Metamorphoses: Book The Tenth

THENCE, in his saffron robe, for distant Thrace,
Hymen departs, thro’ air’s unmeasur’d space;
By Orpheus call’d, the nuptial Pow’r attends,
But with ill-omen’d augury descends;
Nor chearful look’d the God, nor prosp’rous spoke,
Nor blaz’d his torch, but wept in hissing smoke.
In vain they whirl it round, in vain they shake,
No rapid motion can its flames awake.
The Story of With dread these inauspicious signs were view’d,
Orpheus And soon a more disastrous end ensu’d;
and Eurydice For as the bride, amid the Naiad train,
Ran joyful, sporting o’er the flow’ry plain,
A venom’d viper bit her as she pass’d;
Instant she fell, and sudden breath’d her last.
When long his loss the Thracian had deplor’d,
Not by superior Pow’rs to be restor’d;
Inflam’d by love, and urg’d by deep despair,
He leaves the realms of light, and upper air;
Daring to tread the dark Tenarian road,
And tempt the shades in their obscure abode;
Thro’ gliding spectres of th’ interr’d to go,
And phantom people of the world below:
Persephone he seeks, and him who reigns
O’er ghosts, and Hell’s uncomfortable plains.
Arriv’d, he, tuning to his voice his strings,
Thus to the king and queen of shadows sings.
Ye Pow’rs, who under Earth your realms extend,
To whom all mortals must one day descend;
If here ’tis granted sacred truth to tell:
I come not curious to explore your Hell;
Nor come to boast (by vain ambition fir’d)
How Cerberus at my approach retir’d.
My wife alone I seek; for her lov’d sake
These terrors I support, this journey take.
She, luckless wandring, or by fate mis-led,
Chanc’d on a lurking viper’s crest to tread;
The vengeful beast, enflam’d with fury, starts,
And thro’ her heel his deathful venom darts.
Thus was she snatch’d untimely to her tomb;
Her growing years cut short, and springing bloom.
Long I my loss endeavour’d to sustain,
And strongly strove, but strove, alas, in vain:
At length I yielded, won by mighty love;
Well known is that omnipotence above!
But here, I doubt, his unfelt influence fails;
And yet a hope within my heart prevails.
That here, ev’n here, he has been known of old;
At least if truth be by tradition told;
If fame of former rapes belief may find,
You both by love, and love alone, were join’d.
Now, by the horrors which these realms surround;
By the vast chaos of these depths profound;
By the sad silence which eternal reigns
O’er all the waste of these wide-stretching plains;
Let me again Eurydice receive,
Let Fate her quick-spun thread of life re-weave.
All our possessions are but loans from you,
And soon, or late, you must be paid your due;
Hither we haste to human-kind’s last seat,
Your endless empire, and our sure retreat.
She too, when ripen’d years she shall attain,
Must, of avoidless right, be yours again:
I but the transient use of that require,
Which soon, too soon, I must resign entire.
But if the destinies refuse my vow,
And no remission of her doom allow;
Know, I’m determin’d to return no more;
So both retain, or both to life restore.
Thus, while the bard melodiously complains,
And to his lyre accords his vocal strains,
The very bloodless shades attention keep,
And silent, seem compassionate to weep;
Ev’n Tantalus his flood unthirsty views,
Nor flies the stream, nor he the stream pursues;
Ixion’s wond’ring wheel its whirl suspends,
And the voracious vulture, charm’d, attends;
No more the Belides their toil bemoan,
And Sisiphus reclin’d, sits list’ning on his stone.
Then first (’tis said) by sacred verse subdu’d,
The Furies felt their cheeks with tears bedew’d:
Nor could the rigid king, or queen of Hell,
Th’ impulse of pity in their hearts repell.
Now, from a troop of shades that last arriv’d,
Eurydice was call’d, and stood reviv’d:
Slow she advanc’d, and halting seem to feel
The fatal wound, yet painful in her heel.
Thus he obtains the suit so much desir’d,
On strict observance of the terms requir’d:
For if, before he reach the realms of air,
He backward cast his eyes to view the fair,
The forfeit grant, that instant, void is made,
And she for ever left a lifeless shade.
Now thro’ the noiseless throng their way they
bend,
And both with pain the rugged road ascend;
Dark was the path, and difficult, and steep,
And thick with vapours from the smoaky deep.
