were either

not existing or adverse to the fleet; and the ruthless oracles commanded

Agamemnon to slay his innocent daughter for the cruel Diana. This the

father refuses, and is enraged against the Gods themselves, and, a king,

he is still a father. By my words I swayed the gentle disposition of the

parent to the public advantage. Now, indeed, I make this confession, and

let the son of Atreus forgive me as I confess it; before a partial judge

I upheld a difficult cause. Yet the good of the people and his brother,

and the supreme power of the sceptre granted to him, influence him to

balance praise against blood. I was sent, too, to the mother, who was

not to be persuaded, but to be deceived with craft; to whom, if the son

of Telamon had gone, until even now would our sails have been without

wind. A bold envoy, too, I was sent to the towers of Ilium, and the

senate-house of lofty Troy was seen and entered by me; and still was it

filled with their heroes. Undaunted, I pleaded the cause which all

Greece had entrusted to me; and I accused Paris, and I demanded back the

plunder, and Helen {as well}; and I moved Priam and Antenor[31], related

to Priam. But Paris and his brothers, and those who, under him, had been

ravishers, scarce withheld their wicked hands; {and} this thou knowest,

Menelaüs, and that was the first day of my danger in company with thee.

It were a tedious matter to relate the things which, by my counsel and

my valour, I have successfully executed in the duration of this tedious

warfare.

“After the first encounter, the enemy for a long time kept themselves

within the walls of the city, and there was no opportunity for open

fight. At length, in the tenth year we fought. {And} what wast thou

doing in the mean time, thou, who knowest of nothing but battles? what

was the use of thee? But if thou inquirest into my actions: I lay

ambuscades for the enemy; I surround the trenches[32] with redoubts;

I cheer our allies that they may bear with patient minds the tediousness

of a protracted war; I show, {too}, how we are to be supported, and how

to be armed; I am sent[33] whither necessity requires. Lo! by the advice

of Jove, the king, deceived by a form in his sleep, commands him to

dismiss all care of the war {thus} begun. He is enabled, through the

author of it, to defend his own cause. Ajax should not have allowed

this, and should have demanded that Troy be razed. And he should have

fought, the {only} thing he could do. Why, does he not stop them when

about to depart? Why does he not take up arms, and {why not} suggest

some course for the fickle multitude to pursue? This was not too much

for him, who never says any thing but what is grand. Well, and didst

thou take to flight? I was witness of it, and ashamed I was to see, when

thou wast turning thy back, and wast preparing the sails of disgrace.

Without delay, I exclaimed, ‘What are you doing? What madness made you,

O my friends, quit Troy, {well nigh} taken? And what, in this tenth

year, are you carrying home but disgrace?’

“With these and other {words}, for which grief itself had made me

eloquent, I brought back the resisting {Greeks} from the flying fleet.

The son of Atreus calls together his allies, struck with terror; nor,

even yet, does the son of Telamon dare to utter a word; yet

Thersites[34] dares to launch out against the kings with impudent

remarks, although not unpunished by myself. I am aroused, and I incite

the trembling citizens against the foe, and by my voice I reclaim their

lost courage. From that time, whatever that man, whom I drew away as he

was turning his back, may seem to have done bravely, is {all} my own. In

fine, who of the Greeks is either praising thee, or resorts to thee; but

with me the son of Tydeus shares his exploits; he praises me, and is

ever confident while Ulysses is his companion. It is something, out of

so many thousands of the Greeks, to be singled out alone by Diomedes.

Nor was it lot that ordered me to go forth; and yet, despising the

dangers of the night and of the enemy, I slew Dolon, {one} of the

Phrygian race, who dared the same things that we {dared}; though not

before I had compelled him[35] to disclose everything, and had learned

what perfidious Troy designed. Everything had I {now} discovered, and I

had nothing {further} to find out, and I might now have returned, with

my praises going before me. Not content with that, I sought the tent of

Rhesus, and in his own camp slew himself and his attendants. And thus,

as a conqueror, and having gained my own desires, I returned in the

captured chariot, resembling a joyous triumph. Deny me the arms of him

whose horses the enemy had demanded as the price for {one} night’s

service; and let Ajax be {esteemed} your greater benefactor.

“Why should I make reference to the troops of Lycian Sarpedon,[36] mowed

down by my sword? With much bloodshed I slew Cœranos, the son of

Iphitus, and Alastor, and Chromius, and Alcander, and Halius, and

Noëmon, and Prytanis, and I put to death Thoön, with Chersidamas, and

Charops, and Ennomos, impelled by his relentless fate; five of less

renown fell by my hand beneath the city walls. I, too, fellow-citizens,

have wounds, honourable in their place.[37] Believe not {his} crafty

words; here! behold them.” And {then}, with his hand, he pulls aside his

garment, and, “this is the breast,” says he, “that has been ever

employed in your service.”

“But the son of Telamon has spent none of his blood on his friends for

so many years, and he has a body without a {single} wound.[38] But what

signifies that, if he says that he bore arms for the Pelasgian fleet

against both the Trojans and Jupiter himself? I confess it, he did bear

them; nor is it any part of mine with malice to detract from the good

deeds {of others;} but let him not alone lay claim to what belongs to

all, and let him give to yourselves, as well, some of the honour. The

descendant of Actor, safe under the appearance of Achilles, repelled the

Trojans, with their defender, from the ships on the point of being

burnt. He, too, unmindful of the king, and of the chiefs, and of myself,

fancies that he alone dared to engage[39] with Hector in combat, being

the ninth in that duty, and preferred by favour of the lot. But yet,

most brave {chief}, what was the issue of thy combat? Hector came off,

injured by no wound. Ah, wretched me! with how much grief am I compelled

to recollect that time at which Achilles, the bulwark of the Greeks, was

slain: nor tears, nor grief, nor fear, hindered me from carrying his

body aloft from the ground; on these shoulders, I say, on these

shoulders I bore the body of Achilles, and his arms together {with him},

which now, too, I am endeavouring to bear off. I have strength to

suffice for such a weight, {and}, assuredly, I have a soul that will be

sensible of your honours.

“Was then, forsooth! his azure mother {so} anxious in her son’s behalf

that the heavenly gifts, a work of so great ingenuity, a rough soldier,

and one without any genius, should put on? For he will not understand

the engravings on the shield; the ocean, and the earth, and the stars

with the lofty heavens and the Pleïades, and the Hyades, and the Bear

that avoids the sea, and the different cities, and the blazing sword of

Orion; arms he insists on receiving, which he does not understand. What!

and does he charge that I, avoiding the duties of this laborious war,

came but late to the toil begun? and does he not perceive that {in this}

he is defaming the brave Achilles? If he calls dissembling a crime, we

have both of us dissembled. If delay {stands} for a fault, I was earlier

than he. A fond wife detained me, a fond mother Achilles. The first part

of our time was given to them, the rest to yourselves. I am not alarmed,

if now I am unable to defend myself against this accusation, in common

with so great a man. Yet he was found out by the dexterity of Ulysses,

but not Ulysses {by that} of Ajax.

“And that we may not be surprised at his pouring out on me the

reproaches of his silly tongue, against you, too, does he make

objections worthy of shame. Is it base for me, with a false crime to

have charged Palamedes, {and} honourable for you to have condemned him?

But neither could {Palamedes}, the son of Nauplius, defend a crime so

great, and so manifest; nor did you {only} hear the charges against him,

{but} you witnessed them, and in the bribe {itself} the charge was

established. Nor have I deserved to be accused, because Lemnos, {the

isle} of Vulcan, {still} receives {Philoctetes}, the son of Pœas.

{Greeks}, defend your own acts! for you consented to it. Nor yet shall I

deny that I advised him to withdraw himself from the toils of the

warfare and the voyage, and to try by rest to assuage his cruel pains.

He consented, and {still} he lives. This advice was not only well-meant,

but {it was} fortunate as well, when ’twas enough to be well-meant.

Since our prophets demand him for the purpose of destroying Troy,

entrust not that to me. The son of Telamon will be better to go, and by

his eloquence will soften the hero, maddened by diseases and anger, or

by some wile will skilfully bring him thence. Sooner will Simoïs flow

backward, and Ida stand without foliage, and Achaia promise aid to Troy,

than, my breast being inactive in your interest, the skill of stupid

Ajax shall avail the Greeks.

“Though thou be, relentless Philoctetes, enraged against thy friends and

the king, and myself, though thou curse and devote my head,

everlastingly, and though thou wish to have me in thy anguish thrown in

thy way perchance, and to shed my blood; and though if I meet thee,

so thou wilt have the opportunity of meeting me, still will I attempt

{thee, and} will endeavour to bring thee back with me. And, if Fortune

favours me, I will as surely be the possessor of thy arrows, as I was

the possessor of the Dardanian prophet[40] whom I took {prisoner; and

so} I revealed the answers of the Deities and the fates of Troy; {and}

as I carried off the hidden statue[41] of the Phrygian Minerva from the

midst of the enemy. And does Ajax, {then}, compare himself with me? The

Fates, in fact, would not allow Troy to be captured without that

{statue}. Where is the valiant Ajax? where are the boastful words of

that mighty man? Why art thou trembling here? Why dares Ulysses to go

through the guards, and to entrust himself to the night, and, through

fell swords, to enter not only the walls of Troy, but even its highest

towers, and to tear the Goddess from her shrine, and, {thus} torn,

to bear her off amid the enemy?

