Metamorphoses XIV.722-851
Hard-hearted Anaxarete turns to stone watching Iphis' funeral procession; Romulus and his men fight the Sabines.
certe aliquid laudare mei cogeris amoris,
quo tibi sim gratus, meritumque fatebere nostrum.
non tamen ante tui curam excessisse memento
quam vitam geminaque simul mihi luce carendum. 725
nec tibi fama mei ventura est nuntia leti:
ipse ego, ne dubites, adero praesensque videbor,
corpore ut exanimi crudelia lumina pascas.
si tamen, o superi, mortalia facta videtis,
este mei memores (nihil ultra lingua precari 730
sustinet) et longo facite ut narremur in aevo,
et, quae dempsistis vitae, date tempora famae!”
dixit, et ad postes ornatos saepe coronis
umentes oculos et pallida bracchia tollens,
cum foribus laquei religaret vincula summis, 735
“haec tibi serta placent, crudelis et inpia!” dixit
inseruitque caput, sed tum quoque versus ad illam,
atque onus infelix elisa fauce pependit.
icta pedum motu trepidantum aperire iubentem
visa dedisse sonum est adapertaque ianua factum 740
prodidit, exclamant famuli frustraque levatum
(nam pater occiderat) referunt ad limina matris;
accipit illa sinu conplexaque frigida nati
membra sui postquam miserorum verba parentum
edidit et matrum miserarum facta peregit, 745
funera ducebat mediam lacrimosa per urbem
luridaque arsuro portabat membra feretro.
forte viae vicina domus, qua flebilis ibat
pompa, fuit, duraeque sonus plangoris ad aures
venit Anaxaretes, quam iam deus ultor agebat. 750
mota tamen “videamus” ait “miserabile funus”
et patulis iniit tectum sublime fenestris
vixque bene inpositum lecto prospexerat Iphin:
deriguere oculi, calidusque e corpore sanguis
inducto pallore fugit, conataque retro 755
ferre pedes haesit, conata avertere vultus
hoc quoque non potuit, paulatimque occupat artus,
quod fuit in duro iam pridem pectore, saxum.
neve ea ficta putes, dominae sub imagine signum
servat adhuc Salamis, Veneris quoque nomine templum 760
Prospicientis habet.—quorum memor, o mea, lentos
pone, precor, fastus et amanti iungere, nymphe:
sic tibi nec vernum nascentia frigus adurat
poma, nec excutiant rapidi florentia venti!’
Haec ubi nequiquam formae deus aptus anili 765
edidit, in iuvenem rediit et anilia demit
instrumenta sibi talisque apparuit illi,
qualis ubi oppositas nitidissima solis imago
evicit nubes nullaque obstante reluxit,
vimque parat: sed vi non est opus, inque figura 770
capta dei nympha est et mutua vulnera sensit.
Proximus Ausonias iniusti miles Amuli
rexit opes, Numitorque senex amissa nepotis
munere regna capit, festisque Palilibus urbis
moenia conduntur; Tatiusque patresque Sabini 775
bella gerunt, arcisque via Tarpeia reclusa
dignam animam poena congestis exuit armis;
inde sati Curibus tacitorum more luporum
ore premunt voces et corpora victa sopore
invadunt portasque petunt, quas obice firmo 780
clauserat Iliades: unam tamen ipse reclusit
nec strepitum verso Saturnia cardine fecit;
sola Venus portae cecidisse repagula sensit
et clausura fuit, nisi quod rescindere numquam
dis licet acta deum. Iano loca iuncta tenebant 785
naides Ausoniae gelido rorantia fonte:
has rogat auxilium, nec nymphae iusta petentem
sustinuere deam venasque et flumina fontis
elicuere sui; nondum tamen invia Iani
ora patentis erant, neque iter praecluserat unda: 790
lurida subponunt fecundo sulphura fonti
incenduntque cavas fumante bitumine venas.
viribus his aliisque vapor penetravit ad ima
fontis, et Alpino modo quae certare rigori
audebatis aquae, non ceditis ignibus ipsis! 795
flammifera gemini fumant aspergine postes,
portaque nequiquam rigidis promissa Sabinis
fonte fuit praestructa novo, dum Martius arma
indueret miles; quae postquam Romulus ultro
obtulit, et strata est tellus Romana Sabinis 800
corporibus strata estque suis, generique cruorem
sanguine cum soceri permiscuit inpius ensis.
pace tamen sisti bellum nec in ultima ferro
decertare placet Tatiumque accedere regno.
