April 12th | Fastorum Liber Quartus: Aprilis
F N LUDI • CERERI | Pr. Eid. | IV.393-620, Ovid tells the story of Ceres searching for her stolen daughter.
Hinc Cereris ludi. non est opus indice causae;
sponte deae munus promeritumque patet.
panis erat primis virides mortalibus herbae, 395
quas tellus nullo sollicitante dabat;
et modo carpebant vivax e caespite gramen,
nunc epulae tenera fronde cacumen erant.
postmodo glans nota est: bene erat iam glande reperta,
duraque magnificas quercus habebat opes. 400
prima Ceres homine ad meliora alimenta vocato
mutavit glandes utiliore cibo.
illa iugo tauros collum praebere coegit:
tum primum soles eruta vidit humus.
aes erat in pretio, Chalybeïa massa latebat: 405
eheu! perpetuo debuit illa tegi.
pace Ceres laeta est; et vos orate, coloni,
perpetuam pacem pacificumque ducem.
farra deae micaeque licet salientis honorem
detis et in veteres turea grana focos, 410
et, si tura aberunt, unctas accendite taedas:
parva bonae Cereri, sint modo casta, placent.
a bove succincti cultros removete ministri:
bos aret; ignavam sacrificate suem.
apta iugo cervix non est ferienda securi: 415
vivat et in dura saepe laboret humo.
Exigit ipse locus, raptus ut virginis edam:
plura recognosces, pauca docendus eris.
terra tribus scopulis vastum procurrit in aequor
Trinacris, a positu nomen adepta loci, 420
grata domus Cereri. multas ea possidet urbes,
in quibus est culto fertilis Henna solo.
frigida caelestum matres Arethusa vocarat:
venerat ad sacras et dea flava dapes.
filia, consuetis ut erat comitata puellis, 425
errabat nudo per sua prata pede.
valle sub umbrosa locus est aspergine multa
uvidus ex alto desilientis aquae.
tot fuerant illic, quot habet natura, colores,
pictaque dissimili flore nitebat humus. 430
quam simul aspexit, “comites, accedite” dixit
“et mecum plenos flore referte sinus.”
praeda puellares animos prolectat inanis,
et non sentitur sedulitate labor.
haec implet lento calathos e vimine nexos, 435
haec gremium, laxos degravat illa sinus:
illa legit calthas, huic sunt violaria curae,
illa papavereas subsecat ungue comas:
has, hyacinthe, tenes; illas, amarante, moraris:
pars thyma, pars rhoean et meliloton amat. 440
plurima lecta rosa est, sunt et sine nomine flores;
ipsa crocos tenues liliaque alba legit.
carpendi studio paulatim longius itur,
et dominam casu nulla secuta comes.
hanc videt et visam patruus velociter aufert 445
regnaque caeruleis in sua portat equis.
illa quidem clamabat “io, carissima mater,
auferor!,” ipsa suos abscideratque sinus:
panditur interea Diti via, namque diurnum
lumen inadsueti vix patiuntur equi. 450
at, chorus aequalis, cumulatae flore ministrae
“Persephone,” clamant “ad tua dona veni!”
ut clamata silet, montes ululatibus implent
et feriunt maesta pectora nuda manu.
attonita est plangore Ceres (modo venerat Hennam) 455
nec mora, “me miseram! filia,” dixit “ubi es?”
mentis inops rapitur, quales audire solemus
Threïcias fusis maenadas ire comis.
ut vitulo mugit sua mater ab ubere rapto
et quaerit fetus per nemus omne suos: 460
sic dea nec retinet gemitus et concita cursu
fertur et a campis incipit, Henna, tuis.
inde puellaris nacta est vestigia plantae
et pressam noto pondere vidit humum;
forsitan illa dies erroris summa fuisset, 465
si non turbassent signa reperta sues.
iamque Leontinos Amenanaque flumina cursu
praeterit et ripas, herbifer Aci, tuas;
praeterit et Cyanen et fontes lenis Anapi
et te, verticibus non adeunde Gela. 470
liquerat Ortygien Megareaque Pantagienque,
quaque Symaetheas accipit aequor aquas,
antraque Cyclopum positis exusta caminis,
quique locus curvae nomina falcis habet,
Himeraque et Didymen Acragantaque Tauromenumque 475
sacrarumque Mylas pascua laeta boum.
