Metamorphoses
Ovid
Ovid. Metamorphoses. More, Brookes, translator. Boston: Cornhill Publishing Co., 1922.
- My soul is wrought to sing of forms transformed
- to bodies new and strange! Immortal Gods
- inspire my heart, for ye have changed yourselves
- and all things you have changed! Oh lead my song
- in smooth and measured strains, from olden days
- when earth began to this completed time!
- Before the ocean and the earth appeared—
- before the skies had overspread them all—
- the face of Nature in a vast expanse
- was naught but Chaos uniformly waste.
- It was a rude and undeveloped mass,
- that nothing made except a ponderous weight;
- and all discordant elements confused,
- were there congested in a shapeless heap.
- As yet the sun afforded earth no light,
- nor did the moon renew her crescent horns;
- the earth was not suspended in the air
- exactly balanced by her heavy weight.
- Not far along the margin of the shores
- had Amphitrite stretched her lengthened arms,—
- for all the land was mixed with sea and air.
- The land was soft, the sea unfit to sail,
- the atmosphere opaque, to naught was given
- a proper form, in everything was strife,
- and all was mingled in a seething mass—
- with hot the cold parts strove, and wet with dry
- and soft with hard, and weight with empty void.
- But God, or kindly Nature, ended strife—
- he cut the land from skies, the sea from land,
- the heavens ethereal from material air;
- and when were all evolved from that dark mass
- he bound the fractious parts in tranquil peace.
- The fiery element of convex heaven
- leaped from the mass devoid of dragging weight,
- and chose the summit arch to which the air
- as next in quality was next in place.
- The earth more dense attracted grosser parts
- and moved by gravity sank underneath;
- and last of all the wide surrounding waves
- in deeper channels rolled around the globe.
- And when this God —which one is yet unknown—
- had carved asunder that discordant mass,
- had thus reduced it to its elements,
- that every part should equally combine,
- when time began He rounded out the earth
- and moulded it to form a mighty globe.
- Then poured He forth the deeps and gave command
- that they should billow in the rapid winds,
- that they should compass every shore of earth.
- he also added fountains, pools and lakes,
- and bound with shelving banks the slanting streams,
- which partly are absorbed and partly join
- the boundless ocean. Thus received amid
- the wide expanse of uncontrolled waves,
- they beat the shores instead of crooked banks.
- At His command the boundless plains extend,
- the valleys are depressed, the woods are clothed
- in green, the stony mountains rise. And as
- the heavens are intersected on the right
- by two broad zones, by two that cut the left,
- and by a fifth consumed with ardent heat,
- with such a number did the careful God
- mark off the compassed weight, and thus the earth
- received as many climes.—Such heat consumes
- the middle zone that none may dwell therein;
- and two extremes are covered with deep snow;
- and two are placed betwixt the hot and cold,
- which mixed together give a temperate clime;
- and over all the atmosphere suspends
- with weight proportioned to the fiery sky,
- exactly as the weight of earth compares
- with weight of water.
- And He ordered mist
- to gather in the air and spread the clouds.
- He fixed the thunders that disturb our souls,
- and brought the lightning on destructive winds
- that also waft the cold. Nor did the great
- Artificer permit these mighty winds
- to blow unbounded in the pathless skies,
- but each discordant brother fixed in space,
- although His power can scarce restrain their rage
- to rend the universe. At His command
- to far Aurora, Eurus took his way,
- to Nabath, Persia, and that mountain range
- first gilded by the dawn; and Zephyr's flight
- was towards the evening star and peaceful shores,
- warm with the setting sun; and Boreas
- invaded Scythia and the northern snows;
- and Auster wafted to the distant south
- where clouds and rain encompass his abode.—
- and over these He fixed the liquid sky,
- devoid of weight and free from earthly dross.
