Chapter XI: Book THE FIRST: The Argument. I.1-4 (2)

[Footnote 51: _Iris._--Ver. 271. The mention of Iris, the goddess
of the rainbow, in connection with the flood of Deucalion, cannot
fail to remind us of the ‘bow set in the cloud, for a token of the
covenant between God and the earth,’ on the termination of Noah’s
flood.--Gen. x. 14.]

[Footnote 52: _The mouths of their fountains._--Ver. 281. The
expressions in this line and in line 283, are not unlike the words
of the 11th verse of the 7th chapter of Genesis, ‘The fountains of
the great deep were broken up.’]

[Footnote 53: _The wolf swims._--Ver. 304. One commentator remarks
here, that there was nothing very wonderful in a dead wolf
swimming among the sheep without devouring them. Seneca is,
however, too severe upon our author in saying that he is trifling
here, in troubling himself on so serious an occasion with what
sheep and wolves are doing: for he gravely means to say, that the
beasts of prey are terrified to that degree that they forget their
carnivorous propensities.]

EXPLANATION.

Pausanias makes mention of five deluges. The two most celebrated
happened in the time of Ogyges, and in that of Deucalion. Of the last
Ovid here speaks; and though that deluge was generally said to have
overflowed Thessaly only, he has evidently adopted in his narrative
the tradition of the universal deluge, which all nations seem to have
preserved. He says, that the sea joined its waters to those falling
from heaven. The words of Scripture are (Genesis, vii. 11), ‘All the
fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven
were opened.’ In speaking of the top of Parnassus alone being left
uncovered, the tradition here followed by Ovid probably referred to
Mount Ararat, where Noah’s ark rested. Noah and his family are
represented by Deucalion and Pyrrha. Both Noah and Deucalion were
saved for their virtuous conduct; when Noah went out of the ark, he
offered solemn sacrifices to God; and Pausanias tells us that
Deucalion, when saved, raised an altar to Jupiter the Liberator. The
Poet tells us, that Deucalion’s deluge was to be the last: God
promised the same thing to Noah. Josephus, in his Antiquities, Book
i., tells us, that the history of the universal deluge was written by
Nicolas of Damascus, Berosus, Mnaseas, and other ancient writers, from
whom the Greeks and Romans received it.

FABLE IX. [I.313-366]

Neptune appeases the angry waves; and he commands Triton to sound his
shell, that the sea may retire within its shores, and the rivers
within their banks. Deucalion and Pyrrha are the only persons saved
from the deluge.

Phocis separates the Aonian[54] from the Actæan region; a fruitful land while it was a land; but at that time {it had become} a part of the sea, and a wide plain of sudden waters. There a lofty mountain rises towards the stars, with two tops, by name Parnassus,[55] and advances beyond the clouds with its summit. When here Deucalion (for the sea had covered all other places), borne in a little ship, with the partner of his couch, {first} rested; they adored the Corycian Nymphs,[56] and the Deities of the mountain, and the prophetic Themis,[57] who at that time used to give out oracular responses. No man was there more upright than he, nor a greater lover of justice, nor was any woman more regardful of the Deities than she.

Soon as Jupiter {beholds} the world overflowed by liquid waters, and sees that but one man remains out of so many thousands of late, and sees that but one woman remains out of so many thousands of late, both guiltless, and both worshippers of the Gods, he disperses the clouds; and the showers being removed by the North Wind, he both lays open the earth to the heavens, and the heavens to the earth. The rage, too, of the sea does not continue; and his three-forked trident {now} laid aside, the ruler of the deep assuages the waters, and calls upon the azure Triton standing above the deep, and having his shoulders covered with the native purple shells;[58] and he bids him blow[59] his resounding trumpet, and, the signal being given, to call back the waves and the streams. The hollow-wreathed trumpet[60] is taken up by him, which grows to a {great} width from its lowest twist; the trumpet, which, soon as it receives the air in the middle of the sea, fills with its notes the shores lying under either sun. Then, too, as soon as it touched the lips of the God dripping with his wet beard, and being blown, sounded the bidden retreat;[61] it was heard by all the waters both of earth and sea, and stopped all those waters by which it was heard. Now the sea[62] {again} has a shore; their channels receive the full rivers; the rivers subside; the hills are seen to come forth. The ground rises, places increase {in extent} as the waters decrease; and after a length of time, the woods show their naked tops, and retain the mud left upon their branches.

The world was restored; which when Deucalion beheld to be empty, and how the desolate Earth kept a profound silence, he thus addressed Pyrrha, with tears bursting forth:--“O sister, O wife, O thou, the only woman surviving, whom a common origin,[63] and a kindred descent, and afterwards the marriage tie has united to me, and {whom} now dangers themselves unite to me; we two are the whole people of the earth, whatever {both} the East and the West behold; of all the rest, the sea has taken possession. And even now there is no certain assurance of our lives; even yet do the clouds terrify my mind. What would now have been thy feelings, if without me thou hadst been rescued from destruction, O thou deserving of compassion? In what manner couldst thou have been able alone to support {this} terror? With whom for a consoler, {to endure} these sorrows? For I, believe me, my wife, if the sea had only carried thee off, should have followed thee, and the sea should have carried me off as well. Oh that I could replace the people {that are lost} by the arts of my father,[64] and infuse the soul into the moulded earth! Now the mortal race exists in us two {alone}. Thus it has seemed good to the Gods, and we remain as {mere} samples of mankind.”

[Footnote 54: _The Aonian._--Ver. 313. Aonia was a mountainous
region of Bœotia; and Actæa was an ancient name of Attica, from
ἄκτη, the sea-shore.]

[Footnote 55: _By name Parnassus._--Ver. 317. Mount Parnassus has
two peaks, of which the one was called ‘Tichoreum,’ and was sacred
to Bacchus; and the other ‘Hypampeum,’ and was devoted to Apollo
and the Muses.]

