But there came to me the mother of Philistae, my flute player, and the mother of Melixo, to-day, when the horses of the sun were
climbing
the sky, bearing dawn of the rosy arms from the ocean stream.
Universal Anthology - v04
When the Greeks who were assembled at Thermopylae learned that the Gallic army had already reached Magnesia and the district of Phthiotis, they resolved to send a detachment, con sisting of the cavalry and 1000 light infantry, to the Spercheus to dispute the passage of the river.
On reaching the river the detachment broke down the bridges and encamped on the bank.
But Brennus was no fool, and had, for a barbarian, a pretty notion of strategy.
Accordingly, that very night he dispatched a force, not to the places where the old bridges had stood, but lower down the river, in order that they might effect the passage unperceived by the Greeks.
At this point the Spercheus spread its waters over the plain, forming a marsh and a lake instead of a narrow rushing stream.
Thither, then, Brennus sent some 10,000 Gauls who could swim, or were taller than their fellows ; and the Celts are by far the tallest race in the world.
This force passed the river in the night by swimming the lagoon, the men using their national bucklers as rafts.
The tallest of them were able to cross the water on foot.
No sooner were the Greeks on the Spercheus informed that a detachment of the enemy had passed the marsh than they immediately fell back on the main body.
Brennus ordered the people who dwell round the Malian Gulf to bridge the Spercheus. They executed the task with alacrity, actuated at once by a fear of Brennus, and by a desire to get the barbarians out of their country, and thus to save it
342 INVASION OF GREECE BY THE GAULS, B. C. 270.
from further devastation. When he had led his army across the bridges, he marched on Heraclea. The Gauls plundered the district, and butchered all whom they caught in the fields, but failed to take the city, for the year before the JStolians had compelled Heraclea to join their confederacy ; so now they bestirred themselves in defense of a town which they regarded as belonging as much to them as to its inhabitants. Brennus himself cared little about Heraclea, but was bent on dislodging the enemy from the passes, and penetrating into the interior of
Greece, south of Thermopylae.
He had been informed by deserters of the strength of the
Greek contingents assembled at Thermopylae, and the informa tion inspired him with a contempt for the enemy. So, advancing from Heraclea, he offered battle the next morning at sunrise. He had no Greek soothsayer with him, and he consulted no sacrificial omens after the manner of his people, if indeed the Celts possess an art of divination. The Greeks came on in silence and in order. On engaging, the enemy did not disturb their formation by charging out from the ranks ; and the skirmishers, standing their ground, hurled darts and plied their bows and slings. The cavalry on both sides was useless ; for the ground at Thermopylae is not only narrow, but also smooth by reason of the natural rock, and mostly slippery owing to the numerous streams. The Gauls were the worse equipped, their national shields being their only defensive weapon ; and in military skill they were still more inferior. They advanced on the foe with the blind rage and passion of wild beasts. Hacked with axes or swords, their fury did not desert them so long as they drew breath ; run through with darts and javelins, they abated not of their courage while life remained ; some even tore from their wounds the spears with which they had been hit, and hurled them at the Greeks, or used them at close quarters. Meanwhile the Athenian fleet, with much difficulty and at some risk, stood close into the shore, through the mud which pervades the sea for a great distance, and laying the ships, as nearly as might be, alongside the enemy, raked his flank with a fire of missiles and arrows. The Celts were now unspeakably weary ; on the narrow ground the losses which they suffered were double or fourfold what they inflicted ; and at last their leaders gave the signal to retreat to the camp. Retiring in disorder and without any formation, many were trampled under foot by
INVASION OF GREECE BY THE GAULS, B. C. 279. 343
their comrades ; many fell into the swamp and disappeared beneath the mud ; and thus their losses in the retreat were as heavy as in the heat of action.
On that day the Attic troops outdid all the Greeks in valor ; and amongst them the bravest was Cydias ; he was young, and it was his first battle. He was slain by the Gauls, and his kinsmen dedicated his shield to Zeus of Freedom, with the following inscription : —
" I hang here, missing sadly the bloom of Cydias' youth,
I, the shield of a glorious man, and an offering to Zeus ;
I was the first shield through which he thrust his left arm When rushing Ares raged against the Gaul. "
The inscription remained till the shields in the Colonnade of Zeus of Freedom, with other things at Athens, were removed by the soldiers of Sulla.
After the battle at Thermopylae the Greeks buried their dead and spoiled the barbarians. The Gauls sent no herald to request permission to take up their dead, and deemed it a matter of indifference whether they were laid in earth or were devoured by wild beasts and the birds that prey upon corpses. Their apathy as to the burial of the dead resulted, it seems to me, from two motives : a wish to strike awe into the enemy, and a habitual carelessness toward the deceased. Forty of the Greeks fell in the battle ; the exact loss of the barbarians could not be ascertained, for the number that sank under the mud was great.
On the sixth day after the battle a corps of the Gauls attempted to ascend Mount CSta from Heraclea ; for here, too, a narrow footpath leads up the mountain just beyond the ruins of Trachis. In those days there was also a sanctuary of Athena above the territory of Trachis, with offerings in it. So they hoped to ascend CEta by this footpath, and to secure the treasures of the sanctuary. [The garrison under Tele- sarchus] defeated the barbarians ; but Telesarchus himself fell — a Greek patriot if ever there was one.
All the barbarian leaders except Brennus now stood in terror of the Greeks, and were perplexed as to the future, seeing that their enterprise made no progress. But it occurred to Brennus that if he could force the ^Etolians to return home to JEtolia, his operations against the Greeks would be much
344 INVASION OF GREECE BY THE GAULS, B. C. 279.
facilitated. So he detached from his army a force of forty thousand foot and some eight hundred horse, and placed it under the command of Orestorius and Combutis. These troops marched back by the bridges over the Spercheus, re traced their steps through Thessaly, and invaded ^tolia. The sack of Callium by Combutis and Orestorius was the most atrocious and inhuman in history. They put the whole male sex to the sword ; old men and babes at their mothers' breasts were butchered alike ; and after killing the fattest of the sucklings, they even drank their blood and ate their flesh. All matrons and marriageable maidens who had a spark of spirit anticipated their fate by dispatching themselves when the city was taken ; but the survivors were forcibly subjected to every kind of outrage by beings who were equal strangers to pity and to love. Such women as chanced to find an enemy's sword, laid hands on themselves ; the rest soon perished from want of food and sleep, the ruthless barbarians outraging them in turn, and glutting their lust on the persons even of the dying and dead.
Apprised by messengers of the disasters that had befallen them, the ^Etolians immediately set out from Thermopylae and hastened with all speed to ^Etolia, moved with rage at the sack of Callium, but still more with a desire to save the towns which had not yet fallen. From all their towns, too, poured forth the men of military age ; even the old men, roused by the emer gency, were to be seen in the ranks. The very women marched with them as volunteers, their exasperation of the Gauls ex ceeding even that of the men. After pillaging the houses and sanctuaries, and firing the town of Callium, the barbarians set out to return. Here they were met by the Patreans, the only Achaians who came to the aid of the jEtolians. Being trained infantry, the Patreans attacked the barbarians in front, but suf fered heavily from the numbers and desperation of the Gauls. The . iEtolians, on the other hand, men and women, lined the whole road, and kept up a fire of missiles on the barbarians ; and as the latter had nothing but their national shields, few shots were thrown away. Pursued by the Gauls, they easily es caped ; and then, when their enemies were returning from the pursuit, they fell upon them again with vigor. Hence, dread ful as had been the fate of the people of Callium, — so dreadful, indeed, that in the light of it even Homer's account of the Laestrygones and the Cyclops appears not to be exaggerated, —
INVASION OF GREECE BY THE GAULS, B. C. 279. 345
yet they were amply avenged ; for out of the 40,800 barbarians less than half returned alive to the camp at Thermopylae.
