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044 - Book 15 Part 2 · Metamorphoses

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  Speaker 1: Book fifteen, Part two of of its metamorphosis. This is
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  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All librivoq's recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Morgan. Scorpion metamorphosis by Publius Ovidious Nasso, translated
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  Speaker 1: by brooks More, Book fifteen, Part two. Of many strange
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  Speaker 1: events that I have heard and known, I will add
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  Speaker 1: a few. Why does not water give and take strange forms?
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  Speaker 1: Your wave o hornet ammon will turn cold at midday,
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  Speaker 1: but is always mild and warm and sunrise and at sunset.
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  Speaker 1: I have heard that Athamenians kindle wood if they pour
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  Speaker 1: water on it. When the waning moon has shrunk away
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  Speaker 1: into her smallest orb. The people of Kiconia have a
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  Speaker 1: stream which turns the drinker's entrails into stone, which changes
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  Speaker 1: into marble. All at raves, the Achaean Crathis, and the Siberis,
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  Speaker 1: which flow not far from here, will turn the hair
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  Speaker 1: to something like clear amber or bright gold. What is
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  Speaker 1: more wonderful, there are some waters which change not only
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  Speaker 1: bodies but the mines. Who has no knowledge of the
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  Speaker 1: Salmachis and of its ill famed waves. Who has not
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  Speaker 1: heard of the lakes of Ethiopia, how those who drink
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  Speaker 1: of them go raving mad, or fall in a deep sleep,
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  Speaker 1: most wonderful in heaviness. Whoever quenches thirst from the Cletorian
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  Speaker 1: spring will hate all wine and soberly secure great pleasure
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  Speaker 1: from pure water. Either that spring has a power the
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  Speaker 1: opposite of wine heat, or, perhaps, as natives tell us,
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  Speaker 1: after the famed son of Ametheon, by his charms and
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  Speaker 1: herbs delivered from their base insanity, the stricken for etides,
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  Speaker 1: he through the rest of his mind, healing herbs into
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  Speaker 1: the spring, where hatred of all wine has since remained.
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  Speaker 1: Unlike in nature flows another stream of the country, called Lyncestius.
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  Speaker 1: Every One who drinks of it, even with most temperate care,
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  Speaker 1: with greel, as if he had drunk unmixed wine. In
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  Speaker 1: Arcadia is a place called Pheneus by men of old,
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  Speaker 1: which is mistrusted for the twofold nature of its waters.
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  Speaker 1: Stand in dread of them at night. If drunk at
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  Speaker 1: night they harm you, but in daytime they will do
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  Speaker 1: no harm at all. So lakes and rivers have now
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  Speaker 1: this now that effect Artigia once moved like a ship
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  Speaker 1: that drifts among the waves. Now it is fixed. The
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  Speaker 1: argo was in dread of the simplegades which moved apart
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  Speaker 1: with waves in rushing. Now immovable, they stand resisting the
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  Speaker 1: attack of winds. Etna which burns with sulfur furnaces will
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  Speaker 1: not be always concentrated fire, nor was it always fiery.
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  Speaker 1: If the earth is like an animal and is alive
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  Speaker 1: and breathes out flame at many openings, then it can
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  Speaker 1: change these many passages used for its breathing, and when
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  Speaker 1: it is moved, may close these caverns as it opens
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  Speaker 1: up some others. Or if rushing winds are penned in
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  Speaker 1: deepest caverns, and they drive great stones against the rock,
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  Speaker 1: and substances which have the properties of flame and fire
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  Speaker 1: are made by those concussions. When the winds are calmed,
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  Speaker 1: the caverns will of course be cool again. Or if
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  Speaker 1: some black bitchmen catches fire or yellow sulfur burns with
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  Speaker 1: little smoke, then surely, when the ground no longer gives
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  Speaker 1: such food and oily nutment for flames, and they in
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  Speaker 1: time have ravined all their store, their greedy nature soon
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  Speaker 1: will pine with death. It will not bear such famine,
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  Speaker 1: but depart, and when deserted, will desert the place. Tis
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  Speaker 1: said that hyperboreans of Pallini can cover all their bodies
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  Speaker 1: with light plumes by plunging nine times in Minerv's marsh.
