non tamen arbor iners cecidit; nam Crantoris alti
abscidit iugulo pectusque umerumque sinistrum:
armiger ille tui fuerat genitoris, Achille,
quem Dolopum rector, bello superatus, Amyntor
Aeacidae dederat pacis pignusque fidemque. 365
Hunc procul ut foedo disiectum vulnere Peleus
vidit, “at inferias, iuvenum gratissime Crantor,
accipe” ait validoque in Demoleonta lacerto
fraxineam misit contentis viribus hastam,
quae laterum cratem praerupit et ossibus haerens 370
intremuit: trahit ille manu sine cuspide lignum
(id quoque vix sequitur), cuspis pulmone retenta est;
ipse dolor vires animo dabat: aeger in hostem
erigitur pedibusque virum proculcat equinis.
excipit ille ictus galea clipeoque sonantes 375
defensatque umeros praetentaque sustinet arma
perque armos uno duo pectora perforat ictu.
ante tamen leto dederat Phlegraeon et Hylen
eminus, Iphinoum conlato Marte Claninque;
additur his Dorylas, qui tempora tecta gerebat 380
pelle lupi saevique vicem praestantia teli
cornua vara boum multo rubefacta cruore.
‘Huic ego (nam viris animus dabat) “aspice,” dixi
“quantum concedant nostro tua cornua ferro”
et iaculum torsi: quod cum vitare nequiret, 385
opposuit dextram passurae vulnera fronti:
adfixa est cum fronte manus; fit clamor, at illum
haerentem Peleus et acerbo vulnere victum
(stabat enim propior) mediam ferit ense sub alvum.
prosiluit terraque ferox sua viscera traxit 390
tractaque calcavit calcataque rupit et illis
crura quoque inpediit et inani concidit alvo.
‘Nec te pugnantem tua, Cyllare, forma redemit,
si modo naturae formam concedimus illi.
barba erat incipiens, barbae color aureus, aurea 395
ex umeris medios coma dependebat in armos.
gratus in ore vigor; cervix umerique manusque
pectoraque artificum laudatis proxima signis,
et quacumque vir est; nec equi mendosa sub illo
deteriorque viro facies; da colla caputque, 400
Castore dignus erit: sic tergum sessile, sic sunt
pectora celsa toris. totus pice nigrior atra,
candida cauda tamen; color est quoque cruribus albus.
multae illum petiere sua de gente, sed una
abstulit Hylonome, qua nulla decentior inter 405
semiferos altis habitavit femina silvis;
haec et blanditiis et amando et amare fatendo
Cyllaron una tenet, cultu quoque, quantus in illis
esse potest membris, ut sit coma pectine levis,
ut modo rore maris, modo se violave rosave 410
inplicet, interdum candentia lilia gestet,
bisque die lapsis Pagasaeae vertice silvae
fontibus ora lavet, bis flumine corpora tinguat,
nec nisi quae deceant electarumque ferarum
aut umero aut lateri praetendat vellera laevo. 415
par amor est illis: errant in montibus una,
antra simul subeunt; et tum Lapitheia tecta
intrarant pariter, pariter fera bella gerebant:
(auctor in incerto est) iaculum de parte sinistra
venit et inferius quam collo pectora subsunt, 420
Cyllare, te fixit; parvo cor vulnere laesum
corpore cum toto post tela educta refrixit.
protinus Hylonome morientes excipit artus
inpositaque manu vulnus fovet oraque ad ora
admovet atque animae fugienti obsistere temptat; 425
ut videt exstinctum, dictis, quae clamor ad aures
arcuit ire meas, telo, quod inhaeserat illi,
incubuit moriensque suum conplexa maritum est.
‘Ante oculos stat et ille meos, qui sena leonum
vinxerat inter se conexis vellera nodis, 430
Phaeocomes, hominemque simul protectus equumque;
caudice qui misso, quem vix iuga bina moverent,
Tectaphon Oleniden a summo vertice fregit;
[fracta volubilitas capitis latissima, perque os
perque cavas nares oculosque auresque cerebrum 435
molle fluit, veluti concretum vimine querno
lac solet utve liquor rari sub pondere cribri
manat et exprimitur per densa foramina spissus.]
ast ego, dum parat hic armis nudare iacentem,
(scit tuus hoc genitor) gladium spoliantis in ima 440
ilia demisi. Cthonius quoque Teleboasque
ense iacent nostro: ramum prior ille bifurcum
gesserat, hic iaculum; iaculo mihi vulnera fecit:
signa vides! adparet adhuc vetus inde cicatrix.
tunc ego debueram capienda ad Pergama mitti; 445
tum poteram magni, si non superare, morari
Hectoris arma meis! illo sed tempore nullus,
aut puer, Hector erat, nunc me mea deficit aetas.
quid tibi victorem gemini Periphanta Pyraethi,
Ampyca quid referam, qui quadrupedantis Echecli 450
fixit in adverso cornum sine cuspide vultu?