Meanwhile the Greeks at Thermopylae fared as follows : There are two paths over Mount (Eta ; one starting above Trachis, is exceedingly steep and in most places precipitous ; the other, leading through the territory of the jEnianians, is more passable for an army. It was by this latter path that Hydarnes, the Mede, once fell on the rear of Leonidas and his men, and by it the Heracleots and jEnianians now offered to lead Brennus, not from any ill will they bore the Greeks, but merely because they would give much to rid their country of the destroying presence of the Celts. Pindar, it seems to me, is right when he says that every man is weighed down by his own troubles and is callous to the sorrows of others. In cited by the promise held out to him by the jEnianians and Her acleots, Brennus left Acichorius in command of the army, with orders to advance to the attack the moment the Greeks were surrounded. Then at the head of a detachment of forty thou sand men he set off by the path. It happened that on that day the mist came down thick on the mountain, darkening the sun,
so that the Phocian pickets stationed on the path did not per ceive the approach of the barbarians till they were close upon them. Attacked by the enemy, they stood bravely to their arms, but were at last overpowered and driven from the path. Nevertheless, they succeeded in running down to their friends, and bringing them word of what was taking place before they were completely surrounded. This gave the Athenian fleet time to withdraw the Greek army from Thermopylae ; and so the troops dispersed to their several homes.
Brennus lost not a moment, but, without waiting to be joined by the army he had left under Acichorius in the camp, marched on Delphi. The trembling inhabitants betook themselves to the oracle, and the god bade them have no fear. " For," said he, "I will myself guard my own. " The Greeks who rallied in the defense of the god were these : the Phocians, who came forth from every city, 400 infantry from Amphissa, and a handful from jEtolia. This small force was dispatched by the iEtolians as soon as they heard of the advance of the barbarians ; after wards they sent 200 men under Philomelus. But the flower of the -Etolian troops advanced against the army of Acichorius, and without giving battle hung on his rear, capturing his baggage trains and killing his men. This was the chief cause of the
346 INVASION OF GREECE BY THE GAULS, B. C. 279.
slowness of his march. Besides, he had left behind at Hera- clea a corps to guard the camp baggage.
Meantime the Greeks who had mustered at Delphi drew out in order of battle against the army of Brennus, and soon, to confound the barbarians, the god sent signs and wonders, the plainest that ever were seen. For all the ground occupied by the army of the Gauls quaked violently most of the day, and thunder rolled and lightning flashed continually, the claps of thunder stunning the Celts and hindering them from hearing the words of command, while the bolts from heaven set fire not only to the men upon whom they fell, but to all who were near them, men and arms alike. Then, too, appeared to them the phan toms of the heroes Hyperochus, Laodocus, Pyrrhus ; some add to these a fourth, to wit, Phylacus, a local hero of Delphi. Of the Phocians themselves many fell in the action, and amongst them Aleximachus, who, on that day, above all the Greeks, did everything that youth and strength and valor could do in slay ing the barbarians. The Phocians had a statue of him made and sent it to Apollo at Delphi. Such were the sufferings and terrors by which the barbarians were beset all that livelong day ; and the fate that was in store for them in the night was more dismal far. For a keen frost set in, and with the frost came snow, and great rocks came slipping from Parnassus, and crags breaking off, made straight for the barbarians, crushing to death not one or two, but thirty or more at a blow, as they chanced to be grouped together on guard or in slumber.
At sunrise the Greeks advanced upon them from Delphi. All except the Phocians came straight on ; but the Phocians, more familiar with the ground, descended the precipices of Parnassus through the snow and getting in the rear of the Celts unperceived, showered their darts and arrows on the barbarians in perfect security. At first, despite the cross-fire of missiles and the bitter cold which told on them, and especially on the wounded, not less cruelly than the arrows of the enemy, the Gauls made a gallant stand, and especially Brennus's own company, the tallest and most stalwart of them all. But when Brennus himself was wounded and carried fainting from the field, the barbarians, beset on every side, fell sullenly back, butchering as they went their comrades, whom wounds or sick ness disabled from attending the retreat.
They encamped on the spot where night overtook them on the retreat ; but in the night a panic fear fell on them. Cause
INVASION OF GREECE BY THE GAULS, B. C. 279. 847
less fears, they say, are inspired by Pan. It was late in the evening when the confusion arose in the army, and at first it was a mere handful who lost their heads, fancying they heard the trampling of charging horses and the onset of foemen ; but soon the delusion spread to the whole army. So they snatched up their arms, and taking sides, dealt death and received it. For they understood not their mother tongue, nor perceived each other's forms and the shapes of their bucklers, both sides alike in their present infatuation fancying that their adversaries were Greeks, that their arms were Greek, and that the language they spoke was Greek. So the God-sent madness wrought a very great slaughter among the Gauls at the hands of each other. The Phocians, who were left in the field to watch the herds, were the first to perceive and report to the Greeks what had befallen the barbarians in the night. Then the Phocians took heart and pressed the Celts more vigorously than ever, keeping a stricter watch on their encampments, and not suffer ing them to forage unresisted. This immediately produced a dreadful scarcity of corn and all other necessaries throughout the whole Gallic army. Their losses in Phocis amounted to a little under 6000 in action, over 10,000 in the wintry night and the subsequent panic, and as many more by famine.
The Athenians sent scouts to see what was doing at Delphi. When these men returned and reported all that had befallen the barbarians, and what the god had done to them, the Athenians took the field, and on the march through Boeotia were joined by the Boeotians. Their united forces followed the barbarians, lying in wait for and cutting off the hindmost. The fugitives under Brennus had been joined by the army of Acichorius only the night before ; for the march of the latter had been retarded by the jEtolians, who pelted them freely with darts and any thing else that came to hand, so that only a small part of them escaped to the camp at Heraclea. Brennus's hurts still left him a chance of life ; but they say that from fear of his country men, and still more from wounded pride as the author of the disastrous campaign in Greece, he put an end to himself by drinking neat wine. After that the barbarians made their way with difficulty to the Spercheus, hotly pressed by the iEtolians. But from the Spercheus onward the Thessalians and Malians lay in wait, and swallowed them up so completely that not a man of them returned home.
348 IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS.
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS. (Translation and introductions by Andrew Lang. )
[Theocbitus, the creator of the pastoral poem, was born at Syracuse, and lived later at Alexandria under Ptolemy Philadelphus ; his palmiest period being about 270. He developed the responsive verse contest of shepherds into the bucolic " idyl " — " sketch " — of country and sometimes city life. ]
Idyl II.
Simcetha, madly in love with Delphis, who has forsaken her, endeavors to subdue him to her by magic, and by invoking the Moon in her character of Hecate and of Selene. She tells the tale of the growth of her passion, and vows vengeance if her magic arts are unsuccessful. The scene is probably some garden beneath the moonlit sky, near the town, and within sound of the sea. The characters are Simcetha and Thestylis her handmaid.
