Metamorphoses XI.346-460
Psamathe, the Nereid, sics a giant wolf on Peleus' herd; Alcyone fears that Ceyx's journey to the Delphic oracle will be disastrous.
Quae dum Lucifero genitus miracula narrat
de consorte suo, cursu festinus anhelo
advolat armenti custos Phoceus Onetor
et ‘Peleu, Peleu! magnae tibi nuntius adsum
cladis’ ait. quodcumque ferat, iubet edere Peleus, 350
pendet et ipse metu trepidi Trachinius oris;
ille refert ‘fessos ad litora curva iuvencos
adpuleram, medio cum Sol altissimus orbe
tantum respiceret, quantum superesse videret,
parsque boum fulvis genua inclinarat harenis 355
latarumque iacens campos spectabat aquarum,
pars gradibus tardis illuc errabat et illuc;
nant alii celsoque exstant super aequora collo.
templa mari subsunt nec marmore clara neque auro,
sed trabibus densis lucoque umbrosa vetusto: 360
Nereides Nereusque tenent (hos navita ponti
edidit esse deos, dum retia litore siccat);
iuncta palus huic est densis obsessa salictis,
quam restagnantis fecit maris unda paludem:
inde fragore gravi strepitans loca proxima terret, 365
belua vasta, lupus iuncisque palustribus exit,
oblitus et spumis et sparsus sanguine rictus
fulmineos, rubra suffusus lumina flamma.
qui quamquam saevit pariter rabieque fameque,
acrior est rabie: neque enim ieiunia curat 370
caede boum diramque famem finire, sed omne
vulnerat armentum sternitque hostiliter omne.
pars quoque de nobis funesto saucia morsu,
dum defensamus, leto est data; sanguine litus
undaque prima rubet demugitaeque paludes. 375
sed mora damnosa est, nec res dubitare remittit:
dum superest aliquid, cuncti coeamus et arma,
arma capessamus coniunctaque tela feramus!’
dixerat agrestis: nec Pelea damna movebant,
sed memor admissi Nereida conligit orbam 380
damna sua inferias exstincto mittere Phoco.
induere arma viros violentaque sumere tela
rex iubet Oetaeus; cum quis simul ipse parabat
ire, sed Alcyone coniunx excita tumultu
prosilit et nondum totos ornata capillos 385
disicit hos ipsos colloque infusa mariti,
mittat ut auxilium sine se, verbisque precatur
et lacrimis, animasque duas ut servet in una.
Aeacides illi: ‘pulchros, regina, piosque
pone metus! plena est promissi gratia vestri. 390
non placet arma mihi contra nova monstra moveri;
numen adorandum pelagi est!’ erat ardua turris,
arce focus summa, fessis nota grata carinis:
ascendunt illuc stratosque in litore tauros
cum gemitu adspiciunt vastatoremque cruento 395
ore ferum, longos infectum sanguine villos.
inde manus tendens in aperti litora ponti
caeruleam Peleus Psamathen, ut finiat iram,
orat, opemque ferat; nec vocibus illa rogantis
flectitur Aeacidae, Thetis hanc pro coniuge supplex 400
accepit veniam. sed enim revocatus ab acri
caede lupus perstat, dulcedine sanguinis asper,
donec inhaerentem lacerae cervice iuvencae
marmore mutavit: corpus praeterque colorem
omnia servavit, lapidis color indicat illum 405
iam non esse lupum, iam non debere timeri.
nec tamen hac profugum consistere Pelea terra
fata sinunt, Magnetas adit vagus exul et illic
sumit ab Haemonio purgamina caedis Acasto.