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  Speaker 1: But I cannot believe another tale that Scythian women get
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  Speaker 1: a like result by having poisons sprinkled on their limbs.
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  Speaker 1: If we give any credit to the things proved by experience,
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  Speaker 1: we can surely know whatever bodies are decayed by time
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  Speaker 1: or by dissolving heat, are by such means changed into
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  Speaker 1: tiny animals come now buried choice bullocks killed for sacrifice.
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  Speaker 1: And it is well known by experience that the flower
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  Speaker 1: gathering bees are so produced miraculous from entrails putrefied. These,
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  Speaker 1: like the faithful animals from which they were produced, inhabit
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  Speaker 1: the green fields, delight in toil and labor for reward.
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  Speaker 1: The wall like steed, when buried in the ground, is
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  Speaker 1: a known source of hornets. If you cut the bending
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  Speaker 1: claws off from the sea shore crab and bury the
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  Speaker 1: remainder in the earth, a scorpion will come forth from
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  Speaker 1: the dead crab buried there, threatening with its crooked tail.
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  Speaker 1: The worms which cover leaves with their white threads, a
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  Speaker 1: thing observable by husbandmen will change themselves too. Funeral butterflies.
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  Speaker 1: Mud holds the seeds that generate green frogs, at first
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  Speaker 1: producing tadpoles with no feet, and soon it gives them
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  Speaker 1: legs adapted for their swimming, and so they may be
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  Speaker 1: as well adapted to good leaping. Their hind legs are
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  Speaker 1: longer than the fore legs. The mother bear does not
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  Speaker 1: bring forth a cub, but a limp mass of flesh
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  Speaker 1: that can hardly be called alive. By licking it, the
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  Speaker 1: mother forms the limbs and brings it to a shape
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  Speaker 1: just like her own. Do not the offspring of the
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  Speaker 1: honey bees, concealed in cells hexagonal, at first, get life
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  Speaker 1: with no limbs, and assume in time both feet and wings.
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  Speaker 1: Unless the fact were known, could any one suppose it
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  Speaker 1: possible that Juno's bird, whose tail is bright with stars,
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  Speaker 1: the eagle armor bearer of high Jove, the doves of Cytheria,
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  Speaker 1: and all birds emerge from the middle part of eggs.
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  Speaker 1: And some believe the human marrow turns into a serpent
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  Speaker 1: when the spine at length has putrefied in the closed sepulcher.
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  Speaker 1: Now these i named derive their origin from other living forms.
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  Speaker 1: There is one bird which reproduces and renews itself. The
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  Speaker 1: Assyrians give this bird his name, the phoenix. He does
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  Speaker 1: not live either on grain or herbs, but only on
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  Speaker 1: small drops of frankincense and juices of amomum. When this
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  Speaker 1: bird completes a full five centuries of life straightway with
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  Speaker 1: talons and with shining beak, he builds a nest among
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  Speaker 1: palm branches, where they join to form the palm trees
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  Speaker 1: waving top. As soon as he has strewn in this
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  Speaker 1: new nest the cassiar barque and ears of sweet spikanard
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  Speaker 1: and some bruised cinnamon with yellow mrh, he lies down
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  Speaker 1: on it and refuses life among those dreamful odours. And
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  Speaker 1: they say that from the body of the dying bird
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  Speaker 1: is reproduced a little phoenix, which is destined to live
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  Speaker 1: just as many years. When time has given to him
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  Speaker 1: sufficient strength and he is able to sustain the weight,
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  Speaker 1: he lifts the nest up from the lofty tree and
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  Speaker 1: dutifully carries from that place his cradle and the parent sepulcher.