Where are my laurel leaves ? come, bring them, Thestylis ; and where are the love charms ? Wreath the bowl with bright red wool, that I may knit the witch knots against my grievous lover, who for twelve days, oh, cruel, has never come hither, nor knows whether I am alive or dead, nor has once knocked at my door, unkind that he is ! Hath Love flown off with his light desires by some other path — Love and Aphrodite ? To morrow I will go to the wrestling school of Timagetus, to see my love and to reproach him with all the wrong he is doing me. But now I will bewitch him with my enchantments ! Do thou, Selene, shine clear and fair ; for softly, goddess, to thee will I sing, and to Hecate of Hell. The very whelps shiver before her as she fares through black blood and across the bar rows of the dead.
Hail, awful Hecate ! to the end be thou of our company, and make this medicine of mine no weaker than the spells of Circe, or of Medea, or of Perimede of the I hair.
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man
Lo, how the barley grain first smolders in the fire, — nay, toss on the barley, Thestylis ! Miserable maid, where are thy wits wandering? Even to thee, wretched that I am, have I become a laughing-stock, even to thee? ScatIter the grain, and cry thus the while, " 'Tis the bones of Delphis I am scattering ! "
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man
Delphis troubled me, and I against Delphis am burning this aurel ; and even as it crackles loudly when it has caught the
golden
love !
love !
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS. 349
flame, and suddenly is burned up, and we see not even the dust thereof, lo, even thus may the flesh of Delphis waste in the burning !
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man
Even as I melt this wax, with the god to aid, so speedily may he by love be molten, the Myndian Delphis ! And as whirls this brazen wheel, so restless, under Aphrodite's spell, may he turn and turn about my doors. I
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man love !
Now will I burn the husks, and thou, O Artemis, hast power to move Hell's adamantine gates, and all else that is as stubborn. Thestylis, hark, 'tis so ; the hounds are baying up and down the town ! The goddess stands where the three ways meet! Hasten, and clash the brazen cymbals.
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man
Lo, silent is the deep, and silent the winds, but never silent the torment in my breast. Nay, I am all on fire for him that made me, miserable me, no wife, but a shameful thing, a girl no more a maiden.
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man Hove !
Three times do I pour libation, and thrice, my Lady Moon, I speak this spell : — Be it with a friend that he lingers, be it with a leman he lies, may he as clean forget them as Theseus, of old, in Dia, — so legends tell, — did utterly forget the fair- tressed Ariadne. I love !
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man
Coltsfoot is an Arcadian weed that maddens, on the hills, the young stallions and fleet-footed mares. Ah ! even as these
see Delphis ; and to this house of mine, may he speed like a madman, leaving the bright palestra. Ilove !
I
love !
I
love !
may I
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man
This fringe from his cloak Delphis lost ; that now I shred and cast into the cruel flame. Ah, ah, thou torturing Love, why clingest thou to me like a leech of the fen and drainest all the black blood from my body? Ilove !
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man
Lo, I will crush an eft, and a venomous draught to-morrow I will bring thee !
But now, Thestylis, take these magic herbs and secretly smear the juice on the jambs of his gate (whereat, even now,
350 IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS.
my heart is captive, though nothing he recks Iof me), and spit, and whisper, " 'Tis the bones of Delphis that I smear. "
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man
And now that I am alone, whence shall I begin to bewail my love ? Whence shall I take up the tale : who brought on me this sorrow ? The maiden bearer of the mystic vessel came our way, Anaxo, daughter of Eubulus, to the grove of Artemis ; and behold, she had many other wild beasts paraded for that time, in the sacred show, and among them a lioness.
Bethink thee of my love, and whence it came, my Lady Moon !
And the Thracian servant of Theucharides — my nurse that is but lately dead, and who then dwelt at our doors — besought me and implored me to come and see the show. And I went with her, wretched woman that I am, clad about in a fair and sweeping linen stole, over which I had thrown the holiday dress of Clearista.
Bethink thee of my love, and whence it came, my Lady Moon!
Bethink thee of my love, and whence it came, my Lady Moon !
Even as I looked I loved, loved madly, and all my heart was wounded, woe is me, and my beauty began to wane. No more heed took I of that show, and how I came home I know not ; but some parching fever utterly overthrew me, and I lay abed ten days and ten nights.
Bethink thee of my love, and whence it came, my Lady Moon !
And oftentimes my skin waxed wan as the color of boxwood, and all my hair was falling from my head, and what was left of me was but skin and bones. Was there a wizard to whom I did not seek, or a crone to whose house I did not resort, of them that have art magical? But this was no light malady, and the time went fleeting on.
Bethink thee of my love, and whence it came, my Lady Moon !
Thus I told the true story to my maiden, and said, " Go, Thestylis, and find me some remedy for this sore disease. Ah
I was now come to the midpoint of the highway, near
Lo !
the dwelling of Lycon, and there I saw Delphis and Eudamip- pus walking together. Their beards were more golden than the golden flower of the ivy ; their breasts (they coming fresh from the glorious wrestler's toil) were brighter of sheen than thyself, Selene !
me, the Myndian possesses me, body and soul !
Nay, depart,
love !
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS. 351
and watch by the wrestling ground of Timagetus, for there is his resort, and there he loves to loiter.
Bethink thee of my love, and whence it came, my Lady Moon!
" And when thou art sure he is alone, nod to him secretly, and say 'Simaetha bids thee to come to her,' and lead him hither privily. " So I spoke ; and she went and brought the bright-limbed Delphis to my house. But I, when I beheld him just crossing the threshold of the door, with his light step, —
Bethink thee of my love, and whence it came, my Lady Moon !
Grew colder all than snow, and the sweat streamed from my brow like the dank dews, and I had no strength to speak, nay, nor to utter as much as children murmur in their slumber, call ing to their mother dear : and all my fair body turned stiff as a puppet of wax.
Bethink thee of my love, and whence it came, my Lady Moon ! ##*****
Faultless was I in his sight, till yesterday, and he, again, in mine.
But there came to me the mother of Philistae, my flute player, and the mother of Melixo, to-day, when the horses of the sun were climbing the sky, bearing dawn of the rosy arms from the ocean stream. Many another thing she told me ; and chiefly this, that Delphis is a lover, and whom he loves she vowed she knew not surely, but this only, that ever he filled up his cup with the unmixed wine, to drink a toast to his dear est. And at last he went off hastily, saying that he would cover with garlands the dwelling of his love.
This news my visitor told me, and she speaks the truth. For indeed, at other seasons, he would come to me three or four times in the day, and often would leave with me his Dorian oil flask. But now it is the twelfth day since I have even looked on him ! Can it be that he has not some other delight, and has forgotten me ? Now with magic rites I will strive to bind him, but if he still vexes me, he shall beat, by the Fates I vow it, at the gate of Hell. Such evil medicines I store against him in a certain coffer, the use whereof, my lady, an Assyrian stranger taught me.
But do thou farewell, and turn thy steeds to Ocean, lady, and my pain I will bear, as even till now, I have endured it. Farewell, Selene, bright and fair, farewell, ye other stars, that follow the wheels of quiet Night.
352 IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS.
Idyl X. — The Reapers
This is an idyl of the same genre as Idyl IV. The sturdy reaper, Milon, as he levels the swaths of corn, derides his languid and lovelorn companion, Battus. The latter defends his gypsy love in verses which have been the keynote of much later poetry, and which echo in the fourth book of Lucretius and in the "Misanthrope" of Moliere. Milon replies with thesongof Lityerses — a string, apparently, of popular rural couplets, such as Theocritus may have heard
chanted in the fields.
