Latest / Metamorphoses / 039 - Book 13 Part 4
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Book thirteen, Part four of Avid's Metamorphoses. This is a
- 0:05Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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- 0:15Speaker 1: Recording by Brian Haggerty. Metamorphoses by Publius Ovidius Nasso, translated
- 0:23Speaker 1: by Brooksmoor, Book thirteen, Part four. Then recollecting how the
- 0:29Speaker 1: Trojans had derived their origin from Tusser's race, they sailed
- 0:33Speaker 1: to Crete, but there could not endure ills sent by Jove,
- 0:36Speaker 1: and having left behind the Hundred Cities, they desired to
- 0:40Speaker 1: reach the western harbors of the Ausonian land wintry Seas.
- 0:44Speaker 1: Then tossed the heroic band, and in a treacherous harbor
- 0:48Speaker 1: of those isles called Strophides, a yellow frightened them. They
- 0:53Speaker 1: passed to Lycium's port, and Ithaca Seimos, and all the
- 0:57Speaker 1: homes of Narratos, the kingdom of the shrewd destre seitful
- 1:00Speaker 1: man Ulysses, and they reached Ambracia, contended for by those
- 1:05Speaker 1: disputing gods, which is today renowned abroad because of Actean
- 1:09Speaker 1: Apollo and the stone seen there conspicuous as a transformed judge.
- 1:14Speaker 1: They saw Dodona vocal with its oaks, and also the
- 1:18Speaker 1: well known Chaonian bays, where sons of the Molossian king
- 1:22Speaker 1: escaped with wings attached from unavailing flames. They set their sails,
- 1:27Speaker 1: then for the neighbouring land of the Pacians, rich with
- 1:30Speaker 1: luscious fruit, then for Epyrus and to Buthratos, and came
- 1:35Speaker 1: then to a mimic town of Troy, ruled by the
- 1:37Speaker 1: Phrygian seer, with prophecies which Helenus, the son of Priam, gave.
- 1:42Speaker 1: They came to Sicily, whose three high capes jut outward
- 1:46Speaker 1: in the sea. Of these three points, Pacinos faces toward
- 1:50Speaker 1: the showery south, and Lilibeum is exposed to soft, delicious zephyrs,
- 1:56Speaker 1: but Pyloros looks out towards the bears, which never touch
- 1:59Speaker 1: the sea. The Trojans came there, favored by the tide
- 2:04Speaker 1: and active oars. By nightfall all the fleet arrived together
- 2:08Speaker 1: on Zanclean sands. Scylla, upon the right, infests the shore Charybdis,
- 2:13Speaker 1: restless on the left, destroys. Charybdis, swallows and then vomits
- 2:18Speaker 1: forth misfortune ships that she has taken down. Scylla's dark
- 2:22Speaker 1: waist is girt with savage dogs. She has a maiden's face,
- 2:26Speaker 1: and if we may believe what poets tell, she was
- 2:29Speaker 1: in olden times a maiden. Many suitors courted her, but
- 2:33Speaker 1: she repulsed them. And because she was so much beloved
- 2:37Speaker 1: by all the nereids, she sought these nymphs and used
- 2:40Speaker 1: to tell how she escaped from the love stricken youths.
- 2:44Speaker 1: But Galatea, while her loosened locks were being combed, said
- 2:48Speaker 1: to her visitor, truly, o maiden, a gentle race of
- 2:51Speaker 1: men courts you, and so you can and do refuse
- 2:54Speaker 1: all with impunity. But I, whose sire is nearus, whom
- 2:59Speaker 1: the azure door, though guarded by so many sister nymphs,
- 3:03Speaker 1: escaped the cyclops love. With tragic loss and sobbing, she
- 3:08Speaker 1: was choked with tears. When with her fingers marble white
- 3:11Speaker 1: and smooth Scylla had wiped away the rising tears of
- 3:14Speaker 1: sorrow and had comforted the nymph, She said, tell me,
- 3:17Speaker 1: dear goddess, and do not conceal from me, for I
- 3:21Speaker 1: am true to you the cause of your great sorrows.
