PR. Since thou art eager, I must needs tell thee: attend thou.
CH. Not yet, however; but grant me also a share of the pleasure. Let us
first learn the malady of this maiden, from her own tale of her
destructive[51] fortunes; but, for the sequel of her afflictions let her
be informed by thee.
PR. It is thy part, Io, to minister to the gratification of these now
before thee, both for all other reasons, and that they are the sisters
of thy father. Since to weep and lament over misfortunes, when one is
sure to win a tear from the listeners, is well worth the while.
IO. I know not how I should disobey you; and in a plain tale ye shall
learn everything that ye desire; and yet I am pained even to speak of
the tempest that hath been sent upon me from heaven, and the utter
marring of my person, whence it suddenly came upon me, a wretched
creature! For nightly visions thronging to my maiden chamber, would
entice me with smooth words: "O damsel, greatly fortunate, why dost
thou live long time in maidenhood, when it is in thy power to achieve a
match the very noblest? for Jupiter is fired by thy charms with the
shaft of passion, and longs with thee to share in love. But do not, my
child, spurn away from thee the couch of Jupiter; but go forth to
Lerna's fertile mead, to the folds and ox-stalls of thy father, that the
eye of Jove may have respite from its longing." By dreams such as these
was I unhappy beset every night, until at length I made bold to tell my
sire of the dreams that haunted me by night. And he dispatched both to
Pytho and Dodona[52] many a messenger to consult the oracles, that he
might learn what it behooved him to do or say, so as to perform what was
well-pleasing to the divinities. And they came bringing a report back of
oracles ambiguously worded, indistinct, and obscurely delivered. But at
last a clear response came to Inachus, plainly charging and directing
him to thrust me forth both from my home and my country, to stray an
outcast to earth's remotest limits; and that, if he would not, a
fiery-visaged thunder-bolt would come from Jupiter, and utterly blot out
his whole race. Overcome by oracles of Loxias such as these, unwilling
did me expel and exclude me unwilling from his dwelling: but the bit of
Jupiter[53] perforce constrained him to do this. And straightway my
person and my mind were distorted, and horned, as ye see, stung by the
keenly-biting fly, I rushed with maniac boundings to the sweet stream of
Cerchneia, and the fountain[54] of Lerna; and the earth-born neatherd
Argus of untempered fierceness, kept dogging me, peering after my
footsteps with thick-set eyes. Him, however, an unlooked-for sudden fate
bereaved of life; but I hornet-stricken am driven by the scourge divine
from land to land. Thou hearest what has taken place, and if thou art
able to say what pangs there remain for me, declare them; and do not,
compassionating me, warm me with false tales, for I pronounce fabricated
statements to be a most foul malady.
CH. Ah! ah! forbear! Alas! Never, never did I expect that a tale [so]
strange would come to my ears, or that sufferings thus horrible to
witness and horrible to endure, outrages, terrors with their two-edged
goad, would chill my spirit. Alas! alas! O Fate! Fate! I shudder as I
behold the condition of Io.
PR. Prematurely, however, are thou sighing, and art full of terror.
Hold, until thou shalt also have heard the residue.
CH. Say on; inform me fully: to the sick indeed it is sweet to get a
clear knowledge beforehand of the sequel of their sorrows.
PR. Your former desire at any rate ye gained from me easily; for first
of all ye desired to be informed by her recital of the affliction[55]
that attaches to herself. Now give ear to the rest, what sort of
sufferings it is the fate of this young damsel before you to undergo at
the hand of Juno: thou too, seed of Inachus, lay to heart my words, that
thou mayest be fully informed of the termination of thy journey. In the
first place, after turning thyself from this spot toward the rising of
the sun, traverse unplowed fields; and thou wilt reach the wandering
Scythians, who, raised from off the around, inhabit wicker dwellings on
well-wheeled cars, equipped with distant-shooting bows; to whom thou
must not draw near, but pass on out of their land, bringing thy feet to
approach the rugged roaring shores. And on thy left hand dwell the
Chalybes, workers of iron, of whom thou must needs beware, for they are
barbarous, and not accessible to strangers. And thou wilt come to the
river Hybristes,[56] not falsely so called, which do not thou cross, for
it is not easy to ford, until thou shalt have come to Caucasus itself,
loftiest of mountains, where from its very brow the river spouts forth
its might. And surmounting its peaks that neighbor on the stars, thou
must go into a southward track, where thou wilt come to the
man-detesting host of Amazons, who hereafter shall make a settlement,
Themiscyra, on the banks of Thermodon, where lies the rugged
Salmydessian sea-gorge, a host by mariners hated, a step-dame to ships;
and they will conduct thee on thy way, and that right willingly. Thou
shalt come too to the Cimmerian isthmus, hard by the very portals of a
lake, with narrow passage, which thou undauntedly must leave, and cross
the Maeotic frith; and there shall exist for evermore among mortals a
famous legend concerning thy passage, and after thy name it shall be
called the Bosphorus; and after having quitted European ground, thou
shalt come to the Asiatic continent. Does not then the sovereign of the
gods seem to you to be violent alike toward all things? for he a god
lusting to enjoy the charms of this mortal fair one, hath cast upon her
these wanderings. And a bitter wooer, maiden, hast thou found for thy
hand; for think that the words which thou hast now heard are not even
for a prelude.
IO. Woe is me! ah! ah!
PR. Thou too in thy turn[57] art crying out and moaning: what wilt thou
do then, when thou learnest the residue of thy ills?
CH. What! hast thou aught of suffering left to tell to her?
PR. Ay, a tempestuous sea of baleful calamities.
IO. What gain then is it for me to live? but why did I not quickly fling
myself from this rough precipice, that dashing on the plain I had rid
myself of all my pangs? for better is it once to die, than all one's
days to suffer ill.
PR. Verily thou wouldst hardly bear the agonies of me to whom it is not
doomed to die. For this would be an escape from sufferings. But now
there is no limit set to my hardships, until Jove shall have been
deposed from his tyranny.
IO. What! is it possible that Jupiter should ever fall from his power?
PR. Glad wouldst thou be, I ween, to witness this event.
IO. And how not so, I, who through Jupiter am suffering ill?
PR. Well, then, thou mayest assure thyself of these things that they are
so.
IO. By whom is he to be despoiled of his sceptre of tyranny.
PR. Himself, by his own senseless counsels.
IO. In what manner? Specify it, if there be no harm.