[Footnote 56: _The Corycian Nymphs._--Ver. 320. The Corycian
Nymphs were so called from inhabiting the Corycian cavern in Mount
Parnassus; they were fabled to be the daughters of Plistus,
a river near Delphi. There was another Corycian cave in Cilicia,
in Asia Minor.]

[Footnote 57: _The prophetic Themis._--Ver. 321. Themis is said to
have preceded Apollo in giving oracular responses at Delphi. She
was the daughter of Cœlus and Terra, and was the first to instruct
men to ask of the Gods that which was lawful and right, whence she
took the name of Themis, which signifies in Greek, ‘that which is
just and right.’]

[Footnote 58: _The native purple shells._--Ver. 332. ‘Murex’ was
the name of the shell-fish from which the Tyrian purple, so much
valued by the ancients, was procured. Some suppose that the
meaning here is, that Triton had his shoulders tinted with the
purple color of the murex. It is, however, more probable that the
Poet means to say that he had his neck and shoulders studded with
the shells of the murex, perhaps as a substitute for scales.]

[Footnote 59: _He bids him blow._--Ver. 333. There were several
Tritons, or minor sea gods. The one mentioned here, the chief
Triton, was fabled to be the son of Neptune and Amphitrite, who
always preceded Neptune in his course, and whose arrival he was
wont to proclaim by the sound of his shell. He was usually
represented as swimming, with the upper part of his body
resembling that of a human being, while his lower parts terminated
with the tail of a fish.]

[Footnote 60: _The hollow-wreathed trumpet._--Ver. 335. The
‘Buccina,’ or, as we call it, ‘the conch shell,’ was a kind of
horn, or trumpet, made out of a shell, called ‘buccinum.’ It was
sometimes artificially curved, and sometimes straight, retaining
the original form of the shell. The twisted form of the shell was
one of the characteristic features of the trumpet, which, in later
times, was made of horn, wood, or metal, so as to imitate the
shell. It was chiefly used among the Romans, to proclaim the
watches of the day and of the night, which watches were thence
called ‘buccina prima,’ ‘secunda,’ etc. It was also blown at
funerals, and at festive entertainments, both before sitting down
to table and after. Macrobius tells us, that Tritons holding
‘buccinæ’ were fixed on the roof of the temple of Saturn.]

[Footnote 61: _The bidden retreat._--Ver. 340. ‘Canere receptus’
was ‘to sound the retreat,’ as the signal for the soldiers to
cease fighting, and to resume their march.]

[Footnote 62: _Now the sea._--Ver. 343. This and the two following
lines are considered as entitled to much praise for their
terseness and brevity, as depicting by their short detached
sentences the instantaneous effect produced by the commands of
Neptune in reducing his dominions to a state of order.]

[Footnote 63: _A common origin._--Ver. 352. Because Prometheus was
the father of Deucalion and Epimetheus of Pyrrha; Prometheus and
Epimetheus being the sons of Iapetus. It is in an extended sense
that he styles her ‘sister,’ she being really his cousin.]

[Footnote 64: _The arts of my father._--Ver. 363. He alludes to
the story of his father, Prometheus, having formed men of clay,
and animated them with fire stolen from heaven.]

EXPLANATION.

Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, were, perhaps, originally three brothers,
kings of three separate kingdoms. Having been deified each retaining
his sovereignty, they were depicted as having the world divided
between them; the empire of the sea falling to the share of Neptune.
Among his occupations, were those of raising and calming the seas; and
Ovid here represents him as being so employed.

FABLE X. [I.367-415]

Deucalion and Pyrrha re-people the earth by casting stones behind
them, in the manner prescribed by the Goddess Themis, whose oracle
they had consulted.

He {thus} spoke, and they wept. They resolved to pray to the Deities of Heaven, and to seek relief through the sacred oracles. There is no delay; together they repair to the waters of Cephisus,[65] though not yet clear, yet now cutting their wonted channel. Then, when they have sprinkled the waters poured on their clothes[66] and their heads, they turn their steps to the temple of the sacred Goddess, the roof of which was defiled with foul moss, and whose altars were standing without fires. Soon as they reached the steps of the temple, each of them fell prostrate on the ground, and, trembling, gave kisses to the cold pavement. And thus they said:

“If the Deities, prevailed upon by just prayers, are to be mollified, if the wrath of the Gods is to be averted; tell us, O Themis, by what art the loss of our race is to be repaired, and give thy assistance, O most gentle {Goddess} to our ruined fortunes.” The Goddess was moved, and gave this response: “Depart from my temple, and cover your heads,[67] and loosen the garments girt {around you}, and throw behind your backs the bones of your great mother.” For a long time they are amazed; and Pyrrha is the first by her words to break the silence, and {then} refuses to obey the commands of the Goddess; and begs her, with trembling lips, to grant her pardon, and dreads to offend the shades of her mother by casting her bones. In the meantime they reconsider the words of the response given, {but} involved in dark obscurity, and they ponder them among themselves. Upon that, the son of Prometheus soothes the daughter of Epimetheus with {these} gentle words, and says, “Either is my discernment fallacious, or the oracles are just, and advise no sacrilege. The earth is the great mother; I suspect that the stones in the body of the earth are the bones meant; these we are ordered to throw behind our backs.” Although she, descended from Titan,[68] is moved by this interpretation of her husband, still her hope is involved in doubt; so much do they both distrust the advice of heaven; but what harm will it do to try?