“Had I not done these things, in vain would the son of Telamon been

bearing the seven hides of the bulls on his left arm. On that night was

the victory over Troy gained by me; then did I conquer Pergamus, when I

rendered it capable of being conquered. Forbear by thy looks,[42] and

thy muttering, to show me the son of Tydeus; a part of the glory in

these things is his own. Neither wast thou alone, when for the allied

fleet thou didst grasp thy shield: a multitude was attending thee,

{while} but one fell to me: who, did he not know that a fighting man is

of less value than a wise one, and that the reward is not the due of the

invincible right hand, would himself, too, have been suing for these

{arms}; the more discreet Ajax would have been suing, and the fierce

Eurypilus,[43] and the son of the famous Andremon;[44] no less, {too}

would Idomeneus,[45] and Meriones[46] sprung from the same land, and the

brother of the greater son of Atreus have sought them. But these, brave

in action, (nor are they second to thee in war,) have {all} yielded to

my wisdom. Thy right hand is of value in war, {but} thy temper is one

that stands in need of my direction. Thou hast strength without

intelligence; I have a care for the future. Thou art able to fight; with

me, the son of Atreus chooses the {proper} time for fighting. Thou only

art of service with thy body; I with my mind: and as much as he who

guides the bark, is superior to the capacity of the rower, as much as

the general is greater than the soldier, so much do I excel thee; and in

my body there is an intellect that is superior to hands: in that {lies}

all my vigour.

“But you, ye chieftains, give the reward to your watchful {servant;} and

for the cares of so many years which I have passed in anxiety, grant

this honour as a compensation for my services. Our toil is now at its

close; I have removed the opposing Fates, and by rendering it capable of

being taken, {in effect} I have taken the lofty Pergamus. Now, by our

common hopes, and the walls of the Trojans doomed to fall, and by those

Gods whom lately I took from the enemy, by anything that remains,

through wisdom to be done; if, too, anything {remains} of bold

enterprize, and to be recovered from a dangerous spot; if you think that

anything is still wanting for the downfall of Troy; {then} remember me;

or if you give not me the arms, concede them to this;” and {then} he

discovers the fatal statue of Minerva.

The body of the chiefs is moved, and {then}, in fact appears what

eloquence can do; and the fluent man receives the arms of a brave one.

He, who so often has alone withstood both Hector, and the sword, and

flames, and Jove {himself}, cannot {now} withstand his wrath alone, and

grief conquers the man that is invincible. He seizes his sword, and he

says:-- “This, at least, is my own; or will Ulysses claim this, too, for

himself. This must I use against myself; and {the blade}, which has

often been wet with the blood of the Phrygians, will now be wet with the

slaughter of its owner: that no one but Ajax {himself}, may be enabled

to conquer Ajax.”

{Thus} he said; and he plunged the fatal sword into his breast, then for

the first time suffering a wound, where it lay exposed to the steel. Nor

were his hands able to draw out the weapon there fixed: the blood itself

forced it out. And the earth, made red by the blood, produced a purple

flower from the green turf, {the same} which had formerly been produced

from the Œbalian wound. Letters common to {that} youth and to the hero,

were inscribed in the middle of the leaves; the latter {belonging to}

the name,[47] the former to the lamentation.

The conqueror, Ulysses, set sail for the country of Hypsipyle,[48] and

of the illustrious Thoas, and the regions infamous for the slaughter

{there} of the husbands of old; that he might bring back the arrows, the

weapons of the Tirynthian {hero}. After he had carried them back to the

Greeks, their owner attending too, the concluding hand was put, at

length, to this protracted war. Troy and Priam fell together; the

wretched wife of Priam lost after every thing {else} her human form, and

alarmed a foreign air[49] with her barkings. Where the long Hellespont

is reduced into a narrow compass, Ilion was in flames; nor had the

flames yet ceased; and the altar of Jove had drank up the scanty blood

of the aged Priam. The priestess of Apollo[50] dragged by the hair,

extends her unavailing hands towards the heavens. The victorious Greeks

drag along the Dardanian matrons, embracing, while they may, the statues

of their country’s Gods, and clinging to the burning temples, an envied

spoil. Astyanax[51] is hurled from those towers from which he was often

wont, when shown by his mother, to behold his father, fighting for

himself, and defending the kingdom of his ancestors.

And now Boreas bids them depart, and with a favourable breeze, the

sails, as they wave, resound, {and} the sailors bid them take advantage

of the winds. “Troy, farewell!” the Trojan women cry;-- “We are torn

away!” and they give kisses to the soil, and leave the smoking roofs of

their country. The last that goes on board the fleet, a dreadful sight,

is Hecuba, found amid the sepulchres of her children. Dulichian hands

have dragged her away, while clinging to their tombs and giving kisses

to their bones; yet the ashes of one has she taken out, and, {so} taken

out, has carried with her in her bosom the ashes of Hector. On the tomb

of Hector she leaves the grey hair of her head, an humble offering, her

hair and her tears. There is opposite to Phrygia, where Troy stood,

a land inhabited by the men of Bistonia. There, was the rich palace of

Polymnestor, to whom thy father, Polydorus, entrusted thee, to be

brought up privately, and removed thee {afar} from the Phrygian arms.

A wise resolution; had he not added, {as well}, great riches, the reward

of crime, the incentive of an avaricious disposition. When the fortunes

of the Phrygians were ruined, the wicked king of the Phrygians took a

sword, and plunged it in the throat of his fosterchild; and, as though

the crime could be removed with the body, he hurled him lifeless from a

rock into the waters below.

[Footnote 1: _We are pleading._--Ver. 5. The skill of the Poet is

perceptible in the abrupt commencement of the speech of the

impetuous Ajax.]

[Footnote 2: _Nor his._--Ver. 11. Ajax often uses the pronoun

‘iste’ as a term of reproach.]

[Footnote 3: _Night alone._--Ver. 15. By this he means that the

alleged exploits of Ulysses were altogether fictitious; or that

they were done in the dark to conceal his fear.]

[Footnote 4: _Took the city._--Ver. 23. Telamon, was the companion

of Hercules when he sacked Troy, as a punishment for the perfidy

of Laomedon.]

[Footnote 5: _Sisyphus._--Ver. 26. This is intended as a

reproachful hint against Ulysses, whose mother, Anticlea, was said

to have been seduced by Sisyphus before her marriage to Laërtes.]

[Footnote 6: _Ajax is the third._--Ver. 28. That is the third,

exclusive of Jupiter; for Ajax was the grandson of Æacus, and the

great grandson of Jupiter.]

[Footnote 7: _My cousin._--Ver. 31. ‘Frater’ here means, not

‘brother,’ but ‘cousin,’ as Peleus and Telamon, the fathers of

Achilles and Ajax, were brothers.]

[Footnote 8: _No informer._--Ver. 34. He alludes to the means

which Ulysses adopted to avoid going to the Trojan war. Pretending

to be seized with madness, he ploughed the sea-shore, and sowed it

with salt. To ascertain the truth, Palamedes placed his infant

son, Telemachus, before the plough; on which Ulysses turned on one

side, to avoid hurting the child, which was considered a proof

that his madness was not real.]

[Footnote 9: _Son of Nauplius._--Ver. 39. Palamedes was the son of

Nauplius, the king of Eubœa, and a son of Neptune.]

[Footnote 10: _The contrivance._--Ver. 38. Ulysses forged a letter

from Priam, in which the king thanked Palamedes for his intended

assistance to the Trojan cause, and begged to present him a sum of

money. By bribing the servants of Palamedes, he caused a large

quantity of gold to be buried in the ground, under his tent. He

then caused the letter to be intercepted, and to be carried to

Agamemnon. On the appearance of Palamedes to answer the charge,

Ulysses appeared seemingly as his friend, and suggested, that if

no gold should be found in his possession, he must be innocent.

The gold, however, being found, Palamedes was stoned to death.]

[Footnote 11: _Son of Pœas._--Ver. 45. Philoctetes was the

possessor of the arrows of Hercules, without the presence of which

Troy could not be taken. Accompanying the Greeks to the Trojan

war, he was wounded in the foot by one of the arrows; and the

smell arising from the wound was so offensive, that, by the advice

of Ulysses, he was left behind, in the island of Lemnos, one of

the Cyclades.]

[Footnote 12: _Is being clothed._--Ver. 53. The Poet Attius, as

quoted by Cicero, says that Philoctetes, while in Lemnos, made

himself clothing out of the feathers of birds.]

[Footnote 13: _Or by death._--Ver. 61. Exile in the case of

Philoctetes; death, in that of Palamedes.]

[Footnote 14: _Forsaking of Nestor._--Ver. 64. Nestor having been

wounded by Paris, and being overtaken by Hector, was on the point

of perishing, when Diomedes came to his rescue, Ulysses having

taken to flight. See the Iliad, Book iii.]

[Footnote 15: _And upbraided._--Ver. 69. He alludes to the words

in the Iliad, which Homer puts in the mouth of Diomedes.]

[Footnote 16: _And covered him._--Ver. 75. Ajax, at the request of

Menelaüs, protected Ulysses with his shield, when he was wounded.]

[Footnote 17: _Fall to my lot._--Ver. 85. He alludes to the

occasion when some of the bravest of the Greeks drew lots which

should accept the challenge of Hector: the Greeks wishing,

according to Homer, that the lot might fall to Ajax Telamon, Ajax

Oïleus, or Agamemnon.]

[Footnote 18: _Rhesus._--Ver. 98. He was slain by Ulysses and

Diomedes on the night on which he arrived, Iliad, Book x.]

[Footnote 19: _Dolon._--Ver. 98. Being sent out by Hector to spy,

he was intercepted by Ulysses and Diomedes, and slain at Troy.

Iliad, Book x.]

[Footnote 20: _Helenus._--Ver. 99. Being skilled in prophesy,

after he was taken prisoner by Diomedes and Ulysses, his life was

saved; and marrying Andromache, after the death of Pyrrhus, he

succeeded to the throne of part of the kingdom of Chaonia.]

[Footnote 21: _Dulichian._--Ver. 107. Dulichium was an island of

the Ionian Sea, near Ithaca, and part of the realms of Ulysses.]

[Footnote 22: _The spear._--Ver. 109. The spear of Achilles had

been cut from the wood on Mount Pelion, and given by the Centaur

Chiron to his father Peleus.]

