Metamorphoses VIII.501-625
Althaea avenges the deaths of her brothers by killing her husband; Theseus visits the house of the river-god Acheloüs.
o utinam primis arsisses ignibus infans,
idque ego passa forem! vixisti munere nostro;
nunc merito moriere tuo! cape praemia facti
bisque datam, primum partu, mox stipite rapto,
redde animam vel me fraternis adde sepulcris! 505
et cupio et nequeo. quid agam? modo vulnera fratrum
ante oculos mihi sunt et tantae caedis imago,
nunc animum pietas maternaque nomina frangunt.
me miseram! male vincetis, sed vincite, fratres,
dummodo, quae dedero vobis, solacia vosque 510
ipsa sequar!’ dixit dextraque aversa trementi
funereum torrem medios coniecit in ignes:
aut dedit aut visus gemitus est ipse dedisse
stipes, ut invitis conreptus ab ignibus arsit.
Inscius atque absens flamma Meleagros ab illa 515
uritur et caecis torreri viscera sentit
ignibus ac magnos superat virtute dolores.
quod tamen ignavo cadat et sine sanguine leto,
maeret et Ancaei felicia vulnera dicit
grandaevumque patrem fratresque piasque sorores 520
cum gemitu sociamque tori vocat ore supremo,
forsitan et matrem. crescunt ignisque dolorque
languescuntque iterum; simul est exstinctus uterque,
inque leves abiit paulatim spiritus auras
paulatim cana prunam velante favilla. 525
Alta iacet Calydon: lugent iuvenesque senesque,
vulgusque proceresque gemunt, scissaeque capillos
planguntur matres Calydonides Eueninae;
pulvere canitiem genitor vultusque seniles
foedat humi fusus spatiosumque increpat aevum. 530
nam de matre manus diri sibi conscia facti
exegit poenas acto per viscera ferro.
non mihi si centum deus ora sonantia linguis
ingeniumque capax totumque Helicona dedisset,
tristia persequerer miserarum fata sororum. 535
inmemores decoris liventia pectora tundunt,
dumque manet corpus, corpus refoventque foventque,
oscula dant ipsi, posito dant oscula lecto.
post cinerem cineres haustos ad pectora pressant
adfusaeque iacent tumulo signataque saxo 540
nomina conplexae lacrimas in nomina fundunt.
quas Parthaoniae tandem Latonia clade
exsatiata domus praeter Gorgenque nurumque
nobilis Alcmenae natis in corpore pennis
adlevat et longas per bracchia porrigit alas 545
corneaque ora facit versasque per aera mittit.
Interea Theseus sociati parte laboris
functus Erectheas Tritonidos ibat ad arces.
clausit iter fecitque moras Achelous eunti
imbre tumens: ‘succede meis,’ ait ‘inclite, tectis, 550
Cecropide, nec te committe rapacibus undis:
ferre trabes solidas obliquaque volvere magno
murmure saxa solent. vidi contermina ripae
cum gregibus stabula alta trahi; nec fortibus illic
profuit armentis nec equis velocibus esse. 555
multa quoque hic torrens nivibus de monte solutis
corpora turbineo iuvenalia vertice mersit.
tutior est requies, solito dum flumina currant
limite, dum tenues capiat suus alveus undas.’
adnuit Aegides ‘utar,’ que ‘Acheloe, domoque 560
consilioque tuo’ respondit; et usus utroque est.
pumice multicavo nec levibus atria tophis
structa subit: molli tellus erat umida musco,
summa lacunabant alterno murice conchae.
iamque duas lucis partes Hyperione menso 565
discubuere toris Theseus comitesque laborum,
hac Ixionides, illa Troezenius heros
parte Lelex, raris iam sparsus tempora canis,
quosque alios parili fuerat dignatus honore
Amnis Acarnanum, laetissimus hospite tanto. 570
protinus adpositas nudae vestigia nymphae
instruxere epulis mensas dapibusque remotis
in gemma posuere merum. tum maximus heros,
aequora prospiciens oculis subiecta, ‘quis’ inquit
‘ille locus?’ (digitoque ostendit) ‘et insula nomen 575
quod gerit illa, doce, quamquam non una videtur!’