hinc Camerinan adit Thapsonque et Heloria Tempe, ‘
quaque iacet Zephyro semper apertus Eryx.
iamque Peloriadem Lilybaeaque, iamque Pachynon
lustrarat, terrae cornua trina suae. 480
quacumque ingreditur, miseris loca cuncta querellis
implet, ut amissum cum gemit ales Ityn,
perque vices modo “Persephone!” modo “filia!” clamat,
clamat et alternis nomen utrumque ciet.
sed neque Persephone Cererem nec filia matrem 485
audit, et alternis nomen utrumque perit;
unaque, pastorem vidisset an arva colentem,
vox erat “hac gressus ecqua puella tulit?”
iam color unus inest rebus, tenebrisque teguntur
omnia, iam vigiles conticuere canes: 490
alta iacet vasti super ora Typhoëos Aetne,
cuius anhelatis ignibus ardet humus;
illic accendit geminas pro lampade pinus:
hinc Cereris sacris nunc quoque taeda datur.
est specus exesi structura pumicis asper, 495
non homini regio, non adeunda ferae:
quo simul ac venit, frenatos curribus angues
iungit et aequoreas sicca pererrat aquas.
effugit et Syrtes et te, Zanclaea Charybdi,
et vos, Nisaei, naufraga monstra, canes, 500
Hadriacumque patens late bimaremque Corinthum:
sic venit ad portus, Attica terra, tuos.
hic primum sedit gelido maestissima saxo:
illud Cecropidae nunc quoque triste vocant.
sub Iove duravit multis inmota diebus, 505
et lunae patiens et pluvialis aquae.
fors sua cuique loco est: quod nunc Cerialis Eleusin
dicitur, hoc Celei rura fuere senis.
ille domum glandes excussaque mora rubetis
portat et arsuris arida ligna focis. 510
filia parva duas redigebat monte capellas,
et tener in cunis filius aeger erat.
“mater!” ait virgo (mota est dea nomine matris)
“quid facis in solis incomitata locis?”
perstitit et senior, quamvis onus urget, et orat, 515
tecta suae subeat quantulacumque casae.
illa negat. simularat anum mitraque capillos
presserat. instanti talia dicta refert:
“sospes eas semperque parens! mihi filia rapta est.
heu, melior quanto sors tua sorte mea est!” 520
dixit, et ut lacrimae (neque enim lacrimare deorum est)
decidit in tepidos lucida gutta sinus.
flent pariter molles animis virgoque senexque;
e quibus haec iusti verba fuere senis:
“sic tibi, quam raptam quereris, sit filia sospes, 525
surge nec exiguae despice tecta casae.”
cui dea “duc!” inquit “scisti, qua cogere posses,
seque levat saxo subsequiturque senem.
dux comiti narrat, quam sit sibi filius aeger
nec capiat somnos invigiletque malis. 530
illa soporiferum, parvos initura penates,
colligit agresti lene papaver humo;
dum legit, oblito fertur gustasse palato
longamque imprudens exsoluisse famem.
quae quia principio posuit ieiunia noctis, 535
tempus habent mystae sidera visa cibi.
limen ut intravit, luctus videt omnia plena:
iam spes in puero nulla salutis erat.
matre salutata (mater Metanira vocatur)
iungere dignata est os puerile suo. 540
pallor abit, subitasque vident in corpore vires:
tantus caelesti venit ab ore vigor.
tota domus laeta est, hoc est materque paterque
nataque: tres illi tota fuere domus.
mox epulas ponunt, liquefacta coagula lacte 545
pomaque et in ceris aurea mella suis.
abstinet alma Ceres somnique papavera causas
dat tibi cum tepido lacte bibenda, puer.
noctis erat medium placidique silentia somni:
Triptolemum gremio sustulit illa suo 550
terque manu permulsit eum, tria carmina dixit,
carmina mortali non referenda sono,
inque foco corpus pueri vivente favilla
obruit, humanum purget ut ignis onus.
excutitur somno stulte pia mater et amens
“quid facis?” exclamat membraque ab igne rapit. 555
cui dea “dum non es” dixit “scelerata, fuisti:
inrita materno sunt mea dona metu.
iste quidem mortalis erit, sed primus arabit
et seret et culta praemia tollet humo.” 560
dixit et egrediens nubem trahit inque dracones
transit et alifero tollitur axe Ceres.
