pallentem nudumque et adhuc umente capillo
infelix vidi. stetit hoc miserabilis ipso
ecce loco’; et quaerit, vestigia siqua supersint.
‘hoc erat, hoc, animo quod divinante timebam,
et ne me fugiens ventos sequerere rogabam. 695
at certe vellem, quoniam periturus abibas,
me quoque duxisses: multum fuit utile tecum
ire mihi; neque enim de vitae tempore quicquam
non simul egissem, nec mors discreta fuisset.
nunc absens perii, iactor quoque fluctibus absens, 700
et sine me me pontus habet. crudelior ipso
sit mihi mens pelago, si vitam ducere nitar
longius et tanto pugnem superesse dolori!
sed neque pugnabo nec te, miserande, relinquam
et tibi nunc saltem veniam comes, inque sepulcro 705
si non urna, tamen iunget nos littera: si non
ossibus ossa meis, at nomen nomine tangam.’
plura dolor prohibet, verboque intervenit omni
plangor, et attonito gemitus a corde trahuntur.
Mane erat: egreditur tectis ad litus et illum 710
maesta locum repetit, de quo spectarat euntem,
dumque moratur ibi dumque ‘hic retinacula solvit,
hoc mihi discedens dedit oscula litore’ dicit
dumque notata locis reminiscitur acta fretumque
prospicit, in liquida, spatio distante, tuetur 715
nescio quid quasi corpus aqua, primoque, quid illud
esset, erat dubium; postquam paulum adpulit unda,
et, quamvis aberat, corpus tamen esse liquebat,
qui foret, ignorans, quia naufragus, omine mota est
et, tamquam ignoto lacrimam daret, ‘heu! miser,’ inquit 720
‘quisquis es, et siqua est coniunx tibi!’ fluctibus actum
fit propius corpus: quod quo magis illa tuetur,
hoc minus et minus est mentis, vae! iamque propinquae
admotum terrae, iam quod cognoscere posset,
cernit: erat coniunx! ‘ille est!’ exclamat et una 725
ora, comas, vestem lacerat tendensque trementes
ad Ceyca manus ‘sic, o carissime coniunx,
sic ad me, miserande, redis?’ ait. adiacet undis
facta manu moles, quae primas aequoris iras
frangit et incursus quae praedelassat aquarum. 730
insilit huc, mirumque fuit potuisse: volabat
percutiensque levem modo natis aera pennis
stringebat summas ales miserabilis undas,
dumque volat, maesto similem plenumque querellae
ora dedere sonum tenui crepitantia rostro. 735
ut vero tetigit mutum et sine sanguine corpus,
dilectos artus amplexa recentibus alis
frigida nequiquam duro dedit oscula rostro.
senserit hoc Ceyx, an vultum motibus undae
tollere sit visus, populus dubitabat, at ille 740
senserat: et tandem, superis miserantibus, ambo
alite mutantur; fatis obnoxius isdem
tunc quoque mansit amor nec coniugiale solutum
foedus in alitibus: coeunt fiuntque parentes,
perque dies placidos hiberno tempore septem 745
incubat Alcyone pendentibus aequore nidis.
tunc iacet unda maris: ventos custodit et arcet
Aeolus egressu praestatque nepotibus aequor.
Hos aliquis senior iunctim freta lata volantes
spectat et ad finem servatos laudat amores: 750
proximus, aut idem, si fors tulit, ‘hic quoque,’ dixit
‘quem mare carpentem substrictaque crura gerentem
aspicis,’ (ostendens spatiosum in guttura mergum)
‘regia progenies, et si descendere ad ipsum
ordine perpetuo quaeris, sunt huius origo 755
Ilus et Assaracus raptusque Iovi Ganymedes
Laomedonque senex Priamusque novissima Troiae
tempora sortitus; frater fuit Hectoris iste:
qui nisi sensisset prima nova fata iuventa,
forsitan inferius non Hectore nomen haberet, 760
quamvis est illum proles enixa Dymantis,
Aesacon umbrosa furtim peperisse sub Ida
fertur Alexiroe, Granico nata bicorni.
oderat hic urbes nitidaque remotus ab aula
secretos montes et inambitiosa colebat 765
rura nec Iliacos coetus nisi rarus adibat.
non agreste tamen nec inexpugnabile amori
pectus habens silvas captatam saepe per omnes
aspicit Hesperien patria Cebrenida ripa
iniectos umeris siccantem sole capillos. 770
visa fugit nymphe, veluti perterrita fulvum
cerva lupum longeque lacu deprensa relicto
accipitrem fluvialis anas; quam Troius heros
insequitur celeremque metu celer urget amore.
ecce latens herba coluber fugientis adunco 775
dente pedem strinxit virusque in corpore liquit;
cum vita suppressa fuga est: amplectitur amens
exanimem clamatque “piget, piget esse secutum!
sed non hoc timui, neque erat mihi vincere tanti.
perdidimus miseram nos te duo: vulnus ab angue, 780
a me causa data est! ego sim sceleratior illo,
ni tibi morte mea mortis solacia mittam.”
dixit et e scopulo, quem rauca subederat unda,
se dedit in pontum. Tethys miserata cadentem
molliter excepit nantemque per aequora pennis 785
texit, et optatae non est data copia mortis.
indignatur amans, invitum vivere cogi
obstarique animae misera de sede volenti
exire, utque novas umeris adsumpserat alas,
subvolat atque iterum corpus super aequora mittit. 790
pluma levat casus: furit Aesacos inque profundum
pronus abit letique viam sine fine retemptat.