Milon — Thou toilsome clod ; what ails thee now, thou wretched fellow? Canst thou neither cut thy swath straight, as thou wert wont to do, nor keep time with thy neighbor in thy reaping, but thou must fall out, like an ewe that is foot- pricked with a thorn and straggles from the herd? What manner of man wilt thou prove after midnoon and at evening, thou that dost not prosper with thy swathe when thou art fresh begun ? —
Milon, thou that canst toil till late, thou chip of
Battus
the stubborn stone, has it never befallen thee to long for one that was not with thee ?
Milon — Never ! What has a laboring man to do with hankering after what he has not got?
Battus — Then it never befell thee to lie awake for love ?
Milon — Forbid it ; 'tis an ill thing to let the dog once taste of pudding.
Battus — But I, Milon, am in love for almost eleven days !
Milon — 'Tis easily seen that thou drawest from a wine cask, while even vinegar is scarce with me.
Battus — And for Love's sake the fields before my doors are untilled since seedtime.
Milon — But which of the girls afflicts thee so?
Battus — The daughter of Polybotas, she that of late was wont to pipe to the reapers on Hippocoon's farm.
Milon — God has found out the guilty ! Thou hast what thou'st long been seeking, that grasshopper of a girl will lie by thee the night long !
Battus — Thou art beginning thy mocks of me ; but Plutus is not the only blind god ; he too is blind, the heedless Love ! Beware of talking big.
Milon — Talk big I do not ! Only see that thou dost level the corn, and strike up some love ditty in the wench's praise.
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS. 353
More pleasantly thus wilt thou labor, and, indeed, of old thou wert a melodist.
Battus — Ye Muses Pierian, sing ye with me the slender maiden, for whatsoever ye do but touch, ye goddesses, ye make wholly fair.
They all call thee a gypsy, gracious Bombyca, and lean and sun burnt, 'tis only I that call thee honey-pale.
Yea, and the violet is swart, and swart the lettered hyacinth, but yet these flowers are chosen the first in garlands.
The goat runs after cytisus, the wolf pursues the goat, the crane follows the plow, but I am wild for love of thee.
Would it were mine, all the wealth whereof once Croesus was lord, as men tell ! Then images of us twain, all in gold, should be dedicated to Aphrodite, thou with thy flute and a rose, yea, or an apple, and I in fair attire, and new shoon of Amyclae on both my feet.
Ah, gracious Bombyca, thy feet are fashioned like carven ivory, thy voice is drowsy sweet, and thy ways, I cannot tell of them !
Milon — Verily our clown was a maker of lovely songs, and we knew it not! How well he meted out and shaped his harmony; woe is me for the beard that I have grown, all in vain ! Come, mark thou too these lines of godlike Lityerses.
THE LITYERSES SONG
Demeter, rich in fruit and rich in grain, may this corn be easy to win, and fruitful exceedingly !
Bind, ye bandsters, the sheaves, lest the wayfarer should cry, "Men of straw were the workers here, ay, and their hire was wasted ! "
See that the cut stubble faces the north wind or the west ; 'tis thus the grain waxes richest.
They that thresh corn should shun the noonday sleep ; at noon the chaff parts easiest from the straw.
As for the reapers, let them begin when the crested lark is waking, and cease when he sleeps, but take holiday in the heat.
Lads, the frog has a jolly life, he is not cumbered about a butler to his drink, for he has liquor by him unstinted.
Boil the lentils better, thou miserly steward ; take heed lest thou chop thy fingers when thou'rt splitting cumin seed.
'Tis thus that men should sing who labor i' the sun, but thy starveling love, thou clod, 'twere fit to tell to thy mother when she stirs in bed at dawning.
vol. iv. — 23
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS.
Idyl XI. — The Cyclops. (Translation of Mrs. Browning. )
And so an easier life our Cyclops drew, The ancient Polyphemus, who in youth
Loved Galatea while the manhood grew
Adown his cheeks and darkened round his mouth.
No jot he cared for apples, olives, roses ;
Love made him mad : the whole world was neglected,
The very sheep went backward to their closes From out the fair green pastures, self-directed.
And singing Galatea, thus, he wore
The sunrise down along the weedy shore,
And pined alone, and felt the cruel wound Beneath his heart, which Cypris' arrow bore,
With a deep pang ; but, so, the cure was found ; And sitting on a lofty rock he cast —
His eyes upon the sea, and sang at last :
" O whitest Galatea, can it be
That thou shouldst spurn me off who love thee so ? More white than curds, my girl, thou art to see,
More meek than lambs, more full of leaping glee
Than kids, and brighter than the early glow On grapes that swell to ripen, — sour like thee ! Thou comest to me with the fragrant sleep,
And with the fragrant sleep thou goest from me ; Thou fliest . . . fliest, as a frightened sheep
Flies the gray wolf ! — yet Love did overcome me,
I loved thee, maiden, first of all
So long ; —
When down the hills (my mother fast beside thee)
I saw thee stray to pluck the summer fall
Of hyacinth bells, and went myself to guide thee :
And since my eyes have seen thee, they can leave thee
No more, from that day's light ! But thou . . . by Zeus,
Thou wilt not care for that, to let it grieve thee ! I know thee, fair one, why thou springest loose
From my arm round thee. Why ? I tell thee, Dear ! One shaggy eyebrow draws its smudging road
Straight through my ample front, from ear to ear, — One eye rolls underneath ; and yawning, broad
Flat nostrils feel the bulging lips too near.
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS. 355
Yet . . . ho,ho! —I,—whatever Iappear,— Do feed a thousand oxen ! When I have done,
I milk the cows, and drink the milk that's best ! I lack no cheese, while summer keeps the sun ;
And after, in the cold, it's ready prest !
And then, I know to sing, as there is none
. . .
Sweet apple of my soul, on love's fair tree,
Of all the Cyclops can,
a song of thee,
And of myself who love thee . . . till the West Forgets the light, and all but I have rest.
I feed for thee, besides, eleven fair does,
And all in fawn ; and four tame whelps of bears. Come to me, Sweet ! thou shalt have all of those
I will not halve the shares.
In change for love !
Leave the blue sea, with pure white arms extended
To the dry shore ; and, in my cave's recess, — Thou shalt be gladder for the noonlight ended,
For here be laurels, spiral cypresses,
Dark ivy, and a vine whose leaves enfold Most luscious grapes ; and here is water cold,
The wooded iEtna pours down through the trees
From the white snows, — which gods were scarce too bold
To drink in turn with nectar. Who with these Would choose the salt wave of the lukewarm seas ?
If I am hairy and rough,
Nay, look on me !
I have an oak's heart in me ; there's a fire
In these gray ashes which burns hot enough ; And when I burn for thee, I grudge the pyre No fuel . . . not my soul, nor this one eye, —
Most precious thing I have, because thereby
I
I wish
My mother had borne me finned like a fish,
see thee, Fairest ! Out, alas !
That I might plunge down in the ocean near thee, And kiss thy glittering hand between the weeds,
If still thy face were turned ; and I would bear thee Each lily white, and poppy fair that bleeds
Its red heart down its leaves ! — one gift, for hours Of summer, — one, for winter; since, to cheer thee,
I could not bring at once all kinds of flowers. Even now, girl, now, I fain would learn to swim,
If stranger in a ship sailed nigh, I wis, —
That I may know how sweet a thing it is To live down with you in the Deep and Dim ! Come up, 0 Galatea, from the ocean,
And, having come, forget again to go !