Occiderat Tatius, populisque aequata duobus, 805
Romule, iura dabas: posita cum casside Mavors
talibus adfatur divumque hominumque parentem:
‘tempus adest, genitor, quoniam fundamine magno
res Romana valet nec praeside pendet ab uno,
praemia, (sunt promissa mihi dignoque nepoti) 810
solvere et ablatum terris inponere caelo.
tu mihi concilio quondam praesente deorum
(nam memoro memorique animo pia verba notavi)
“unus erit, quem tu tolles in caerula caeli”
dixisti: rata sit verborum summa tuorum!’ 815
adnuit omnipotens et nubibus aera caecis
occuluit tonitruque et fulgure terruit orbem.
quae sibi promissae sensit rata signa rapinae,
innixusque hastae pressos temone cruento
inpavidus conscendit equos Gradivus et ictu 820
verberis increpuit pronusque per aera lapsus
constitit in summo nemorosi colle Palati
reddentemque suo iam regia iura Quiriti
abstulit Iliaden: corpus mortale per auras
dilapsum tenues, ceu lata plumbea funda 825
missa solet medio glans intabescere caelo;
pulchra subit facies et pulvinaribus altis
dignior, est qualis trabeati forma Quirini.
Flebat ut amissum coniunx, cum regia Iuno
Irin ad Hersilien descendere limite curvo 830
imperat et vacuae sua sic mandata referre:
‘o et de Latia, o et de gente Sabina
praecipuum, matrona, decus, dignissima tanti
ante fuisse viri coniunx, nunc esse Quirini,
siste tuos fletus, et, si tibi cura videndi 835
coniugis est, duce me lucum pete, colle Quirini
qui viret et templum Romani regis obumbrat’;
paret et in terram pictos delapsa per arcus,
Hersilien iussis conpellat vocibus Iris;
illa verecundo vix tollens lumina vultu 840
‘o dea (namque mihi nec, quae sis, dicere promptum est,
et liquet esse deam) duc, o duc’ inquit ‘et offer
coniugis ora mihi, quae si modo posse videre
fata semel dederint, caelum accepisse fatebor!’
nec mora, Romuleos cum virgine Thaumantea 845
ingreditur colles: ibi sidus ab aethere lapsum
decidit in terras; a cuius lumine flagrans
Hersilie crinis cum sidere cessit in auras:
hanc manibus notis Romanae conditor urbis
excipit et priscum pariter cum corpore nomen 850
mutat Horamque vocat, quae nunc dea iuncta Quirino est.
Surely you will be forced to admit that there is some feature of my love in which I am pleasing to you, and you will confess my merit. But remember that my love for you ended only with my life and that I must suffer the loss of two lights at once. And ’twill be no mere rumour that comes to announce my death to you; I shall myself be there, be well assured, and that, too, in visible presence, that you may feast your cruel eyes upon my lifeless body. But if, O gods, you see the things we mortals do, remember me (nothing further can my tongue hold out to pray) and have my story told long ages hence; and what time you have taken from my life give to my fame.’ He spoke, and raising his tearful eyes and pale arms to the door-posts that he had often decorated with his floral wreaths, he fastened a rope to the topmost beam, saying the while: ‘Does this garland please you, cruel and wicked girl?’ Then he thrust his head into the noose, even in that act turning his face towards her, and then, poor fellow, hung there, a lifeless weight with broken neck. Struck by the swinging motion of his feet, the door seemed to sound a demand for admittance, and when it had been opened in answer, it revealed what had happened there. The servants cried out in horror and took him down, but all in vain. Then (for his father was dead) they bore him to his mother’s house. She took him in her arms and embraced her son’s cold limbs. And after she had said the words which wretched fathers say, and done the things which wretched mothers do, through the midst of the city she led his tearful funeral, and bore the pale corpse on a bier to the funeral pyre. Anaxarete’s house chanced to be near the street where the mournful procession was passing, and the sound of mourning came to the ears of the hard-hearted girl, whom already an avenging god was driving on. Yet, moved by the sound, she said: ‘Let us go see this tearful funeral.’ And she went into her high dwelling with its wide-open windows. Scarce had she gained a good look at I phis, lying there upon the bier, when her eyes stiffened at the sight and the warm blood fled from her pale body. She tried to step back from the window, but she stuck fast in her place. She tried to turn her face away, but this also she could not do; and gradually that stony nature took possession of her body which had been in her heart all along. And that you may not think this story false, Salamis still keeps a marble statue, the image of the princess. It has a temple in honour of the Gazing Venus also. Have thought of these things, I pray you, and put away, dear nymph, your stubborn scorn; yield to your lover. So may no late spring frost ever nip your budding fruit, and may no rude winds scatter them in their flower.”
