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042 - Book 14 Part 3 · Metamorphoses

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  Speaker 1: Book fourteen, Part three of Avid's Metamorphoses. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Christina Vasselevski. Metamorphoses by Publius Ovidius Naso, translated
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  Speaker 1: by Brooks Moore, Book fourteen, Part three. Under the scepter
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  Speaker 1: of Ascanius, the Latin state transferred was alban two. Sylvius
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  Speaker 1: ruled after him. Latinus, then wearing the crown, brought back
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  Speaker 1: an older name illustrious. Alba followed after him, Epeitus next
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  Speaker 1: in time, and Cappus next, then Capitis, and reigning after them.
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  Speaker 1: King Tiberinus followed, was drowned in waves of that Etrurian
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  Speaker 1: stream to which he gave his name. His sons were
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  Speaker 1: Remulus and fierce a Crota, each in turn was king.
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  Speaker 1: The elder Remulus would imitate the lightning, and he perished
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  Speaker 1: by a flash of lightning. Then a Crota not so
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  Speaker 1: Rash succeeded to his brother, and he left his scepter
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  Speaker 1: to the valiant Aventinus. Hill buried on the very mountain
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  Speaker 1: which he rolled upon and which received his name, and
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  Speaker 1: Proco ruled then on the Palatine. Under this king, Pomona lived,
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  Speaker 1: and none of all the Latin hamadryads could attend her
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  Speaker 1: garden with more skill, and none was more attentive to
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  Speaker 1: the fruitful trees. Because of them her name was given
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  Speaker 1: to her. She cared not for the forest the streams,
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  Speaker 1: but loved the country and the boughs that bare delicious fruit.
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  Speaker 1: Her right hand never felt a javelin's weight. Always she
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  Speaker 1: left to hold a sharp curved pruning knife, with which
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  Speaker 1: she would at one time crop two largely growing shoots,
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  Speaker 1: or at another time reduce the branch that straggled. At
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  Speaker 1: another time she would engraft a succor in divided bark,
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  Speaker 1: and so fine nourishment for some young strange nursling. She
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  Speaker 1: never suffered them to thirst, for she would water every
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  Speaker 1: winding thread of twisting roots with freshly flowing streams. All
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  Speaker 1: this was her delight, her chief pursuit. She never felt
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  Speaker 1: the least desire of love, But fearful of some rustic's violence,
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  Speaker 1: she had her orchard closed within a wall, and both
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  Speaker 1: forbade and fled the approach of males. What did not
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  Speaker 1: satyrs do to gain her love. A youthful crew, expert
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  Speaker 1: at every dance, and also pans their brows wreathed with
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  Speaker 1: the pine Scyvenus too more youthful than his years. And
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  Speaker 1: that God who is ever scaring thieves with pruning hook
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  Speaker 1: or limb? What did they not to gain her love?
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  Speaker 1: And though Vertumnus did exceed them in his love, yet
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  Speaker 1: he was not more fortunate than they. How often disguised
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  Speaker 1: as a rough reaper, he brought her barley ears. Truly
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  Speaker 1: he seemed a reaper to the life. Often he came
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  Speaker 1: his temples wreathed with hay, as if he had been
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  Speaker 1: tossing new mown grass. He often held a whip in
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  Speaker 1: his tough hand. You could have sworn he had a
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  Speaker 1: moment before unyoked his wearied oxen. When he had a
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  Speaker 1: pruning knife, he seemed to rear fine fruit in orchard
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  Speaker 1: trees or in the well kept vines. When he came
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  Speaker 1: with the ladder, you would think he must be gathering fruit.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes he was a soldier with a sword, a fisherman
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  Speaker 1: the rod held in his hand. In fact, by means
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  Speaker 1: of many shapes, he often had obtained access to her,
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed in seeing her beauty. At length, he had his
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  Speaker 1: brows bound with a cap of color, and then, leaning
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  Speaker 1: on a stick with white hair round his temples, he
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  Speaker 1: assumed the shape of an old woman. Entering so the
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  Speaker 1: cultivated garden. He admired the fruit and said, but you
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  Speaker 1: are so much lovelier. And while he praised her gaze
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  Speaker 1: some kisses too, such as no real bilde ever gave.