- 3:24Speaker 1: And the nymph, daughter of Nereus, thus replied to her,
- 3:28Speaker 1: aesis the son of Faunus and the Nymphsymethus was a
- 3:32Speaker 1: great delight to his dear father and his mother, but
- 3:35Speaker 1: even more to me, for he alone had won my
- 3:37Speaker 1: love eight birthdays, having passed a second time. His tender
- 3:42Speaker 1: cheeks were marked with softest down. While I pursued him
- 3:46Speaker 1: with a constant love. The Cyclops followed me as constantly,
- 3:50Speaker 1: And should you ask me, I could not declare whether
- 3:52Speaker 1: my hatred of him or my love of asis was
- 3:55Speaker 1: the stronger. They were equal, O, gentle Venus, what power
- 3:59Speaker 1: equal yours? That savage dreaded by the forest trees, feared
- 4:04Speaker 1: by the stranger who beholds his face, contemner of Olympus
- 4:07Speaker 1: and the gods. Now he can feel what love is.
- 4:11Speaker 1: He is filled with passion for me. He burns hot
- 4:14Speaker 1: for me, forgetful of his cattle and his caves. Now, Polyphemus,
- 4:18Speaker 1: wretched Cyclops. You are careful of appearance, and you try
- 4:21Speaker 1: the art of pleasing. You have even combed your stiffened
- 4:24Speaker 1: hair with rakes. It pleases you to trim your shaggy
- 4:27Speaker 1: beard with sickles, while you gaze at your fierce features
- 4:30Speaker 1: in a pool, So earnest to compose them, love of flesh, ferocity,
- 4:35Speaker 1: and your keen thirst for blood have ceased. The ships
- 4:38Speaker 1: may safely come and go. While all this happened, Telemus
- 4:42Speaker 1: arrived at the sicilian Etna. Tellamus, the son of Eurymus,
- 4:46Speaker 1: who never could mistaken omen, met the dreadful, fierce, huge
- 4:50Speaker 1: Cyclops Polyphemus, and he said that single eye, now midmost
- 4:54Speaker 1: in your brow, Ulysses, will take from you. In reply,
- 4:57Speaker 1: the Cyclops only laughed at him and said, most silly
- 5:00Speaker 1: of the prophets, you are wrong. A maiden has already
- 5:03Speaker 1: taken it. So he made fun of Telemus, who warned
- 5:06Speaker 1: him vainly of the truth. And after that he either
- 5:10Speaker 1: burdened with his bulk the shore by stalking back and
- 5:12Speaker 1: forth with lengthy strides, or came back weary to his
- 5:16Speaker 1: shaded cave. A wedge formed hill projects far in the sea,
- 5:20Speaker 1: and either side there flowed the salty waves. To this
- 5:24Speaker 1: the giant savage climbed and sat upon the highest point.
- 5:27Speaker 1: The wooly flock, no longer guided by him, followed after.