They well-nigh now had pass’d the bounds of night,
And just approach’d the margin of the light,
When he, mistrusting lest her steps might stray,
And gladsome of the glympse of dawning day,
His longing eyes, impatient, backward cast
To catch a lover’s look, but look’d his last;
For, instant dying, she again descends,
While he to empty air his arms extends.
Again she dy’d, nor yet her lord reprov’d;
What could she say, but that too well he lov’d?
One last farewell she spoke, which scarce he heard;
So soon she drop’d, so sudden disappear’d.
All stunn’d he stood, when thus his wife he
view’d
By second Fate, and double death subdu’d:
Not more amazement by that wretch was shown,
Whom Cerberus beholding, turn’d to stone;
Nor Olenus cou’d more astonish’d look,
When on himself Lethaea’s fault he took,
His beauteous wife, who too secure had dar’d
Her face to vye with Goddesses compar’d:
Once join’d by love, they stand united still,
Turn’d to contiguous rocks on Ida’s hill.
Now to repass the Styx in vain he tries,
Charon averse, his pressing suit denies.
Sev’n days entire, along th’ infernal shores,
Disconsolate, the bard Eurydice deplores;
Defil’d with filth his robe, with tears his cheeks,
No sustenance but grief, and cares, he seeks:
Of rigid Fate incessant he complains,
And Hell’s inexorable Gods arraigns.
This ended, to high Rhodope he hastes,
And Haemus’ mountain, bleak with northern blasts.
And now his yearly race the circling sun
Had thrice compleat thro’ wat’ry Pisces run,
Since Orpheus fled the face of womankind,
And all soft union with the sex declin’d.
Whether his ill success this change had bred,
Or binding vows made to his former bed;
Whate’er the cause, in vain the nymphs contest,
With rival eyes to warm his frozen breast:
For ev’ry nymph with love his lays inspir’d,
But ev’ry nymph repuls’d, with grief retir’d.
A hill there was, and on that hill a mead,
With verdure thick, but destitute of shade.
Where, now, the Muse’s son no sooner sings,
No sooner strikes his sweet resounding strings.
But distant groves the flying sounds receive,
And list’ning trees their rooted stations leave;
Themselves transplanting, all around they grow,
And various shades their various kinds bestow.
Here, tall Chaonian oaks their branches spread,
While weeping poplars there erect their head.
The foodful Esculus here shoots his leaves,
That turf soft lime-tree, this, fat beach receives;
Here, brittle hazels, lawrels here advance,
And there tough ash to form the heroe’s lance;
Here silver firs with knotless trunks ascend,
There, scarlet oaks beneath their acorns bend.
That spot admits the hospitable plane,
On this, the maple grows with clouded grain;
Here, watry willows are with Lotus seen;
There, tamarisk, and box for ever green.
With double hue here mirtles grace the ground,
And laurestines, with purple berries crown’d.
With pliant feet, now, ivies this way wind,
Vines yonder rise, and elms with vines entwin’d.
Wild Ornus now, the pitch-tree next takes root,
And Arbutus adorn’d with blushing fruit.
Then easy-bending palms, the victor’s prize,
And pines erect with bristly tops arise.
For Rhea grateful still the pine remains,
For Atys still some favour she retains;
He once in human shape her breast had warm’d,
And now is cherish’d, to a tree transform’d.
The Fable of Amid the throng of this promiscuous wood,
Cyparissus With pointed top, the taper cypress stood;
A tree, which once a youth, and heav’nly fair,
Was of that deity the darling care,
Whose hand adapts, with equal skill, the strings
To bows with which he kills, and harps to which he
sings.
For heretofore, a mighty stag was bred,
Which on the fertile fields of Caea fed;
In shape and size he all his kind excell’d,
And to Carthaean nymphs was sacred held.
His beamy head, with branches high display’d,
Afforded to itself an ample shade;
His horns were gilt, and his smooth neck was grac’d
With silver collars thick with gems enchas’d:
A silver boss upon his forehead hung,
And brazen pendants in his ear-rings rung.
Frequenting houses, he familiar grew,
And learnt by custom, Nature to subdue;
‘Till by degrees, of fear, and wildness, broke,
Ev’n stranger hands his proffer’d neck might
stroak.
Much was the beast by Caea’s youth caress’d,
But thou, sweet Cyparissus, lov’dst him best:
By thee, to pastures fresh, he oft was led,
By thee oft water’d at the fountain’s head:
His horns with garlands, now, by thee were ty’d,
And, now, thou on his back wou’dst wanton ride;
Now here, now there wou’dst bound along the plains,
Ruling his tender mouth with purple reins.