- And scarcely had He separated these
- and fixed their certain bounds, when all the stars,
- which long were pressed and hidden in the mass,
- began to gleam out from the plains of heaven,
- and traversed, with the Gods, bright ether fields:
- and lest some part might be bereft of life
- the gleaming waves were filled with twinkling fish;
- the earth was covered with wild animals;
- the agitated air was filled with birds.
- But one more perfect and more sanctified,
- a being capable of lofty thought,
- intelligent to rule, was wanting still
- man was created! Did the Unknown God
- designing then a better world make man
- of seed divine? or did Prometheus
- take the new soil of earth (that still contained
- some godly element of Heaven's Life)
- and use it to create the race of man;
- first mingling it with water of new streams;
- so that his new creation, upright man,
- was made in image of commanding Gods?
- On earth the brute creation bends its gaze,
- but man was given a lofty countenance
- and was commanded to behold the skies;
- and with an upright face may view the stars:—
- and so it was that shapeless clay put on
- the form of man till then unknown to earth.
- First was the Golden Age. Then rectitude
- spontaneous in the heart prevailed, and faith.
- Avengers were not seen, for laws unframed
- were all unknown and needless. Punishment
- and fear of penalties existed not.
- No harsh decrees were fixed on brazen plates.
- No suppliant multitude the countenance
- of Justice feared, averting, for they dwelt
- without a judge in peace. Descended not
- the steeps, shorn from its height, the lofty pine,
- cleaving the trackless waves of alien shores,
- nor distant realms were known to wandering men.
- The towns were not entrenched for time of war;
- they had no brazen trumpets, straight, nor horns
- of curving brass, nor helmets, shields nor swords.
- There was no thought of martial pomp —secure
- a happy multitude enjoyed repose.
- Then of her own accord the earth produced
- a store of every fruit. The harrow touched
- her not, nor did the plowshare wound
- her fields. And man content with given food,
- and none compelling, gathered arbute fruits
- and wild strawberries on the mountain sides,
- and ripe blackberries clinging to the bush,
- and corners and sweet acorns on the ground,
- down fallen from the spreading tree of Jove.
- Eternal Spring! Soft breathing zephyrs soothed
- and warmly cherished buds and blooms, produced
- without a seed. The valleys though unplowed
- gave many fruits; the fields though not renewed
- white glistened with the heavy bearded wheat:
- rivers flowed milk and nectar, and the trees,
- the very oak trees, then gave honey of themselves.
- When Saturn had been banished into night
- and all the world was ruled by Jove supreme,
- the Silver Age, though not so good as gold
- but still surpassing yellow brass, prevailed.
- Jove first reduced to years the Primal Spring,
- by him divided into periods four,
- unequal,—summer, autumn, winter, spring.—
- then glowed with tawny heat the parched air,
- or pendent icicles in winter froze
- and man stopped crouching in crude caverns, while
- he built his homes of tree rods, bark entwined.
- Then were the cereals planted in long rows,
- and bullocks groaned beneath the heavy yoke.
- The third Age followed, called The Age of Bronze,
- when cruel people were inclined to arms
- but not to impious crimes. And last of all
- the ruthless and hard Age of Iron prevailed,
- from which malignant vein great evil sprung;
- and modesty and faith and truth took flight,
- and in their stead deceits and snares and frauds
- and violence and wicked love of gain,
- succeeded.—Then the sailor spread his sails
- to winds unknown, and keels that long had stood
- on lofty mountains pierced uncharted waves.
- Surveyors anxious marked with metes and bounds
- the lands, created free as light and air:
- nor need the rich ground furnish only crops,
- and give due nourishment by right required,—
- they penetrated to the bowels of earth
- and dug up wealth, bad cause of all our ills,—
- rich ores which long ago the earth had hid
- and deep removed to gloomy Stygian caves:
- and soon destructive iron and harmful gold
- were brought to light; and War, which uses both,
- came forth and shook with sanguinary grip
- his clashing arms. Rapacity broke forth—
- the guest was not protected from his host,
- the father in law from his own son in law;
- even brothers seldom could abide in peace.