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  Speaker 1: The bent old creature then sat on the grass, gazing
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  Speaker 1: at branches weighed down with their fruitive autumn. Opposite to
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  Speaker 1: them there was an elm tree, beautiful with shining grapes,
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  Speaker 1: And after he had praised it, with the vine embracing it,
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  Speaker 1: he said, but only think. If this trunk stood unwetted
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  Speaker 1: to this vine, it would have nothing to attract our
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  Speaker 1: hearts beyond its leaves. And this delightful vine, united to
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  Speaker 1: the elm tree, finds its rest. But if not so
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  Speaker 1: joined to, it would fall down prostrate upon the ground.
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  Speaker 1: And yet you find no warning in the example of
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  Speaker 1: this tree. You you have avoided marriage, with no wish
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  Speaker 1: to be united. I must wish that you would change
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  Speaker 1: and soon desire it. Helen would not have so many
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  Speaker 1: suitors for her hand, nor she who caused the battles
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  Speaker 1: of the lapithig. Nor would the wife of timid and
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  Speaker 1: not bold Ulysses. Even now, while you avoid those who
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  Speaker 1: are courting you, and while you turn in your disgust,
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  Speaker 1: a thousand suitors want to marry you, the demigods and
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  Speaker 1: gods and deities of Alba's mountain tops. But you, if
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  Speaker 1: you are wise and wish to make a good match,
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  Speaker 1: Listen patiently to me, an old old woman. I love
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  Speaker 1: you much more than all of them, more than you
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  Speaker 1: dream or think, despise all common persons, and choose now
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  Speaker 1: Vertumnus as the partner of your couch, and you may
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  Speaker 1: take me as a surety for him. He is not
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  Speaker 1: better known even to himself than he is known to me,
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  Speaker 1: And he is not now wanted everywhere from here to
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  Speaker 1: there throughout the world. He always will frequent the places
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  Speaker 1: near here. And he does not, like so many of
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  Speaker 1: your wooers, fall in love with her. He happens to
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  Speaker 1: have seen the last. You are his first and last love,
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  Speaker 1: and to you alone will he devote his life. Besides all,
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  Speaker 1: he is young and has a natural gift of grace,
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  Speaker 1: so that he can most readily transform himself to any
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  Speaker 1: wanted shape, and will become whatever you may wish, even
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  Speaker 1: though you ask him things unseen before, and only think,
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  Speaker 1: have you not the same tastes? Will he not be
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  Speaker 1: the first to welcome fruits which are your great delight?
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  Speaker 1: And does he not hold your gifts safely in his
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  Speaker 1: glad right hand. But now he does not long for
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  Speaker 1: any fruit plucked from the tree, and has no thought
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  Speaker 1: of herbs with pleasant juices that the garden gives. He
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  Speaker 1: cannot think of anything. But you have pity on his passion,
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  Speaker 1: and believe that he who woos you is here, and
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  Speaker 1: he please with my lips. You should not forget to
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  Speaker 1: fear avenging deities and the Idalian who hate all cruel hearts,
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  Speaker 1: and also dread the fierce revenge of her of Ramnous land,
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  Speaker 1: and that you may stand more in awe of them.
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  Speaker 1: Old age has given me opportunities of knowing many such things.
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  Speaker 1: I will relate some happenings known in Cyprus by which
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  Speaker 1: you may be persuaded and relent with ease. If this
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  Speaker 1: born of a humble family had seen the famed Annasorti,
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  Speaker 1: who was of the race of ancient tucer, he had
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  Speaker 1: seen her and felt fire inflame, his bones struggling a
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  Speaker 1: long time, he could not subdue his passion by his reason.