- 5:31Speaker 1: There After he had laid his pine tree down, which
- 5:34Speaker 1: served him for a staff, although so tall it seemed
- 5:36Speaker 1: best fitted for a ship's high mast. He played his
- 5:39Speaker 1: shepherd pipes. In them, I saw a hundred reeds. The
- 5:43Speaker 1: very mountains felt the pipings of that shepherd, and the
- 5:46Speaker 1: waves beneath him shook, respondent to each note. All this
- 5:50Speaker 1: time I was hidden by a rock reclining on the
- 5:53Speaker 1: bosom of my own dear asis. And although afar I
- 5:56Speaker 1: heard such words as these, which I cannot forget, O
- 6:01Speaker 1: Galatea fairer than the flower of snow white privet, and
- 6:04Speaker 1: more blooming than the meadows, and more slender than the tall,
- 6:07Speaker 1: delightful alder, brighter than smooth glass, more wanton than the
- 6:11Speaker 1: tender skipping kid, smoother than shells worn by continual floods,
- 6:16Speaker 1: more pleasing than the winter sun or than the summer shade,
- 6:20Speaker 1: more beautiful than fruit of apple trees, more pleasing to
- 6:23Speaker 1: the sight than the lofty plane tree, clearer than pure ice,
- 6:26Speaker 1: and sweeter than the ripe grape, Softer than soft swan
- 6:30Speaker 1: down in the softest curdled milk. Alas. And if you
- 6:34Speaker 1: did not fly from me, I would declare you are
- 6:36Speaker 1: more beautiful than any watered garden of this world. And
- 6:40Speaker 1: yet o Galatea, I must say that you are wilder
- 6:43Speaker 1: than all untrained bullocks, harder than seasoned oak, more treacherous
- 6:47Speaker 1: than tumbled waters, tougher than the twigs of osure in
- 6:50Speaker 1: the white vine, harder to move than cliffs which front
- 6:53Speaker 1: these waves, more violent than any torrent. You are prouder
- 6:56Speaker 1: than the flattered peacock, fiercer than hot fire than thistles,
- 7:01Speaker 1: and more cruel than the pregnant she bear, deafer than
- 7:04Speaker 1: the waves of stormy seas, more deadly savage than the
- 7:07Speaker 1: trodden water snake. And what I would endeavor surely to
- 7:11Speaker 1: deprive you of your speed is fleeter than the deer
- 7:13Speaker 1: pursued by frightful barkings, and more swift than rapid storm
- 7:17Speaker 1: winds in the flitting air. But Galatea, if you knew
- 7:20Speaker 1: me well, you would regret your hasty flight from me,
- 7:23Speaker 1: and you would even blame your own delay and strive
- 7:25Speaker 1: for my affection. I now hold the choice part of
- 7:28Speaker 1: this mountain for my cave, roofed over with the native rock.
- 7:32Speaker 1: The sun is not felt in the heat of middle day,
- 7:35Speaker 1: nor is the winter felt there. Apples load the bending boughs,
- 7:38Speaker 1: and luscious grapes hang on the lengthened vines. Resembling gold
- 7:42Speaker 1: and purple grapes as rich. I keep for you those
- 7:45Speaker 1: two delicious fruits with your own hands. You shall yourself
- 7:49Speaker 1: uncovered strawberries growing so soft beneath the woodland shade. You
- 7:53Speaker 1: shall pluck corners in the autumn, ripe and plums not
- 7:56Speaker 1: only darkened with black juice, but larger kinds as yellow
- 7:59Speaker 1: as new wag. If I may be your mate, you
- 8:02Speaker 1: shall have chestnuts fruits of the ar. Butte shall always
- 8:05Speaker 1: be near, and every tree shall yield at your desire.
- 8:09Speaker 1: They use here all are mine, and many more are
- 8:12Speaker 1: wandering in the valleys, and the woods conceal a multitude,
- 8:15Speaker 1: and many more are penned within my caves. If you
- 8:19Speaker 1: perchance should ask me, I could never even guess or
- 8:21Speaker 1: count the number. It is for the poor to count
- 8:24Speaker 1: their cattle. Do not trust my word, but go yourself
- 8:27Speaker 1: and see with your own eyes how they can hardly
- 8:29Speaker 1: stand up on their legs because of their distended utter's weight.
- 8:33Speaker 1: I have lambs also as a future flock, kept in
- 8:36Speaker 1: warm folds, and kids of their same age and other folds.
- 8:40Speaker 1: I always have supplies of snow white milk for drinking,
- 8:43Speaker 1: and much more is hardened with good rennet liquefied. The
- 8:47Speaker 1: common joys of ordinary things will not be all you
- 8:49Speaker 1: should expect of me. Tame does and hares and she goats,
- 8:53Speaker 1: or a pair of doves, or even a nest from
- 8:55Speaker 1: a tall tree. For I have found upon a mountain
- 8:57Speaker 1: top the twin cubs of a shaggy wild she bear,
- 9:01Speaker 1: of such appearance you can hardly know the one from
- 9:03Speaker 1: the other. They will play with you. The very day
- 9:06Speaker 1: I found them, I declared, these I will keep for
- 9:08Speaker 1: my dear loved one's joy. Do now but raise your
- 9:12Speaker 1: shining head above the azure sea. Come Galatea, Come, and
- 9:16Speaker 1: do not scorn my presence. Certainly I know myself, for
- 9:20Speaker 1: only recently I saw my own reflection pictured clear and
- 9:23Speaker 1: limpid water, and my features pleased and charmed me when
- 9:26Speaker 1: I saw it. See how huge I am? Not even
- 9:29Speaker 1: Jove in his high heaven is larger than my body.