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  Speaker 1: As soon as he has reached through yielding air, the
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  Speaker 1: city of Hyperion, he will lay the burden down just
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  Speaker 1: before the sacred doors within the temple of Hyperion. Now
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  Speaker 1: these I named derive their origin from other living forms.
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  Speaker 1: But if we wonder at strange things like these, we
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  Speaker 1: ought to wander. Also when we learn that a hyaena
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  Speaker 1: has a change of sex, the female quitting her embracing
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  Speaker 1: male herself becomes a male. That animal, which feeds upon
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  Speaker 1: the winds and air at once assumes an with contact
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  Speaker 1: any color touched. Conquered India gave to the vine crowned
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  Speaker 1: bacchus Lynxes, whose urine turns, they say, to stones hardening
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  Speaker 1: in air. So coral too, as soon as it has
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  Speaker 1: risen above the sea turns hard below the waves. It
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  Speaker 1: was a tenter plant. The day will fail me. Fevers
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  Speaker 1: will have bathed his panting horses in the deep sea
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  Speaker 1: waves before I can include in my discourse the myriad
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  Speaker 1: things transforming to new shapes. In lapse of time, we
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  Speaker 1: see the nations change, Some grow in power, some wain
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  Speaker 1: Troy was once great in riches and in men, so
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  Speaker 1: great she could, for ten unequaled years, afford much blood.
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  Speaker 1: Now she lies low and offers to our gaze, but
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  Speaker 1: ancient ruins, and instead of wealth ancestral tombs. Sparta was
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  Speaker 1: famous once and great Mycenae was most flourishing and sacrof
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  Speaker 1: Citadel and Amphions shone in ancient power. Sparta is nothing
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  Speaker 1: now save barren ground the proud Mycenae fell. What is
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  Speaker 1: the theories of storied Oedipus except a name, and of
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  Speaker 1: Pandian's Athens. What now remains beyond the name? Reports come
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  Speaker 1: to me that Dardanian Rome is rising, and beside the
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  Speaker 1: Tibal's waves, whose springs are high in the Apennines, is
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  Speaker 1: laying her deep foundations. So in her growth, her form
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  Speaker 1: is changing, and one day she will be the sole
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  Speaker 1: mistress of the boundless world. They say that soothsayers and
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  Speaker 1: that oracles revealers of our destiny, declare this fate. And
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  Speaker 1: if I recollect it right, Helenus, son of Priam, prophesied
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  Speaker 1: unto Eneus, when he was in doubt of safety and
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  Speaker 1: lamenting for the state of Troy about to fall, O,
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  Speaker 1: son of a Goddess, if you yourself will fully understand
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  Speaker 1: this prophecy, no surging in my mind, Troy shall not,
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  Speaker 1: while you are preserved to life fail utterly flames, and
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  Speaker 1: the sword shall give you passage, you shall go and
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  Speaker 1: bear away Pergama ruined, till a foreign soil more friendly
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  Speaker 1: to you than your native land shall be the lot
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  Speaker 1: of Troy and of yourself. Even now I know it
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  Speaker 1: is decreed by fate that our posterity, borne far from Troy,
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  Speaker 1: will build a city greater than exists, or ever will exist,
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  Speaker 1: or ever has been seen in former times. Through a
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  Speaker 1: long lapse of ages. Other noted men shall make it strong,
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  Speaker 1: but one of the race of Eulus shall make it
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  Speaker 1: the great mistress of the world. After the earth has
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  Speaker 1: sloroughly enjoyed his glorious life, ethereal abode shall gain him,
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  Speaker 1: and immortal heavens shall be his destiny. Such was the
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  Speaker 1: prophecy of Helenus when Great Eneas took away his guardian deities.