‘Twas when the summer sun, at noon of day,
Thro’ glowing Cancer shot his burning ray,
‘Twas then, the fav’rite stag, in cool retreat,
Had sought a shelter from the scorching heat;
Along the grass his weary limbs he laid,
Inhaling freshness from the breezy shade:
When Cyparissus with his pointed dart,
Unknowing, pierc’d him to the panting heart.
But when the youth, surpriz’d, his error found,
And saw him dying of the cruel wound,
Himself he would have slain thro’ desp’rate grief:
What said not Phoebus, that might yield relief!
To cease his mourning, he the boy desir’d,
Or mourn no more than such a loss requir’d.
But he, incessant griev’d: at length address’d
To the superior Pow’rs a last request;
Praying, in expiation of his crime,
Thenceforth to mourn to all succeeding time.
And now, of blood exhausted he appears,
Drain’d by a torrent of continual tears;
The fleshy colour in his body fades,
And a green tincture all his limbs invades;
From his fair head, where curling locks late hung,
A horrid bush with bristled branches sprung,
Which stiffning by degrees, its stem extends,
‘Till to the starry skies the spire ascends.
Apollo sad look’d on, and sighing, cry’d,
Then, be for ever, what thy pray’r imply’d:
Bemoan’d by me, in others grief excite;
And still preside at ev’ry fun’ral rite.
Thus the sweet artist in a wondrous shade
Of verdant trees, which harmony had made,
Encircled sate, with his own triumphs crown’d,
Of listning birds, and savages around.
Again the trembling strings he dext’rous tries,
Again from discord makes soft musick rise.
Then tunes his voice: O Muse, from whom I sprung,
Jove be my theme, and thou inspire my song.
To Jove my grateful voice I oft have rais’d,
Oft his almighty pow’r with pleasure prais’d.
I sung the giants in a solemn strain,
Blasted, and thunder-struck on Phlegra’s plain.
Now be my lyre in softer accents mov’d,
To sing of blooming boys by Gods belov’d;
And to relate what virgins, void of shame,
Have suffer’d vengeance for a lawless flame.
The King of Gods once felt the burning joy,
And sigh’d for lovely Ganimede of Troy:
Long was he puzzled to assume a shape
Most fit, and expeditious for the rape;
A bird’s was proper, yet he scorns to wear
Any but that which might his thunder bear.
Down with his masquerading wings he flies,
And bears the little Trojan to the skies;
Where now, in robes of heav’nly purple drest,
He serves the nectar at th’ Almighty’s feast,
To slighted Juno an unwelcome guest.
Hyacinthus Phoebus for thee too, Hyacinth, design’d
transform’d A place among the Gods, had Fate been kind:
into a Flower Yet this he gave; as oft as wintry rains
Are past, and vernal breezes sooth the plains,
From the green turf a purple flow’r you rise,
And with your fragrant breath perfume the skies.
You when alive were Phoebus’ darling boy;
In you he plac’d his Heav’n, and fix’d his joy:
Their God the Delphic priests consult in vain;
Eurotas now he loves, and Sparta’s plain:
His hands the use of bow and harp forget,
And hold the dogs, or bear the corded net;
O’er hanging cliffs swift he pursues the game;
Each hour his pleasure, each augments his flame.
The mid-day sun now shone with equal light
Between the past, and the succeeding night;
They strip, then, smooth’d with suppling oyl, essay
To pitch the rounded quoit, their wonted play:
A well-pois’d disk first hasty Phoebus threw,
It cleft the air, and whistled as it flew;
It reach’d the mark, a most surprizing length;
Which spoke an equal share of art, and strength.
Scarce was it fall’n, when with too eager hand
Young Hyacinth ran to snatch it from the sand;
But the curst orb, which met a stony soil,
Flew in his face with violent recoil.
Both faint, both pale, and breathless now appear,
The boy with pain, the am’rous God with fear.
He ran, and rais’d him bleeding from the ground,
Chafes his cold limbs, and wipes the fatal wound:
Then herbs of noblest juice in vain applies;
The wound is mortal, and his skill defies.
As in a water’d garden’s blooming walk,
When some rude hand has bruis’d its tender stalk,
A fading lilly droops its languid head,
And bends to earth, its life, and beauty fled:
So Hyacinth, with head reclin’d, decays,
And, sickning, now no more his charms displays.