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  Speaker 1: So he came a suppliant to her doors, and, having
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  Speaker 1: now confessed his ardent passion to her nurse, besought her,
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  Speaker 1: by the hopes reposed in her by the loved girl,
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  Speaker 1: not to give him a cold heart. And another time,
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  Speaker 1: with fair words given to each of many servants, he
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  Speaker 1: beseare got their kindest interest. With an anxious voice. He
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  Speaker 1: often gave them coaxing words engraved on tablets of soft wax.
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  Speaker 1: And sometimes he would fasten garlands wet with dew of tears,
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  Speaker 1: upon the door posts. And he often laid his tender
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  Speaker 1: side night long on the hard threshold, sadly reproaching the
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  Speaker 1: obdurate bolt, deafer than the deep sea that rises high
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  Speaker 1: when the rainy constellation of the kids is setting, harder
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  Speaker 1: than the iron, which the fire of noracomer finds, more
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  Speaker 1: hard than rock, which in its native state is fixed, firm, rooted.
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  Speaker 1: She despised and laughed at him, and adding to her
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  Speaker 1: cruel deeds and pride, she boasted and deprived him of
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  Speaker 1: all hope. Ithis unable to endure such pain prolonged spoke
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  Speaker 1: these his final words before her door. A LAXERRITI you
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  Speaker 1: have conquered me, and you shall have no more annoyances
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  Speaker 1: to bear from me. Be joyful and prepare your triumph
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  Speaker 1: and invoke God. Payan crowd yourself with shining laurel. You
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  Speaker 1: are now my conqueror, and I resigned, will die. Woman
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  Speaker 1: of iron. Rejoice in victory. At least you will commend
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  Speaker 1: me for one thing, one point in which I must
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  Speaker 1: please even you and cause you to confess my right
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  Speaker 1: of praise. Remember that my star crossed love for you
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  Speaker 1: died only with the last breath of my life. And
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  Speaker 1: now in one short moment, I shall be deprived of
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  Speaker 1: a twofold light, and no report will come to you,
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  Speaker 1: no messenger of death. But doubt not I will come
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  Speaker 1: to youth that I can be seen in person, and
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  Speaker 1: you may then satiate your cruel eyesight with my lifeless body.
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  Speaker 1: If you God's above you have some knowledge of our
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  Speaker 1: mortal ways. Remember me, for now my tongue can pray
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  Speaker 1: no longer. Let me be renowned in times far distant,
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  Speaker 1: and give all those hours to fame which you have
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  Speaker 1: taken from my life on earth. Then to the door post,
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  Speaker 1: which he had often adorned with floral wreaths. He lifted
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  Speaker 1: up his swimming eyes and both his pallid arms, And
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  Speaker 1: when he had fastened over the capital a rope that
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  Speaker 1: held a dangling noose, he said, are these the garlands
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  Speaker 1: that delight your heart? You cruel and a natural woman?
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  Speaker 1: Then he thrust in his head, turning even then towards her,
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  Speaker 1: and hung a hapless weight with broken neck. The door,
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  Speaker 1: struck by the motion of his feet as they were quivering,
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  Speaker 1: seemed to utter sounds of groaning, and when it flew open,
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  Speaker 1: showed the sad sight. All the servants cried aloud, and
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  Speaker 1: after they had tried in vain to save him, carried
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  Speaker 1: him from there to his mother's house to her, because
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  Speaker 1: his father was then dead. She held him to her
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  Speaker 1: bosom and embraced the cold limbs of her dead child.
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  Speaker 1: After she had uttered words so natural to the grief
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  Speaker 1: of wretched mothers, after she had done what wretched mothers
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  Speaker 1: do at such sad times, she led a tearful funeral
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  Speaker 1: through the streets, the ale corpse, following high upon the bier,
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  Speaker 1: on to a pyre laid in the central square by chance,
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  Speaker 1: and Naxiryiti's house was near the way through which the
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  Speaker 1: mournful funeral was going with the corpse, and the sad
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  Speaker 1: sound of wailing reached the ears of that proud girl,
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  Speaker 1: hard hearted and already goaded on by an avenging god.