When the god in the form of age had thus pleaded his cause in vain, he returned to his youthful form, put off the old woman’s trappings, and stood revealed to the maiden as when the sun’s most beaming face has conquered the opposing clouds and shines out with nothing to dim his radiance. He was all ready to force her will, but no force was necessary; and the nymph, smitten by the beauty of the god, felt an answering passion.
Next false Amulius by force of arms rules the Ausonian state; but old Numitor by the aid of his grandson gains the kingdom he has lost, and the walls of the City are founded on the shepherd’s festal day. Tatius and the Sabine fathers wage their war, and Tarpeia, having betrayed the passage to the citadel, gives up her life as forfeit beneath the arms heaped on her. Then the men of Cures, like silent wolves, with hushed voices steal on the Romans buried in slumber, and try the gates which Ilia’s son has fastened with strong bars. But Saturnian Juno herself unfastenedtone of these, opening the gate on noiseless hinges. Venus alone perceived that the gate’s bars had fallen, and would have closed it; but it is never permitted to gods to undo the acts of gods. Now the Ausonian water-nymphs held a spot near Janus’ fane, where a cold spring bubbled forth. Venus asked aid of these, nor did the nymphs refuse the goddess her just request, but opened up their fountain’s streaming veins. Up to that time the pass of Janus was still open, nor had the water ever blocked the way. Now they placed yellow sulphur beneath their living spring and heated the hollow veins with burning pitch. By these and other means the reeking steam filled the fountain through and through, and you waters, which dared but now to vie with Alpine cold, did not yield in heat to fire itself! The two gate-posts smoked with the hot fumes; and the gate, which had been opened (but now in vain) to the hardy Sabines, was made impassable by the new fountain, until the Roman soldiery could arm themselves. Then Romulus took the offensive, and soon the Roman plain was strewn with the Sabine dead and with its own as well, and the impious swords mingled the blood of son-in-law with blood of father-in-law. At last it was their will to end the war in peace, and not strive with the sword to the bitter end; and ’twas agreed that Tatius should share the throne.
Tatius had fallen and now, Romulus, you were meting equal laws to both the tribes, when Mars put off his gleaming helmet and thus addressed the father of gods and men: “The time is come, O father, since the Roman state stands firm on strong foundations and no longer hangs on one man’s strength alone, to grant the reward which was promised to me and to thy worthy grandson, to take him from earth and set him in the heavens. Once to me, in full council of the gods (for I treasured up thy gracious words in retentive mind, and now recall them to thee), thou didst declare: ‘One shall there be whom thou shalt bear up to the azure blue of heaven.’ Now let the full meaning of thy words be ratified.” The omnipotent Father nodded his assent; then, hiding all the sky with his dark clouds, he filled the earth with thunder and lightning. Gradivus knew this for the assured sign of the translation which had been promised him; and, leaning on his spear, dauntless he mounted his chariot drawn by steeds straining beneath the bloody yoke, and swung the loud-resounding lash. Gliding downward through the air, he halted on the summit of the wooded Palatine. There, as Ilia’s son was giving kingly judgment to his citizens, he caught him up from earth. His mortal part dissolved into thin air, as a leaden bullet hurled by a broad sling is wont to melt away in the mid-heavens. And now a fair form clothes him, worthier of the high couches of the gods, such form as has Quirinus, clad in the sacred robe.
His wife was mourning him as lost, when regal Juno bade Iris go down to Hersilia on her arching way with these directions for the widowed queen: “O queen, bright glory both of Latium and of the Sabine race, most worthy once to have been the consort of so great a man, and now of divine Quirinus, cease your laments and, if you would indeed behold your husband, come with me to yonder grove which stands green on Quirinus’ hill, shading the temple of the king of Rome.” Iris obeyed and, gliding to earth along her rainbow arch, accosted Hersilia in the words which had been given her. She, scarce lifting her eyes and with modest look, replied: “O goddess (for I may not tell who thou art, and yet ’tis plain thou art a goddess), lead, oh, lead me on, and show me my husband’s face. If only the fates grant me but once to see him, then shall I say I have gained heaven indeed.” Straightway she fared along with Thaumas’ daughter to the hill of Romulus. There a star from high heaven came gliding down to earth, and Hersilia, her hair bursting into flame from its light, goes up together with the star into thin air. Her with dear, familiar hands Rome’s founder receives, and changes her mortal body and her old-time name. He calls her Hora, and now as goddess is she joined once more to her Quirinus.