O thou art gone, my boy, Apollo cry’d,
Defrauded of thy youth in all its pride!
Thou, once my joy, art all my sorrow now;
And to my guilty hand my grief I owe.
Yet from my self I might the fault remove,
Unless to sport, and play, a fault should prove,
Unless it too were call’d a fault to love.
Oh cou’d I for thee, or but with thee, dye!
But cruel Fates to me that pow’r deny.
Yet on my tongue thou shalt for ever dwell;
Thy name my lyre shall sound, my verse shall tell;
And to a flow’r transform’d, unheard-of yet,
Stamp’d on thy leaves my cries thou shalt repeat.
The time shall come, prophetick I foreknow,
When, joyn’d to thee, a mighty chief shall grow,
And with my plaints his name thy leaf shall show.
While Phoebus thus the laws of Fate reveal’d,
Behold, the blood which stain’d the verdant field,
Is blood no longer; but a flow’r full blown,
Far brighter than the Tyrian scarlet shone.
A lilly’s form it took; its purple hue
Was all that made a diff’rence to the view,
Nor stop’d he here; the God upon its leaves
The sad expression of his sorrow weaves;
And to this hour the mournful purple wears
Ai, Ai, inscrib’d in funeral characters.
Nor are the Spartans, who so much are fam’d
For virtue, of their Hyacinth asham’d;
But still with pompous woe, and solemn state,
The Hyacinthian feasts they yearly celebrate
The Enquire of Amathus, whose wealthy ground
Transformations With veins of every metal does abound,
of the Cerastae If she to her Propoetides wou’d show,
and Propoetides The honour Sparta does to him allow?
Nor more, she’d say, such wretches wou’d we grace,
Than those whose crooked horns deform’d their face,
From thence Cerastae call’d, an impious race:
Before whose gates a rev’rend altar stood,
To Jove inscrib’d, the hospitable God:
This had some stranger seen with gore besmear’d,
The blood of lambs, and bulls it had appear’d:
Their slaughter’d guests it was; nor flock nor
herd.
Venus these barb’rous sacrifices view’d
With just abhorrence, and with wrath pursu’d:
At first, to punish such nefarious crimes,
Their towns she meant to leave, her once-lov’d
climes:
But why, said she, for their offence shou’d I
My dear delightful plains, and cities fly?
No, let the impious people, who have sinn’d,
A punishment in death, or exile, find:
If death, or exile too severe be thought,
Let them in some vile shape bemoan their fault.
While next her mind a proper form employs,
Admonish’d by their horns, she fix’d her choice.
Their former crest remains upon their heads,
And their strong limbs an ox’s shape invades.
The blasphemous Propoetides deny’d
Worship of Venus, and her pow’r defy’d:
But soon that pow’r they felt, the first that sold
Their lewd embraces to the world for gold.
Unknowing how to blush, and shameless grown,
A small transition changes them to stone.
The Story of Pygmalion loathing their lascivious life,
Pygmalion and Abhorr’d all womankind, but most a wife:
the Statue So single chose to live, and shunn’d to wed,
Well pleas’d to want a consort of his bed.
Yet fearing idleness, the nurse of ill,
In sculpture exercis’d his happy skill;
And carv’d in iv’ry such a maid, so fair,
As Nature could not with his art compare,
Were she to work; but in her own defence
Must take her pattern here, and copy hence.
Pleas’d with his idol, he commends, admires,
Adores; and last, the thing ador’d, desires.
A very virgin in her face was seen,
And had she mov’d, a living maid had been:
One wou’d have thought she cou’d have stirr’d, but
strove
With modesty, and was asham’d to move.
Art hid with art, so well perform’d the cheat,
It caught the carver with his own deceit:
He knows ’tis madness, yet he must adore,
And still the more he knows it, loves the more:
The flesh, or what so seems, he touches oft,
Which feels so smooth, that he believes it soft.
Fir’d with this thought, at once he strain’d the
breast,
And on the lips a burning kiss impress’d.
