May 3 | Fastorum Liber Quintus: Maius
C C LVD • IN • CIR | V Non. | V.379-414, Ovid relates the story of Chiron as his constellation rises.
Nocte minus quarta promet sua sidera Chiron
semivir et flavi corpore mixtus equi. 380
Pelion Haemoniae mons est obversus in Austros:
summa virent pinu, cetera quercus habet.
Phillyrides tenuit. saxo stant antra vetusto,
quae iustum memorant incoluisse senem.
ille manus olim missuras Hectora leto 385
creditur in lyricis detinuisse modis.
venerat Alcides exhausta parte laborum,
iussaque restabant ultima paene viro.
stare simul casu Troiae duo fata videres:
hinc puer Aeacides, hinc Iove natus erat. 390
excipit hospitio iuvenem Philyreïus heros,
et causam adventus hic rogat, ille docet.
respicit interea clavam spoliumque leonis,
“vir” que ait “his armis, armaque digna viro!”
nec se, quin horrens auderent tangere saetis 395
vellus, Achilleae continuere manus.
dumque senex tractat squalentia tela venenis,
excidit et laevo fixa sagitta pede est.
ingemuit Chiron traxitque e corpore ferrum:
adgemit Alcides Haemoniusque puer. 400
ipse tamen lectas Pagasaeis collibus herbas
temperat et varia volnera mulcet ope:
virus edax superabat opem, penitusque recepta
ossibus et toto corpore pestis erat.
405sanguine Centauri Lernaeae sanguis echidnae
mixtus ad auxilium tempora nulla dabat.
stabat, ut ante patrem, lacrimis perfusus Achilles:
sic flendus Peleus, si moreretur, erat.
saepe manus aegras manibus fingebat amicis
(morum, quos fecit, praemia doctor habet), 410
oscula saepe dedit, dixit quoque saepe iacenti
“vive, precor, nec me, care, relinque, pater!”
nona dies aderat, cum tu, iustissime Chiron,
bis septem stellis corpora cinctus eras.
379 In less than four nights the semi-human Chiron, who is compounded with the body of a tawny horse, will put forth his stars.1 Pelion is a mountain of Haemonia2 which looks southward: its top is green with pine woods: the rest is draped with oaks. It was the home of Philyra’s son.3 There remains an ancient rocky cave, which they say was inhabited by the righteous old man. He is believed to have employed, in strumming the lyre, those hands which were one day to send Hector to death. Alcides had come after accomplishing a part of his labours, and little but the last orders remained for the hero to obey. You might see standing by chance together the two masters of the fate of Troy, on the one side the boyish descendant of Aeacus, on the other the son of Jupiter.4 The Philyrean hero received Hercules hospitably and asked the reason of his coming, and Hercules informed him. Meantime Chiron looked askance at the club and lion’s skin and said, “Man worthy of those arms, and arms worthy the man!” Nor could Achilles keep his hands from daring to touch the skin all shaggy with bristles. And while the old man fingered the shafts clotted with poison,5 one of the arrows fell out of the quiver and stuck in his left foot. Chiron groaned and drew the steel from his body; Alcides groaned too, and so did the Haemonian boy. The centaur himself, however, compounded herbs gathered on the Pagasaean hills and tended the wound with diverse remedies; but the gnawing poison defied all remedies, and the bane soaked into the bones and the whole body. The blood of the Lernaean hydra, mingled with the Centaur’s blood, left no time for rescue. Achilles, bathed in tears, stood before him as before a father; so would he have wept for Peleus at the point of death. Often he fondled the feeble hands with his own loving hands; the teacher reaped the reward of the character he had moulded. Often Achilles kissed him, and often said to him as he lay there, “Live, I pray thee, and do not forsake me, dear father.” The ninth day was come when thou, most righteous Chiron, didst gird thy body with twice seven stars.6
The Centaur: true evening rising, May 3; apparent, April 15.
Thessaly.
Chiron.
The descendant of Aeacus is Achilles. Hercules, “son of Jupiter,” destroyed Troy, because Laomedon had broken faith with him.
See 405. Hercules poisoned his arrows with the hydra’s blood.
The constellation of Centaurus.