February 11th | Fastorum Liber Secundus: Februarius
B N | III Eid. | II.153-192, Ovid relates the story of Callisto and Arctophylax.
Tertia nox veniat: Custodem protinus Ursae
aspicies geminos exseruisse pedes.
inter Hamadryadas iaculatricemque Dianam 155
Callisto sacri pars fuit una chori.
illa deae tangens arcus “quos tangimus arcus,
este meae testes virginitatis” ait.
Cynthia laudavit, “promissa” que “foedera serva,
et comitum princeps tu mihi” dixit “eris.” 160
foedera servasset, si non formosa fuisset:
cavit mortales, de Iove crimen habet.
mille feras Phoebe silvis venata redibat
aut plus aut medium sole tenente diem.
ut tetigit lucum (densa niger ilice lucus, 165
in medio gelidae fons erat altus aquae),
“hic” ait “in silva, virgo Tegeaea, lavemur!”
erubuit falso virginis illa sono.
dixerat et nymphis: nymphae velamina ponunt,
hanc pudet et tardae dat mala signa morae. 170
exuerat tunicas; uteri manifesta tumore
proditur indicio ponderis ipsa suo.
cui dea “virgineos, periura Lycaoni, coetus
desere nec castas pollue” dixit “aquas.”
luna novum decies implerat cornibus orbem: 175
quae fuerat virgo credita, mater erat.
laesa furit Iuno, formam mutatque puellae.
quid facis? invito est pectore passa Iovem.
utque ferae vidit turpes in paelice voltus,
“huius in amplexus Iuppiter” inquit “eat!” 180
ursa per incultos errabat squalida montes,
quae fuerat summo nuper amata Iovi.
iam tria lustra puer furto conceptus agebat,
cum mater nato est obvia facto suo.
illa quidem, tamquam cognosceret, adstitit amens 185
et gemuit: gemitus verba parentis erant.
hanc puer ignarus iaculo fixisset acuto,
ni foret in superas raptus uterque domos.
signa propinqua micant: prior est, quam dicimus Arcton,
Arctophylax formam terga sequentis habet. 190
saevit adhuc canamque rogat Saturnia Tethyn,
Maenaliam tactis ne lavet Arcton aquis.
153 Come the third night, thou shalt straightway remark that the Bear-Ward1 has thrust forth both his feet. Among the Hamadryads in the train of the archeress Diana2 one of the sacred band was Callisto.3 Laying her hand on the bow of the goddess, “Thou bow,” quoth she, “which thus I touch, bear witness to my virginity.” Cynthia approved the vow, and said, “Keep but thy plighted troth and thou shalt be the foremost of my company.” Her troth she would have kept if she had not been fair. With mortals she was on her guard; it was with Jove she sinned. Of wild beasts in the forest Phoebe had chased full many a score, and home she was returning at noon or after noon. No sooner had she reached the grove—the grove where the thick holm-oaks cast a gloom and in the midst a deep fountain of cool water rose—than the goddess spake: “Here in the wood,” quoth she, “lets bathe, thou maid of Arcady.” At the false name of maid the other blushed. The goddess spoke to the nymphs as well, and they put off their robes. Callisto was ashamed and bashfully delayed. But when she doffed her tunic, too plainly, self-convicted, her big belly betrayed the weight she bore. To whom the goddess spake: “Daughter of Lycaon forsworn, forsake the company of maids and defile not the pure waters.” Ten times the horned moon had filled her orb afresh, when she who had been thought a maid was proved a mother. The injured Juno raged and changed the damsel’s shape. Why so? Against her will Jove ravished her. And when in the leman she beheld the ugly features of the brute, quoth Juno, “Let Jupiter now court her embraces.” But she, who of late had been beloved by highest Jove, now roamed, a shaggy she-bear, the mountains wild. The child she had conceived in sin was now in his third lustre when his mother met him. She indeed, as if she knew him, stood distraught and growled; a growl was all the mother’s speech. Her the stripling with his sharp javelin would have pierced, but that they both were caught up into the mansions on high. As constellations they sparkle beside each other. First comes what we call the Bear; the Bear-Ward seems to follow at her back. Still Saturn’s daughter frets and begs grey Tethys never to touch and wash with her waters the Bear of Maenalus.4
Arctophylax, also called Boötes.
Called also here Cynthia and Phoebe, in Ovid’s allusive way.
See Metam. ii. 409–507.
In northern latitudes the Bear never sets.