[Footnote 23: _He through whom._--Ver. 134. Through whom Achilles

had been discovered, concealed among the daughters of Lycomedes,

king of Seyros.]

[Footnote 24: _Ever condemned._--Ver. 145. He alludes to the joint

crime of Peleus the uncle, and Telamon, the father of Ajax, who

were banished for the murder of their brother Phocus.]

[Footnote 25: _Through the mother._--Ver. 146. Anticlea, the

mother of Ulysses, was the daughter of Autolycus, of whom Mercury

was the father by Chione, the daughter of Dædalion.]

[Footnote 26: _Phthia._--Ver. 156. Phthia was the city of

Thessaly, where Peleus, the father of Achilles, was residing;

while Pyrrhus, his son, was living with his mother Deidamia,

in the isle of Scyros, one of the Cyclades.]

[Footnote 27: _Teucer._--Ver. 157. Teucer was the cousin of

Achilles, being the son of Telamon, and the half-brother of Ajax;

Hesione being the mother of Teucer, while Ajax was the son of

Eubœa.]

[Footnote 28: _Chrysa._--Ver. 174. Chrysa and Cylla were cities in

the vicinity of Troy. This Scyros was, probably, not the island of

that name, but some place near Troy.]

[Footnote 29: _Lyrnessian._--Ver. 176. This was a city of the

Troad, on the taking of which by Achilles, Hippodamia, or Briseïs,

the daughter of Bryses, was made captive by Achilles.]

[Footnote 30: _Grief of one._--Ver. 181. He alludes to the

misfortune of Menelaüs in losing his wife, if, indeed, it could be

deemed a misfortune.]

[Footnote 31: _Antenor._--Ver. 201. Antenor, who was related to

Priam, always advocated peace with the Greeks; for which reason,

according to Livy, the Greeks did not treat him as an enemy.]

[Footnote 32: _Surround the trenches._--Ver. 212. He probably

alludes to the trenches thrown up before the ships of the Greeks,

and defended by embankments, which were afterwards destroyed by

Neptune.]

[Footnote 33: _I am sent._--Ver. 215. As on the occasion when he

was sent to restore Chryseis to her father Chryses, the priest of

Apollo, that the pestilence might be stayed, which had been sent

by the offended God.]

[Footnote 34: _Thersites._--Ver. 233. He was the most deformed,

cowardly, and impudent of the Greeks, who, always abusing his

betters, was beaten by Ulysses, and was at last killed by Achilles

with a blow of his fist.]

[Footnote 35: _Compelled him._--Ver. 245. When he was taken

prisoner by them, Ulysses and Diomedes compelled Dolon to disclose

what was going on in the Trojan camp, and learned from him the

recent arrival of Rhesus, the son of either Mars or Strymon, and

the king of Thrace.]

[Footnote 36: _Sarpedon._--Ver. 255. He was the son of Jupiter and

Europa, and was king of Lycia. Aiding the Trojans, he was slain by

Patroclus.]

[Footnote 37: _In their place._--Ver. 263. That is, inflicted on

the breast, and not on the back.]

[Footnote 38: _A single wound._--Ver. 267. He alludes to his being

invulnerable, from having been wrapped in the lion’s skin of

Hercules.]

[Footnote 39: _Dared to engage._--Ver. 275. Hector and Ajax

Telamon meeting in single combat, neither was the conqueror; but

on parting they exchanged gifts, which were fatal to them both.

Hector was dragged round the walls of Troy by the belt which he

received from Ajax; while the latter committed suicide with the

sword which was given to him by Hector.]

[Footnote 40: _Dardanian prophet._--Ver. 335. Helenus, the son of

Priam.]

[Footnote 41: _The hidden statue._--Ver. 337. This was the

Palladium, or statue of Minerva, which was destined to be the

guardian of the safety of Troy, so long as it was in the

possession of the Trojans.]

[Footnote 42: _By thy looks._--Ver. 350. We are to suppose, that

here Ajax is nodding at, or pointing towards Diomedes, as having

helped Ulysses on all the occasions which he names, he having been

his constant companion in his exploits.]

[Footnote 43: _Eurypilus._--Ver. 357. He was the son of Evæmon,

and came with forty ships to aid the Greeks. He was from Ormenius,

a city of Thessaly.]

[Footnote 44: _Andremon._--Ver. 357. Thoas, the son of Andremon,

was the leader of the Ætolians; he came with forty ships to the

Trojan war.]

[Footnote 45: _Idomeneus._--Ver. 358. He was the son of Deucalion,

king of Crete. After the siege of Troy, he settled at Salentinum,

a promontory of Calabria, in Italy.]

[Footnote 46: _Meriones._--Ver. 359. He was the nephew and

charioteer of Idomeneus.]

[Footnote 47: _To the name._--Ver. 398. See note to Book x., line

207.]

[Footnote 48: _Country of Hypsipyle._--Ver. 399. The island of

Lemnos is here called the country of Hypsipyle, who saved the life

of her father Thoas, when the other women of the island slew the

males.]

[Footnote 49: _A foreign air._--Ver. 406. Namely, Thrace, which

was far away from her native country.]

[Footnote 50: _Priestess of Apollo._--Ver. 410. Cassandra was the

priestess of Apollo. Being ravished by Ajax Oïleus, she became the

captive of Agamemnon, and was slain by Clytemnestra.]

[Footnote 51: _Astyanax._--Ver. 415. He was the only child of

Hector and Andromache. Ulysses threw him from the top of a high

tower, that none of the royal blood might survive.]

EXPLANATION.

It may with justice be said, that in the speeches of Ajax Telamon,

and Ulysses, here given, the Poet has presented us with a

masterpiece of genius; both in the lively colours in which he has

described the two rivals, and the ingenious manner in which he has

throughout sustained the contrast between their respective

characters.

The ancient writers are not agreed upon the question, who was the

mother of Ajax Telamon; Dares says that it was Hesione; while

Apollodorus, Plutarch, Tzetzes and others, allege that it was

Peribœa, the daughter of Alcathoüs, the son of Pelops. Pindar and

Apollodorus say, that Hercules, on going to visit his friend

Telamon, prayed to Jupiter that Telamon might have a son, whose skin

should be as impenetrable as that of the Nemæan lion, which he then

wore. As he prayed, he espied an eagle; upon which, he informed his

friend that a favourable event awaited his prayer, and desired him

to call his son after the name of an eagle, which in the Greek is

αἰετὸς. The Scholiast on Sophocles, Suidas and Tzetzes, say further,

that when Hercules returned to see Telamon, after the birth of Ajax,

he covered him with the lion’s skin, and that by this means Ajax

became invulnerable except in that spot of his body, which was

beneath the hole which the arrow of Hercules had made in the skin of

the beast.

Dictys, Suidas, and Cedrenus affirm, that the dispute of Ulysses and

Ajax Telamon was about the Palladium, to which each of them laid

claim. They add, that the Grecian nobles, having adjudged it to

Ulysses, Ajax threatened to slay them, and was found dead in his

tent the next morning; but it is more generally stated to the effect

here related by Ovid, that he killed himself, because he could not

obtain the armour of Achilles. Filled with grief and anger combined,

he became distracted; and after falling on some flocks, which in his

madness he took for enemies, he at last stabbed himself with the

sword which he had received from Hector. This account has been

followed by Euripides, in his tragedy on the subject of the death of

Ajax; and Homer seems to allude to this story, when he makes Ulysses

say, that on his descent to the Infernal Regions, the shades of all

the Grecian heroes immediately met him, except that of Ajax, whose

resentment at their former dispute about the armour of Achilles was

still so warm, that he would not come near him. The Scholiast on

Homer, and Eustathius, say that Agamemnon being much embarrassed how

to behave in a dispute which might have proved fatal to the Grecian

cause, ordered the Trojan prisoners to come before the council to

give their opinion, as to which of them had done the most mischief;

and that they answered in favour of Ulysses. The Scholiast on

Aristophanes also adds, that Agamemnon, not satisfied with this

enquiry, sent out spies to know what was the opinion of the Trojans

on the relative merits of Ulysses and Ajax; and that upon their

report, he decided in favour of Ulysses.

According to Pliny and Pausanias, Ajax was buried near the

promontory of Sigæum, where a tomb was erected for him; though other

writers, on the authority of Dictys, place his tomb on the

promontory of Rhœtæum. Horace speaks of him as being denied the

honour of a funeral; but he evidently alludes to a passage in the

tragedy of Sophocles, where the poet introduces Agamemnon as

obstinately refusing to allow him burial, till he is softened by the

entreaties of Teucer.

It is probable that Homer knew nothing of the story here mentioned

relative to the concealment of Achilles, disguised in female

apparel, by Thetis, in the court of Lycomedes, her brother; for

speaking of the manner in which Achilles engaged in the war, he says

that Nestor and Ulysses went to visit Peleus and Menœtius, and

easily prevailed with them that Achilles and Patroclus should

accompany them to the war. It was, however, at the court of

Lycomedes that Achilles fell in love with and married Deidamia, by

whom he had Pyrrhus, or Neoptolemus, who was present at the taking

of Troy, at a very early age.

The story of Polydorus is related in the third Book of the Æneid,

and is also told by Hyginus, with some variations. He says that

Polydorus was sent by Priam to Polymnestor, king of Thrace, while he

was yet in his cradle; and that Ilione, the daughter of Priam,

distrusting the cruelty and avarice of Polymnestor, who was her

husband, educated the child as her own son, and made their own son

Deiphylus pass for Polydorus, the two infants being of the same age.

He also says that the Greeks, after the taking of Troy, offered

Electra to Polymnestor in marriage, on condition that he should

divorce Ilione, and slay Polydorus, and that Polymnestor, having

acceded to their proposal, unconsciously killed his own son

Deiphylus. Polydorus going to consult the oracle concerning his

future fortune, was told, that his father was dead, and his native

city reduced to ashes; on which he imagined that the oracle had

deceived him; but returning to Thrace, his sister informed him of

the secret, on which he deprived Polymnestor of his sight.