Amnis ad haec ‘non est’ inquit ‘quod cernitis unum:
quinque iacent terrae; spatium discrimina fallit.
quoque minus spretae factum mirere Dianae,
naides hae fuerant, quae cum bis quinque iuvencos 580
mactassent rurisque deos ad sacra vocassent,
inmemores nostri festas duxere choreas.
intumui, quantusque feror, cum plurimus umquam,
tantus eram, pariterque animis inmanis et undis
a silvis silvas et ab arvis arva revelli 585
cumque loco nymphas, memores tum denique nostri,
in freta provolvi. fluctus nosterque marisque
continuam diduxit humum partesque resolvit
in totidem, mediis quot cernis Echinadas undis.
ut tamen ipse vides, procul, en procul una recessit 590
insula, grata mihi; Perimelen navita dicit:
huic ego virgineum dilectae nomen ademi;
quod pater Hippodamas aegre tulit inque profundum
propulit e scopulo periturae corpora natae.
excepi nantemque ferens “o proxima mundi 595
regna vagae” dixi “sortite, Tridentifer, undae,
adfer opem, mersaeque, precor, feritate paterna 601
da, Neptune, locum, vel sit locus ipsa licebit!”
dum loquor, amplexa est artus nova terra natantes 609
et gravis increvit mutatis insula membris.’
Amnis ab his tacuit. factum mirabile cunctos
moverat: inridet credentes, utque deorum
spretor erat mentisque ferox, Ixione natus
‘ficta refers nimiumque putas, Acheloe, potentes
esse deos,’ dixit ‘si dant adimuntque figuras.’ 615
obstipuere omnes nec talia dicta probarunt,
ante omnesque Lelex animo maturus et aevo,
sic ait: ‘inmensa est finemque potentia caeli
non habet, et quicquid superi voluere, peractum est,
quoque minus dubites, tiliae contermina quercus 620
collibus est Phrygiis modico circumdata muro;
ipse locum vidi; nam me Pelopeia Pittheus
misit in arva suo quondam regnata parenti.
haud procul hinc stagnum est, tellus habitabilis olim,
nunc celebres mergis fulicisque palustribus undae; 625
O that you had perished in your infancy by those first fires, and I had suffered it! You lived by my gift; now you shall die by your own desert; pay the price of your deed. Give back the life I twice gave you, once at your birth, once when I saved the brand; or else add me to my brothers’ pyre. I both desire to act, and cannot. Oh, what shall I do? Now I can see only my brothers’ wounds, the sight of that deed of blood: and now love and the name of mother break me down. Woe is me, my brothers! It is ill that you should win, but win you shall; only let me have the solace that I grant to and let me follow you!” She and spoke, turning away her face, with trembling hand she threw the fatal billet into the flames. The brand either gave or seemed to give a groan as it was caught and consumed by the unwilling fire.
Unconscious, far away, Meleager burns with those flames; he feels his vitals scorching with hidden fire, and o’ercomes the great pain with fortitude. But yet he grieves that he must die a cowardly and bloodless death, and he calls Ancaeus happy for the wounds he suffered. With groans of pain he calls with his dying breath on his aged father, his brothers and loving sisters and his wife, perchance also upon his mother. The fire and his pains increase, and then die down. Both fire and pain go out together; his spirit gradually slips away into the thin air as white ashes gradually overspread the glowing coals.