They go down, and they veil their heads, and ungird their garments, and cast stones, as ordered, behind their footsteps. The stones (who could have believed it, but that antiquity is a witness {of the thing?}) began to lay aside their hardness and their stiffness, and by degrees to become soft; and when softened, to assume a {new} form. Presently after, when they were grown larger, a milder nature, too, was conferred on them, so that some shape of man might be seen {in them}, yet though but imperfect; and as if from the marble commenced {to be wrought}, not sufficiently distinct, and very like to rough statues. Yet that part of them which was humid with any moisture, and earthy, was turned into {portions adapted for} the use of the body. That which is solid, and cannot be bent, is changed into bones; that which was just now a vein, still remains under the same name.[69] And in a little time, by the interposition of the Gods above, the stones thrown by the hands of the man, took the shape of a man, and the female {race} was renewed by the throwing of the woman. Thence are we a hardy generation, and able to endure fatigue, and we give proofs from what original we are sprung.

[Footnote 65: _The waters of Cephisus._--Ver. 369. The river
Cephisus rises on Mount Parnassus, and flows near Delphi.]

[Footnote 66: _Poured on their clothes._--Ver. 371. It was the
custom of the ancients, before entering a temple, either to
sprinkle themselves with water, or to wash the body all over.]

[Footnote 67: _Cover your heads._--Ver. 382. It was a custom among
the ancients to cover their heads in sacrifice and other acts of
worship, either as a mark of humility, or, according to Plutarch,
that nothing of ill omen might meet their sight, and thereby
interrupt the performance of the rites.]

[Footnote 68: _Descended from Titan._--Ver. 395. Pyrrha was of the
race of the Titans; for Iapetus, her grandfather, was the son of
Titan and Terra.]

[Footnote 69: _Under the same name._--Ver. 410. With his usual
propensity for punning, he alludes to the use of the word ‘vena,’
as signifying either ‘a vein’ of the body, or a ‘streak’ or ‘vein’
in stone, according to the context.]

EXPLANATION.

In the reign of Deucalion, king of Thessaly, the course of the river
Peneus was stopped, probably by an earthquake. In the same year so
great a quantity of rain fell, that all Thessaly was overflowed.
Deucalion and some of his subjects fled to Mount Parnassus; where they
remained until the waters abated. The children of those who were
preserved are the stones of which the Poet here speaks. The Fable,
probably, has for its foundation the double meaning of the word
‘Eben,’ or ‘Aben,’ which signifies either ‘a stone,’ or ‘a child.’ The
Scholiast on Pindar tells us, too, that the word λάος, which means
people, formerly also signified ‘a stone.’

The brutal and savage nature of the early races of men may also have
added strength to the tradition that they derived their original from
stones. After the inundation, Deucalion is said to have repaired to
Athens, where he built a temple to Jupiter, and instituted sacrifices
in his honor. Some suppose that Cranaus reigned at Athens when
Deucalion retired thither; though Eusebius informs us it was under the
reign of Cecrops. Deucalion was the son of Prometheus, and his wife
Pyrrha was the daughter of his uncle, Epimetheus. After his death, he
received the honor of a temple, and was worshipped as a Divinity.

FABLE XI. [I.416-451]

The Earth, being warmed by the heat of the sun, produces many
monsters: among others, the serpent Python, which Apollo kills with
his arrows. To establish a memorial of this event, he institutes the
Pythian games, and adopts the surname of Pythius.

The Earth of her own accord brought forth other animals of different forms; after that the former moisture was thoroughly heated by the rays of the sun, and the mud and the wet fens fermented with the heat; and the fruitful seeds of things nourished by the enlivening soil, as in the womb of a mother, grew, and, in lapse of time, assumed some {regular} shape. Thus, when the seven-streamed Nile[70] has forsaken the oozy fields, and has returned its waters to their ancient channel, and the fresh mud has been heated with the æthereal sun, the laborers, on turning up the clods, meet with very many animals, and among them, some just begun at the very moment of their formation, and some they see {still} imperfect, and {as yet} destitute of {some} of their limbs; and often, in the same body, is one part animated, the other part is coarse earth. For when moisture and heat have been subjected to a due mixture, they conceive; and all things arise from these two.

And although fire is the antagonist of heat, {yet} a moist vapor creates all things, and this discordant concord is suited for generation; when, therefore, the Earth, covered with mud by the late deluge, was thoroughly heated by the æthereal sunshine and a penetrating warmth, it produced species {of creatures} innumerable; and partly restored the former shapes, and partly gave birth to new monsters. She, indeed, might have been unwilling, but then she produced thee as well, thou enormous Python; and thou, unheard-of serpent, wast a {source of} terror to this new race of men, so vast a part of a mountain didst thou occupy.

The God that bears the bow, and that had never before used such arms, but against the deer and the timorous goats, destroyed him, overwhelmed with a thousand arrows, his quiver being well-nigh exhausted, {as} the venom oozed forth through the black wounds; and that length of time might not efface the fame of the deed, he instituted sacred games,[71] with contests famed {in story}, called “Pythia,” from the name of the serpent {so} conquered. In these, whosoever of the young men conquered in boxing, in running, or in chariot-racing, received the honor of a crown of beechen leaves.[72] As yet the laurel existed not, and Phœbus used to bind his temples, graceful with long hair, with {garlands from} any tree.

[Footnote 70: _The seven-streamed Nile._--Ver. 423. The river Nile
discharges itself into the sea by seven mouths. It is remarkable
for its inundations, which happen regularly every year, and
overflow the whole country of Egypt. To this is chiefly owing the
extraordinary fertility of the soil of that country; for when the
waters subside, they leave behind them great quantities of mud,
which, settling upon the land, enrich it, and continually
reinvigorate it.]