Sunion expositum Piraeaque tuta recessu
linquit et in dextrum quae iacet ora latus.
hinc init Aegaeum, quo Cycladas aspicit omnes, 565
Ioniumque rapax Icariumque legit,
perque urbes Asiae longum petit Hellespontum,
diversumque locis alta pererrat iter.
nam modo turilegos Arabas, modo despicit Indos,
hinc Libys, hinc Meroë siccaque terra subest; 570
nunc adit Hesperios Rhenum Rhodanumque Padumque
teque, future parens, Thybri, potentis aquae.
quo feror? inmensum est erratas dicere terras:
praeteritus Cereri nullus in orbe locus.
errat et in caelo liquidique inmunia ponti 575
adloquitur gelido proxima signa polo:
“Parrhasides stellae (namque omnia nosse potestis,
aequoreas numquam cum subeatis aquas),
Persephonen natam miserae monstrate parenti!”
dixerat. huic Helice talia verba refert: 580
“crimine nox vacua est; Solem de virgine rapta
consule, qui late facta diurna videt.”
Sol aditus “quam quaeris,” ait “ne vana labores,
nupta Iovis fratri tertia regna tenet.”
questa diu secum, sic est adfata Tonantem, 585
maximaque in voltu signa dolentis erant:
“si memor es, de quo mihi sit Proserpina nata,
dimidium curae debet habere tuae.
orbe pererrato sola est iniuria facti
cognita: commissi praemia raptor habet. 590
at neque Persephone digna est praedone marito,
nec gener hoc nobis more parandus erat.
quid gravius victore Gyge captiva tulissem,
quam nunc te caeli sceptra tenente tuli?
verum impune ferat, nos haec patiemur inultae; 595
reddat et emendet facta priora novis.”
Iuppiter hanc lenit factumque excusat amore,
“nec gener est nobis ille pudendus” ait.
“non ego nobilior: posita est mihi regia caelo,
possidet alter aquas, alter inane chaos. 600
sed si forte tibi non est mutabile pectus,
statque semel iuncti rumpere vincla tori,
hoc quoque temptemus, siquidem ieiuna remansit;
si minus, inferni coniugis uxor erit.”
Tartara iussus adit sumptis Caducifer alis 605
speque redit citius visaque certa refert:
“rapta tribus” dixit “solvit ieiunia granis,
Punica quae lento cortice poma tegunt.”
non secus indoluit, quam si modo rapta fuisset,
maesta parens, longa vixque refecta mora est, 610
atque ita “nec nobis caelum est habitabile” dixit;
“Taenaria recipi me quoque valle iube.”
et factura fuit, pactus nisi Iuppiter esset,
bis tribus ut caelo mensibus illa foret.
tum demum voltumque Ceres animumque recepit 615
imposuitque suae spicea serta comae;
largaque provenit cessatis messis in arvis,
et vix congestas area cepit opes.
alba decent Cererem: vestes Cerialibus albas
sumite; nunc pulli velleris usus abest. 620
393 Next come the games of Ceres. There is no need to declare the reason; the bounty and the services of the goddess are manifest. The bread of the first mortals consisted of the green herbs which the earth yielded without solicitation; and now they plucked the living grass from the turf, and now the tender leaves of tree-tops furnished a feast. Afterwards the acorn became known; it was well when they had found the acorn, and the sturdy oak afforded a splendid affluence. Ceres was the first who invited man to better sustenance and exchanged acorns for more useful food. She forced bulls to yield their necks to the yoke; then for the first time did the upturned soil behold the sun. Copper was now held in esteem; iron ore still lay concealed; ah, would that it had been hidden for ever! Ceres delights in peace; and you, ye husbandmen, pray for perpetual peace and for a pacific prince. You may give the goddess spelt, and the compliment of spurting salt, and grains of incense on old hearths; and if there is no incense, kindle resinous torches. Good Ceres is content with little, if that little be but pure. Ye attendants, with tucked up robes, take the knives away from the ox; let the ox plough; sacrifice the lazy sow. The axe should never smite the neck that fits the yoke; let him live and often labour in the hard soil.