Interea fratrisque sui fratremque secutis 410
anxia prodigiis turbatus pectora Ceyx,
consulat ut sacras, hominum oblectamina, sortes,
ad Clarium parat ire deum; nam templa profanus
invia cum Phlegyis faciebat Delphica Phorbas.
consilii tamen ante sui, fidissima, certam 415
te facit, Alcyone; cui protinus intima frigus
ossa receperunt, buxoque simillimus ora
pallor obit, lacrimisque genae maduere profusis.
ter conata loqui, ter fletibus ora rigavit
singultuque pias interrumpente querellas 420
‘quae mea culpa tuam,’ dixit ‘carissime, mentem
vertit? ubi est quae cura mei prior esse solebat?
iam potes Alcyone securus abesse relicta?
iam via longa placet? iam sum tibi carior absens?
at, puto, per terras iter est, tantumque dolebo, 425
non etiam metuam, curaeque timore carebunt.
aequora me terrent et ponti tristis imago:
et laceras nuper tabulas in litore vidi
et saepe in tumulis sine corpore nomina legi.
neve tuum fallax animum fiducia tangat, 430
quod socer Hippotades tibi sit, qui carcere fortes
contineat ventos, et, cum velit, aequora placet.
cum semel emissi tenuerunt aequora venti,
nil illis vetitum est: incommendataque tellus
omnis et omne fretum est, caeli quoque nubila vexant 435
excutiuntque feris rutilos concursibus ignes.
quo magis hos novi (nam novi et saepe paterna
parva domo vidi), magis hoc reor esse timendos.
quod tua si flecti precibus sententia nullis,
care, potest, coniunx, nimiumque es certus eundi, 440
me quoque tolle simul! certe iactabimur una,
nec nisi quae patiar, metuam, pariterque feremus,
quicquid erit, pariter super aequora lata feremur.’
Talibus Aeolidis dictis lacrimisque movetur
sidereus coniunx: neque enim minor ignis in ipso est; 445
sed neque propositos pelagi dimittere cursus,
nec vult Alcyonen in partem adhibere pericli
multaque respondit timidum solantia pectus.
non tamen idcirco causam probat; addidit illis
hoc quoque lenimen, quo solo flexit amantem: 450
‘longa quidem est nobis omnis mora, sed tibi iuro
per patrios ignes, si me modo fata remittant,
ante reversurum, quam luna bis inpleat orbem.’
his ubi promissis spes est admota recursus,
protinus eductam navalibus aequore tingui 455
aptarique suis pinum iubet armamentis;
qua rursus visa veluti praesaga futuri
horruit Alcyone lacrimasque emisit obortas
amplexusque dedit tristique miserrima tandem
ore ‘vale’ dixit conlapsaque corpore toto est; 460
While the son of Lucifer was telling this marvellous story of his brother, Phocian Onetor, Peleus’ herdsman, came running in with breathless haste, crying: “Peleus, Peleus! I come to tell you dreadful news.” Peleus bade him tell his news, while the Trachinian king himself waited in trembling anxiety. The herdsman went on: “I had driven the weary herd down to the curving shore when the high sun was midway in his course, beholding as much behind him as still lay before. A part of the cattle had kneeled down upon the yellow sands, and lying there were looking out upon the broad, level sea; part was wandering slowly here and there, while others still swam out and stood neck-deep in water. A temple stood near the sea, not resplendent with marble and gold, but made of heavy timbers, and shaded by an ancient grove. The place was sacred to Nereus and the Nereids (these a sailor told me were the gods of that sea, as he dried his nets on the shore). Hard by this temple was a marsh thick-set with willows, which the backwater of the sea made into a marsh. From here a huge beast, a wolf, creating a frightful uproar, fills the neighbourhood with fear: he came forth from the marshy undergrowth, his great murderous jaws caked in foam and clotted blood, and his eyes blazing with red fire. He was mad with rage and hunger, but more with rage. For he stayed not to sate his dire hunger on the slain cattle, but mangled the whole herd, slaughtering all in wanton malice. Some of us, also, while we strove to drive him off, were sore wounded by his deadly fangs and given over to death. The shore, the shallow water, and the swamps, resounding with the bellowings of the herd, were red with blood. But delay is fatal, nor is there time to hesitate. While still there’s something left, let us all together rush on to arms, to arms! and make a combined attack upon the wolf!” So spoke the rustic. Peleus was not stirred by the story of his loss; but, conscious of his crime, he well knew that the bereaved Nereid1 was sending this calamity upon him as a sacrificial offering to her slain Phocus. The Oetaean king bade his men put on their armour and take their deadly spears in hand, and at the same time was making ready to go with them himself. But his wife, Alcyone, roused by the loud outcries, came rushing out of her chamber, her hair not yet all arranged, and, sending this flying loose, she threw herself upon her husband’s neck, and begged him with prayers and tears that he would send aid