[Footnote 71: _Instituted sacred games._--Ver. 446. Yet Pausanias,
in his Corinthiaca, tells us that they were instituted by
Diomedes; others, again, say by Eurylochus the Thessalian; and
others, by Amphictyon, or Adrastus. The Pythian games were
celebrated near Delphi, on the Crissæan plain, which contained a
race-course, a stadium of 1000 feet in length, and a theatre, in
which the musical contests took place. They were once held at
Athens, by the advice of Demetrius Poliorcetes, because the
Ætolians were in possession of the passes round Delphi. They
were most probably originally a religious ceremonial, and were
perhaps only a musical contest, which consisted in singing a hymn
in honor of the Pythian God, accompanied by the music of the
cithara. In later times, gymnastic and equestrian games and
exercises were introduced there. Previously to the 48th Olympiad,
the Pythian games had been celebrated at the end of every eighth
year; after that period they were held at the end of every fourth
year. When they ceased to be solemnized is unknown; but in the
time of the Emperor Julian they still continued to be held.]

[Footnote 72: _Crown of beechen leaves._--Ver. 449. This was the
prize which was originally given to the conquerors in the Pythian
games. In later times, as Ovid tells us, the prize of the victor
was a laurel chaplet, together with the palm branch, symbolical of
his victory.]

EXPLANATION.

The story of the serpent Python, being explained on philosophical
principles, seems to mean, that the heat of the sun, having dissipated
the noxious exhalations emitted by the receding waters, the reptiles,
which had been produced from the slime left by the flood, immediately
disappeared.

If, however, we treat this narrative as based on historical facts, it
is probable that the serpent represented some robber who infested the
neighborhood of Parnassus, and molested those who passed that way for
the purpose of offering sacrifice. A prince, either bearing the name
of Apollo, or being a priest of that God, by his destruction liberated
that region from this annoyance. This event gave rise to the
institution of the Pythian games, which were celebrated near Delphi.
Besides the several contests mentioned by Ovid, singing, dancing, and
instrumental music, formed part of the exercises of these games. The
event which Ovid here places soon after the deluge, must have happened
much later, since in the time of Deucalion, the worship of Apollo was
not known at Delphi. The Goddess Themis then delivered oracles there,
which, previously to her time, had been delivered by the Earth.

FABLE XII. [I.452-567]

Apollo, falling in love with Daphne, the daughter of the river Peneus,
she flies from him. He pursues her; on which, the Nymph, imploring the
aid of her father, is changed into a laurel.

Daphne, the daughter of Peneus, was the first love of Phœbus; whom, not blind chance, but the vengeful anger of Cupid assigned to him.

The Delian {God},[73] proud of having lately subdued the serpent, had seen him bending the bow and drawing the string, and had said, “What hast thou to do, wanton boy, with gallant arms? Such a burden as that {better} befits my shoulders; I, who am able to give unerring wounds to the wild beasts, {wounds} to the enemy, who lately slew with arrows innumerable the swelling Python, that covered so many acres {of land} with his pestilential belly. Do thou be contented to excite I know not what flames with thy torch; and do not lay claim to praises {properly} my own.”

To him the son of Venus replies, “Let thy bow shoot all things, Phœbus; my bow {shall shoot} thee; and as much as all animals fall short of thee, so much is thy glory less than mine.” He {thus} said; and cleaving the air with his beating wings, with activity he stood upon the shady heights of Parnassus, and drew two weapons out of his arrow-bearing quiver, of different workmanship; the one repels, the other excites desire. That which causes {love} is of gold, and is brilliant, with a sharp point; that which repels it is blunt, and contains lead beneath the reed. This one the God fixed in the Nymph, the daughter of Peneus, but with the other he wounded the {very} marrow of Apollo, through his bones pierced {by the arrow}. Immediately the one is in love; the other flies from the {very} name of a lover, rejoicing in the recesses of the woods, and in the spoils of wild beasts taken {in hunting}, and becomes a rival of the virgin Phœbe. A fillet tied together[74] her hair, put up without any order. Many a one courted her; she hated all wooers; not able to endure, and quite unacquainted with man, she traverses the solitary parts of the woods, and she cares not what Hymen,[75] what love, {or} what marriage means. Many a time did her father say, “My daughter, thou owest me a son-in-law;” many a time did her father say, “My daughter, thou owest me grandchildren.” She, utterly abhorring the nuptial torch,[76] as though a crime, has her beauteous face covered with the blush of modesty; and clinging to her father’s neck, with caressing arms, she says, “Allow me, my dearest father, to enjoy perpetual virginity; her father, in times, bygone, granted this to Diana.”

He indeed complied. But that very beauty forbids thee to be what thou wishest, and the charms of thy person are an impediment to thy desires. Phœbus falls in love, and he covets an alliance with Daphne, {now} seen by him, and what he covets he hopes for, and his own oracles deceive him; and as the light stubble is burned, when the ears of corn are taken off, and as hedges are set on fire by the torches, which perchance a traveller has either held too near them, or has left {there}, now about the break of day, thus did the God burst into a flame; thus did he burn throughout his breast, and cherish a fruitless passion with his hopes. He beholds her hair hanging unadorned upon her neck, and he says, “And what would {it be} if it were arranged?” He sees her eyes, like stars, sparkling with fire; he sees her lips, which it is not enough to have {merely} seen; he praises both her fingers and her hands, and her arms and her shoulders naked, from beyond the middle; whatever is hidden from view, he thinks to be still more beauteous. Swifter than the light wind she flies, and she stops not at these words of his, as he calls her back:

“O Nymph, daughter of Peneus, stay, I entreat thee! I am not an enemy following thee. In this way the lamb {flies} from the wolf; thus the deer {flies} from the lion; thus the dove flies from the eagle with trembling wing; {in this way} each {creature flies from} its enemy: love is the cause of my following thee. Ah! wretched me! shouldst thou fall on thy face, or should the brambles tear thy legs, that deserve not to be injured, and should I prove the cause of pain to thee. The places are rugged, through which thou art {thus} hastening; run more leisurely, I entreat thee, and restrain thy flight; I myself will follow more leisurely. And yet, inquire whom thou dost please; I am not an inhabitant of the mountains, I am not a shepherd; I am not here, in rude guise,[77] watching the herds or the flocks. Thou knowest not, rash girl, thou knowest not from whom thou art flying, and therefore it is that thou dost fly. The Delphian land, Claros and Tenedos,[78] and the Pataræan palace pays service to me. Jupiter is my sire; by me, what shall be, what has been, and what is, is disclosed; through me, songs harmonize with the strings. My own {arrow}, indeed, is unerring; yet one there is still more unerring than my own, which has made this wound in my heart, {before} unscathed. The healing art is my discovery, and throughout the world I am honored as the bearer of help, and the properties of simples are[79] subjected to me. Ah, wretched me![80] that love is not to be cured by any herbs; and that those arts which afford relief to all, are of no avail for their master.”