417 The subject requires that I should narrate the rape of the Virgin: in my narrative you will read much that you knew before; a few particulars will be new to you.
420 The Trinacrian land1 got its name from its natural position: it runs out into the vast ocean in three rocky capes. It is the favourite home of Ceres: she owns many cities, among them fertile Henna2 with its well-tilled soil. Cool Arethusa3 had invited the mothers of the gods, and the yellow-haired goddess had also come to the sacred banquet. Attended as usual by her wonted damsels, her daughter roamed bare-foot through the familiar meadows. In a shady vale there is a spot moist with the abundant spray of a high waterfall. All the hues that nature owns were there displayed, and the pied earth was bright with various flowers. As soon as she espied it, “Come hither, comrades,” she said, “and with me bring home lapfuls of flowers.” The bauble booty lured their girlish minds, and they were too busy to feel fatigue. One filled baskets plaited of supple withes, another loaded her lap, another the loose folds of her robe; one gathered marigolds, another paid heed to beds of violets; another nipped off heads of poppies with her nails; some are attracted by the hyacinth, others lingered over amaranth; some love thyme, others corn poppies and melilot; full many a rose was culled, and flowers without a name. Persephone herself plucked dainty crocuses and white lilies. Intent on gathering, she, little by little, strayed far, and it chanced that none of her companions followed their mistress. Her father’s brother4 saw her, and no sooner did he see her than he swiftly carried her off and bore her on his dusky steeds into his own realm. She in sooth cried out, “Ho, dearest mother, they are carrying me away!” and she rent the bosom of her robe. Meantime a road is opened up for Dis; for his steeds can hardly brook the unaccustomed daylight. But when the band of playmates attending her had heaped their baskets with flowers, they cried out, “Persephone, come to the gifts we have for thee!” When she answered not their call, they filled the mountain with shrieks, and smote their bare bosoms with their sad hands.
455 Ceres was startled by the loud lament; she had just come to Henna, and straightway, “Woe’s me! my daughter,” said she, “where art thou?” Distraught she hurried along, even as we hear that Thracian Maenads rush with streaming hair. As a cow, whose calf has been torn from her udder, bellows and seeks her offspring through every grove, so the goddess did not stifle her groans and ran at speed, starting from the plains of Henna. From there she lit on prints of the girlish feet and marked the traces of the familiar figure on the ground. Perhaps that day had been the last of her wanderings if swine had not foiled the trail she found. Already in her course she had passed Leontini, and the river Amenanus, and the grassy banks of Acis. She had passed Cyane, and the springs of gently flowing Anapus, and the Gelas with its whirlpools not to be approached. She had left behind Ortygia and Megara and the Pantagias, and the place where the sea receives the water of the Symaethus, and the caves of the Cyclopes, burnt by the forges set up in them, and the place that takes its name from a curved sickle,5 and Himera, and Didyme, and Acragas, and Tauromenum, and the Mylae,6 where are the rich pastures of the sacred kine. Next she came to Camerina, and Thapsus, and the Tempe of Helorus, and where Eryx lies for ever open to the western breeze. Already had she traversed Pelorias, and Lilybaeum, and Pachynum, the three horns of her land. And wherever she set her foot she filled every place with her sad plaints, as when the bird doth mourn her Itys lost.7 In turn she cried, now “Persephone!” now “Daughter!” She cried and shouted either name by turns; but neither did Persephone hear Ceres, nor the daughter hear her mother; both names by turns died away. And whether she spied a shepherd or a husbandman at work, her one question was, “Did a girl pass this way?” Now o’er the landscape stole a sober hue, and darkness hid the world: now the watchful dogs were hushed. Lofty Etna lies over the mouth of huge Typhoeus, whose fiery breath sets the ground aglow.8 There the goddess kindled two pine-trees to serve her as a light; hence to this day a torch is given out at the rites of Ceres. There is a cave all fretted with the seams of scolloped pumice, a region not to be approached by man or beast. Soon as she came hither, she yoked the bitted serpents to her car and roamed, unwetted, o’er the ocean waves. She shunned the Syrtes, and Zanclaean Charybdis, and you, ye Nisaean hounds,9 monsters of shipwreck; she shunned the Adriatic, stretching far and wide, and Corinth of the double seas.