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  Speaker 1: And I rejoice to see my kindred walls rise high
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  Speaker 1: and realize how much the Trojans won by that resounding
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  Speaker 1: victory of the Greeks. But that we may not range
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  Speaker 1: afar with steeds, forgetful of the goal. The heavens and
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  Speaker 1: all beneath them, and the earth and everything upon it
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  Speaker 1: change in form We likewise change. Who are a portion
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  Speaker 1: of the universe, and since we are not only things
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  Speaker 1: of flesh, but winged souls as well, we may be
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  Speaker 1: doomed to enter into beasts as our abode, and even
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  Speaker 1: to be hidden in the breasts of cattle. Therefore, should
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  Speaker 1: we not allow these bodies to be safe, which may
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  Speaker 1: contain the souls of parents, brothers, or of those alike
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  Speaker 1: to us by kinship, or of men at least, who
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  Speaker 1: should be saved from every harm. Let us not gorge
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  Speaker 1: down the thiestean feast. How greatly does a man disgrace himself?
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  Speaker 1: How impiously does he prepare himself for shedding human blood?
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  Speaker 1: Who with the knife cuts the calf's throat and offers
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  Speaker 1: a death ear to its death longings? Who can kill
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  Speaker 1: the kid while it is sending forth heart rending cries
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  Speaker 1: like those of a dear child? Or who can feed
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  Speaker 1: upon the bird which he has given food? How little
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  Speaker 1: do such deeds as these fall short of actual murder? Yes,
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  Speaker 1: where will they lead? Let the ogs plow, or let
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  Speaker 1: him owe his death to wait of years, and let
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  Speaker 1: the sheep give us defense against the cold of boreus,
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  Speaker 1: And let the well fed she goats give to man
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  Speaker 1: their udders. For the pressure of kind hands away with
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  Speaker 1: cruel nets and springs, and snares and fraudulent contrivances, deceive
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  Speaker 1: not Birds with bird limed twigs, do not deceive the trusting.
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  Speaker 1: Deer with dreaded feather foils, do not conceal barbed hooks
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  Speaker 1: with treacherous bait. If any beast is harmful, take its life.
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  Speaker 1: But even so, let killing be enough. Taste not his flesh,
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  Speaker 1: but look for harmless food. They say that Numa, with
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  Speaker 1: a mind well taught by these and other precepts, traveled
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  Speaker 1: back to his own land, and, being urged again, assumed
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  Speaker 1: the guidance of the Latin state, Blest with a Nymphu's consort,
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  Speaker 1: Blest also with the muses for his guides. He taught
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  Speaker 1: the rights of sacrifice and trained in arts of peace,
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  Speaker 1: a race accustomed long to savage war. When ripe in years,
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  Speaker 1: he ended reign and life. The Latin Matrons, the fathers
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  Speaker 1: of the state, and all the people wept for Numa's death,
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  Speaker 1: for the nymph his widow had withdrawn from Rome, concealed
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  Speaker 1: within the thick groves of the veil Arichia, where with
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  Speaker 1: groans and wailings she disturbed the holy rites of Cynthia
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  Speaker 1: established by orestes Ah. How often nymphs of the grove
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  Speaker 1: and lake entreated her to cease and offered her consoling words.
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  Speaker 1: How often the son of theseus said to her, control
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  Speaker 1: your sorrow. Surely your sad lot is not the only one.
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  Speaker 1: Consider now the like calamities by others born, and you
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  Speaker 1: can bear your sorrow to my grief. My own disaster
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  Speaker 1: was far worse than yours. At least it can afford
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  Speaker 1: you comfort, now, Is it not true? Discourse has reached
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  Speaker 1: your ears that one Hippolytus met with his death through
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  Speaker 1: the credulity of his loved sire, deceived by a stepmother's
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  Speaker 1: wicked art. It will amaze you much, and I may
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  Speaker 1: fail to prove what I declare, but I am he.