FABLES III. AND IV. [XIII.439-622]

In returning from Troy, the Greeks are stopped in Thrace by the

shade of Achilles, who requests that Polyxena shall be sacrificed to

his manes. While Hecuba is fetching water with which to bathe the

body of her daughter, she espies the corpse of her son Polydorus.

In her exasperations she repairs to the court of Polymnestor; and

having torn out his eyes, is transformed into a bitch. Memnon, who

has been slain by Achilles, is honoured with a magnificent funeral,

and, at the prayer of Aurora, his ashes are transformed by Jupiter

into birds, since called Memnonides.

On the Thracian shore the son of Atreus had moored his fleet, until the

sea was calm, {and} until the wind was more propitious. Here, on a

sudden, Achilles, as great as he was wont to be when alive, rises from

the ground, bursting far and wide, and, like to one threatening, revives

the countenance of that time when he fiercely attacked Agamemnon with

his lawless sword. “And are you departing, unmindful of me, ye Greeks?”

he says; “and is all grateful remembrance of my valour buried together

with me? Do not so. And that my sepulchre may not be without honour, let

Polyxena slain appease the ghost of Achilles.” {Thus} he said; and his

companions obeying the implacable shade, the noble and unfortunate maid,

and more than {an ordinary} woman, torn from the bosom of her mother,

which she now cherished almost alone, was led to the tomb, and became a

sacrifice at his ruthless pile.

She, mindful of herself, after she was brought to the cruel altar, and

had perceived that the savage rites were preparing for her; and when she

saw Neoptolemus standing {by}, and wielding his sword, and fixing his

eyes upon her countenance, said-- “Quickly make use of this noble blood:

{in me} there is no resistance: and do thou bury thy weapons either in

my throat or in my breast!” and, at the same time she laid bare her

throat and her breast; “should I, Polyxena, forsooth,[52] either endure

to be the slave of any person, or will any sacred Deity be appeased by

such a sacrifice. I only wish that my death could be concealed from my

mother. My mother is the impediment; and she lessens my joys at death.

Yet it is not my death, but her own life, that should be lamented by

her. Only, stand ye off, lest I should go to the Stygian shades not a

free woman: if {in this} I demand what is just; and withhold the hands

of males from the contact of a virgin. My blood will be the more

acceptable to him, whoever it is that you are preparing to appease by my

slaughter. Yet, if the last prayers of my lips move any of you,--’tis

the daughter of king Priam, {and} not a captive that entreats--return my

body unconsumed to my mother, and let her not purchase for me with gold,

but with tears, the sad privilege of a sepulchre. When {in former times}

she could, then used she to purchase with gold.”

{Thus} she said; but the people did not restrain those tears which she

restrained. Even the priest himself, weeping and reluctant, divided her

presented breast with the piercing steel. She, sinking to the earth on

her failing knees, maintained an undaunted countenance to the last

moment of her life. Even then was it her care, when she fell, to cover

the features that ought to be concealed, and to preserve the honour of

her chaste modesty. The Trojan matrons received her, and reckoned the

children of Priam whom they had had to deplore; and how much blood one

house had expended. And they lament thee, Oh virgin! and thee, Oh thou!

so lately called a royal wife {and} a royal mother, {once} the

resemblance of flourishing Asia, but now a worthless prey amid the

plunder {of Troy}; which the conquering Ulysses would have declined as

his, but that thou hadst brought Hector forth. {And} scarce did Hector

find an owner for his mother. She, embracing the body bereft of a soul

so brave, gave to that as well, those tears which so oft she had given

for her country, her children, and her husband; {and} her tears she

poured in his wounds. And she impressed kisses with her lips, and beat

her breast {now} accustomed to it; and trailing her grey hairs in the

clotted blood, many things indeed did she say, but these as well, as she

tore her breast:

“My daughter, the last affliction (for what now remains?) to thy mother:

my daughter, thou liest prostrate, and I behold thy wound {as} my own

wounds. Lo! lest I should have lost any one of my children without

bloodshed, thou, too, dost receive thy wound. Still, because {thou wast}

a woman, I supposed thee safe from the sword; and {yet}, a woman, thou

hast fallen by the sword. The same Achilles, the ruin of Troy, and the

bereaver of myself, the same has destroyed thus many of thy brothers,

{and} thyself. But, after he had fallen by the arrows of Paris and of

Phœbus, ‘Now, at least,’ I said, ‘Achilles is no {longer} to be

dreaded;’ and yet even now, was he to be dreaded by me. The very ashes

of him, as he lies buried, rage against this family; and {even} in the

tomb have we found him an enemy. For the descendant of Æacus have I been

{thus} prolific. Great Ilion lies prostrate, and the public calamity is

completed by a dreadful catastrophe; if indeed, it is completed.

Pergamus alone remains for me: and my sorrow is still in its career. So

lately the greatest woman in the world, powerful in so many sons-in-law,

and children[53], and daughters-in-law, and in my husband, now I am

dragged into exile, destitute, {and} torn away from the tombs of my

kindred, as a present to Penelope. She, pointing me out to the matrons

of Ithaca, as I tease my allotted task, will say, ‘This is that famous

mother of Hector; this is the wife of Priam.’ And, now thou, who after

the loss of so many {children}, alone didst alleviate the sorrows of thy

mother, hast made the atonement at the tomb of the enemy. Atoning

sacrifices for an enemy have I brought forth. For what purpose, lasting

like iron, am I reserved? and why do I linger {here}? To what end dost

thou, pernicious age, detain me? Why, ye cruel Deities, unless to the

end that I may see fresh deaths, do ye reprieve an aged woman of years

so prolonged? Who could have supposed, that after the fall of Troy,

Priam could have been pronounced happy? Blessed in his death, he has not

beheld thee, my daughter, {thus} cut off; and at the same moment, he

lost his life and his kingdom.

“But, I suppose, thou, a maiden of royal birth, wilt be honoured with

funeral rites, and thy body will be deposited in the tombs of thy

ancestors. This is not the fortune of thy house; tears and a handful of

foreign sand will be thy lot, the {only} gifts of a mother. We have lost

all; a child most dear to his mother, now alone remains as a reason for

me to endure to live yet for a short time, once the youngest of {all} my

male issue, Polydorus, entrusted on these coasts to the Ismarian king.

Why, in the mean time, am I delaying to bathe her cruel wounds with the

stream, her features, too, besmeared with dreadful blood?”

{Thus} she spoke; and with aged step she proceeded towards the shore,

tearing her grey locks. “Give me an urn, ye Trojan women,” the unhappy

{mother} had just said, in order that she might take up the flowing

waters, {when} she beheld[54] the body of Polydorus thrown up on the

shore, and the great wounds made by the Thracian weapons. The Trojan

women cried out aloud; with grief she was struck dumb; and very grief

consumed both her voice and the tears that arose within; and much

resembling a hard rock she became benumbed. And at one moment she fixed

her eyes on the ground before her; {and} sometimes she raised her

haggard features towards the skies; {and} now she viewed the features,

now the wounds of her son, as he lay; the wounds especially; and she

armed and prepared herself for vengeance by rage. Soon as she was

inflamed by it, as though she {still} remained a queen, she determined

to be revenged, and was wholly {employed} in {devising} a {fitting} form

of punishment. And as the lioness rages when bereft of her sucking

whelp, and having found the tracks of his feet, follows the enemy that

she sees not; so Hecuba, after she had mingled rage with mourning, not

forgetful of her spirit, {but} forgetful of her years, went to

Polymnestor, the contriver of this dreadful murder, and demanded an

interview; for that it was her wish to show him a concealed treasure

left for him to give to her son.

The Odrysian {king} believes her, and, inured to the love of gain, comes

to a secret spot. Then with soothing lips, he craftily says, “Away with

delays, Hecuba, {and} give the present to thy son; all that thou givest,

and what thou hast already given, I swear by the Gods above, shall be

his.” Sternly she eyes him as he speaks, and falsely swears; and she

boils with heaving rage; and so flies on him, seized by a throng of the

captive matrons, and thrusts her fingers into his perfidious eyes; and

of their sight she despoils his cheeks, and plunges her hands {into the

sockets}, (’tis rage that makes her strong); and, defiled with his

guilty blood, she tears not his eyes, for they are not left, {but} the

places for his eyes.

Provoked by the death of their king, the Thracian people begin to attack

the Trojan {matron} with the hurling of darts and of stones. But she

attacks the stones thrown at her with a hoarse noise, and with bites;

and attempting to speak, her mouth just ready for the words, she barks

aloud. The place {still} exists, and derives its name[55] from the

circumstance; and long remembering her ancient misfortunes, even then

did she howl dismally through the Sithonian plains. Her {sad} fortune

moved both her own Trojans, and her Pelasgian foes, and all the Gods as

well; so much so, that even the wife and sister of Jove herself denied

that Hecuba had deserved that fate.

Although she has favoured those same arms, there is not leisure for

Aurora to be moved by the calamities and the fall of Troy. A nearer care

and grief at home for her lost Memnon is afflicting her. Him his

rosy-coloured mother saw perish by the spear of Achilles on the Phrygian

plains. {This} she saw; and that colour with which the hours of the

morning grow ruddy, turned pale, and the æther lay hid in clouds. But

the parent could not endure to behold his limbs laid on the closing

flames. But with loose hair, just as she was, she disdained not to fall

down at the knees of great Jove, and to add these words to her tears:

“Inferior to all {the Goddesses} which the golden æther does sustain,

(for throughout all the world are my temples the fewest), still,

a Goddess, I am come; not that thou shouldst grant me temples and days

of sacrifice, and altars to be heated with fires. But if thou

considerest how much I, a female, perform for thee, at the time when,

with the early dawn, I keep the confines of the night, thou wouldst

think that some reward ought to be given to me. But that is not my care,

nor is such now the condition of Aurora such that she should demand the

honours deserved by her. Bereft of my Memnon am I come; {of him} who,

in vain, wielded valiant arms for his uncle, and who in his early years

(’twas thus ye willed it,) was slain by the brave Achilles. Give him,

I pray, supreme ruler of the Gods, some honour, as a solace for his

death, and ease the wounds of a mother.”