The daughter of Peneus flies from him, about to say still more, with timid step, and together with him she leaves his unfinished address. Then, too, she appeared lovely; the winds exposed her form to view, and the gusts meeting her fluttered about her garments, as they came in contact, and the light breeze spread behind her her careless locks; and {thus}, by her flight, was her beauty increased. But the youthful God[81] has not patience any longer to waste his blandishments; and as love urges him on, he follows her steps with hastening pace. As when the greyhound[82] has seen the hare in the open field, and the one by {the speed of} his legs pursues his prey, the other {seeks} her safety; the one is like as if just about to fasten {on the other}, and now, even now, hopes to catch her, and with nose outstretched plies upon the footsteps {of the hare}. The other is in doubt whether she is caught {already}, and is delivered from his very bite, and leaves behind the mouth {just} touching her. {And} so is the God, and {so} is the virgin;[83] he swift with hopes, she with fear.

Yet he that follows, aided by the wings of love, is the swifter, and denies her {any} rest; and is {now} just at her back as she flies, and is breathing upon her hair scattered upon her neck. Her strength being {now} spent, she grows pale, and being quite faint, with the fatigue of so swift a flight, looking upon the waters of Peneus, she says, “Give me, my father, thy aid, if you rivers have divine power. Oh Earth, either yawn {to swallow me}, or by changing it, destroy that form, by which I have pleased too much, and which causes me to be injured.”

Hardly had she ended her prayer, {when} a heavy torpor seizes her limbs; {and} her soft breasts are covered with a thin bark. Her hair grows into green leaves, her arms into branches; her feet, the moment before so swift, adhere by sluggish roots; a {leafy} canopy overspreads her features; her elegance alone[84] remains in her. This, too, Phœbus admires, and placing his right hand upon the stock, he perceives that the breast still throbs beneath the new bark; and {then}, embracing the branches as though limbs in his arms, he gives kisses to the wood, {and} yet the wood shrinks from his kisses. To her the God said: “But since thou canst not be my wife, at least thou shalt be my tree; my hair, my lyre,[85] my quiver shall always have thee, oh laurel! Thou shalt be presented to the Latian chieftains, when the joyous voice of the soldiers shall sing the song of triumph,[86] and the long procession shall resort to the Capitol. Thou, the same, shalt stand as a most faithful guardian at the gate-posts of Augustus before his doors,[87] and shalt protect the oak placed in the centre; and as my head is {ever} youthful with unshorn locks, do thou, too, always wear the lasting honors of thy foliage.”

Pæan had ended {his speech}; the laurel nodded assent with its new-made boughs, and seemed to shake its top just like a head.

[Footnote 73: _The Delian God._--Ver. 454. Apollo is so called,
from having been born in the Isle of Delos, in the Ægean Sea. The
Peneus was a river of Thessaly.]

[Footnote 74: _A fillet tied together._--Ver. 477. The ‘vitta’ was
a band encircling the head, and served to confine the tresses of
the hair. It was worn by maidens and by married women also; but
the ‘vitta’ assumed on the day of marriage was of a different form
from that used by virgins. It was not worn by women of light
character, or even by the ‘libertinæ,’ or female slaves who had
been liberated; so that it was not only deemed an emblem of
chastity, but of freedom also. It was of various colors: white and
purple are mentioned. In the later ages the ‘vitta’ was sometimes
set with pearls.]

[Footnote 75: _Hymen._--Ver. 480. Hymen, or Hymenæus, was one of
the Gods of Marriage; hence the name ‘Hymen’ was given to the
union of two persons in marriage.]

[Footnote 76: _The nuptial torch._--Ver. 483. Plutarch tells us,
that it was the custom in the bridal procession to carry five
torches before the bride, on her way to the house of her husband.
Among the Romans, the nuptial torch was lighted at the parental
hearth of the bride, and was borne before her by a boy, whose
parents were alive. The torch was also used at funerals, for the
purpose of lighting the pile, and because funerals were often
nocturnal ceremonies. Hence the expression of Propertius,--
‘Vivimus inter utramque facem,’ ‘We are living between the two
torches.’ Originally, the ‘tædæ’ seem to have been slips or
lengths of resinous pine wood: while the ‘fax’ was formed of a
bundle of wooden staves, either bound by a rope drawn round them
in a spiral form, or surrounded by circular bands at equal
distances. They were used by travellers and others, who were
forced to be abroad after sunset; whence the reference in line 493
to the hedge ignited through the carelessness of the traveller,
who has thrown his torch there on the approach of morning.]

[Footnote 77: _Here in rude guise._--Ver. 514. ‘Non hic armenta
gregesve Horridus observo’ is quaintly translated by Clarke, ‘I do
not here in a rude pickle watch herds or flocks.’]

[Footnote 78: _Claros and Tenedos._--Ver. 516. Claros was a city
of Ionia, famed for a temple and oracle of Apollo, and near which
there was a mountain and a grove sacred to him. There was an
island in the Myrtoan Sea of that name, to which some suppose that
reference is here made. Tenedos was an island of the Ægean Sea, in
the neighborhood of Troy. Patara was a city of Lycia, where Apollo
gave oracular responses during six months of the year. It was from
Patara that St. Paul took ship for Phœnicia, Acts, xxi. 1, 2.]