- 9:32Speaker 1: This I say, because you tell me how imperial Jove surpasses.
- 9:36Speaker 1: Who is he? I never knew my long hair plentifully
- 9:40Speaker 1: hangs to hide unpleasant features, as a grove of trees
- 9:43Speaker 1: overshadowing my shoulders. Never think my body is uncomely, although
- 9:48Speaker 1: rough thick set with wiry bristles. Every tree without leaves
- 9:52Speaker 1: is unseemly. Every horse unless a mane hangs on his
- 9:55Speaker 1: tawny neck. Feathers must cover birds, and their soft wool
- 9:59Speaker 1: is ornamental the best formed sheep. Therefore, a beard and
- 10:02Speaker 1: rough hair spread upon the body is becoming to all men.
- 10:06Speaker 1: I have but one eye centered perfectly within my forehead,
- 10:09Speaker 1: so it seems most like a mighty buckler. Hah. Does
- 10:13Speaker 1: not the sun see everything from heaven? Yet it has
- 10:16Speaker 1: but one eye? Galateea, you must know my father is
- 10:19Speaker 1: chief ruler in your sea, and therefore I now offer
- 10:22Speaker 1: him to you as your own father in law. But oh,
- 10:25Speaker 1: do take some pity on a suppliant and hear his prayer,
- 10:29Speaker 1: for only unto you my heart is given. I, who
- 10:32Speaker 1: despise the power of Jove, his heavens and piercing lightnings,
- 10:35Speaker 1: am afraid of you. Your wrath more fearful than the
- 10:39Speaker 1: lightning's flash. But I should be more patient under slights
- 10:42Speaker 1: if you avoided all men? Why reject the cyclops for
- 10:46Speaker 1: the love that aesis gives, and why prefer his smiles
- 10:49Speaker 1: to my embraces? But let him please himself, and let
- 10:52Speaker 1: him please you, Galatea, though against my will, if I
- 10:56Speaker 1: am given an opportunity, he will be shown that I
- 10:58Speaker 1: have every strength proportion too, a body vast as mine.
- 11:02Speaker 1: I will pull out his palpitating entrails and scatter his
- 11:05Speaker 1: torn limbs about the fields and over and through out
- 11:08Speaker 1: your salty waves, and then let him unite himself to you.
- 11:13Speaker 1: I burned so and my slighted passion raves with greater fury,
- 11:16Speaker 1: and I seemed to hold and carry Etna in my breast,
- 11:19Speaker 1: transferred there with its flames, O, Galatea, can you listen
- 11:23Speaker 1: to my passion? Thus unmoved, I saw all this, and
- 11:27Speaker 1: after he in vain had uttered such complaints, he stood
- 11:30Speaker 1: up like a raging bull whose heifer has been lost,
- 11:33Speaker 1: that cannot stand still, but must wander on through brush
- 11:37Speaker 1: and forests. That he knows so well. When that fierce
- 11:40Speaker 1: monster saw me and my asis, we neither knew nor
- 11:43Speaker 1: guessed our fate. He roared, I see you, and you
- 11:46Speaker 1: never will again parade your love before me in such
- 11:50Speaker 1: a voice as matched his giant sighs. All Etna shook
- 11:53Speaker 1: and trembled at the noise, and I, amazed with horror,
- 11:56Speaker 1: plunged into the adjoining sea. My loved one Aces turned
- 12:00Speaker 1: his back and fled and cried out, help me, galatea, help, Oh,
- 12:04Speaker 1: let your parents help me and admit me safe within
- 12:06Speaker 1: their realm, for I am now near my destruction. But
- 12:10Speaker 1: the cyclops rushed at him and hurled a fragment he
- 12:12Speaker 1: had torn out from the mountain, and although the extreme
- 12:15Speaker 1: edge only of the rock could reach him, there it
- 12:17Speaker 1: buried him entirely. Then I did the only thing the