Jove nods his assent; when {suddenly} the lofty pile of Memnon sinks

with its towering fires, and volumes of black smoke darken the {light

of} day. Just as when the rivers exhale the rising fogs, and the sun is

not admitted below them. The black embers fly, and rolling into one

body, they thicken, and take a form, and assume heat and life from the

flames. Their own lightness gives them wings; and first, like birds,

{and} then real birds, they flutter with their wings. At once

innumerable sisters are fluttering, whose natal origin is the same. And

thrice do they go around the pile, and thrice does their clamour rise in

concert into the air. In the fourth flight they separate their company.

Then two fierce tribes wage war from opposite sides, and with their

beaks and crooked claws expend their rage, and weary their wings and

opposing breasts; and down their kindred bodies fall, a sacrifice to the

entombed ashes, and they remember that from a great man they have

received their birth. Their progenitor gives a name to these birds so

suddenly formed, called Memnonides after him; when the Sun has run

through the twelve signs {of the Zodiac}, they fight, doomed to perish

in battle, in honour of their parent.[56]

To others, therefore, it seemed a sad thing, that the daughter of Dymas

was {now} barking; {but} Aurora was intent on her own sorrows; and even

now she sheds the tears of affection, and sprinkles them in dew over all

the world.

[Footnote 52: _Forsooth._--460. Clarke translates ‘scilicet,’

‘I warrant ye.’]

[Footnote 53: _And children._--Ver. 509. Hyginus names fifty-four

children of Priam, of whom seventeen were by Hecuba.]

[Footnote 54: _She beheld._--Ver. 536. Euripides represents, in

his tragedy of Hecuba, that a female servant, sent by Hecuba to

bring water from the sea shore for the purpose of washing the body

of Polyxena, was the first to see the corpse of Polydorus.]

[Footnote 55: _Derives its name._--Ver. 569. Strabo places it near

Sestos, in the Thracian Chersonesus, and calls it κυνὸς σῆμα, ‘The

bitches’ tomb.’]

[Footnote 56: _Of their parent._--Ver. 619. He perhaps alludes to

the fights of the Gladiators, on the occasion of the funerals of

the Roman patricians. ‘Parentali perituræ Marte,’ is rendered by

Clarke, ‘to fall in the fight of parentation.’]

EXPLANATION.

The particulars which Ovid here gives of the misfortunes that befell

the family of Priam, with the exception of a few circumstances,

agree perfectly with the narratives of the ancient historians.

According to Dictys, Philostratus, and Hyginus, after Achilles was

slain by the treachery of Paris, on the eve of his marriage with

Polyxena, she became inconsolable at his death, and returning to the

Grecian camp, she was kindly received by Agamemnon; but being unable

to get the better of her despair, she stole out of the camp at

night, and stabbed herself at the tomb of Achilles. Philostratus

adds, that the ghost of Achilles appeared to Apollonius Tyanæus, the

hero of his story, and gave him permission to ask him any questions

he pleased, assuring him, that he would give him full information on

the subject of them. Among other things, Apollonius desired to know

if it was the truth that the Greeks had sacrificed Polyxena on his

tomb; to which the ghost replied, that her grief made her take the

resolution not to survive her intended husband, and that she had

killed herself.

Other writers, agreeing with Ovid as to the manner of her death,

tell us that it was Pyrrhus who sacrificed Polyxena to his father’s

shade, to revenge his death, of which, though innocently, she had

been the cause. Pausanias, who says that this was the general

opinion, avers, on what ground it is difficult to conceive, that

Homer designedly omitted this fact, because it was so dishonourable

to the Greeks; and in his description of the paintings at Delphi,

by Polygnotus, of the destruction of Troy, he says that Polyxena was

there represented as being led out to the tomb of Achilles, where

she was sacrificed by the Greeks. He also says, that he had seen her

story painted in the same manner at Pergamus, Athens, and other

places. Many of the poets, and Virgil in the number, affirm that

Polyxena was sacrificed in Phrygia, near Troy, on the tomb of

Achilles, he having desired it at his death; while Euripides says

that it was in the Thracian Chersonesus, on a cenotaph, which was

erected there in honour of Achilles: and that his ghost appearing,

Calchas was consulted, who answered, that it was necessary to

sacrifice Polyxena, which was accordingly done by Pyrrhus.

The ancient writers are divided as to the descent of Hecuba. Homer,

who has been followed by his Scholiast, and by Ovid and Suidas, says

that she was the daughter of Dymas, King of Phrygia. Euripides says

that she was the daughter of Cisscus, and with him Virgil and

Servius agree. Apollodorus, again, makes her to be descended from

Sangar and Merope. In the distribution of spoil after the siege of

Troy, Hecuba fell to the share of Ulysses, and became his slave; but

died soon after, in Thrace. Plautus and Servius allege that the

Greeks themselves circulated the story of her transformation into a

bitch, because she was perpetually railing at them, to provoke them

to put her to death, rather than condemn her to pass her life as a

slave. According to Strabo and Pomponius Mela, in their time, the

place of her burial was still to be seen in Thrace. Euripides, in

his Hecuba, has not followed this tradition, but represents her as

complaining that the Greeks had chained her to the door of Agamemnon

like a dog. Perhaps she became the slave of Agamemnon after Ulysses

had left the army, on his return to Ithaca; and it is possible that

the story of her transformation may have been solely founded on this

tradition. She bore to Priam ten sons and seven daughters, and

survived them all except Helenus; most of her sons having fallen by

the hand of Achilles.

Many ancient writers, with whom Ovid here agrees, affirm that Memnon

was the son of Tithonus, the brother of Priam, and Aurora, or Eos,

the Goddess of the morn. They also say that he came to assist the

Trojans with ten thousand Persians, and as many Æthiopians. Diodorus

Siculus asserts that Memnon was said to have been the son of Aurora,

because he left Phrygia, and went to settle in the East. It is not

clear in what country he fixed his residence. Some say that it was

at Susa, in Persia; others that it was in Egypt, or in Æthiopia,

which perhaps amounts to the same, as Æthiopia was not in general

distinguished from the Higher or Upper Egypt. Marsham is of opinion

that Memnon was the same with Amenophis, one of the kings of Egypt:

while Le Clerc considers him to have been the same person as Ham,

the son of Noah; and Vossius identifies him with Boalcis, a God of

the Syrians. It seems probable that he was an Egyptian, who had

perhaps formed an alliance with the reigning family of Troy.

FABLES V. AND VI. [XIII.623-718]

After the taking of Troy, Æneas escapes with his father and his son,

and goes to Delos. Anius, the priest of Apollo, recounts to him how

his daughters have been transformed into doves, and at parting they

exchange presents. The Poet here introduces the story of the

daughters of Orion, who, having sacrificed their lives for the

safety of Thebes, when ravaged by a plague, two young men arise out

of their ashes.

But yet the Fates do not allow the hope of Troy to be ruined even with

its walls. The Cytherean hero bears on his shoulders the sacred relics

and his father, another sacred relic, a venerable burden. In his

affection, out of wealth so great, he selects that prize, and his own

Ascanius, and with his flying fleet is borne through the seas from

Antandros,[57] and leaves the accursed thresholds of the Thracians, and

the earth streaming with the blood of Polydorus; and, with good winds

and favouring tide, he enters the city of Apollo, his companions

attending him.

Anius, by whom, as king, men were, {and} by whom, as priest, Phœbus was

duly provided for, received him both into his temple and his house, and

showed him the city and the dedicated temples, and the two trunks of

trees once grasped[58] by Latona in her labour. Frankincense being given

to the flames, and wine poured forth on the frankincense, and the

entrails of slain oxen[59] being duly burnt, they repair to the royal

palace, and reclining on lofty couches, with flowing wine, they take the

gifts of Ceres. Then the pious Anchises {says}, “O chosen priest of

Phœbus, am I deceived? or didst thou not have a son, also, when first I

beheld these walls, and twice two daughters, so far as I remember?” To

him Anius replies, shaking his temples wreathed with snow-white fillets,

and says, “Thou art not mistaken, greatest hero; thou didst see me the

parent of five children, whom now (so great a vicissitude of fortune

affects mankind) thou seest almost bereft {of all}. For what assistance

is my absent son to me, whom Andros, a land {so} called after his name,

possesses, holding that place and kingdom on behalf of his father?

“The Delian {God} granted him {the art of} augury; to my female progeny

Liber gave other gifts, exceeding {both} wishes and belief. For, at the

touch of my daughters, all things were transformed into corn, and the

stream of wine, and the berry of Minerva; and in these were there rich

advantages. When the son of Atreus, the destroyer of Troy, learned this

(that thou mayst not suppose that we, too, did not in some degree feel

your storms) using the force of arms, he dragged them reluctantly from

the bosom of their father, and commanded them to feed, with their

heavenly gifts, the Argive fleet. Whither each of them could, they made

their escape. Eubœa was sought by two; and by as many of my daughters,

was Andros, their brother’s {island}, sought. The forces came, and

threatened war if they were not given up. Natural affection, subdued by

fear, surrendered to punishment those kindred breasts; and, that thou

mayst be able to forgive a timid brother, there was no Æneas, no Hector

to defend Andros, through whom you {Trojans} held out to the tenth year.