- The husband threatened to destroy his wife,
- and she her husband: horrid step dames mixed
- the deadly henbane: eager sons inquired
- their fathers, ages. Piety was slain:
- and last of all the virgin deity,
- Astraea vanished from the blood-stained earth.
- And lest ethereal heights should long remain
- less troubled than the earth, the throne of Heaven
- was threatened by the Giants; and they piled
- mountain on mountain to the lofty stars.
- But Jove, omnipotent, shot thunderbolts
- through Mount Olympus, and he overturned
- from Ossa huge, enormous Pelion.
- And while these dreadful bodies lay overwhelmed
- in their tremendous bulk, (so fame reports)
- the Earth was reeking with the copious blood
- of her gigantic sons; and thus replete
- with moisture she infused the steaming gore
- with life renewed. So that a monument
- of such ferocious stock should be retained,
- she made that offspring in the shape of man;
- but this new race alike despised the Gods,
- and by the greed of savage slaughter proved
- a sanguinary birth.
- When, from his throne
- supreme, the Son of Saturn viewed their deeds,
- he deeply groaned: and calling to his mind
- the loathsome feast Lycaon had prepared,
- a recent deed not common to report,
- his soul conceived great anger —worthy Jove—
- and he convened a council. No delay
- detained the chosen Gods.
- When skies are clear
- a path is well defined on high, which men,
- because so white, have named the Milky Way.
- It makes a passage for the deities
- and leads to mansions of the Thunder God,
- to Jove's imperial home. On either side
- of its wide way the noble Gods are seen,
- inferior Gods in other parts abide,
- but there the potent and renowned of Heaven
- have fixed their homes.—It is a glorious place,
- our most audacious verse might designate
- the “Palace of High Heaven.” When the Gods
- were seated, therefore, in its marble halls
- the King of all above the throng sat high,
- and leaning on his ivory scepter, thrice,
- and once again he shook his awful locks,
- wherewith he moved the earth, and seas and stars,—
- and thus indignantly began to speak;
- “The time when serpent footed giants strove
- to fix their hundred arms on captive Heaven,
- not more than this event could cause alarm
- for my dominion of the universe.
- Although it was a savage enemy,
- yet warred we with a single source derived
- of one. Now must I utterly destroy
- this mortal race wherever Nereus roars
- around the world. Yea, by the Infernal Streams
- that glide through Stygian groves beneath the world,
- I swear it. Every method has been tried.
- The knife must cut immedicable wounds,
- lest maladies infect untainted parts.
- “Beneath my sway are demi gods and fauns,
- nymphs, rustic deities, sylvans of the hills,
- satyrs;—all these, unworthy Heaven's abodes,
- we should at least permit to dwell on earth
- which we to them bequeathed. What think ye, Gods,
- is safety theirs when I, your sovereign lord,
- the Thunder-bolt Controller, am ensnared
- by fierce Lycaon?” Ardent in their wrath,
- the astonished Gods demand revenge overtake
- this miscreant; he who dared commit such crimes.
- 'Twas even thus when raged that impious band
- to blot the Roman name in sacred blood
- of Caesar, sudden apprehensive fears
- of ruin absolute astonished man,
- and all the world convulsed. Nor is the love
- thy people bear to thee, Augustus, less
- than these displayed to Jupiter whose voice
- and gesture all the murmuring host restrained:
- and as indignant clamour ceased, suppressed
- by regnant majesty, Jove once again
- broke the deep silence with imperial words;
- “Dismiss your cares; he paid the penalty
- however all the crime and punishment
- now learn from this:—An infamous report
- of this unholy age had reached my ears,
- and wishing it were false, I sloped my course
- from high Olympus, and—although a God—
- disguised in human form I viewed the world.
- It would delay us to recount the crimes
- unnumbered, for reports were less than truth.