- 12:20Speaker 1: fates permitted me. I let my aces take ancestral power
- 12:23Speaker 1: of river deities. The purple blood flowed from beneath the rock,
- 12:28Speaker 1: but soon the sanguine richness faded and became at first
- 12:30Speaker 1: the color of a stream disturbed and muddied by a shower,
- 12:34Speaker 1: And presently it clarified. The rock that had been thrown
- 12:37Speaker 1: then split into and through the cleft, A reed, stately
- 12:40Speaker 1: and vigorous, arose to life. And soon the hollow mouth
- 12:44Speaker 1: in the great rock resounded, with the waters gushing forth
- 12:47Speaker 1: and wonderful to tell. A youth emerged, the water flowing
- 12:50Speaker 1: clear about his waist, his new horns circled with entwining reeds,
- 12:54Speaker 1: and the youth certainly was ass though he was of
- 12:57Speaker 1: larger stature, and his face and features all were azure.
- 13:00Speaker 1: Asis changed into a stream which ever since that time
- 13:03Speaker 1: has flowed there and retained its former name, so Galatea.
- 13:08Speaker 1: After she had told her sorrow ceased, and when the
- 13:11Speaker 1: company had gone from there, the nereids swam again in
- 13:14Speaker 1: the calm and quiet waves. But Sila soon returned because
- 13:18Speaker 1: she did not trust herself in deep salt waters, and
- 13:20Speaker 1: she wandered there naked of garments on the thirsty sand.
- 13:24Speaker 1: But tired, by chance, she found a lonely bay and
- 13:27Speaker 1: cooled her limbs with its enclosing waves. Then suddenly appeared
- 13:31Speaker 1: a newly made inhabitant of that deep sea, whose name
- 13:34Speaker 1: was Glaucus. Cleaving through the blue sea waves, he swam
- 13:38Speaker 1: towards her. His shape had been transformed, but lately for
- 13:41Speaker 1: this watery life while he was living at Anthedon and Ubia.
- 13:45Speaker 1: Now he is lingering from desire for her. He saw
- 13:48Speaker 1: there and speaks whatever words he thought might stop her
- 13:51Speaker 1: as she fled from him. Yet still she fled from him,
- 13:54Speaker 1: and swift through fear, climbed to a mountain top above
- 13:57Speaker 1: the sea, facing the waves. It rose in one huge peak,
- 14:00Speaker 1: parting the waters with a forest crown. She stood on
- 14:03Speaker 1: that high summit, quite secure and doubtful whether he might
- 14:07Speaker 1: be a god or monster. Wondered at his flowing hair,
- 14:10Speaker 1: which covered his broad shoulders and his back, and marveled
- 14:13Speaker 1: at the color of his skin, and at his waist
- 14:15Speaker 1: merged into a twisted fish. All this he noticed, and
- 14:20Speaker 1: while leaning there against a rock that stood near by,
- 14:22Speaker 1: he said, I am no monster maiden. I am not
- 14:26Speaker 1: a savage beast. I am, in truth a god of waters,
- 14:28Speaker 1: with such power upon the seas as that of Proteus, Triton,
- 14:32Speaker 1: or Polymon reared on land, the son of Athemus. Not
- 14:36Speaker 1: long ago. I was a mortal man. Yet even then
- 14:38Speaker 1: my thought turned to the sea, and all my living
- 14:41Speaker 1: came from waters deep. For I would drag the nets
- 14:44Speaker 1: that swept up fish, or seated on a rock, I
- 14:46Speaker 1: flung the line forth from the rod. The shore I
- 14:49Speaker 1: loved was near a verdant meadow, one side with the waves,
- 14:53Speaker 1: the other grass which never had been touched by horned
- 14:56Speaker 1: grazing cattle, harmless sheep and shaggy goats had never crossed.