fecit amor maciem: longa internodia crurum,
longa manet cervix, caput est a corpore longe;
aequora amat nomenque tenet, quia mergitur illo.’ 795
But wan and naked, with hair still dripping, oh, woe is me, I saw him. See there, on that very spot, my wretched husband stood” and she strove to see if any footprints still remained. “This, this it was which with foreboding mind I feared, and I begged you not to leave me and sail away. But surely I should have wished, since you were going to your death, that you had taken me as well. How well had it been for me to go with you; for in that case neither should I have spent any of my life apart from you, nor should we have been separated in our death. But now far from myself I have perished; far from myself also I am tossed about upon the waves, and without me the sea holds me. My heart would be more cruel to me than the sea itself if I should strive still to live on and struggle to survive my sorrow. But I shall neither struggle nor shall I leave you, my poor husband. Now at least I shall come to be your companion; and if not the entombed urn, at least the lettered stone shall join us; if not your bones with mine, still shall I touch you, name with name.” Grief checked further speech, wailing took place of words, and groans drawn from her stricken heart.
Morning had come. She went forth from her house to the seashore and sadly sought that spot again from which she had watched him sail. And while she lingered there and while she was saying: “Here he loosed his cable, on this beach he kissed me as he was departing”; while she was thus recalling the incidents and the place and gazing sea-ward, away out upon the streaming waters she saw something like a corpse. At first she was not sure what it was; but after the waves had washed it a little nearer, although it was still some distance off, yet it clearly was a corpse. She did not know whose it was; yet, because it was a shipwrecked man, she was moved by the omen and, as if she would weep for the unknown dead, she cried: “Alas for you, poor man, whoever you are, and alas for your wife, if wife you have!” Meanwhile the body had been driven nearer by the waves, and the more she regarded it the less and still less could she contain herself. Ah! and now it had come close to land, now she could see clearly what it was. It was her husband! “’Tis he!” she shrieked and, tearing her cheeks, her hair, her garments all at once, she stretched out her trembling hands to Ceyx, crying: “Thus, O dearest husband, is it thus, poor soul, you come back to me?” Near by the water was a mole built which broke the first onslaught of the waters, and took the force of the rushing waves. Thither she ran and leaped into the sea; ’twas a wonder that she could; she flew and, fluttering through the yielding air on sudden wings, she skimmed the surface of the water, a wretched bird. And as she flew, her croaking mouth, with long slender beak, uttered sounds like one in grief and full of complaint. But when she reached the silent, lifeless body, she embraced the dear limbs with her new-found wings and strove vainly to kiss the cold lips with her rough bill. Whether Ceyx felt this, or whether he but seemed to lift his face by the motion of the waves, men were in doubt. But he did feel it. And at last, through the pity of the gods, both changed to birds. Though thus they suffered the same fate, still even thus their love remained, nor were their conjugal bonds loosened because of their feathered shape. Still do they mate and rear their young; and for seven peaceful days in the winter season Alcyone broods upon her nest floating upon the surface of the waters. At such a time the waves of the sea are still; for Aeolus guards his winds and forbids them to go abroad and for his grandsons’ sake gives peace upon the sea.
Seeing these birds flying in loving harmony over the broad waters, some old man spoke in praise of their affection kept unbroken to the end. Then one near by, or perhaps the same speaker, pointing to a long-necked diver, said: “That bird also, which you see skimming along over the water and trailing his slender legs, is of royal birth, and his ancestors, if you wish in unbroken line to come down to him himself, were Ilus and Assaracus, Ganymede, whom Jove stole away, old Laomedon and Priam, who came by fate on Troy’s last days. He there was the brother of Hector; and had he not met his strange fate in early manhood, perhaps he would have a name no less renowned than Hector’s. While the daughter of Dymas1 bore the one, the other, Aesacus, is said to have been borne in secret beneath the shades of Ida by Alexiroë, daughter of the horned Granicus. He hated towns and, far from glittering palace halls, dwelt on remote mountain-sides and in lowly country places, and rarely sought the company of the men of Ilium. Still his heart was not boorish nor averse to love, and often he pursued through all the woody glades Hesperia, daughter of Cebren, whom he beheld drying her flowing hair in the sun upon her father’s bank. The nymph fled at sight of him as the frightened hind flees the tawny wolf, or as the wild duck, surprised far from her forsaken pool, flees from the hawk. But the Trojan hero followed her, swift on the wings of love as she was swift on the wings of fear. Behold, a serpent, hiding in the grass, pierced her foot with his curved fangs as she fled along, and left his poison in her veins. Her flight stopped with life. Beside himself, her lover embraced the lifeless form and cried: ‘Oh, I repent me, I repent that I followed you! But I had no fear of this, nor was it worth so much to me to win you. We have destroyed you, poor maid, two of us: the wound was given you by the serpent, by me was given the cause! Let me be accounted the worse, if I do not by dying send you death’s solace.’ So saying, from a lofty cliff, where the hoarse waves had eaten it out below, he hurled himself down into the sea. But Tethys, pitying his case, received him gently as he fell, covered him with feathers as he floated on the waters, and so denied him the privilege of the death he sought. The lover was wroth that he was forced to live against his will and that his spirit was thwarted as it desired to leave its wretched seat. And when he had gained on his shoulders his new-sprung wings, he flew aloft and once more hurled his body down to the sea; but his light plumage broke his fall. In wild rage Aesacus dived deep down below the water and tried endlessly to find the way to death. His passion made him lean; his legs between the joints are long, his long neck is still long, his head is far from his body. He still loves the sea and has his name2 because he dives beneath it.”
Hecuba.
Mergus, a diver.