356
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS.
As I, who sing out here my heart's emotion
Could sit forever. Come up from below ! —
Come keep my flocks beside me, milk my kine,
Come, press my cheese, distrain my whey and curd ! Ah, mother ! she alone . . . that mother of mine . . .
Did wrong me sore !
Of kindly intercession did she address
Thine ear with for my sake ; and ne'ertheless
She saw me wasting, wasting, day by day :
Both head and feet were aching, I will say, All sick for grief, as I myself was sick.
O Cyclops, Cyclops, whither hast thou sent
—
I blame her ! Not a word
Thy soul on fluttering wings ? If thou wert bent On turning bowls, or pulling green and thick
The sprouts to give thy lambkins, — thou wouldst make thee
A wiser Cyclops than for what we take thee. Milk dry the present ! Why pursue too quick That future which is fugitive aright ? —
Thy Galatea thou shalt haply find,
Or else a maiden fairer and more kind ; For many girls do call me through the night,
"
And, as they call, do laugh out silverly.
I, too, am something in the world, I
see !
While thus the Cyclops love and lambs did fold, Ease came with song he could not buy with gold.
Idyl XIV.
This idyl, like the next, is dramatic in form. One jEschines tells Thyonichus the story of his quarrel with his mistress, Cynisca. He speaks of taking foreign service, and Thyonichus recommends that of Ptolemy. The idyl was prob ably written at Alexandria, as a compliment to Ptolemy, and an inducement to Greeks to join his forces. There is nothing, however, to fix the date.
JEschines — All hail to the stout Thyonichus ! Thyonichus — As much to you, iEschines. JEichines — How long it is since we met !
Thyonichus — Is it so long? But why, pray, this melan choly?
JEschines — I am not in the best of luck, Thyonichus. Thyonichus — 'Tis for that, then, you are so lean, and hence
comes this long moustache, and these lovelocks all adust. Just such a figure was a Pythagorean that came here of late, bare
beautiful Cynisca, — she flouts me !
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS. 357
foot and wan, — and said he was an Athenian. Marry, he too was in love, methinks, with a plate of pancakes.
JEschines — Friend, you will always have your jest, — but
I shall go mad some day, I am but a hair's breadth on the
when no man looks for it ; hither side, even now.
Thyonichus —You are ever like this, dear JEschines, now mad, now sad, and crying for all things at your whim. Yet, tell me, what is your new trouble ?
jEschines — The Argive and I and the Thessalian rough rider, Apis, and Cleunichus the free lance were drinking to gether at my farm. I had killed two chickens and a sucking pig, and had opened the Bibline wine for them, — nearly four years old, — but fragrant as when it left the wine press. Truffles and shellfish had been brought out, it was a jolly drinking match. And when things were now getting for warder, we determined that each should toast whom he pleased, in unmixed wine, only he must name his toast. So we all drank, and called our toasts as had been agreed. Yet She said nothing, though I was there ; how think you I liked that ? " Won't you call a toast? ' You have seen the wolf ! ' " some one said in jest, " as the proverb goes " ; then she kindled ; yes, you could easily have lighted a lamp at her face. There is one Wolf, one Wolf there is, the son of Labes, our neighbor, — he is tall, smooth-skinned, many think him handsome. His was that illustrious love in which she was pining, yes, and a breath about the business once came secretly to my ears, but I never looked into it, beshrew my beard !
Already, mark you, we four men were deep in our cups, when the Larissa man, out of mere mischief, struck up, " My Wolf," some Thessalian catch from the very beginning. Then Cynisca suddenly broke out weeping more bitterly than a six- year-old maid that longs for her mother's lap. Then I, — you know me, Thyonichus, —struck her on the cheek with clenched fist, — one, two ! She caught up her robes, and forth she rushed, quicker than she came. "Ah, my undoing" (cried I), "I am not good enough for you, then — you have a dearer playfellow ? Well, be off and cherish your other lover, 'tis for him your tears run big as apples. "
And as the swallow flies swiftly back to gather a morsel, fresh food, for her young ones under the eaves, still swifter sped she from her soft chair, straight through the vestibule
■
358 IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS.
and folding doors, wherever her feet carried her. So, sure, the old proverb says, "the bull has sought the wild wood. "
Since then there are twenty days, and eight to these, and nine again, then ten others, to-day is the eleventh, add two more, and it is two months since we parted, and I have not shaved, not even in Thracian 1 fashion.
And now Wolf is everything with her. Wolf finds the door open o' nights, and I am of no account, not in the reckoning, like the wretched men of Megara, in the place dishonorable. 2
And if I could cease to love, the world would wag as well as may be. But now, — now, — as they say, Thyonichus, I am like the mouse that has tasted pitch. And what remedy there may be for a bootless love, I know not ; except that Simus, he who was in love with the daughter of Epicalchus, went over the seas, and came back heart-whole, — a man of my own age. And I too will cross the water, and prove not the first, maybe, nor the last, perhaps, but a fair soldier as times go.
Idyl XV.
This famous idyl should rather, perhaps, be called a mimus. It describes the visit paid by two Syracusan women, residing in Alexandria, to the festival of the resurrection of Adonis. The festival is given by Arsinoe, wife and sister of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and the poem cannot have been written earlier than his marriage, in B. C. 266 (? ) Nothing can be more gay and natural than the chatter of the women, which has changed no more in two thousand years than the song of birds.
Gorgo — Is Praxinoe at home ?
Praxinoi — Dear Gorgo, how long it is since you have been
here ! She is at home. The wonder is that you have got here at last ! Eunoe, see that she has a chair. Throw a cushion on it, too.
Gorgo — It does most charmingly as it is.
PraxinoS— Do sit down.
Grorgo — Oh, what a thing spirit is !
I have scarcely got to you alive, Praxinoe ! What a huge crowd, what hosts of four
1 Shaving in the bronze (and still more, of course, in the stone) age was an uncomfortable and difficult process. The backward and barbarous Thracians were therefore trimmed in the roughest way, like iEschines with his long, gnawed moustache.
a The Megarians, having inquired of the Delphic oracle as to their rank among Greek cities, were told that they were absolute last, and not in the reckoning at all.
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS. 359
in-hands !
Brennus ordered the people who dwell round the Malian Gulf to bridge the Spercheus. They executed the task with alacrity, actuated at once by a fear of Brennus, and by a desire to get the barbarians out of their country, and thus to save it
342 INVASION OF GREECE BY THE GAULS, B. C. 270.
from further devastation. When he had led his army across the bridges, he marched on Heraclea. The Gauls plundered the district, and butchered all whom they caught in the fields, but failed to take the city, for the year before the JStolians had compelled Heraclea to join their confederacy ; so now they bestirred themselves in defense of a town which they regarded as belonging as much to them as to its inhabitants. Brennus himself cared little about Heraclea, but was bent on dislodging the enemy from the passes, and penetrating into the interior of
Greece, south of Thermopylae.