And now chains were being provided for their captive arms. Lifting up

towards heaven their arms still free, they said, ‘Father Bacchus, give

us thy aid!’ and the author of their gift did give them aid; if

destroying them, in a wondrous manner, be called giving aid. By what

means they lost their shape, neither could I learn, nor can I now tell.

The sum of their calamity is known {to me}: they assumed wings, and were

changed into birds of thy consort,[60] the snow-white doves.”

With such and other discourse, after they have passed the {time of}

feasting, the table being removed, they seek sleep. And they rise with

the day, and repair to the oracle of Phœbus, who bids them seek the

ancient mother and the kindred shores. The king attends, and presents

them with gifts when about to depart; a sceptre to Anchises, a scarf and

a quiver to his grandson, {and} a goblet to Æneas, which formerly

Therses, his Ismenian guest, had sent him from the Aonian shores; this

Therses had sent to him, {but} the Mylean Alcon had made it, and had

carved it with this long device:

There was a city, and you might point out {its} seven gates: these were

in place of[61] a name, and showed what {city} it was. Before the city

was a funeral, and tombs, and fires, and funeral piles; and matrons,

with hair dishevelled and naked breasts, expressed their grief; the

Nymphs, too, seem to be weeping, and to mourn their springs dried up.

Without foliage the bared tree runs straight up; the goats are gnawing

the dried stones. Lo! he represents the daughters of Orion in the middle

of Thebes; the one, as presenting her breast, more than woman’s, with

her bared throat; the other, thrusting a sword in her valorous wounds,

as dying for her people, and as being borne, with an honoured funeral,

through the city, and as being burnt in a conspicuous part {of it};

{and} then from the virgin embers, lest the race should fail, twin

youths arising, whom Fame calls ‘Coronæ,’[62] and for their mothers’

ashes leading the {funeral} procession.

Thus far for the figures that shine on the ancient brass; the summit of

the goblet is rough with gilded acanthus. Nor do the Trojans return

gifts of less value than those given; and to the priest they give an

incense-box, to keep the frankincense; they give a bowl, {too}, and a

crown, brilliant with gold and gems. Then recollecting that the

{Trojans}, {as} Teucrians, derived their origin from the blood of

Teucer, they make for Crete, and cannot long endure the air of that

place;[63] and, having left behind the hundred cities, they desire to

reach the Ausonian harbours. A storm rages, and tosses the men to and

fro; and winged Aëllo frightens them, when received in the unsafe

harbours of the Strophades.[64] And now, borne along, they have passed

the Dulichian harbours, and Ithaca, and Same,[65] and the Neritian

abodes, the kingdom of the deceitful Ulysses; and they behold

Ambracia,[66] contended for in a dispute of the Deities, which now is

renowned for the Actian Apollo,[67] and the stone in the shape of the

transformed judge, and the land of Dodona, vocal with its oaks; and the

Chaonian bays, where the sons of the Molossian king escaped the

unavailing flames, with wings attached {to them}.

[Footnote 57: _Antandros._--Ver. 628. This was a city of Phrygia,

at the foot of Mount Ida, where the fleet of Æneas was built.]

[Footnote 58: _Trees once grasped._--Ver. 635. These were a palm

and an olive tree, which were pointed out by the people of Delos,

as having been held by Latona, when in the pangs of labour.]

[Footnote 59: _Of slain oxen._--Ver. 637. This, however, was

contrary to the usual practice; for if we credit Macrobius, no

victim was slain on the altars of Apollo, in the island of Delos.]

[Footnote 60: _Of thy consort._--Ver. 673. It must be remembered,

that he is addressing Anchises, who was said to have enjoyed the

favour of Venus; to which Goddess the dove was consecrated.]

[Footnote 61: _In place of._--Ver. 686. For the seven gates, would

at once lead to the conclusion that it represented the city of

Thebes, in Bœotia. Myla, before referred to, was a town of

Sicily.]

[Footnote 62: _Calls ‘Coronæ’._--Ver. 698. The word ‘Coronas’ is

here employed as the plural of a female name ‘Corona;’ in Greek

Κώρωνις.]

[Footnote 63: _Of that place._--Ver. 707. Æneas and his followers

founded in Crete the city of Pergamea; but the pestilence which

raged there, and a continued drought, combined with the density of

the atmosphere, obliged them to leave the island.]

[Footnote 64: _The Strophades._--Ver. 709. These were two islands

in the Ionian Sea, on the western side of Peloponnesus. They

received their name from the Greek work στροφὴ, ‘a return,’

because Calais and Zethes pursued the Harpies, which persecuted

Phineus so far, and then returned home by the command of Jupiter.]

[Footnote 65: _Same._--Ver. 711. This island was also called

Cephalenia. It was in the Ionian Sea, and formed part of the

kingdom of Ulysses.]

[Footnote 66: _Ambracia._--Ver. 714. This was a famous city of

Epirus, which gave its name to the gulf of Ambracia.]

[Footnote 67: _Actian Apollo._--Ver. 715. Augustus built a temple

to Apollo, at Actium, in Epirus, near which he had defeated the

fleet of Antony and Cleopatra. He also instituted games, to be

celebrated there every fifth year in honour of his victory.]

EXPLANATION.

Virgil describes Anius as the king of Delos, and the priest of

Apollo at the same time. ‘Rex Anius, rex idem hominum Phœbique

sacerdos.’ Æneid, Book III. He was descended from Cadmus, through

his mother Rhea, the daughter of Staphilus. Having engaged in some

intrigue, as Diodorus Siculus conjectures, her father exposed her on

the sea in an open boat, which drove to Delos, and she was there

delivered of Anius, who afterwards became the king of the island. By

his wife Dorippe he had three daughters, who were extremely frugal,

and by means of the offerings and presents that were brought to the

temple of Apollo, amassed a large store of provisions. During the

siege of Troy, the Greeks sent Palamedes to Delos, to demand food

for the army; and, as a security for his compliance with these

demands, they exacted the daughters of Anius as hostages. The

damsels soon afterwards finding means to escape, it was said that

Bacchus, who was their kinsman through Cadmus, had transformed them

into doves. Probably the story of their transforming every thing

they touched, into wine, corn, and oil, was founded solely on their

thriftiness and parsimony. Bochart, however, explains the story from

the circumstance of their names being, as he conjectures, Oëno,

Spermo, and Elaï, which, in the old Phœnician dialect, signified

wine, corn, and oil; and he thinks that the story was confirmed in

general belief by the fact that large quantities of corn, wine, and

oil were supplied from Delos to the Grecian army when before Troy.

In the reign of Orion, Thebes being devastated by a plague, the

oracles were consulted, and the Thebans were told that the contagion

would cease as soon as the daughters of the king should be

sacrificed to the wrath of heaven. The two maidens immediately

presented themselves at the altar; and on their immolation, the Gods

were appeased, and the plague ceased. This example of patriotism and

fortitude filled the more youthful Thebans with so much emulation,

that they shook off their former inactivity, and soon became

conspicuous for their bravery: which sudden change gave occasion to

the saying, that the ashes of these maidens had been transformed

into men.

The Poet follows Æneas on his voyage, to gain an opportunity of

referring to several other current stories. Among other places, he

passes the city of Ambracia, about which the Gods had contended, and

sees the rock into which the umpire of their dispute, who had

decided in favour of Hercules, was changed. Ambracia was on the

coast of Epirus, and gave its name to an adjacent inlet of the sea,

called the Ambracian Gulf. Antoninus Liberalis tells us, on the

authority of Nicander, that Apollo, Diana, and Hercules disputed

about this city, and left the decision to Cragaleus, who gave it in

favour of Hercules; on which, Apollo transformed him into a rock.

Very possibly the meaning of this may be, that when the people of

Ambracia were considering to which of these Deities they should

dedicate their city, Cragaleus preferred Hercules to the other two,

or, in other words, the feats of war to the cultivation of the arts

and sciences. Apollo was said to have turned him into a stone,

either because he met with his death near the promontory where a

temple of Apollo stood, or to show the stupidity of his decision.

Antoninus Liberalis is the only writer besides Ovid that makes

mention of the adventure of the sons of the Molossian king; he tells

us that Munychus, king of the Molossi, had three sons, Alcander,

Megaletor, and Philæus, and a daughter named Hyperippe. Some robbers

setting fire to their father’s house, they were transformed by

Jupiter into birds. This, in all probability, is a poetical way of

saying that the youths escaped from the flames, contrary to

universal expectation.

The opinions of writers have been very conflicting as to the origin

of the oracle of Dodona. Silius Italicus says that two pigeons flew

from Thebes in Egypt, one of which went to Libya, and occasioned the

founding of the oracle of Jupiter Ammon; while the other settled

upon an oak in Chaonia, and signified thereby to the inhabitants,

that it was the will of heaven that there should be an oracle in

that place. Herodotus says that two priestesses of Egyptian Thebes

being carried off by some Phœnician merchants, one of them was sold

to the Greeks, after which she settled in the forest of Dodona,

where a little chapel was founded by her in honour of Jupiter, in

which she gave responses. He adds, that they called her ‘the dove,’

because being a foreigner they did not understand her language. At

length, having learned the language of the Pelasgians, it was said

that the dove had spoken. On that foundation grew the tradition that

the oaks themselves uttered oracular responses.

Notwithstanding this plausible account of Herodotus, it is not

impossible that some equivocal expressions in the Hebrew and Arabian

languages may have given rise to the story. ‘Himan,’ in the one

language, signified ‘a priest;’ and ‘Heman,’ in the other, was the

name for ‘a pigeon.’ Possibly those who found the former word in the

history of ancient Greece, written in the dialect of the original

Phœnician settlers, did not understand it, and by their mistake,

caused it to be asserted that a dove had founded the oracle of

Dodona. Bochart tells us that the same word, in the Phœnician

tongue, signifies either ‘pigeons,’ or ‘women;’ but the Abbè Sallier

has gone still further, and has shown that, in the language of the

ancient inhabitants of Epirus, the same word had the two

significations mentioned by Bochart.