- “I traversed Maenalus where fearful dens
- abound, over Lycaeus, wintry slopes
- of pine tree groves, across Cyllene steep;
- and as the twilight warned of night's approach,
- I stopped in that Arcadian tyrant's realms
- and entered his inhospitable home:—
- and when I showed his people that a God
- had come, the lowly prayed and worshiped me,
- but this Lycaon mocked their pious vows
- and scoffing said; ‘A fair experiment
- will prove the truth if this be god or man.’
- and he prepared to slay me in the night,—
- to end my slumbers in the sleep of death.
- So made he merry with his impious proof;
- but not content with this he cut the throat
- of a Molossian hostage sent to him,
- and partly softened his still quivering limbs
- in boiling water, partly roasted them
- on fires that burned beneath. And when this flesh
- was served to me on tables, I destroyed
- his dwelling and his worthless Household Gods,
- with thunder bolts avenging. Terror struck
- he took to flight, and on the silent plains
- is howling in his vain attempts to speak;
- he raves and rages and his greedy jaws,
- desiring their accustomed slaughter, turn
- against the sheep—still eager for their blood.
- His vesture separates in shaggy hair,
- his arms are changed to legs; and as a wolf
- he has the same grey locks, the same hard face,
- the same bright eyes, the same ferocious look.
- “Thus fell one house, but not one house alone
- deserved to perish; over all the earth
- ferocious deeds prevail,—all men conspire
- in evil. Let them therefore feel the weight
- of dreadful penalties so justly earned,
- for such hath my unchanging will ordained.”
- with exclamations some approved the words
- of Jove and added fuel to his wrath,
- while others gave assent: but all deplored
- and questioned the estate of earth deprived
- of mortals. Who could offer frankincense
- upon the altars? Would he suffer earth
- to be despoiled by hungry beasts of prey?
- Such idle questions of the state of man
- the King of Gods forbade, but granted soon
- to people earth with race miraculous,
- unlike the first.
- And now his thunder bolts
- would Jove wide scatter, but he feared the flames,
- unnumbered, sacred ether might ignite
- and burn the axle of the universe:
- and he remembered in the scroll of fate,
- there is a time appointed when the sea
- and earth and Heavens shall melt, and fire destroy
- the universe of mighty labour wrought.
- Such weapons by the skill of Cyclops forged,
- for different punishment he laid aside—
- for straightway he preferred to overwhelm
- the mortal race beneath deep waves and storms
- from every raining sky. And instantly
- he shut the Northwind in Aeolian caves,
- and every other wind that might dispel
- the gathering clouds. He bade the Southwind blow:—
- the Southwind flies abroad with dripping wings,
- concealing in the gloom his awful face:
- the drenching rain descends from his wet beard
- and hoary locks; dark clouds are on his brows
- and from his wings and garments drip the dews:
- his great hands press the overhanging clouds;
- loudly the thunders roll; the torrents pour;
- Iris, the messenger of Juno, clad
- in many coloured raiment, upward draws
- the steaming moisture to renew the clouds.
- The standing grain is beaten to the ground,
- the rustic's crops are scattered in the mire,
- and he bewails the long year's fruitless toil.
- The wrath of Jove was not content with powers
- that emanate from Heaven; he brought to aid
- his azure brother, lord of flowing waves,
- who called upon the Rivers and the Streams:
- and when they entered his impearled abode,
- Neptune, their ancient ruler, thus began;
- “A long appeal is needless; pour ye forth
- in rage of power; open up your fountains;
- rush over obstacles; let every stream
- pour forth in boundless floods.” Thus he commands,
- and none dissenting all the River Gods
- return, and opening up their fountains roll
- tumultuous to the deep unfruitful sea.
- And Neptune with his trident smote the Earth,
- which trembling with unwonted throes heaved up
- the sources of her waters bare; and through
- her open plains the rapid rivers rushed
- resistless, onward bearing the waving grain,
- the budding groves, the houses, sheep and men,—
- and holy temples, and their sacred urns.