but not go himself, and so save two lives in one. Then said the son of Aeacus to her: “Your pious fears, O queen, become you; but have no fear. I am not ungrateful for your proffered help; but I have no desire that arms be taken in my behalf against the strange monster. I must pray to the goddess of the sea.” There was a tall tower, a lighthouse on the top of the citadel, a welcome landmark for storm-tossed ships. They climbed up to its top, and thence with cries of pity looked out upon the cattle lying dead upon the shore, and saw the killer revelling with bloody jaws, and with his long shaggy hair stained red with blood. There, stretching out his hands to the shores of the open sea, Peleus prayed to the sea-nymph, Psamathe, that she put away her wrath and come to his help. She, indeed, remained unmoved by the prayers of Peleus; but Thetis, adding her prayers for her husband’s sake, obtained the nymph’s forgiveness. But the wolf, though ordered off from his fierce slaughter, kept on, mad with the sweet draughts of blood; until, just as he was fastening his fangs upon the torn neck of a heifer, the nymph changed him into marble. The body, save for its colour, remained the same in all respects; but the colour of the stone proclaimed that now he was no longer wolf, that now he no longer need be feared. But still the fates did not suffer the banished Peleus to continue in this land. The wandering exile went on to Magnesia, and there, at the hands of the Haemonian king, Acastus, he gained full absolution from his bloodguiltiness.
Meanwhile King Ceyx was much disturbed and anxious, not alone about the strange thing that happened to his brother, but also about others that had happened since his brother’s fate. Accordingly, that he might consult the sacred oracles, the refuge of mankind in trouble, he planned to journey to the Clarian god. For the infamous Phorbas with the followers of Phlegyas was making the journey to the Delphic oracle unsafe. But before he started he told his purpose to you, his most faithful wife, Alcyone. Straightway she was chilled to the very marrow of her bones, her face grew pale as boxwood and her cheeks were wet with her flowing tears. Three times she tried to speak, three times watered her face with weeping; at last, her loving complaints broken by her sobs, she said: “What fault of mine, O dearest husband, has brought your mind to this? Where is that care for me which used to stand first of all? Can you now abandon your Alcyone with no thought of her? Is it your pleasure now to go on a long journey? Am I now dearer to you when absent from you? But, I suppose, your journey is by land, and I shall only grieve, not fear for you, and my cares shall have no terror in them. The sea affrights me, and the stern visage of the deep; and but lately I saw some broken planks upon the beach, and often have I read men’s names on empty tombs. And let not your mind have vain confidence in that the son of Hippotes is your father-in-law, who holds the stout winds behind prison bars, and when he will can calm the sea. For when once the winds have been let out and have gained the open deep, no power can check them, and every land and every sea is abandoned to their will. Nay, they harry the very clouds of heaven and rouse the red lightnings with their fierce collisions. The more I know them (for I do know them, and have often seen them when a child in my father’s home) the more I think them to be feared. But if no prayers can change your purpose, dear husband, and if you are over-bent on going, take me with you, too! For surely we shall then be storm-tossed together, nor shall I fear save only what I feel, and together we shall endure whatever comes, together over the broad billows we shall fare.”
With these words and tears of the daughter of Aeolus the star-born husband was deeply moved; for the fire of love burned no less brightly in his heart. And yet he was unwilling either to give up his proposed journey on the sea or to take Alcyone as sharer of his perils. His anxious love strove to comfort her with many soothing words, but for all that he did not win her approval. He added this comforting condition, also, by which alone he gained his loving wife’s consent: “Every delay, I know, will seem long to us; but I swear to you by my father’s fires, if only the fates will let me, I will return before the moon shall twice have filled her orb.” When by these promises of return her hope had been awakened, straightway he ordered his ship to be launched and duly supplied with her equipment. But when Alcyone saw this, as if forewarned of what was to come, she fell to trembling again; her tears flowed afresh and, embracing her husband in the depth of woe, she said a sad farewell at last and then fainted away completely.
Psamathe, the mother of Phocus whom Peleus had accidentally killed.