This oracle afterwards grew famous for its responses, and the

priests used considerable ingenuity in the delivery of their

answers. They cautiously kept all who came to consult them at a

distance from the dark recess where the shrine was situated; and

took care to deliver their responses in a manner so ambiguous, as to

make people believe whatever they pleased. In this circumstance

originates the variation in the descriptions of the oracle which the

ancients have left us. According to some, it was the oaks that

spoke; according to others, the beeches; while a third account was

that pigeons gave the answers; and, lastly, it was said that the

ringing of certain cauldrons there suspended, divulged the will of

heaven. Stephanus Byzantinus has left a curious account of this

contrivance of the cauldrons; he says that in that part of the

forest of Dodona, where the oracle stood, there were two pillars

erected, at a small distance from each other. On one there was

placed a brazen vessel, about the size of an ordinary cauldron: and

on the other a little boy, which was most probably a piece of

mechanism, who held a brazen whip with several thongs which hung

loose, and were easily moved. When the wind blew, the lashes struck

against the vessel, and occasioned a noise while the wind continued.

It was from them, he says, that the forest took the name of Dodona;

‘dodo,’ in the ancient language, signifying ‘a cauldron.’

Strabo says that the responses were originally given by three

priestesses: and he gives the reason why two priests were afterwards

added to them. The Bœotians having been treacherously attacked by

the people of Thrace during a truce which they had made, went to

consult the oracle of Dodona; and the priestess answering them that

if they would act impiously their design would succeed to their

wish, the envoys suspected that this response had been suggested by

the enemy, and burned her in revenge; after which they vindicated

their cruelty by saying that if the priestess designed to deceive

them, she well deserved her punishment; and that if she spoke with

truthfulness, they had only followed the advice of the oracle. This

argument not satisfying the people of the district, the Bœotian

envoys were seized; but as they pleaded that it was unjust that two

women already prejudiced against them should be their judges, two

priests were added to decide the matter. These, in return for their

being the occasion of putting them in an office so honourable and

lucrative, acquitted the Bœotians; whose fellow countrymen were

always in the habit from that time of addressing the priests when

they consulted the oracle. These priests were called by the name of

‘Selli.’

FABLE VII. [XIII.719-897]

Polyphemus, one of the Cyclops, jealous of Acis, who is in love with

Galatea, kills the youth with a rock which he hurls at him; on

which, his blood is changed into a river which bears his name.

They make for the neighbouring land of the Phæacians,[68] planted with

beauteous fruit. After this, Epirus and Buthrotos,[69] ruled over by the

Phrygian prophet, and a fictitious Troy, are reached. Thence, acquainted

with the future, all which, Helenus, the son of Priam, in his faithful

instructions has forewarned them of, they enter Sicania. With three

points this projects into the sea. Of these, Pachynos is turned towards

the showery South: Lilybæum is exposed to the soft Zephyrs: but Peloros

looks towards the Bear, free from the sea, and towards Boreas. By this

{part} the Trojans enter; and with oars and favouring tide, at nightfall

the fleet makes the Zanclæan sands. Scylla infests the right hand side,

the restless Charybdis the left. This swallows and vomits forth again

ships taken down; the other, having the face of a maiden, has her

swarthy stomach surrounded with fierce dogs; and (if the poets have not

left the whole a fiction) once on a time, too, {she was} a maiden. Many

suitors courted her; who being repulsed, she, most beloved by the Nymphs

of the ocean, went to the ocean Nymphs, and used to relate the eluded

loves of the youths.

While Galatea[70] was giving her hair be to combed, heaving sighs, she

addressed her in such words as these: “{And} yet, O maiden, no ungentle

race of men does woo thee; and as thou dost, thou art able to deny them

with impunity. But I, whose sire is Nereus, whom the azure Doris bore,

who am guarded, too, by a crowd of sisters, was not able, but through

the waves, to escape the passion of the Cyclop;” and as she spoke, the

tears choked her utterance. When, with her fingers like marble, the

maiden had wiped these away, and had comforted the Goddess, “Tell me,

dearest,” said she, “and conceal not {from me} ({for} I am true to thee)

the cause of thy grief.” In these words did the Nereid reply to the

daughter of Cratæis:[71] “Acis was the son of Faunus and of the Nymph

Symæthis, a great delight, indeed, to his father and his mother, yet a

still greater to me. For the charming {youth} had attached me to himself

alone, and eight birth-days having a second time been passed, he had

{now} marked his tender cheeks with the dubious down. Him I {pursued};

incessantly did the Cyclop me pursue. Nor can I, shouldst thou enquire,

declare whether the hatred of the Cylops, or the love of Acis, was the

stronger in me. They were equal. O genial Venus! how great is the power

of thy sway. For that savage, and one to be dreaded by the very woods,

and beheld with impunity by no stranger, the contemner of great Olympus

with the Gods {themselves}, {now} feels what love is; and, captivated

with passion for me, he burns, forgetting his cattle and his caves.

“And now, Polyphemus, thou hast a care for thy looks, and now for {the

art of} pleasing; now thou combest out thy stiffened hair with rakes,

{and} now it pleases thee to cut thy shaggy beard with the sickle, and

to look at thy fierce features in the water, and {so} to compose them.

Thy love for carnage, and thy fierceness, and thy insatiate thirst for

blood, {now} cease; and the ships both come and go in safety. Telemus,

in the mean time arriving at the Sicilian Ætna, Telemus, the son of

Eurymus, whom no omen had {ever} deceived, accosts the dreadful

Polyphemus, and says, ‘The single eye that thou dost carry in the midst

of thy forehead, Ulysses shall take away from thee.’ He laughed, and

said, ‘O most silly of the prophets, thou art mistaken, {for} another

has already taken it away.’ Thus does he slight him, in vain warning him

of the truth; and he either burdens the shore, stalking along with huge

strides, or, wearied, he returns to his shaded cave.

“A hill, in form of a wedge, runs out with a long projection into the

sea: {and} the waves of the ocean flow round either side. Hither the

fierce Cyclop ascended, and sat down in the middle. His woolly flocks

followed, there being no one to guide them. After the pine tree,[72]

which afforded him the service of a staff, {but more} fitted for

sail-yards, was laid before his feet, and his pipe was taken up, formed

of a hundred reeds; all the mountains were sensible of the piping of the

shepherd: the waves, {too}, were sensible. I, lying hid within a rock,

and reclining on the bosom of my own Acis, from afar caught such words

as these with my ears, and marked them {so} heard in my mind:

‘O Galatea, fairer than[73] the leaf of the snow-white privet,[74] more

blooming than the meadows, more slender than the tall alder, brighter

than glass, more wanton than the tender kid, smoother than the shells

worn by continual floods, more pleasing than the winter’s sun, {or} than

the summer’s shade, more beauteous than the apples, more sightly than

the lofty plane tree, clearer than ice, sweeter than the ripened grape,

softer than both the down of the swan, and than curdled milk, and, didst

thou not fly me, more beauteous than a watered garden. {And yet} thou,

the same Galatea, {art} wilder than the untamed bullocks, harder than

the aged oak, more unstable than the waters, tougher than both the twigs

of osier and than the white vines, more immoveable than these rocks,

more violent than the torrent, prouder than the bepraised peacock,

fiercer than the fire, rougher than the thistles, more cruel than the

pregnant she-bear, more deaf than the ocean waves, more savage than the

trodden water-snake: and, what I could especially wish to deprive thee

of, fleeter not only than the deer when pursued by the loud barkings,

but even than the winds and the fleeting air.

“‘But didst thou {but} know me well, thou wouldst repine at having fled,

and thou thyself wouldst blame thy own hesitation, and wouldst strive to

retain me. I have a part of the mountain for my cave, pendent with the

native rock; in which the sun is not felt in the middle of the heat, nor

is the winter felt: there are apples that load the boughs; there are

grapes on the lengthening vines, resembling gold; and there are purple

ones {as well}; both the one and the other do I reserve for thee. With

thine own hands thou shalt thyself gather the soft strawberries growing

beneath the woodland shade; thou thyself {shalt pluck} the cornels of

autumn, and plums not only darkened with their black juice, but even of

the choicest kinds, and resembling new wax. Nor, I being thy husband,

will there be wanting to thee chesnuts, nor the fruit of the arbute

tree:[75] every tree shall be at thy service. All this cattle is my own:

many, too, are wandering in the valleys: many the wood conceals: many

{more} are penned in my caves. Nor, shouldst thou ask me perchance,

could I tell thee, how many there are; ’tis for the poor man to count

his cattle. For the praises of these trust not me at all; in person thou

thyself mayst see how they can hardly support with their legs their

distended udders. Lambs, too, a smaller breed, are in the warm folds:

there are kids, too, of equal age {to them} in other folds. Snow-white

milk I always have: a part of it is kept for drinking, {another} part

the liquified rennet hardens. Nor will common delights, and ordinary

enjoyments alone fall to thy lot, {such as} does, and hares, and

she-goats, or a pair of doves, or a nest taken from the tree top. I have

found on the mountain summit the twin cubs of a shaggy she-bear, which

can play with thee, so like each other that thou couldst scarce

distinguish them. {These} I found, and I said, ‘These for my mistress

will I keep.’

“‘Do now but raise thy beauteous head from out of the azure sea; now,

Galatea, come, and do not scorn my presents. Surely I know myself, and

myself but lately I beheld in the reflection of the limpid water; and my

figure[76] pleased me as I saw it. See how huge I am. Not Jove, in

heaven, is greater than this body; for thou art wont to tell how one

Jupiter reigns, who he is I know not. Plenty of hair hangs over my

grisly features, and, like a grove, overshadows my shoulders; nor think

it uncomely that my body is rough, thick set with stiff bristles. A tree

without leaves is unseemly; a horse is unseemly, unless a mane covers

his tawny neck. Feathers cover the birds; their wool is an ornament to

the sheep; a beard and rough hair upon their body is becoming to men.

