Metamorphoses XV.375-505
The Samian vegetarian finishes his speech; King Numa returns to Rome and, eventually, passes away; his nymph-wife flees to the woods.
‘Semina limus habet virides generantia ranas, 375
et generat truncas pedibus, mox apta natando
crura dat, utque eadem sint longis saltibus apta,
posterior partes superat mensura priores.
nec catulus, partu quem reddidit ursa recenti,
sed male viva caro est; lambendo mater in artus 380
fingit et in formam, quantam capit ipse, reducit.
nonne vides, quos cera tegit sexangula fetus
melliferarum apium sine membris corpora nasci
et serosque pedes serasque adsumere pennas?
Iunonis volucrem, quae cauda sidera portat, 385
armigerumque Iovis Cythereiadasque columbas
et genus omne avium mediis e partibus ovi,
ni sciret fieri, fieri quis posse putaret?
sunt qui, cum clauso putrefacta est spina sepulcro,
mutari credant humanas angue medullas. 390
‘Haec tamen ex aliis generis primordia ducunt,
una est, quae reparet seque ipsa reseminet, ales:
Assyrii phoenica vocant; non fruge neque herbis,
sed turis lacrimis et suco vivit amomi.
haec ubi quinque suae conplevit saecula vitae, 395
ilicet in ramis tremulaeque cacumine palmae
unguibus et puro nidum sibi construit ore,
quo simul ac casias et nardi lenis aristas
quassaque cum fulva substravit cinnama murra,
se super inponit finitque in odoribus aevum. 400
inde ferunt, totidem qui vivere debeat annos,
corpore de patrio parvum phoenica renasci;
cum dedit huic aetas vires, onerique ferendo est,
ponderibus nidi ramos levat arboris altae
fertque pius cunasque suas patriumque sepulcrum 405
perque leves auras Hyperionis urbe potitus
ante fores sacras Hyperionis aede reponit.
‘Si tamen est aliquid mirae novitatis in istis,
alternare vices et, quae modo femina tergo
passa marem est, nunc esse marem miremur hyaenam; 410
id quoque, quod ventis animal nutritur et aura,
protinus adsimulat, tetigit quoscumque colores.
victa racemifero lyncas dedit India Baccho:
e quibus, ut memorant, quicquid vesica remisit,
vertitur in lapides et congelat aere tacto. 415
sic et curalium quo primum contigit auras
tempore, durescit: mollis fuit herba sub undis.
‘Desinet ante dies et in alto Phoebus anhelos
aequore tinguet equos, quam consequar omnia verbis
in species translata novas: sic tempora verti 420
cernimus atque illas adsumere robora gentes,
concidere has; sic magna fuit censuque virisque
perque decem potuit tantum dare sanguinis annos,
nunc humilis veteres tantummodo Troia ruinas
et pro divitiis tumulos ostendit avorum. 425
clara fuit Sparte, magnae viguere Mycenae,
nec non et Cecropis, nec non Amphionis arces.
vile solum Sparte est, altae cecidere Mycenae,
Oedipodioniae quid sunt, nisi nomina, Thebae?
quid Pandioniae restant, nisi nomen, Athenae? 430
nunc quoque Dardaniam fama est consurgere Romam,
Appenninigenae quae proxima Thybridis undis
mole sub ingenti rerum fundamina ponit:
haec igitur formam crescendo mutat et olim
inmensi caput orbis erit! sic dicere vates 435
faticinasque ferunt sortes, quantumque recordor,
Priamides Helenus flenti dubioque salutis 438
dixerat Aeneae, cum res Troiana labaret: 437
“nate dea, si nota satis praesagia nostrae 439
mentis habes, non tota cadet te sospite Troia!
flamma tibi ferrumque dabunt iter: ibis et una
Pergama rapta feres, donec Troiaeque tibique
externum patria contingat amicius arvum,
urbem et iam cerno Phrygios debere nepotes,
quanta nec est nec erit nec visa prioribus annis. 445
hanc alii proceres per saecula longa potentem,
sed dominam rerum de sanguine natus Iuli
efficiet, quo cum tellus erit usa, fruentur
aetheriae sedes, caelumque erit exitus illi.”
haec Helenum cecinisse penatigero Aeneae 450
mente memor refero cognataque moenia laetor
crescere et utiliter Phrygibus vicisse Pelasgos.