502 Thus she came to thy havens, land of Attica. There for the first time she sat her down most rueful on a cold stone: that stone even now the Cecropids10 call the Sorrowful. For many days she tarried motionless under the open sky, patiently enduring the moonlight and the rain. Not a place but has its own peculiar destiny: what now is named the Eleusis of Ceres was then the plot of land of aged Celeus. He carried home acorns and blackberries, knocked from bramble bushes, and dry wood to feed the blazing hearth. A little daughter drove two nanny-goats back from the mountain, and an infant son was sick in his cradle. “Mother,” said the maid—the goddess was touched by the name of mother—“what does thou all alone in solitary places?” The old man, too, halted, despite the load he bore, and prayed that she would pass beneath the roof of his poor cottage. She refused. She had disguised herself as an old dame and covered her hair with a cap. When he pressed her, she answered thus: “Be happy! may a parent’s joy be thine for ever! My daughter has been taken from me. Alas! how much better is thy lot than mine!” She spoke, and like a tear (for gods can never weep) a crystal drop fell on her bosom warm. They wept with her, those tender hearts, the old man and the maid; and these were the words of the worthy old man: “So may the ravished daughter, whose loss thou weepest, be restored safe to thee, as thou shalt arise, nor scorn the shelter of my humble hut.” The goddess answered him. “Lead on; thou hast found the way to force me”; and she rose from the stone and followed the old man. As he led her and she followed, he told her how his son was sick and sleepless, kept wakeful by his ills. As she was about to pass within the lowly dwelling, she plucked a smooth, a slumbrous poppy that grew on the waste ground; and as she plucked, ’tis said she tasted it forgetfully, and so unwitting stayed her long hunger. Hence, because she broke her fast at nightfall, the initiates time their meal by the appearance of the stars. When she crossed the threshold, she saw the household plunged in grief; all hope of saving the child was gone. The goddess greeted the mother (her name was Metanira) and deigned to put her lips to the child’s lips. His pallor fled, and strength of a sudden was visibly imparted to his frame; such vigour flowed from lips divine. There was joy in the whole household, that is, in mother, father, and daughter; for they three were the whole household. Anon they set out a repast curds liquefied in milk, and apples, and golden honey in the comb. Kind Ceres abstained, and gave the child poppies to drink in warm milk to make him sleep. It was midnight, and there reigned the silence of peaceful sleep; the goddess took up Triptolemus in her lap, and thrice she stroked him with her hand, and spoke three spells, spells not to be rehearsed by mortal tongue, and on the hearth she buried the boy’s body in live embers, that the fire might purge away the burden of humanity. His fond-foolish mother awoke from sleep and distractedly cried out, “What dost thou?” and she snatched his body from the fire. To her the goddess said: “Meaning no wrong, thou hast done grievous wrong: my bounty has been baffled by a mother’s fear. That boys of yours will indeed be mortal, but he will be the first to plough and sow and reap a guerdon from the turned-up soil.”