[Footnote 79: _The properties of simples._--Ver. 522. The first
cultivators of the medical art pretended to nothing beyond an
acquaintance with the medicinal qualities of herbs and simples; it
is not improbable that inasmuch as the vegetable world is
nourished and raised to the surface of the earth in a great degree
by the heat of the sun, a ground was thereby afforded for
allegorically saying that Apollo, or the Sun, was the discoverer
of the healing art.]

[Footnote 80: _Ah! wretched me!_--Ver. 523. A similar expression
occurs in the Heroides, v. 149, ‘Me miseram, quod amor non est
medicabilis herbis.’]

[Footnote 81: _The youthful God._--Ver. 531. Apollo was always
represented as a youth, and was supposed never to grow old. The
Scholiast on the Thebais of Statius, b. i., v. 694, says, ‘The
reason is, because Apollo is the Sun; and because the Sun is fire,
which never grows old.’ Perhaps the youthfulness of the Deity is
here mentioned, to account for his ardent pursuit of the flying
damsel.]

[Footnote 82: _As when the greyhound._--Ver. 533. The comparison
here of the flight of Apollo after Daphne, to that of the
greyhound after the hare, is considered to be very beautifully
drawn, and to give an admirable illustration of the eagerness with
which the God pursues on the one hand, and the anxiety with which
the Nymph endeavors to escape on the other. Pope, in his Windsor
Forest, has evidently imitated this passage, where he describes
the Nymph Lodona pursued by Pan, and transformed into a river. His
words are--

‘Not half so swift the trembling doves can fly,
When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid sky;
Not half so swiftly the fierce eagle moves,
When through the clouds he drives the trembling doves;
As from the God she flew with furious pace,
Or as the God more furious urged the chase.
Now fainting, sinking, pale, the nymph appears;
Now close behind, his sounding steps she hears;
And now his shadow reach’d her as she run,
His shadow lengthened by the setting sun;
And now his shorter breath, with sultry air,
Pants on her neck, and fans her parting hair.’

The greyhound was probably called ‘canis Gallicus,’ from having
been originally introduced into Italy from Gaul. ‘Vertagus’ was
their Gallic name, which we find used by Martial, and Gratian in
his Cynegeticon, ver. 203.]

[Footnote 83: _And so is the virgin._--Ver. 539. ‘Sic Deus et
virgo est’ is translated by Clarke, ‘So is the God and the young
lady;’ indeed, he mostly translates ‘virgo,’ ‘young lady.’]

[Footnote 84: _Her elegance alone._--Ver. 552. Clarke translates
‘Remanet nitor unus in illa,’ ‘her neatness alone continues in
her.’]

[Footnote 85: _My lyre._--Ver. 559. The players of the cithara,
the instrument of Apollo, were crowned with laurel, in the scenic
representations of the stage.]

[Footnote 86: _The song of triumph._--Ver. 560. The Poet here pays
a compliment to Augustus and the Roman people. The laurel was the
emblem of victory among the Romans. On such occasions the ‘fasces’
of the general and the spears and javelins of the soldiers were
wreathed with laurel; and after the time of Julius Cæsar, the
Roman general, when triumphing, wore a laurel wreath on his head,
and held a branch of laurel in his hand.]

[Footnote 87: _Before his doors._--Ver. 562. He here alludes to
the civic crown of oak leaves which, by order of the Senate, was
placed before the gate of the Palatium, where Augustus Cæsar
resided, with branches of laurel on either side of it.]

EXPLANATION.

To explain this Fable, it must be laid down as a principle that there
were originally many Jupiters, and Apollos, and Mercuries, whose
intrigues being, in lapse of time, attributed to but one individual,
that fact accounts for the great number of children which claimed
those respective Gods for their fathers.

Some prince probably, for whom his love of learning had acquired the
name of Apollo, falling in love with Daphne, pursued her to the brink
of the river Peneus, into which, being accidentally precipitated, she
perished in her lover’s sight. Some laurels growing near the spot,
perhaps gave rise to the story of her transformation; or possibly the
etymology of the word ‘Daphne,’ which in Greek signifies a laurel, was
the foundation of the Fable. Pausanias, however, in his Arcadia, gives
another version of this story. He says that Leucippus, son of Œnomaus,
king of Pisa, falling in love with Daphne, disguised himself in female
apparel, and devoted himself to her service. He soon procured her
friendship and confidence; but Apollo, who was his rival, having
discovered his fraud, one day redoubled the heat of the sun. Daphne
and her companions going to bathe, obliged Leucippus to follow their
example, on which, having discovered his stratagem, they killed him
with the arrows which they carried for the purposes of hunting.

Diodorus Siculus tells us that Daphne was the same with Manto, the
daughter of Tiresias, who was banished to Delphi, where she delivered
oracles, of the language of which Homer availed himself in the
composition of his poems. The inhabitants of Antioch asserted that the
adventure here narrated happened in the suburbs of their city, which
thence derived its name of Daphne.

FABLE XIII. [I.568-600]

Jupiter, pursuing Io, the daughter of Inachus, covers the earth with
darkness, and ravishes the Nymph.

There is a grove of Hæmonia,[88] which a wood, placed on a craggy rock, encloses on every side. They call it Tempe;[89] through this the river Peneus, flowing from the bottom of {mount} Pindus,[90] rolls along with its foaming waves, and in its mighty fall, gathers clouds that scatter {a vapor like} thin smoke,[91] and with its spray besprinkles the tops of the woods, and wearies places, far from near to it, with its noise. This is the home, this the abode, these are the retreats of the great river; residing here in a cavern formed by rocks, he gives law to the waters, and to the Nymphs that inhabit those waters. The rivers of that country first repair thither, not knowing whether they should congratulate, or whether console the parent; the poplar-bearing Spercheus,[92] and the restless Enipeus,[93] the aged Apidanus,[94] the gentle Amphrysus,[95] and Æas,[96] and, soon after, the other rivers, which, as their current leads them, carry down into the sea their waves, wearied by wanderings. Inachus[97] alone is absent, and, hidden in his deepest cavern, increases his waters with his tears, and in extreme wretchedness bewails his daughter Io as lost; he knows not whether she {now} enjoys life, or whether she is among the shades below; but her, whom he does not find anywhere, he believes to be nowhere, and in his mind he dreads the worst.