‘Ne tamen oblitis ad metam tendere longe
exspatiemur equis, caelum et quodcumque sub illo est,
inmutat formas, tellusque et quicquid in illa est. 455
nos quoque, pars mundi, quoniam non corpora solum,
verum etiam volucres animae sumus, inque ferinas
possumus ire domos pecudumque in pectora condi,
corpora, quae possint animas habuisse parentum
aut fratrum aut aliquo iunctorum foedere nobis 460
aut hominum certe, tuta esse et honesta sinamus
neve Thyesteis cumulemus viscera mensis!
quam male consuescit, quem se parat ille cruori
inpius humano, vituli qui guttura ferro
rumpit et inmotas praebet mugitibus aures, 465
aut qui vagitus similes puerilibus haedum
edentem iugulare potest aut alite vesci,
cui dedit ipse cibos! quantum est, quod desit in istis
ad plenum facinus? quo transitus inde paratur?
bos aret aut mortem senioribus inputet annis, 470
horriferum contra borean ovis arma ministret,
ubera dent saturae manibus pressanda capellae!
retia cum pedicis laqueosque artesque dolosas
tollite! nec volucrem viscata fallite virga
nec formidatis cervos includite pinnis 475
nec celate cibis uncos fallacibus hamos;
perdite siqua nocent, verum haec quoque perdite tantum:
ora cruore vacent alimentaque mitia carpant!’
Talibus atque aliis instructo pectore dictis
in patriam remeasse ferunt ultroque petitum 480
accepisse Numam populi Latialis habenas.
coniuge qui felix nympha ducibusque Camenis
sacrificos docuit ritus gentemque feroci
adsuetam bello pacis traduxit ad artes.
qui postquam senior regnumque aevumque peregit, 485
exstinctum Latiaeque nurus populusque patresque
deflevere Numam; nam coniunx urbe relicta
vallis Aricinae densis latet abdita silvis
sacraque Oresteae gemitu questuque Dianae
inpedit. a! quotiens nymphae nemorisque lacusque, 490
ne faceret, monuere et consolantia verba
dixerunt! quotiens flenti Theseius heros
‘siste modum,’ dixit ‘neque enim fortuna querenda
sola tua est; similes aliorum respice casus:
mitius ista feres, utinamque exempla dolentem 495
non mea te possent relevare! sed et mea possunt.
‘Fando aliquem Hippolytum vestras si contigit aures
credulitate patris, sceleratae fraude novercae
occubuisse neci, mirabere, vixque probabo,
sed tamen ille ego sum. me Pasiphaeia quondam 500
temptatum frustra patrium temerare cubile,
quod voluit, finxit voluisse et, crimine verso
(indiciine metu magis offensane repulsae?)
damnavit, meritumque nihil pater eicit urbe
hostilique caput prece detestatur euntis. 505
“Slimy mud contains seeds that produce green frogs, without legs at first, but soon it gives them legs adapted to swimming, and, that these may be fitted for taking long leaps also, the hind-legs are longer than the fore. A cub that a she-bear has just brought forth is not a cub, but a scarce-living lump of flesh; but the mother licks it into shape, and in this way gives it a figure proportionate to its size. Do you not see how the larvae of the honey-bearing bees, which the hexagonal waxen cell protects, are born mere memberless bodies and later put on feet and wings? Juno’s bird, which wears starry spots on its tail, and the weapon-bearing bird of Jove, and Cytherea’s doves, and the whole family of birds—who would believe, unless he knew the fact, that these could be born from the inside of an egg? There are some who think that when the backbone of a man has decomposed in the narrow tomb the spinal marrow is changed into a snake.
“Now all these things get their life’s beginning from some other creature; but there is one bird which itself renews and reproduces its own being. The Assyrians call it the phoenix. It does not live on seeds and green things, but on the gum of frankincense and the juices of amomum. When this bird has completed five centuries of life, it at once builds for itself a nest in the topmost branches of a waving palm-tree, using his talons and his clean beak; and when he has covered this over with cassia-bark and light spikes of nard, broken cinnamon and yellow myrrh, he takes his place upon it and so ends his life amidst the odours. And from his father’s body, so they say, a little phoenix springs up which is destined to attain the same length of years. When age has given him strength, and he is able to carry burdens, he relieves the tall palm’s branches of the heavy nest, piously bears his own cradle and his father’s tomb through the thin air, until, having reached the city of the Sun, he lays the nest down before the sacred doors of the Sun’s temple.
“But if there is anything to wonder at in such novelties as these, we might wonder that the hyena changes her nature and that a creature which was but now a female and mated with a male is now a male herself. That little animal,1 also, which gets its nourishment from wind and air immediately takes the colour of whatever thing it rests upon. Conquered India gave to cluster-crowned Bacchus some lynxes as a present, whose watery secretions, as they say, change into stones and harden in contact with the air. So also coral hardens at the first touch of air, whereas it was a soft plant beneath the water.