561 She said, and forth she fared, trailing a cloud behind her, and passed to her dragons, then soared aloft in her winged car. She left behind bold Sunium,11 and the snug harbour of Piraeus, and the coast that lies on the right hand. From there she came to the Aegean, where she beheld all the Cyclades; she skimmed the wild Ionian and the Icarian Sea; and passing through the cities of Asia she made for the long Hellespont, and pursued aloft a roving course, this way and that.12 For now she looked down on the incense-gathering Arabs, and now on the Indians: beneath her lay on one side Libya, on the other side Meroe, and the parched land. Now she visited the western rivers, the Rhine, the Rhone, the Po, and thee, Tiber, future parent of a mighty water. Whither do I stray? ’Twere endless to tell of the lands over which she wandered. No spot in the world did Ceres leave unvisited. She wandered also in the sky, and accosted the constellations that lie next to the cold pole and never dip in the ocean wave. “Ye Parrhasian stars,13 reveal to a wretched mother her daughter Persephone; for ye can know all things, since never do ye plunge under the waters of the sea.” So she spoke, and Helice answered her thus: “Night is blameless. Ask of the Sun concerning the ravished maid: far and wide he sees the things that are done by day.” Appealed to, the Sun said, “To spare thee vain trouble, she whom thou seekest is wedded to Jove’s brother and rules the third realm.”
585 After long moaning to herself she thus addressed the Thunderer, and in her face there were deep lines of sorrow: “If thou dost remember by whom I got Persephone, she ought to have half of thy care. By wandering round the world I have learned naught but the knowledge of the wrong: the ravisher enjoys the reward of his crime. But neither did Persephone deserve a robber husband, nor was it meet that in this fashion we should find a son-in-law. What worse wrong could I have suffered if Gyges14 had been victorious and I his captive, than now I have sustained while thou art sceptered king of heaven? But let him escape unpunished; I’ll put up with it nor ask for vengeance; only let him restore her and repair his former deeds by new.” Jupiter soothed her, and on the plea of love excused the deed. “He is not a son-in-law,” said he, “to put us to shame: I myself am not a whit more noble: my royalty is in the sky, another owns the waters, and another the void of chaos.15 But if haply thy mind is set immutably, and thou art resolved to break the bonds of wedlock, once contracted, come let us try to do so, if only she has kept her fast; if not, she will be the wife of her infernal spouse.” The Herald God received his orders and assumed his wings: he flew to Tartarus and returning sooner than he was looked for brought tidings sure of what he had seen. “The ravished Maid,” said he, “did break her fast on three grains enclosed in the tough rind of a pomegranate.” Her rueful parent grieved no less than if her daughter had just been reft from her, and it was long before she was herself again, and hardly then. And thus she spoke: “For me, too, heaven is no home; order that I too be admitted to the Taenarian vale.16” And she would have done so, if Jupiter had not promised that Persephone should be in heaven for twice three months. Then at last Ceres recovered her looks and her spirits, and set wreaths of corn ears on her hair; and the laggard fields yielded a plenteous harvest, and the threshing-floor could hardly hold the high-piled sheaves. White is Ceres’ proper colour; put on white robes at Ceres’ festival; now no one wears dun-coloured wool.
M, the editor of Ovid Daily, has also written a translation of Liber IV.
Sicily.
In Sicily: often called Enna.
Nymph of the fountain Arethusa, in Syracuse. She had invited the matrons, so that Persephone, or Proserpine, daughter of Ceres, was left unguarded.
Pluto, or Dis, brother of Jupiter.
Either Zancle (an ancient name of Messene) or Drepanum, named after ζάγκλον or δρέπανον, “a sickle.” The other places named are also in Sicily. “Tempe of Helorus” (l. 477) is the upper gorge of the river-course, recalling Tempe in Thessaly.
Riese’s cogent conjecture for melan (unintelligible).
The nightingale: see ii. 629 note.
See i. 573. The monster was imprisoned beneath Etna.
He confuses the sea-monster Scylla with Scylla daughter of Nisus, as Virgil did, Ecl. vi. 74–77.
Athenians, from Cecrops, the first king.
A headland of Attica.
She turns from N.E. to S.E. and S.W., passing between Libya and Ethiopia, thence to Europe.
The constellation of the Great Bear (also Helice), as identified with Arcadian Callisto: Parrhasian stands for Arcadian. See above, ii. 155, iii. 108.
He confuses the hundred-handed brothers with the giants who tried to storm heaven (see iii. 805).
She has wedded Pluto or Hades, himself a king like Jupiter and Poseidon. Chaos, the abyss, is used for Hades. See i. 103, note.
Tartarus, since there was supposed to be a mouth of hell at Taenarum, a promontory in Laconia.