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  Speaker 1: Long since the daughter of Pacify tempted me to defile
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  Speaker 1: my father's bed, and, failing, feigned that I had wished
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  Speaker 1: to do what she herself had wished, perverting truth, either
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  Speaker 1: through fear of some discovery or else through spite at
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  Speaker 1: her deserved repulse. She charged me with attempting the foul crime.
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  Speaker 1: Though I was guiltless of all wrong. My father banished me,
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  Speaker 1: and while I was departing, laid on me a mortal
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  Speaker 1: curse towards Pytheus and Trozen. I've fled aghast, guiding the
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  Speaker 1: swift chariot near the shore of the Corinthian Gulf. All
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  Speaker 1: at once the sea rose up and seemed to arch itself,
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  Speaker 1: and lived high as a white topped mountain. Height make
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  Speaker 1: bellowings and open at the crest. Then through the parting waves,
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  Speaker 1: a horned bull emerged with head and breast into the wind,
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  Speaker 1: spouting white foam from his nostrils and his mouth. The
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  Speaker 1: hearts of my attendants quailed with fear. Yet I unfrightened
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  Speaker 1: thought but of my exile. Then my fierce horses turned
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  Speaker 1: their necks to face the waters, and with ears erect,
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  Speaker 1: they creaked before the monster's shape. They dashed in flight
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  Speaker 1: along the rock strewn ground below the cliff. I struggled,
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  Speaker 1: but with arlenvailing hand to use the reins, now covered
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  Speaker 1: with white foam, and throwing myself back, pulled on the
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  Speaker 1: thongs with weight and strength. Such effort might have checked
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  Speaker 1: the madness of my steeds, had not a wheel striking
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  Speaker 1: the houven of projecting stump been shattered and hurled in
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  Speaker 1: fragments from the axle. I was thrown forward from my chariot,
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  Speaker 1: and with the reins entwined about my legs, opitating entrails
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  Speaker 1: could be seen dragged on my sinews fastened on a stump.
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  Speaker 1: My torn legs followed, but a part remained behind me,
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  Speaker 1: caught by various snags. The breaking bones gave out a
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  Speaker 1: crackling noise. My tortured spirit soon had fled away. No
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  Speaker 1: part of the torn body could be known. All that
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  Speaker 1: was left was only one crushed wound. How can how
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  Speaker 1: dare you, nymph compare your ills to my disaster? I
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  Speaker 1: saw the lower world deprived of light, and I have
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  Speaker 1: bathed my flesh so tortured in the waves of flegathon.
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  Speaker 1: Life could not have been given again to me, but
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  Speaker 1: through the remedies Apollo's son applied to me. After my
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  Speaker 1: life returned by potent herbs and the Paonian aid, despite
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  Speaker 1: the will of Pluto, Cynthia then threw heavy clouds around
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  Speaker 1: that I might not be seen and cause men envy
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  Speaker 1: by new life, and that she might be sure my
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  Speaker 1: life was safe. She made me seem an old man,
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  Speaker 1: and she changed me so that I could not be recognized.
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  Speaker 1: A long time she debated whether she would give me
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  Speaker 1: crete or Deloss for my home Delos and crete abandoned.
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  Speaker 1: She then brought me here, and at the same time
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  Speaker 1: ordered me to lay aside my former name, one which
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  Speaker 1: when mentioned would remind me of my steeds. She said
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  Speaker 1: to me, you were Hippolytus, but now instead you shall
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  Speaker 1: be verbious. And from that time I have inhabited this grove,
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  Speaker 1: and as one of the lesser gods, I lived concealed
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  Speaker 1: and numbered in her train. The grief of others could
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  Speaker 1: not ease the woe of sad Egeria, and she laid
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  Speaker 1: herself down at her mountain's foot, dissolved in tears, till
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  Speaker 1: moved by pity for her faithful sorrow, Diana changed her
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  Speaker 1: body to a spring, her limbs into a clear, continual stream.
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  Speaker 1: End of Book fifteen, Part two,