“The day will come to an end and Phoebus will bathe his panting horses in the deep waters of the sea before I tell of all the things which have assumed new forms. So we see times changing, and some nations putting on new strength and others falling into weakness. So was Troy great in wealth and men, and for ten years was able to give so freely of her blood; but now, humbled to earth, she has naught to show but ancient ruins, no wealth but ancestral tombs. Sparta was at one time a famous city; great Mycenae flourished, and Cecrops’ and Amphion’s citadels. Sparta is now a worthless countryside, proud Mycenae has fallen; and what is the Thebes of Oedipus except a name? What is left of Pandion’s Athens but a name? And now fame has it that Dardanian Rome is rising, and laying deep and strong foundations by the stream of Tiber sprung from the Apennines. She therefore is changing her form by growth, and some day shall be the capital of the boundless world! So, they tell us, seers and fate-revealing oracles are declaring. And, as I myself remember, when Troy was tottering to her fall, Helenus, the son of Priam, said to Aeneas, who was weeping and doubtful of his fate: ‘O son of Venus, if you keep well in mind my soul’s prophetic visions, while you live Troy shall not wholly perish! Fire and sword shall give way before you. You shall go forth and with you shall you catch up and bear away your Pergama, until you shall find a foreign land, kinder to Troy and you than your own country. I see even now a city destined to the descendants of the Phrygians, than which none greater is or shall be, or has been in past ages. Other princes through the long centuries shall make her powerful, but a prince sprung from lülus’ blood shall make her mistress of the world. When earth shall have had her share of him, the celestial regions shall enjoy him and heaven shall be his goal.’ These things I well remember that Helenus prophesied to Aeneas as he bore with him his guardian gods, and I rejoice that my kindred walls are rising and that the Greeks conquered to the profit of the Phrygians.
“But, not to wander too far out of my course, my steeds forgetting meanwhile to speed towards the goal, the heavens and whatever is beneath the heavens change their forms, the earth and all that is within it. We also change, who are a part of creation, since we are not bodies only but also winged souls, and since we can enter wild-beast forms and be lodged in the hearts of cattle. We should permit bodies which may possibly have sheltered the souls of our parents or brothers or those joined to us by some other bond, or of men at least, to be uninjured and respected, and not load our stomachs as with a Thyestean banquet! What an evil habit he is forming, how surely is he impiously preparing to shed human blood, who cuts a calf s throat with the knife and listens all unmoved to its piteous cries! Or who can slay a kid which cries just like a little child, or feed on a bird to which he himself has just given food! How much does such a deed as that fall short of actual murder? What is the end of such a course? Let the bull plow and let him owe his death to length of days; let the sheep arm you against the rough north wind; let the she-goats give full udders to the milking. Have done with nets and traps, snares and deceptive arts. Catch not the bird with the limed twig; confine no more the deer with fear-compelling feathers,2 nor conceal the barbed hook beneath fair-seeming food. Kill creatures that work you harm, but even in the case of these let killing suffice. Make not their flesh your food, but seek a more harmless nourishment.”
They say that Numa, with mind filled with these and other teachings, returned to his own land and, being urged thereto, assumed the guidance of the Latin state. He, blessed with a nymph3 for wife, blessed with the Muses’ guidance, taught holy rites and trained a fierce, warlike people in the arts of peace. When he, now ripe in years, laid down his sceptre and his life, the Latin mothers, the commons, and the fathers all mourned for the departed Numa. For his wife fled from the city and hid herself away in the dense forests of the Arician vale, and by her groans and lamentations she disturbed the worship of Orestean Diana. Oh, how often the nymphs of wood and lake urged her to desist and spoke words of consolation! How often to the weeping nymph the heroic son of Theseus said: “Have done with tears, for yours is not the only lot to be lamented. Think upon others who have borne equal losses; then will you bear your own more gently. And I would that I had no experience of my own where-with to comfort you in your grief! But even mine can comfort you.
“Should you have heard some mention of Hippolytus, how he met his death through the easy credence of his father and the wiles of his accursed stepmother, you will be amazed and I shall scarce prove my statement, but nevertheless I myself am he. Pasiphaë’s daughter once, when she had tried in vain to tempt me to defile my father’s couch, perverting truth, charged me with having done what she herself wished me to do (was it through fear of discovery or offence at her repulse?), and, guiltless though I was, my father drove me from the city and cursed me as I went with a deadly curse.
The chameleon.
Hung on trees to scare the deer towards the nets.
Egeria.