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  Speaker 1: Moved by the sound, she said, let me observe their
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  Speaker 1: sniveling rights, and she ascended to an upper room provided
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  Speaker 1: with wide windows. Scarcely had she looked at Iphis laid
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  Speaker 1: out on the bier, when her eyes stiffened and she
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  Speaker 1: turned all white as warm blood left her body. She
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  Speaker 1: tried them to turn back from the window, but she
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  Speaker 1: stood transfixed there. She then tried to turn her face
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  Speaker 1: away from that sad sight, but could not move, and
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  Speaker 1: by degrease, the stone which had always existed, petrified in
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  Speaker 1: her cold breast and took possession of her heart and limbs.
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  Speaker 1: This is not fiction, and that you may know. Salamus
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  Speaker 1: keeps that statue safe to day, formed the Virgin, and
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  Speaker 1: has also built the temple called Venus. The watchful goddess
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  Speaker 1: warned by her fate, O sweet Nymph, lay aside prolonged
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  Speaker 1: disdain and cheerfully unite yourself to one who loves you.
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  Speaker 1: Then may frost of springtime. Never nip your fruit and bud,
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  Speaker 1: nor rude winds strike the blossom. When the god fitted
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  Speaker 1: for every shape had said these words in vain, he
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  Speaker 1: laid the old woman's form aside, and was again a youth.
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  Speaker 1: On her. He seemed to blaze, as when the full
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  Speaker 1: light of the brilliant sun, after it has dispelled opposing clouds,
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  Speaker 1: has shone forth, with not one to intercept. He purposed violence,
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  Speaker 1: but there was then no need of force. The lovely
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  Speaker 1: nymph was charmed, was captivated by the god's bright form,
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  Speaker 1: and felt a passion answering to his love. I Proca's
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  Speaker 1: death unjust, Amulius seized with his troops the whole out
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  Speaker 1: Sonian wealth, and yet old Numitor, obtaining aid from his
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  Speaker 1: two grandsons, won the land again which he had lost,
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  Speaker 1: And on the Festival of Palais, were the city walls begun.
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  Speaker 1: King Tatius, with his sabines, went to war. Tarpeia, who
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  Speaker 1: betrayed the citadel, died justly underneath the weight of arms.
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  Speaker 1: Then troops from Cures crept like silent wolves without a
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  Speaker 1: word toward Nen, subdued by sleep, and tried the gates
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  Speaker 1: that Ilia's son had barred. Then Saturn's daughter opened wide
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  Speaker 1: a gate, turning the silent hinge. Venus alone perceived the
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  Speaker 1: bars of that gate falling down. She surely would have
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  Speaker 1: closed it were it not impossible for any deity to
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  Speaker 1: countervail the acts of other gods. The Naiads of Ausonia
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  Speaker 1: occupied a spring that welled up close to Yanis's fane.
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  Speaker 1: To them, she prayed for aid the fountain. Nymphs could
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  Speaker 1: not resist the prayer of Venus when she made her
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  Speaker 1: worthy plea, and they released all waters underground till then
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  Speaker 1: the path by yonisus fane was open. Never yet had
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  Speaker 1: floods risen to impede the way. But now they had
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  Speaker 1: laid hot sulfur of a faint blue light beneath the
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  Speaker 1: streaming fountain, and with care applied fire to the hallowed
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  Speaker 1: ways with smoking pitch. By these and many other violent means,
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  Speaker 1: hot vapors penetrated the source of the good fountain. Only
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  Speaker 1: think of it. Those waters which had rivaled the cold Alps,
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  Speaker 1: now rivaled with their heat the flames themselves. And while
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  Speaker 1: each gate post steamed with boiling spray, the gate which
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  Speaker 1: had been opened but in vain to hardy Sabines just outside,
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  Speaker 1: was made impassable by the heated fountain's flood. Till Roman
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  Speaker 1: soldiers had regained their arms, after brave Romulus had led
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  Speaker 1: them forth and covered Roman run with Sabines dead and
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  Speaker 1: its own people and the accursed sword shed blood of
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  Speaker 1: father in law and son in law. With peace, they
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  Speaker 1: chose at last to end the war, rather than fight
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  Speaker 1: on to the bitter end. Tatius and Romulus divide the throne.