Lofty Calydon is brought low. Young men and old, chieftains and commons, lament and groan; and the Calydonian women, dwellers by Euenus’ stream, tear their hair and beat their breasts. The father, prone on the ground, defiles his white hair and his aged head with dust, and laments that he has lived too long. For the mother, now knowing her awful deed, has punished herself, driving a dagger through her heart. Not if some god had given me a hundred mouths each with its tongue, a master’s genius, and all Helicon’s inspiration, could I describe the piteous prayers of those poor sisters. Careless of decency, they beat and bruise their breasts; and, while their brother’s corpse remains, they caress that corpse over and over, kiss him and kiss the bier as it stands before them. And, when he is ashes, they gather the ashes and press them to their hearts, throw themselves on his tomb in abandonment of grief and, clasping the stone on which his name has been carved, they drench the name with their tears. At length Diana, satisfied with the destruction of Parthaon’s house, made feathers spring on their bodies—all save Gorge and great Alcmena’s daughter-in-law1—stretched out long wings over their arms, gave them a horny beak, and sent them transfigured into the air.2
Meanwhile Theseus, having done his part in the confederate task, was on his way back to Tritonia’s city where Krechtheus ruled. But Acheloüs, swollen with rain, blocked his way and delayed his journey. “Enter my house, illustrious hero of Athens,” said the river-god, “and do not entrust yourself to my greedy waters. The current is wont to sweep down solid trunks of trees and huge boulders in zig- zag course with crash and roar. I have seen great stables that stood near by the bank swept away, cattle and all, and in that current neither strength availed the ox nor speed the horse. Many a strong man also has been overwhelmed in its whirling pools when swollen by melting snows from the mountainsides. It is safer for you to rest until the waters shall run within their accustomed bounds, until its own bed shall hold the slender stream.” The son of Aegeus replied: “I will use both your house, Acheloüs, and your advice.” And he did use them both. He entered the river-god’s dark dwelling, built of porous pumice and rough tufa; the floor was damp with soft moss, conchs and purple-shells panelled the ceiling. Now had the blazing sun traversed two-thirds of his daily course, when Theseus and his comrades of the chase disposed themselves upon the couches. Ixion’s son3 lay here and there, Lelex, the hero of Troezen, took his place, his temples already sprinkled with grey; and others who had been deemed worthy of equal honour by the Acarnanian river-god, who was filled with joy in his noble guest. Without delay barefoot nymphs set the feast upon the tables, and then when the food had been removed, they set out the wine in jewelled cups. Then the noble hero, looking forth upon the wide water spread before his eyes, pointed with his finger and said: “What place is that? Tell me the name which that island bears. And yet it seems not to be one island.” The river-god replied: “No, what you see is not one island, there are five islands lying there together; but the distance hides their divisions. And, that you may wonder the less at what Diana did when she was slighted, those islands once were nymphs, who, when they had slaughtered ten bullocks and had invited all the other rural gods to their sacred feast, forgot me as they led the festal dance. I swelled with rage, as full as when my flood flows at the fullest; and so, terrible in wrath, terrible in flood, I tore forests from forests, fields from fields; and with the place they stood on, I swept the nymphs away, who at last remembered me then, into the sea. There my flood and the sea, united, cleft the undivided ground into as many parts as now you see the Echinades yonder amid the waves. But, as you yourself see, away, look, far away beyond the others is one island that I love: the sailors call it Perimele. She was beloved by me, and from her I took the name of maiden. Her father, Hippodamas, was enraged with this, and he hurled his daughter to her death down from a high cliff into the deep. I caught her, and supporting her as she swam, I cried: ‘O thou god of the trident, to whom the lot gave the kingdom next to the world, even the wandering waves, bring aid, I pray, to one drowned by a father’s cruelty; give her a place, O Neptune, or else let her become a place herself.’ While I prayed a new land embraced her floating form and a solid island grew from her transformed shape.”
With these words the river was silent. The story of the miracle had moved the hearts of all. But one mocked at their credulity, a scoffer at the gods, one reckless in spirit, Ixion’s son, Pirithoüs. “These are but fairy-tales you tell, Acheloüs,” he said, “and you concede too much power to the gods, if they give and take away the forms of things.” All the rest were shocked and disapproved such words, and especially Lelex, ripe both in mind and years, who replied: “The power of heaven is indeed immeasurable and has no bounds; and whatever the gods decree is done. And, that you may believe it, there stand in the Phrygian hill-country an oak and a linden-tree side by side, surrounded by a low wall. I have myself seen the spot; for Pittheus sent me to Phrygia, where his father once ruled. Not far from the place I speak of is a marsh, once a habitable land, but now water, the haunt of divers and coots.
Deianira, the wife of Hercules.
These birds were called Meleagrides, guinea-hens.
Pirithoüs.