I have but one eye in the middle of my forehead, but it is like a large

buckler. Well! and does not the Sun from the heavens behold all these

things? and yet the Sun has but one eye. And, besides, in your seas does

my father reign. Him do I offer thee for a father-in-law; only do take

pity on a suppliant, and hear his prayer, for to thee alone do I give

way. And I, who despise Jove, and the heavens, and the piercing

lightnings, dread thee, daughter of Nereus; than the lightnings is thy

wrath more dreadful to me. But I should be more patient under these

slights, if thou didst avoid all men. For why, rejecting the Cyclop,

dost thou love Acis? And why prefer Acis to my embraces? Yet, let him

please himself, and let him please thee, too, Galatea, {though} I wish

he could not; if only the opportunity is given, he shall find that I

have strength proportioned to a body so vast. I will pull out his

palpitating entrails; and I will scatter his torn limbs about the

fields, and throughout thy waves, {and} thus let him be united to thee.

For I burn: and my passion, {thus} slighted, rages with the greater

fury; and I seem to be carrying in my breast Ætna, transferred there

with {all} its flames; and yet, Galatea, thou art unmoved.’

“Having in vain uttered such complaints (for all this I saw), he rises;

and like an enraged bull, when the heifer is taken away from him, he

could not stand still, and he wandered in the wood, and the well known

forests. When the savage {monster} espied me, and Acis unsuspecting and

apprehensive of no such thing; and he exclaimed:-- ‘I see you, and I

shall cause this to be the last union for your affection.’ And that

voice was as loud as an enraged Cyclop ought, {for his size}, to have.

Ætna trembled at the noise; but I, struck with horror, plunged into the

adjoining sea. The hero, son of Symæthis, turned his back and fled, and

cried,-- ‘Help me, Galatea, I entreat thee; help me, ye parents {of

hers}; and admit me, {now} on the point of destruction, within your

realms.’ The Cyclop pursued, and hurled a fragment, torn from the

mountain; and though the extreme angle only of the rock reached him, yet

it entirely crushed Acis. But I did the only thing that was allowed by

the Fates to be done, that Acis might assume the properties of his

grandsire. The purple blood flowed from beneath the rock, and in a

little time the redness began to vanish; and at first it became the

colour of a stream muddied by a shower; and, in time, it became clear.

Then the rock, that had been thrown, opened, and through the chinks,

a reed vigorous and stately arose, and the hollow mouth of the rock

resounded with the waters gushing forth. And, wondrous event! a youth

suddenly emerged, as far as the midriff, having his new-made horns

encircled with twining reeds. And he, but that he was of larger stature,

and azure in all his features, was Acis {still}. But, even then, still

it was Acis, changed into a river; and the stream has since retained

that ancient name.”

[Footnote 68: _The Phæacians._--Ver. 719. The Phæacians were the

people of the Island of Corcyra (now Corfu), who were so called

from Phæax, the son of Neptune. This island was famous for the

gardens of Alcinoüs, which are mentioned in the Odyssey. The

Corcyrans were the originators of the disastrous Peloponnesian

war.]

[Footnote 69: _Buthrotos._--Ver. 721. This was a city of Epirus,

not far from Corcyra. It received its name from its founder.]

[Footnote 70: _Galatea._--Ver. 738. She was a sea Nymph, the

daughter of Nereus and Doris.]

[Footnote 71: _Daughter of Cratæis._--Ver. 749. Cratæis was a

river of Calabria, in Italy. Symæthis was a stream of Sicily,

opposite to Calabria.]

[Footnote 72: _The pine tree._--Ver. 782. By way of corroborating

this assertion, Boccaccio tells us, that the body of Polyphemus

was found in Sicily, his left hand grasping a walking-stick longer

than the mast of a ship.]

[Footnote 73: _Fairer than._--Ver. 789. This song of Polyphemus

is, in some measure, imitated from that of the Cyclop, in the

Eleventh Idyll of Theocritus.]

[Footnote 74: _Snow-white privet._--Ver. 789. Hesiod says, that

Galatea had her name from her extreme fairness; γάλα being the

Greek word for milk. To this the Poet here alludes.]

[Footnote 75: _Arbute tree._--Ver. 820. The fruit of the arbutus,

or strawberry tree, were so extremely sour, that they were called,

as Pliny the Elder tells us, ‘unedones;’ because people could not

eat more than one. The tree itself was valued for the beauty and

pleasing shade of its foliage.]

[Footnote 76: _My figure._--Ver. 841. Virgil and Theocritus also

represent Polyphemus as boasting of his good looks.]

EXPLANATION.

Homer, who, in the ninth Book of the Odyssey, has entered fully into

the subject of Polyphemus and the other Cyclops, does not recount

this adventure, which Ovid has borrowed from Theocritus, the

Sicilian poet. Some writers have suggested that Acis was a Sicilian

youth, who, having met with a repulse from Galatea, threw himself

into the river, which was afterwards called by his name. It is,

however, more probable that this river was so called from the

rapidity of its course. Indeed, the scholiast on Theocritus and

Eustathius distinctly say that the stream was called Acis, because

the swiftness of its course resembled that of an arrow, which was

called ἀκὶς, in the Greek language.

Homer, in describing the Cyclops, informs us that they were a

lawless race, who, neglecting husbandry, lived on the spontaneous

produce of a rich soil, and dwelling in mountain caves, devoted

themselves entirely to the pleasures of a pastoral life. He says

that they were men of monstrous stature, and had but one eye, in the

middle of their forehead. Thucydides supposes them to have been the

original inhabitants of Sicily. As their origin was unknown, it was

said that they were the offspring of Neptune, or, in other words,

that they had come by sea, to settle in Sicily. According to Justin,

they retained possession of the island till the time of Cocalus; but

in that point he disagrees with Homer, who represents them as being

in the island after the time of Cocalus, who was a contemporary of

Minos, and lived long before the Trojan war.

They inhabited the western parts of Sicily, near the promontories of

Lilybæum and Drepanum; and from that circumstance, according to

Bochart, they received their name. He supposes that the Cyclopes

were so called from the Phœnician compound word Chek-lub, contracted

for Chek-le-lub, which, according to him, was the name of the Gulf

of Lilybæum. Because, in the Greek language κυκλὸς signified ‘a

circle,’ and ὤπς, ‘an eye,’ it was given out that the name of

Cyclops was given to them, because they had but one round eye in the

middle of the forehead. It is possible that they may have acquired

their character of being cannibals on true grounds, or, perhaps,

only because they were noted for their extreme cruelty. Living near

the volcanic mountain of Ætna, they were called the workmen of

Vulcan; and Virgil describes them as forging the thunderbolts of

Jupiter. Some writers represent them as having armed the three

Deities, who divided the empire of the world: Jupiter with thunder;

Pluto with his helmet; and Neptune with his trident. Statius

represents them as the builders of the walls of Argos and Virgil as

the founders of the gates of the Elysian fields. Aristotle supposes

that they were the first builders of towers.

Diodorus Siculus and Tzetzes say that Polyphemus was king of a part

of Sicily, when Ulysses landed there; who, falling in love with

Elpe, the daughter of the king, carried her off. The Læstrygons, the

neighbours of Polyphemus, pursued him, and obliged him to give up

the damsel, who was brought back to her father. Ulysses, in relating

the story to the Phæacians, artfully concealed circumstances so

little to his credit, and with impunity invented the absurdities

which he related concerning a country to which his audience were

utter strangers.

FABLE VIII. [XIII.898-968]

Glaucus having observed some fishes which he has laid upon the grass

revive and leap again into the water, is desirous to try the

influence of the grass on himself. Putting some of it into his

mouth, he immediately becomes mad, and leaping into the sea, is

transformed into a sea God.

Galatea ceases[77] speaking, and the company breaking up, they depart;

and the Nereids swim in the becalmed waves. Scylla returns, (for, in

truth, she does not trust herself in the midst of the ocean) and either

wanders about without garments on the thirsty sand, or, when she is

tired, having lighted upon some lonely recess of the sea, cools her

limbs in the enclosed waves. {When}, lo! cleaving the deep, Glaucus

comes, a new-made inhabitant of the deep sea, his limbs having been

lately transformed at Anthedon,[78] near Eubœa; and he lingers from

passion for the maiden {now} seen, and utters whatever words he thinks

may detain her as she flies. Yet still she flies, and, swift through

fear, she arrives at the top of a mountain, situate near the shore.

In front of the sea, there is a huge ridge, terminating in one summit,

bending for a long distance over the waves, {and} without trees. Here

she stands, and secured by the place, ignorant whether he is a monster

or a God, she both admires his colour, and his flowing hair that covers

his shoulders and his back, and how a wreathed fish closes the extremity

of his groin. {This} he perceives; and leaning upon a rock that stands

hard by, he says, “Maiden, I am no monster, no savage beast; I am a God

of the waters: nor have Proteus, and Triton, and Palæmon, the son of

Athamas, a more uncontrolled reign over the deep. Yet formerly I was a

mortal; but, still, devoted to the deep sea, even then was I employed in

it. For, at one time, I used to drag the nets that swept up the fish;

at another time, seated on a rock, I managed the line with the rod. The

shore was adjacent to a verdant meadow, one part of which was surrounded

with water, the other with grass, which, neither the horned heifers had

hurt with their browsing, nor had you, ye harmless sheep, nor {you}, ye

shaggy goats, {ever} cropped it. No industrious bee took {thence} the

collected blossoms, no festive garlands were gathered thence for the

head; and no mower’s hands had ever cut it. I was the first to be seated

on that turf, while I was drying the dripping nets. And that I might

count in their order the fish that I had taken; I laid out those upon it

which either chance had driven to my nets, or their own credulity to my

barbed hooks.