Jupiter had seen Io as she was returning from her father’s stream, and had said, “O maid, worthy of Jove, and destined to make I know not whom happy in thy marriage, repair to the shades of this lofty grove (and he pointed at the shade of the grove) while it is warm, and {while} the Sun is at his height, in the midst of his course. But if thou art afraid to enter the lonely abodes of the wild beasts alone, thou shalt enter the recesses of the groves, safe under the protection of a God, and {that} a God of no common sort; but {with me}, who hold the sceptre of heaven in my powerful hand; {me}, who hurl the wandering lightnings--Do not fly from me;” for {now} she was flying. And now she had left behind the pastures of Lerna,[98] and the Lircæan plains planted with trees, when the God covered the earth far and wide with darkness overspreading, and arrested her flight, and forced her modesty.

[Footnote 88: _A grove of Hæmonia._--Ver. 568. Hæmonia was an
ancient name of Thessaly, so called from its king, Hæmon, a son of
Pelasgus, and father of Thessalus, from which it received its
later name.]

[Footnote 89: _Call it Tempe._--Ver. 569. Tempe was a valley of
Thessaly, proverbial for its pleasantness and the beauty of its
scenery. The river Peneus ran through it, but not with the
violence which Ovid here depicts; for Ælian tells us that it runs
with a gentle sluggish stream, more like oil than water.]

[Footnote 90: _Mount Pindus._--Ver. 570. Pindus was a mountain
situate on the confines of Thessaly.]

[Footnote 91: _Like thin smoke._--Ver. 571. He speaks of the
spray, which in the fineness of its particles resembles smoke.]

[Footnote 92: _Spercheus._--Ver. 579. The Spercheus was a rapid
stream, flowing at the foot of Mount Æta into the Malian Gulf,
and on whose banks many poplars grew.]

[Footnote 93: _Enipeus._--Ver. 579. The Enipeus rises in Mount
Othrys, and runs through Thessaly. Virgil (Georgics, iv. 468)
calls it ‘Altus Enipeus,’ the deep Enipeus.]

[Footnote 94: _Apidanus._--Ver. 580. The Apidanus, receiving the
stream of the Enipeus at Pharsalia, flows into the Peneus. It is
supposed by some commentators to be here called ‘senex,’ aged,
from the slowness of its tide. But where it unites the Enipeus it
flows with violence, so that it is probably called ‘senex,’ as
having been known and celebrated by the poets from of old.]

[Footnote 95: _Amphrysus._--Ver. 580. This river ran through that
part of Thessaly known by the name of Phthiotis.]

[Footnote 96: _Æas._--Ver. 580. Pliny the Elder (Book iii, ch. 23)
calls this river Aous. It was a small limpid stream, running
through Epirus and Thessaly, and discharging itself into the
Ionian sea.]

[Footnote 97: _Inachus._--Ver. 583. This was a river of Argolis,
now known as the Naio. It took its rise either in Lycæus or
Artemisium, mountains of Arcadia. Stephens, however, thinks that
Lycæus was a mountain of Argolis.]

[Footnote 98: _Lerna._--Ver. 597. This was a swampy spot on the
Argive territory, where the poets say that the dragon with seven
heads, called Hydra, which was slain by Hercules, had made his
haunt. It is not improbable that the pestilential vapors of this
spot were got rid of by means of its being drained under the
superintendence of Hercules, on which fact the story was founded.
Some commentators, however, suppose the Lerna to have been a
flowing stream.]

EXPLANATION.

The Greeks frequently embellished their mythology with narratives of
Phœnician or Egyptian origin. The story of Io probably came from
Egypt. Isis was one of the chief divinities of that country, and her
worship naturally passed, with their colonies, into foreign countries.
Greece received it when Inachus went to settle there, and in lapse of
time Isis, under the name of Io, was supposed to have been his
daughter, and the fable was invented which is here narrated by Ovid.

The Greek authors, Apollodorus, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and
Pausanias, say that Io was the daughter of Inachus, the first king of
Argos; that Jupiter carried her away to Crete; and that by her he had
a son named Epaphus, who went to reign in Egypt, whither his mother
accompanied him. They also tell us that she married Apis, or Osiris,
who, after his death, was numbered among the Deities of Egypt by the
name of Serapis. From them we also learn that Juno, being actuated by
jealousy, on the discovery of the intrigue, put Io under the care of
her uncle Argus, a man of great vigilance, but that Jupiter having
slain him, placed his mistress on board of a vessel which had the
figure of a cow at its head; from which circumstance arose the story
of the transformation of Io. The Greek writers also state, that the
Bosphorus, a part of the Ægean sea, derived its name from the passage
of Io in the shape of a cow.

FABLE XIV. [I.601-688]

Jupiter, having changed Io into a cow, to conceal her from the
jealousy of Juno, is obliged to give her to that Goddess, who commits
her to the charge of the watchful Argus. Jupiter sends Mercury with an
injunction to cast Argus into a deep sleep, and to take away his life.