He had been informed by deserters of the strength of the
Greek contingents assembled at Thermopylae, and the informa tion inspired him with a contempt for the enemy. So, advancing from Heraclea, he offered battle the next morning at sunrise. He had no Greek soothsayer with him, and he consulted no sacrificial omens after the manner of his people, if indeed the Celts possess an art of divination. The Greeks came on in silence and in order. On engaging, the enemy did not disturb their formation by charging out from the ranks ; and the skirmishers, standing their ground, hurled darts and plied their bows and slings. The cavalry on both sides was useless ; for the ground at Thermopylae is not only narrow, but also smooth by reason of the natural rock, and mostly slippery owing to the numerous streams. The Gauls were the worse equipped, their national shields being their only defensive weapon ; and in military skill they were still more inferior. They advanced on the foe with the blind rage and passion of wild beasts. Hacked with axes or swords, their fury did not desert them so long as they drew breath ; run through with darts and javelins, they abated not of their courage while life remained ; some even tore from their wounds the spears with which they had been hit, and hurled them at the Greeks, or used them at close quarters. Meanwhile the Athenian fleet, with much difficulty and at some risk, stood close into the shore, through the mud which pervades the sea for a great distance, and laying the ships, as nearly as might be, alongside the enemy, raked his flank with a fire of missiles and arrows. The Celts were now unspeakably weary ; on the narrow ground the losses which they suffered were double or fourfold what they inflicted ; and at last their leaders gave the signal to retreat to the camp. Retiring in disorder and without any formation, many were trampled under foot by
INVASION OF GREECE BY THE GAULS, B. C. 279. 343
their comrades ; many fell into the swamp and disappeared beneath the mud ; and thus their losses in the retreat were as heavy as in the heat of action.
On that day the Attic troops outdid all the Greeks in valor ; and amongst them the bravest was Cydias ; he was young, and it was his first battle. He was slain by the Gauls, and his kinsmen dedicated his shield to Zeus of Freedom, with the following inscription : —
" I hang here, missing sadly the bloom of Cydias' youth,
I, the shield of a glorious man, and an offering to Zeus ;
I was the first shield through which he thrust his left arm When rushing Ares raged against the Gaul. "
The inscription remained till the shields in the Colonnade of Zeus of Freedom, with other things at Athens, were removed by the soldiers of Sulla.
After the battle at Thermopylae the Greeks buried their dead and spoiled the barbarians. The Gauls sent no herald to request permission to take up their dead, and deemed it a matter of indifference whether they were laid in earth or were devoured by wild beasts and the birds that prey upon corpses. Their apathy as to the burial of the dead resulted, it seems to me, from two motives : a wish to strike awe into the enemy, and a habitual carelessness toward the deceased. Forty of the Greeks fell in the battle ; the exact loss of the barbarians could not be ascertained, for the number that sank under the mud was great.
On the sixth day after the battle a corps of the Gauls attempted to ascend Mount CSta from Heraclea ; for here, too, a narrow footpath leads up the mountain just beyond the ruins of Trachis. In those days there was also a sanctuary of Athena above the territory of Trachis, with offerings in it. So they hoped to ascend CEta by this footpath, and to secure the treasures of the sanctuary. [The garrison under Tele- sarchus] defeated the barbarians ; but Telesarchus himself fell — a Greek patriot if ever there was one.
All the barbarian leaders except Brennus now stood in terror of the Greeks, and were perplexed as to the future, seeing that their enterprise made no progress. But it occurred to Brennus that if he could force the ^Etolians to return home to JEtolia, his operations against the Greeks would be much
344 INVASION OF GREECE BY THE GAULS, B. C. 279.
facilitated. So he detached from his army a force of forty thousand foot and some eight hundred horse, and placed it under the command of Orestorius and Combutis. These troops marched back by the bridges over the Spercheus, re traced their steps through Thessaly, and invaded ^tolia. The sack of Callium by Combutis and Orestorius was the most atrocious and inhuman in history. They put the whole male sex to the sword ; old men and babes at their mothers' breasts were butchered alike ; and after killing the fattest of the sucklings, they even drank their blood and ate their flesh. All matrons and marriageable maidens who had a spark of spirit anticipated their fate by dispatching themselves when the city was taken ; but the survivors were forcibly subjected to every kind of outrage by beings who were equal strangers to pity and to love. Such women as chanced to find an enemy's sword, laid hands on themselves ; the rest soon perished from want of food and sleep, the ruthless barbarians outraging them in turn, and glutting their lust on the persons even of the dying and dead.
Apprised by messengers of the disasters that had befallen them, the ^Etolians immediately set out from Thermopylae and hastened with all speed to ^Etolia, moved with rage at the sack of Callium, but still more with a desire to save the towns which had not yet fallen. From all their towns, too, poured forth the men of military age ; even the old men, roused by the emer gency, were to be seen in the ranks. The very women marched with them as volunteers, their exasperation of the Gauls ex ceeding even that of the men. After pillaging the houses and sanctuaries, and firing the town of Callium, the barbarians set out to return. Here they were met by the Patreans, the only Achaians who came to the aid of the jEtolians. Being trained infantry, the Patreans attacked the barbarians in front, but suf fered heavily from the numbers and desperation of the Gauls. The . iEtolians, on the other hand, men and women, lined the whole road, and kept up a fire of missiles on the barbarians ; and as the latter had nothing but their national shields, few shots were thrown away. Pursued by the Gauls, they easily es caped ; and then, when their enemies were returning from the pursuit, they fell upon them again with vigor. Hence, dread ful as had been the fate of the people of Callium, — so dreadful, indeed, that in the light of it even Homer's account of the Laestrygones and the Cyclops appears not to be exaggerated, —
INVASION OF GREECE BY THE GAULS, B. C. 279. 345
yet they were amply avenged ; for out of the 40,800 barbarians less than half returned alive to the camp at Thermopylae.
Meanwhile the Greeks at Thermopylae fared as follows : There are two paths over Mount (Eta ; one starting above Trachis, is exceedingly steep and in most places precipitous ; the other, leading through the territory of the jEnianians, is more passable for an army. It was by this latter path that Hydarnes, the Mede, once fell on the rear of Leonidas and his men, and by it the Heracleots and jEnianians now offered to lead Brennus, not from any ill will they bore the Greeks, but merely because they would give much to rid their country of the destroying presence of the Celts. Pindar, it seems to me, is right when he says that every man is weighed down by his own troubles and is callous to the sorrows of others. In cited by the promise held out to him by the jEnianians and Her acleots, Brennus left Acichorius in command of the army, with orders to advance to the attack the moment the Greeks were surrounded. Then at the head of a detachment of forty thou sand men he set off by the path. It happened that on that day the mist came down thick on the mountain, darkening the sun,
so that the Phocian pickets stationed on the path did not per ceive the approach of the barbarians till they were close upon them. Attacked by the enemy, they stood bravely to their arms, but were at last overpowered and driven from the path. Nevertheless, they succeeded in running down to their friends, and bringing them word of what was taking place before they were completely surrounded. This gave the Athenian fleet time to withdraw the Greek army from Thermopylae ; and so the troops dispersed to their several homes.
Brennus lost not a moment, but, without waiting to be joined by the army he had left under Acichorius in the camp, marched on Delphi. The trembling inhabitants betook themselves to the oracle, and the god bade them have no fear. " For," said he, "I will myself guard my own. " The Greeks who rallied in the defense of the god were these : the Phocians, who came forth from every city, 400 infantry from Amphissa, and a handful from jEtolia. This small force was dispatched by the iEtolians as soon as they heard of the advance of the barbarians ; after wards they sent 200 men under Philomelus. But the flower of the -Etolian troops advanced against the army of Acichorius, and without giving battle hung on his rear, capturing his baggage trains and killing his men. This was the chief cause of the
346 INVASION OF GREECE BY THE GAULS, B. C. 279.
slowness of his march. Besides, he had left behind at Hera- clea a corps to guard the camp baggage.