‘Tis true, the harden’d breast resists the gripe,
And the cold lips return a kiss unripe:
But when, retiring back, he look’d again,
To think it iv’ry, was a thought too mean:
So wou’d believe she kiss’d, and courting more,
Again embrac’d her naked body o’er;
And straining hard the statue, was afraid
His hands had made a dint, and hurt his maid:
Explor’d her limb by limb, and fear’d to find
So rude a gripe had left a livid mark behind:
With flatt’ry now he seeks her mind to move,
And now with gifts (the pow’rful bribes of love),
He furnishes her closet first; and fills
The crowded shelves with rarities of shells;
Adds orient pearls, which from the conchs he drew,
And all the sparkling stones of various hue:
And parrots, imitating human tongue,
And singing-birds in silver cages hung:
And ev’ry fragrant flow’r, and od’rous green,
Were sorted well, with lumps of amber laid between:
Rich fashionable robes her person deck,
Pendants her ears, and pearls adorn her neck:
Her taper’d fingers too with rings are grac’d,
And an embroider’d zone surrounds her slender
waste.
Thus like a queen array’d, so richly dress’d,
Beauteous she shew’d, but naked shew’d the best.
Then, from the floor, he rais’d a royal bed,
With cov’rings of Sydonian purple spread:
The solemn rites perform’d, he calls her bride,
With blandishments invites her to his side;
And as she were with vital sense possess’d,
Her head did on a plumy pillow rest.
The feast of Venus came, a solemn day,
To which the Cypriots due devotion pay;
With gilded horns the milk-white heifers led,
Slaughter’d before the sacred altars, bled.
Pygmalion off’ring, first approach’d the shrine,
And then with pray’rs implor’d the Pow’rs divine:
Almighty Gods, if all we mortals want,
If all we can require, be yours to grant;
Make this fair statue mine, he wou’d have said,
But chang’d his words for shame; and only pray’d,
Give me the likeness of my iv’ry maid.
The golden Goddess, present at the pray’r,
Well knew he meant th’ inanimated fair,
And gave the sign of granting his desire;
For thrice in chearful flames ascends the fire.
The youth, returning to his mistress, hies,
And impudent in hope, with ardent eyes,
And beating breast, by the dear statue lies.
He kisses her white lips, renews the bliss,
And looks, and thinks they redden at the kiss;
He thought them warm before: nor longer stays,
But next his hand on her hard bosom lays:
Hard as it was, beginning to relent,
It seem’d, the breast beneath his fingers bent;
He felt again, his fingers made a print;
‘Twas flesh, but flesh so firm, it rose against the
dint:
The pleasing task he fails not to renew;
Soft, and more soft at ev’ry touch it grew;
Like pliant wax, when chasing hands reduce
The former mass to form, and frame for use.
He would believe, but yet is still in pain,
And tries his argument of sense again,
Presses the pulse, and feels the leaping vein.
Convinc’d, o’erjoy’d, his studied thanks, and
praise,
To her, who made the miracle, he pays:
Then lips to lips he join’d; now freed from fear,
He found the savour of the kiss sincere:
At this the waken’d image op’d her eyes,
And view’d at once the light, and lover with
surprize.
The Goddess, present at the match she made,
So bless’d the bed, such fruitfulness convey’d,
That ere ten months had sharpen’d either horn,
To crown their bliss, a lovely boy was born;
Paphos his name, who grown to manhood, wall’d
The city Paphos, from the founder call’d.
The Story of Nor him alone produc’d the fruitful queen;
of Cinyras and But Cinyras, who like his sire had been
Myrrha A happy prince, had he not been a sire.
Daughters, and fathers, from my song retire;
I sing of horror; and could I prevail,
You shou’d not hear, or not believe my tale.
Yet if the pleasure of my song be such,
That you will hear, and credit me too much,
Attentive listen to the last event,
And, with the sin, believe the punishment:
Since Nature cou’d behold so dire a crime,
I gratulate at least my native clime,
That such a land, which such a monster bore,
So far is distant from our Thracian shore.
Let Araby extol her happy coast,
Her cinamon, and sweet Amomum boast,
Her fragrant flow’rs, her trees with precious
tears,
Her second harvests, and her double years;
How can the land be call’d so bless’d, that Myrrha
bears?
Nor all her od’rous tears can cleanse her crime;
Her Plant alone deforms the happy clime:
Cupid denies to have inflam’d thy heart,
Disowns thy love, and vindicates his dart:
Some Fury gave thee those infernal pains,
And shot her venom’d vipers in thy veins.
To hate thy sire, had merited a curse;
But such an impious love deserv’d a worse.
The neighb’ring monarchs, by thy beauty led,
Contend in crowds, ambitious of thy bed:
The world is at thy choice; except but one,
Except but him, thou canst not chuse, alone.
She knew it too, the miserable maid,
Ere impious love her better thoughts betray’d,
A