- 15:00Speaker 1: No industrious bee came there to harvest flowers. No festive
- 15:04Speaker 1: garlands had been gathered there adornments of the head. No
- 15:07Speaker 1: mower's hands had ever cut it. I was certainly the
- 15:10Speaker 1: first who ever sat upon that turf. While I was
- 15:12Speaker 1: drying there the dripping nets. And so that I might
- 15:15Speaker 1: in due order count the fish that I had caught,
- 15:18Speaker 1: I laid out those which, by good chance were driven
- 15:20Speaker 1: into my nets, or credulous were caught on my barbed hooks.
- 15:24Speaker 1: It all seems like a fiction, but what good can
- 15:27Speaker 1: I derive from fictions. Just as soon as any of
- 15:30Speaker 1: my fish prey touched the grass, they instantly began to
- 15:33Speaker 1: move and skip as usual in sea water. While I
- 15:36Speaker 1: paused and wondered, all of them slid to the waves
- 15:38Speaker 1: and left me their late captor and the shore. I
- 15:42Speaker 1: was amazed and doubtful a long time while I considered
- 15:45Speaker 1: what could be the cause, What God had done this,
- 15:49Speaker 1: or perhaps the juice of some herb caused it? But
- 15:52Speaker 1: I said, what herb can have such properties? And with
- 15:55Speaker 1: my hand I plucked the grass and chewed it with
- 15:57Speaker 1: my teeth. My throat had hardly time to swallow those
- 16:01Speaker 1: unheard of juices when I suddenly felt all my entrails
- 16:04Speaker 1: throbbing inwardly, and my entire mind also felt possessed by
- 16:08Speaker 1: passions foreign to my life before. I could not stay
- 16:11Speaker 1: in that place, and I said, with shouting, farewell, dry Land,
- 16:14Speaker 1: never more shall I revisit you. And with those words
- 16:18Speaker 1: upon my lips, I plunged beneath the waves. The gods
- 16:21Speaker 1: of that deep water gave to me when they received
- 16:24Speaker 1: me kindred honors, while they prayed Oceanus and Tethhus both
- 16:27Speaker 1: to take from me such mortal essence as might yet remain.
- 16:31Speaker 1: So I was purified by them, And after a good
- 16:34Speaker 1: charm had been nine times repeated over me, which washed
- 16:37Speaker 1: away all guilt, I was commanded then to put my
- 16:40Speaker 1: breast beneath a hundred streams. So far I can relate
- 16:43Speaker 1: to you all things most worthy to be told. For
- 16:46Speaker 1: all so far I can remember. But from that time
- 16:49Speaker 1: on I was unconscious of the many things that followed.
- 16:53Speaker 1: When my mind returned to me, I found myself entirely
- 16:56Speaker 1: different from what I was before, and my changed mind
- 16:59Speaker 1: was not the same as it had always been. Then,
- 17:02Speaker 1: for the first time I beheld this beard, so green
- 17:04Speaker 1: in its deep color, and I saw my flowing hair,
- 17:07Speaker 1: which now I sweep along the spacious seas, and my
- 17:10Speaker 1: huge shoulders with their azure colored arms, and I observed
- 17:14Speaker 1: my leg extremities hung tapering, exactly perfect as a finny fish.
- 17:18Speaker 1: But what a veil? Is this new form to me?
- 17:21Speaker 1: Although it pleased the ocean deities, what benefit although I
- 17:24Speaker 1: am a god, if you are not persuaded by these things.
- 17:28Speaker 1: While he was telling wonders such as these, quite ready
- 17:31Speaker 1: to say more, Scylla arose and left the God, provoked
- 17:35Speaker 1: at his repulse. Enraged, he hastened to the marvelous court
- 17:39Speaker 1: of Circe, well known daughter of the Sun. End of
- 17:44Speaker 1: Book thirteen, Part four. Recording by Brian Haggerty, Minneapolis, Minnesota,