Meantime the Greeks who had mustered at Delphi drew out in order of battle against the army of Brennus, and soon, to confound the barbarians, the god sent signs and wonders, the plainest that ever were seen. For all the ground occupied by the army of the Gauls quaked violently most of the day, and thunder rolled and lightning flashed continually, the claps of thunder stunning the Celts and hindering them from hearing the words of command, while the bolts from heaven set fire not only to the men upon whom they fell, but to all who were near them, men and arms alike. Then, too, appeared to them the phan toms of the heroes Hyperochus, Laodocus, Pyrrhus ; some add to these a fourth, to wit, Phylacus, a local hero of Delphi. Of the Phocians themselves many fell in the action, and amongst them Aleximachus, who, on that day, above all the Greeks, did everything that youth and strength and valor could do in slay ing the barbarians. The Phocians had a statue of him made and sent it to Apollo at Delphi. Such were the sufferings and terrors by which the barbarians were beset all that livelong day ; and the fate that was in store for them in the night was more dismal far. For a keen frost set in, and with the frost came snow, and great rocks came slipping from Parnassus, and crags breaking off, made straight for the barbarians, crushing to death not one or two, but thirty or more at a blow, as they chanced to be grouped together on guard or in slumber.
At sunrise the Greeks advanced upon them from Delphi. All except the Phocians came straight on ; but the Phocians, more familiar with the ground, descended the precipices of Parnassus through the snow and getting in the rear of the Celts unperceived, showered their darts and arrows on the barbarians in perfect security. At first, despite the cross-fire of missiles and the bitter cold which told on them, and especially on the wounded, not less cruelly than the arrows of the enemy, the Gauls made a gallant stand, and especially Brennus's own company, the tallest and most stalwart of them all. But when Brennus himself was wounded and carried fainting from the field, the barbarians, beset on every side, fell sullenly back, butchering as they went their comrades, whom wounds or sick ness disabled from attending the retreat.
They encamped on the spot where night overtook them on the retreat ; but in the night a panic fear fell on them. Cause
INVASION OF GREECE BY THE GAULS, B. C. 279. 847
less fears, they say, are inspired by Pan. It was late in the evening when the confusion arose in the army, and at first it was a mere handful who lost their heads, fancying they heard the trampling of charging horses and the onset of foemen ; but soon the delusion spread to the whole army. So they snatched up their arms, and taking sides, dealt death and received it. For they understood not their mother tongue, nor perceived each other's forms and the shapes of their bucklers, both sides alike in their present infatuation fancying that their adversaries were Greeks, that their arms were Greek, and that the language they spoke was Greek. So the God-sent madness wrought a very great slaughter among the Gauls at the hands of each other. The Phocians, who were left in the field to watch the herds, were the first to perceive and report to the Greeks what had befallen the barbarians in the night. Then the Phocians took heart and pressed the Celts more vigorously than ever, keeping a stricter watch on their encampments, and not suffer ing them to forage unresisted. This immediately produced a dreadful scarcity of corn and all other necessaries throughout the whole Gallic army. Their losses in Phocis amounted to a little under 6000 in action, over 10,000 in the wintry night and the subsequent panic, and as many more by famine.
The Athenians sent scouts to see what was doing at Delphi. When these men returned and reported all that had befallen the barbarians, and what the god had done to them, the Athenians took the field, and on the march through Boeotia were joined by the Boeotians. Their united forces followed the barbarians, lying in wait for and cutting off the hindmost. The fugitives under Brennus had been joined by the army of Acichorius only the night before ; for the march of the latter had been retarded by the jEtolians, who pelted them freely with darts and any thing else that came to hand, so that only a small part of them escaped to the camp at Heraclea. Brennus's hurts still left him a chance of life ; but they say that from fear of his country men, and still more from wounded pride as the author of the disastrous campaign in Greece, he put an end to himself by drinking neat wine. After that the barbarians made their way with difficulty to the Spercheus, hotly pressed by the iEtolians. But from the Spercheus onward the Thessalians and Malians lay in wait, and swallowed them up so completely that not a man of them returned home.
348 IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS.
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS. (Translation and introductions by Andrew Lang. )
[Theocbitus, the creator of the pastoral poem, was born at Syracuse, and lived later at Alexandria under Ptolemy Philadelphus ; his palmiest period being about 270. He developed the responsive verse contest of shepherds into the bucolic " idyl " — " sketch " — of country and sometimes city life. ]
Idyl II.
Simcetha, madly in love with Delphis, who has forsaken her, endeavors to subdue him to her by magic, and by invoking the Moon in her character of Hecate and of Selene. She tells the tale of the growth of her passion, and vows vengeance if her magic arts are unsuccessful. The scene is probably some garden beneath the moonlit sky, near the town, and within sound of the sea. The characters are Simcetha and Thestylis her handmaid.
Where are my laurel leaves ? come, bring them, Thestylis ; and where are the love charms ? Wreath the bowl with bright red wool, that I may knit the witch knots against my grievous lover, who for twelve days, oh, cruel, has never come hither, nor knows whether I am alive or dead, nor has once knocked at my door, unkind that he is ! Hath Love flown off with his light desires by some other path — Love and Aphrodite ? To morrow I will go to the wrestling school of Timagetus, to see my love and to reproach him with all the wrong he is doing me. But now I will bewitch him with my enchantments ! Do thou, Selene, shine clear and fair ; for softly, goddess, to thee will I sing, and to Hecate of Hell. The very whelps shiver before her as she fares through black blood and across the bar rows of the dead.
Hail, awful Hecate ! to the end be thou of our company, and make this medicine of mine no weaker than the spells of Circe, or of Medea, or of Perimede of the I hair.
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man
Lo, how the barley grain first smolders in the fire, — nay, toss on the barley, Thestylis ! Miserable maid, where are thy wits wandering? Even to thee, wretched that I am, have I become a laughing-stock, even to thee? ScatIter the grain, and cry thus the while, " 'Tis the bones of Delphis I am scattering ! "
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man
Delphis troubled me, and I against Delphis am burning this aurel ; and even as it crackles loudly when it has caught the
golden
love !
love !
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS. 349
flame, and suddenly is burned up, and we see not even the dust thereof, lo, even thus may the flesh of Delphis waste in the burning !
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man
Even as I melt this wax, with the god to aid, so speedily may he by love be molten, the Myndian Delphis ! And as whirls this brazen wheel, so restless, under Aphrodite's spell, may he turn and turn about my doors. I
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man love !
Now will I burn the husks, and thou, O Artemis, hast power to move Hell's adamantine gates, and all else that is as stubborn. Thestylis, hark, 'tis so ; the hounds are baying up and down the town ! The goddess stands where the three ways meet! Hasten, and clash the brazen cymbals.
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man
Lo, silent is the deep, and silent the winds, but never silent the torment in my breast. Nay, I am all on fire for him that made me, miserable me, no wife, but a shameful thing, a girl no more a maiden.
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man Hove !
Three times do I pour libation, and thrice, my Lady Moon, I speak this spell : — Be it with a friend that he lingers, be it with a leman he lies, may he as clean forget them as Theseus, of old, in Dia, — so legends tell, — did utterly forget the fair- tressed Ariadne. I love !
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man
Coltsfoot is an Arcadian weed that maddens, on the hills, the young stallions and fleet-footed mares. Ah ! even as these
see Delphis ; and to this house of mine, may he speed like a madman, leaving the bright palestra. Ilove !