But the tree-trunk did not fall without effect, for it shore off tall Crantor’s breast and left shoulder from the neck. He had been your father’s armour-bearer, Achilles, whom Amyntor, king of the Dolopians, when overcome in war had given to Aeacides as a faithful pledge of peace. When Peleus at some space away saw him so horribly dismembered, he cried: ‘At least receive a funeral offering, Crantor, dearest of youths.’ So saying, with his sturdy arm and with all his strength put forth as well, he hurled his ashen spear at Demoleon; and this burst through his framework of ribs and hung there quivering in the bones. The centaur wrenched out the wooden shaft with his hands, leaving the head. This, also, he with much trouble sought to reach; but the head stuck fast within his lungs. His very anguish gave him frantic courage: wounded as he was, he reared up against his foe and beat the hero down with his hoofs. But Peleus received the resounding blows on helm and shield and, while protecting himself, he held his own weapon ready. With this he thrust the centaur through the shoulder, with one blow piercing his two breasts.1 Before this encounter Peleus had already slain Phlegraeos and Hyles, hurling from a distance, and, in close conflict, Iphinoüs and Clanis. To these he now added Dorylas, who wore a cap of wolf’s hide on his head and, in place of deadly spear, a notable pair of curving bull’s horns, reeking red with blood.
“To him (for my courage gave me strength) I cried: ‘See now how little your horns avail against my spear’; and I hurled the spear. Since he could not dodge this, he threw up his right hand to protect his forehead from the wound. And there his hand was pinned against his forehead. A mighty shout arose, but Peleus, for he was near him, while the centaur stood pinned and helpless with that sore wound, smote him with his sword full in the belly. He leaped fiercely forward, trailing his entrails on the ground; and as he trailed he trod upon them and burst them as he trod, tangled his legs in them, and fell with empty belly to the earth.
“But your beauty, Cyllarus, did not save you in that fight, if indeed we grant beauty to your kind. His beard was in its first growth, a golden beard, and golden locks fell down from his shoulders halfway down his flanks. He had a pleasing sprightliness of face; and his neck, shoulders, breast, and hands, and all his human parts you would praise as equal to an artist’s perfect work. His equine part, too, was without blemish, no way less perfect than his human part. Give him but neck and head, and he will be worthy of Castor’s use: so shaped for the seat his back, so bold stood out the muscles on his deep chest. All blacker than pitch he was; yet his tail was white; his legs also were snowy white. Many females of his own kind sought him, but Hylonome alone had won him, than whom there was no other centaurmaid more comely in all the forest depths. She, by her coaxing ways, by loving and confessing love, alone possessed Cyllarus; and by her toilet, too, so far as such a thing was possible to such a form; for now she smoothed her long locks with a comb, now twined rosemary, now violets or roses in her hair, and sometimes she wore white lilies. Twice each day she bathed her face in the brook that fell down from a wooded height by Pagasa, and twice dipped her body in the stream. Nor would she wear on shoulder or left side aught but becoming garments, skins of well-chosen beasts. They both felt equal love. Together they would wander on the mountain-sides, together rest within the caves. On this occasion also they had come together to the palace of the Lapithae, and were waging fierce battle side by side. Thrown from an unknown hand, a javelin came from the left and pierced you, Cyllarus, below where the chest rises to the neck. The heart, though but slightly wounded, grew cold and the whole body also after the weapon had been drawn out. Straightway Hylonome embraced the dying body, fondled the wound with her hand and, placing her lips upon his lips, strove to hold from its passing the dying breath. But when she saw that he was dead, with some words which the surrounding uproar prevented me from hearing, she threw herself upon the spear which had pierced Cyllarus and fell in a dying embrace upon her lover.
“Still there stands clear before my eyes one who had with knotted thongs bound together six lion-hides, Phaeocomes, thus protecting both man and horse. Hurling a log which two yokes of cattle could scarce move, he struck Tectaphos, the son of Olenus, a crushing blow upon the head. [The broad dome of his head was shattered, and through his mouth, through hollow nostrils, eyes, and ears oozed the soft brains, as when curdled milk drips through oaken withes,2 or a thick liquid mass trickles through a coarse sieve weighted down, and is squeezed out through the crowded apertures.] But I, even as he made ready to spoil his fallen victim—your father can testify to this—thrust my sword deep into the spoiler’s groin. Chthonius also and Teleboas fell by my sword. The one had carried a forked stick as weapon; the other had a spear, and with this spear he gave me a wound—you see the mark!—the old scar is still visible. Those were the days when I should have been sent to capture Pergama; then with my arms I could have checked, if not surpassed, the arms of Hector. But at that time Hector was either not yet born or was but a little boy; and now old age has sapped my strength. What need to tell you how Periphas overcame the double-formed Pyraethus? Why tell of Ampyx, who with a pointless shaft thrust through the opposing front of the four-footed Echeclus?
i.e. where horse-form and man-form meet.
Referring to the process of straining curds in cheesemaking.