- The mansions that remained, resisting vast
- and total ruin, deepening waves concealed
- and whelmed their tottering turrets in the flood
- and whirling gulf. And now one vast expanse,
- the land and sea were mingled in the waste
- of endless waves—a sea without a shore.
- One desperate man seized on the nearest hill;
- another sitting in his curved boat,
- plied the long oar where he was wont to plow;
- another sailed above his grain, above
- his hidden dwelling; and another hooked
- a fish that sported in a leafy elm.
- Perchance an anchor dropped in verdant fields,
- or curving keels were pushed through tangled vines;
- and where the gracile goat enjoyed the green,
- unsightly seals reposed. Beneath the waves
- were wondering Nereids, viewing cities, groves
- and houses. Dolphins darting mid the trees,
- meshed in the twisted branches, beat against
- the shaken oak trees. There the sheep, affrayed,
- swim with the frightened wolf, the surging waves
- float tigers and lions: availeth naught
- his lightning shock the wild boar, nor avails
- the stag's fleet footed speed. The wandering bird,
- seeking umbrageous groves and hidden vales,
- with wearied pinion droops into the sea.
- The waves increasing surge above the hills,
- and rising waters dash on mountain tops.
- Myriads by the waves are swept away,
- and those the waters spare, for lack of food,
- starvation slowly overcomes at last.
- A fruitful land and fair but now submerged
- beneath a wilderness of rising waves,
- 'Twixt Oeta and Aonia, Phocis lies,
- where through the clouds Parnassus' summits twain
- point upward to the stars, unmeasured height,
- save which the rolling billows covered all:
- there in a small and fragile boat, arrived,
- Deucalion and the consort of his couch,
- prepared to worship the Corycian Nymphs,
- the mountain deities, and Themis kind,
- who in that age revealed in oracles
- the voice of fate. As he no other lived
- so good and just, as she no other feared
- the Gods.
- When Jupiter beheld the globe
- in ruin covered, swept with wasting waves,
- and when he saw one man of myriads left,
- one helpless woman left of myriads lone,
- both innocent and worshiping the Gods,
- he scattered all the clouds; he blew away
- the great storms by the cold northwind.
- Once more
- the earth appeared to heaven and the skies
- appeared to earth. The fury of the main
- abated, for the Ocean ruler laid
- his trident down and pacified the waves,
- and called on azure Triton.—Triton arose
- above the waving seas, his shoulders mailed
- in purple shells.—He bade the Triton blow,
- blow in his sounding shell, the wandering streams
- and rivers to recall with signal known:
- a hollow wreathed trumpet, tapering wide
- and slender stemmed, the Triton took amain
- and wound the pearly shell at midmost sea.
- Betwixt the rising and the setting suns
- the wildered notes resounded shore to shore,
- and as it touched his lips, wet with the brine
- beneath his dripping beard, sounded retreat:
- and all the waters of the land and sea
- obeyed. Their fountains heard and ceased to flow;
- their waves subsided; hidden hills uprose;
- emerged the shores of ocean; channels filled
- with flowing streams; the soil appeared; the land
- increased its surface as the waves decreased:
- and after length of days the trees put forth,
- with ooze on bending boughs, their naked tops.
- And all the wasted globe was now restored,
- but as he viewed the vast and silent world
- Deucalion wept and thus to Pyrrha spoke;
- “O sister! wife! alone of woman left!
- My kindred in descent and origin!
- Dearest companion of my marriage bed,
- doubly endeared by deepening dangers borne,—
- of all the dawn and eve behold of earth,
- but you and I are left—for the deep sea
- has kept the rest! And what prevents the tide
- from overwhelming us? Remaining clouds
- affright us. How could you endure your fears
- if you alone were rescued by this fate,
- and who would then console your bitter grief?
- Oh be assured, if you were buried in the waves,
- that I would follow you and be with you!
- Oh would that by my father's art I might
- restore the people, and inspire this clay
- to take the form of man. Alas, the Gods
- decreed and only we are living!”, Thus
- Deucalion's plaint to Pyrrha;—and they wept.