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  Speaker 1: Tatius had fallen, and you, o, Romulus, were giving laws
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  Speaker 1: to peoples, now made one. When Mars put off his
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  Speaker 1: helmet and addressed the father of gods and men in
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  Speaker 1: words like these, the time has come. For now the
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  Speaker 1: Roman state has been established on a strong foundation, and
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  Speaker 1: no more must rely on one man's strength. The time
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  Speaker 1: has come for you to give the prize promise to
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  Speaker 1: me and your deserving grandson, to raise him from the
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  Speaker 1: earth and grant him here a flirting place on heaven.
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  Speaker 1: One day you said to me before a counsel of
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  Speaker 1: the gods. For I recall now with a grateful mind,
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  Speaker 1: how I took note of your most gracious speech him
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  Speaker 1: you shall lift up to the blue of heaven. Now
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  Speaker 1: let all know the meaning of your words. The God
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  Speaker 1: all Powerful nodded his ascent, and he obscured the air
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  Speaker 1: with heavy clouds, and on a trembling world he sent
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  Speaker 1: below harsh thunder and bright lightning. Mars at once perceived
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  Speaker 1: it was a signal plainly given for promised change. So
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  Speaker 1: leaning on a spear, he mounted boldly into his chariot,
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  Speaker 1: and over blood stained yoke and eager steeds, he swung
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  Speaker 1: and cracked the loud, resounding lash. Descending through steep air,
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  Speaker 1: he halted on the wooded summit of the Palatine, and there,
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  Speaker 1: while Ilia's son was giving laws, needing no pomp and
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  Speaker 1: circumstance of kings, Mars caught him up. His mortal flesh
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  Speaker 1: dissolved into thin air, as when a ball of lead
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  Speaker 1: shot up from a broad sling, melts all away, and
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  Speaker 1: soon as lost in heaven, a nobler shape was given
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  Speaker 1: to him, one more fitted to adorn rich couches in
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  Speaker 1: high heaven, the shape divine of queeriness clad and the
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  Speaker 1: Trabia His queen her Scythia, wept continually regarding him as lost,
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  Speaker 1: till Regal Juno commanded Iris to glide down along her
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  Speaker 1: curving bow and bring to her these words, oh matron,
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  Speaker 1: glory of the Latin race and of the Sabines, worthy
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  Speaker 1: to have been the consort chosen by so great a man,
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  Speaker 1: and now to be his partner. As the god Queriness
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  Speaker 1: weep no more. If you desire to see your husband,
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  Speaker 1: let me guide you up to a grove that crowns
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  Speaker 1: the hill of Queriness, shading a temple of the Roman king.
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  Speaker 1: Iris obeyed Juno's will, and, gliding down to earth along
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  Speaker 1: her tinted beau, conveyed the message to Hersilia, who replied
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  Speaker 1: with modest look and hearty lifted eye. Goddess, Although it
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  Speaker 1: is not in my power to say your name, I
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  Speaker 1: am quite certain you must be a goddess. Lead me, oh,
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  Speaker 1: lead me, until you show to me that hallowed form
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  Speaker 1: of my beloved husband. If the fates will but permit
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  Speaker 1: me once again to see his features, I will say
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  Speaker 1: I have won heaven. At once, Hersilia and the virgint
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  Speaker 1: child of Thaumas went together up the hill of Romulus.
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  Speaker 1: Descending through air, there came a star, and then Herscilia,
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  Speaker 1: her tresses, glowing fiery in the light, rose with that
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  Speaker 1: star as it returned through air, and her the founder
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  Speaker 1: of the Roman State, received with dear familiar hands. He
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  Speaker 1: changed her old time form, and with the form her name.
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  Speaker 1: He called her Hour, and let her become a goddess,
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  Speaker 1: now the mate of queeriness. End of Book fourteen, Part three.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Christina Baslevsky of www Dot one zero five
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  Speaker 1: creations dot com