In the meantime Juno looked down upon the midst of the fields, and wondering that the fleeting clouds had made the appearance of night under bright day, she perceived that they were not {the vapors} from a river, nor were they raised from the moist earth, and {then} she looked around {to see} where her husband was, as being one who by this time was full well acquainted with the intrigues of a husband {who had been} so often detected.[99] After she had found him not in heaven, she said, “I am either deceived, or I am injured;” and having descended from the height of heaven, she alighted upon the earth, and commanded the mists to retire. He had foreseen the approach of his wife, and had changed the features of the daughter of Inachus into a sleek heifer.[100] As a cow, too, {she} is beautiful. The daughter of Saturn, though unwillingly, extols the appearance of the cow; and likewise inquires, whose it is, and whence, or of what herd it is, as though ignorant of the truth. Jupiter falsely asserts that it was produced out of the earth, that the owner may cease to be inquired after. The daughter of Saturn begs her of him as a gift. What can {he} do? It is a cruel thing to deliver up his {own} mistress, {and} not to give her up is a cause of suspicion. It is shame which persuades him on the one hand, love dissuades him on the other. His shame would have been subdued by his love; but if so trifling a gift as a cow should be refused to the sharer of his descent and his couch, she might {well} seem not to be a cow.

The rival now being given up {to her}, the Goddess did not immediately lay aside all apprehension; and she was {still} afraid of Jupiter, and was fearful of her being stolen, until she gave her to Argus, the son of Aristor, to be kept {by him}. Argus had his head encircled with a hundred eyes. Two of them used to take rest in their turns, the rest watched, and used to keep on duty.[101] In whatever manner he stood, he looked towards Io; although turned away, he {still} used to have Io before his eyes. In the daytime he suffers her to feed; but when the sun is below the deep earth, he shuts her up, and ties a cord round her neck undeserving {of such treatment}. She feeds upon the leaves of the arbute tree, and bitter herbs, and instead of a bed the unfortunate {animal} lies upon the earth, that does not always have grass {on it}, and drinks of muddy streams. And when, too, she was desirous, as a suppliant, to stretch out her arms to Argus, she had no arms to stretch out to Argus; and she uttered lowings from her mouth, {when} endeavoring to complain. And at {this} sound she was terrified, and was affrighted at her own voice.

She came, too, to the banks, where she was often wont to sport, the banks of {her father}, Inachus; and soon as she beheld her new horns in the water, she was terrified, and, astonished, she recoiled from herself. The Naiads knew her not, and Inachus himself knew her not, who she was; but she follows her father, and follows her sisters, and suffers herself to be touched, and presents herself to them, as they admire {her}. The aged Inachus held her some grass he had plucked; she licks his hand, and gives kisses to the palms of her father. Nor does she restrain her tears; and if only words would follow, she would implore his aid, and would declare her name and misfortunes. Instead of words, letters, which her foot traced in the dust, completed the sad discovery of the transformation of her body. “Ah, wretched me!” exclaims her father Inachus; and clinging to the horns and the neck of the snow-white cow, as she wept, he repeats, “Ah, wretched me! and art thou my daughter, that hast been sought for by me throughout all lands? While undiscovered, thou wast a lighter grief {to me}, than {now, when} thou art found. Thou art silent, and no words dost thou return in answer to mine; thou only heavest sighs from the depth of thy breast, and what alone thou art able to do, thou answerest in lowings to my words. But I, in ignorance {of this}, was preparing the bridal chamber, and the {nuptial} torches for thee; and my chief hope was that of a son-in-law, my next was that of grandchildren. But now must thou have a mate from the herd, now, {too}, an offspring of the herd. Nor is it possible for me to end grief so great by death; but it is a detriment to be a God; and the gate of death being shut against me, extends my grief to eternal ages.”

While thus he lamented, the starry Argus removed her away, and carried the daughter, {thus} taken from her father, to distant pastures. He himself, at a distance, occupies the lofty top of a mountain, whence, as he sits, he may look about on all sides.

Nor can the ruler of the Gods above, any longer endure so great miseries of the granddaughter of Phoroneus;[102] and he calls his son {Mercury}, whom the bright Pleiad, {Maia},[103] brought forth, and orders him to put Argus to death. There is {but} little delay to take wings upon his feet, and his soporiferous wand[104] in his hand, and a cap for his hair.[105] After he had put these things in order, the son of Jupiter leaps down from his father’s high abode upon the earth, and there he takes off his cap, and lays aside his wings; his wand alone was retained. With this, as a shepherd, he drives some she-goats through the pathless country, taken up as he passed along, and plays upon oaten straws joined together.

The keeper appointed by Juno, charmed by the sound of this new contrivance, says, “Whoever thou art, thou mayst be seated with me upon this stone; for, indeed, in no {other} place is the herbage more abundant for thy flock; and thou seest, too, that the shade is convenient for the shepherds.” The son of Atlas sat down, and with much talking he occupied the passing day with his discourse, and by playing upon his joined reeds he tried to overpower his watchful eyes. Yet {the other} strives hard to overcome soft sleep; and although sleep was received by a part of his eyes, yet with a part he still keeps watch. He inquires also (for the pipe had been {but} lately invented) by what method it had been found out.

[Footnote 99: _So often detected._--Ver. 606. Clarke translates
‘deprensi toties mariti’ by the expression, ‘who had been so often
catched in his roguery.’]

[Footnote 100: _Into a sleek heifer._--Ver. 611. Clarke renders
the words, ‘nitentem juvencam,’ a neat heifer.]

[Footnote 101: _To keep on duty._--Ver. 627. ‘In statione
manebant.’ This is a metaphorical expression, taken from military
affairs, as soldiers in turns relieve each other, and take their
station, when they keep watch and ward.]

[Footnote 102: _Phoroneus._--Ver. 668. He was the father of Jasius
and of Inachus, the parent of Io. Some accounts, however, say that
Inachus was the father of Phoroneus, and the son of Oceanus.]

[Footnote 103: _Pleiad Maia._--Ver. 670. Maia was one of the seven
daughters of Atlas, who were styled Pleiädes after they were
received among the constellations.]