- And after he had spoken, they resolved
- to ask the aid of sacred oracles,—
- and so they hastened to Cephissian waves
- which rolled a turbid flood in channels known.
- Thence when their robes and brows were sprinkled well,
- they turned their footsteps to the goddess' fane:
- its gables were befouled with reeking moss
- and on its altars every fire was cold.
- But when the twain had reached the temple steps
- they fell upon the earth, inspired with awe,
- and kissed the cold stone with their trembling lips,
- and said; “If righteous prayers appease the Gods,
- and if the wrath of high celestial powers
- may thus be turned, declare, O Themis! whence
- and what the art may raise humanity?
- O gentle goddess help the dying world!”
- Moved by their supplications, she replied;
- “Depart from me and veil your brows; ungird
- your robes, and cast behind you as you go,
- the bones of your great mother.” Long they stood
- in dumb amazement: Pyrrha, first of voice,
- refused the mandate and with trembling lips
- implored the goddess to forgive—she feared
- to violate her mother's bones and vex
- her sacred spirit. Often pondered they
- the words involved in such obscurity,
- repeating oft: and thus Deucalion
- to Epimetheus' daughter uttered speech
- of soothing import; “ Oracles are just
- and urge not evil deeds, or naught avails
- the skill of thought. Our mother is the Earth,
- and I may judge the stones of earth are bones
- that we should cast behind us as we go.”
- And although Pyrrha by his words was moved
- she hesitated to comply; and both amazed
- doubted the purpose of the oracle,
- but deemed no harm to come of trial. They,
- descending from the temple, veiled their heads
- and loosed their robes and threw some stones
- behind them. It is much beyond belief,
- were not receding ages witness, hard
- and rigid stones assumed a softer form,
- enlarging as their brittle nature changed
- to milder substance,—till the shape of man
- appeared, imperfect, faintly outlined first,
- as marble statue chiseled in the rough.
- The soft moist parts were changed to softer flesh,
- the hard and brittle substance into bones,
- the veins retained their ancient name. And now
- the Gods supreme ordained that every stone
- Deucalion threw should take the form of man,
- and those by Pyrrha cast should woman's form
- assume: so are we hardy to endure
- and prove by toil and deeds from what we sprung.
- And after this the Earth spontaneous
- produced the world of animals, when all
- remaining moistures of the mirey fens
- fermented in the sun, and fruitful seeds
- in soils nutritious grew to shapes ordained.
- So when the seven streamed Nile from oozy fields
- returneth duly to her ancient bed,
- the sun's ethereal rays impregn the slime,
- that haply as the peasants turn the soil
- they find strange animals unknown before:
- some in the moment of their birth, and some
- deprived of limbs, imperfect; often part
- alive and part of slime inanimate
- are fashioned in one body. Heat combined
- with moisture so conceives and life results
- from these two things. For though the flames may be
- the foes of water, everything that lives
- begins in humid vapour, and it seems
- discordant concord is the means of life.
- When Earth, spread over with diluvian ooze,
- felt heat ethereal from the glowing sun,
- unnumbered species to the light she gave,
- and gave to being many an ancient form,
- or monster new created. Unwilling she
- created thus enormous Python.—Thou
- unheard of serpent spread so far athwart
- the side of a vast mountain, didst fill with fear
- the race of new created man. The God
- that bears the bow (a weapon used till then
- only to hunt the deer and agile goat)
- destroyed the monster with a myriad darts,
- and almost emptied all his quiver, till
- envenomed gore oozed forth from livid wounds.
- Lest in a dark oblivion time should hide
- the fame of this achievement, sacred sports
- he instituted, from the Python called
- “The Pythian Games.” In these the happy youth
- who proved victorious in the chariot race,
- running and boxing, with an honoured crown
- of oak leaves was enwreathed. The laurel then
- was not created, wherefore Phoebus, bright
- and godlike, beauteous with his flowing hair,
- was wont to wreathe his brows with various leaves.