I
love !
I
love !
may I
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man
This fringe from his cloak Delphis lost ; that now I shred and cast into the cruel flame. Ah, ah, thou torturing Love, why clingest thou to me like a leech of the fen and drainest all the black blood from my body? Ilove !
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man
Lo, I will crush an eft, and a venomous draught to-morrow I will bring thee !
But now, Thestylis, take these magic herbs and secretly smear the juice on the jambs of his gate (whereat, even now,
350 IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS.
my heart is captive, though nothing he recks Iof me), and spit, and whisper, " 'Tis the bones of Delphis that I smear. "
My magic wheel, draw home to me the man
And now that I am alone, whence shall I begin to bewail my love ? Whence shall I take up the tale : who brought on me this sorrow ? The maiden bearer of the mystic vessel came our way, Anaxo, daughter of Eubulus, to the grove of Artemis ; and behold, she had many other wild beasts paraded for that time, in the sacred show, and among them a lioness.
Bethink thee of my love, and whence it came, my Lady Moon !
And the Thracian servant of Theucharides — my nurse that is but lately dead, and who then dwelt at our doors — besought me and implored me to come and see the show. And I went with her, wretched woman that I am, clad about in a fair and sweeping linen stole, over which I had thrown the holiday dress of Clearista.
Bethink thee of my love, and whence it came, my Lady Moon!
Bethink thee of my love, and whence it came, my Lady Moon !
Even as I looked I loved, loved madly, and all my heart was wounded, woe is me, and my beauty began to wane. No more heed took I of that show, and how I came home I know not ; but some parching fever utterly overthrew me, and I lay abed ten days and ten nights.
Bethink thee of my love, and whence it came, my Lady Moon !
And oftentimes my skin waxed wan as the color of boxwood, and all my hair was falling from my head, and what was left of me was but skin and bones. Was there a wizard to whom I did not seek, or a crone to whose house I did not resort, of them that have art magical? But this was no light malady, and the time went fleeting on.
Bethink thee of my love, and whence it came, my Lady Moon !
Thus I told the true story to my maiden, and said, " Go, Thestylis, and find me some remedy for this sore disease. Ah
I was now come to the midpoint of the highway, near
Lo !
the dwelling of Lycon, and there I saw Delphis and Eudamip- pus walking together. Their beards were more golden than the golden flower of the ivy ; their breasts (they coming fresh from the glorious wrestler's toil) were brighter of sheen than thyself, Selene !
me, the Myndian possesses me, body and soul !
Nay, depart,
love !
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS. 351
and watch by the wrestling ground of Timagetus, for there is his resort, and there he loves to loiter.
Bethink thee of my love, and whence it came, my Lady Moon!
" And when thou art sure he is alone, nod to him secretly, and say 'Simaetha bids thee to come to her,' and lead him hither privily. " So I spoke ; and she went and brought the bright-limbed Delphis to my house. But I, when I beheld him just crossing the threshold of the door, with his light step, —
Bethink thee of my love, and whence it came, my Lady Moon !
Grew colder all than snow, and the sweat streamed from my brow like the dank dews, and I had no strength to speak, nay, nor to utter as much as children murmur in their slumber, call ing to their mother dear : and all my fair body turned stiff as a puppet of wax.
Bethink thee of my love, and whence it came, my Lady Moon ! ##*****
Faultless was I in his sight, till yesterday, and he, again, in mine.
But there came to me the mother of Philistae, my flute player, and the mother of Melixo, to-day, when the horses of the sun were climbing the sky, bearing dawn of the rosy arms from the ocean stream. Many another thing she told me ; and chiefly this, that Delphis is a lover, and whom he loves she vowed she knew not surely, but this only, that ever he filled up his cup with the unmixed wine, to drink a toast to his dear est. And at last he went off hastily, saying that he would cover with garlands the dwelling of his love.
This news my visitor told me, and she speaks the truth. For indeed, at other seasons, he would come to me three or four times in the day, and often would leave with me his Dorian oil flask. But now it is the twelfth day since I have even looked on him ! Can it be that he has not some other delight, and has forgotten me ? Now with magic rites I will strive to bind him, but if he still vexes me, he shall beat, by the Fates I vow it, at the gate of Hell. Such evil medicines I store against him in a certain coffer, the use whereof, my lady, an Assyrian stranger taught me.
But do thou farewell, and turn thy steeds to Ocean, lady, and my pain I will bear, as even till now, I have endured it. Farewell, Selene, bright and fair, farewell, ye other stars, that follow the wheels of quiet Night.
352 IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS.
Idyl X. — The Reapers
This is an idyl of the same genre as Idyl IV. The sturdy reaper, Milon, as he levels the swaths of corn, derides his languid and lovelorn companion, Battus. The latter defends his gypsy love in verses which have been the keynote of much later poetry, and which echo in the fourth book of Lucretius and in the "Misanthrope" of Moliere. Milon replies with thesongof Lityerses — a string, apparently, of popular rural couplets, such as Theocritus may have heard
chanted in the fields.
Milon — Thou toilsome clod ; what ails thee now, thou wretched fellow? Canst thou neither cut thy swath straight, as thou wert wont to do, nor keep time with thy neighbor in thy reaping, but thou must fall out, like an ewe that is foot- pricked with a thorn and straggles from the herd? What manner of man wilt thou prove after midnoon and at evening, thou that dost not prosper with thy swathe when thou art fresh begun ? —
Milon, thou that canst toil till late, thou chip of
Battus
the stubborn stone, has it never befallen thee to long for one that was not with thee ?
Milon — Never ! What has a laboring man to do with hankering after what he has not got?
Battus — Then it never befell thee to lie awake for love ?
Milon — Forbid it ; 'tis an ill thing to let the dog once taste of pudding.
Battus — But I, Milon, am in love for almost eleven days !
Milon — 'Tis easily seen that thou drawest from a wine cask, while even vinegar is scarce with me.
Battus — And for Love's sake the fields before my doors are untilled since seedtime.
Milon — But which of the girls afflicts thee so?
Battus — The daughter of Polybotas, she that of late was wont to pipe to the reapers on Hippocoon's farm.
Milon — God has found out the guilty ! Thou hast what thou'st long been seeking, that grasshopper of a girl will lie by thee the night long !
Battus — Thou art beginning thy mocks of me ; but Plutus is not the only blind god ; he too is blind, the heedless Love ! Beware of talking big.
Milon — Talk big I do not ! Only see that thou dost level the corn, and strike up some love ditty in the wench's praise.
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS. 353
More pleasantly thus wilt thou labor, and, indeed, of old thou wert a melodist.
Battus — Ye Muses Pierian, sing ye with me the slender maiden, for whatsoever ye do but touch, ye goddesses, ye make wholly fair.
They all call thee a gypsy, gracious Bombyca, and lean and sun burnt, 'tis only I that call thee honey-pale.
Yea, and the violet is swart, and swart the lettered hyacinth, but yet these flowers are chosen the first in garlands.
The goat runs after cytisus, the wolf pursues the goat, the crane follows the plow, but I am wild for love of thee.
Would it were mine, all the wealth whereof once Croesus was lord, as men tell ! Then images of us twain, all in gold, should be dedicated to Aphrodite, thou with thy flute and a rose, yea, or an apple, and I in fair attire, and new shoon of Amyclae on both my feet.
Ah, gracious Bombyca, thy feet are fashioned like carven ivory, thy voice is drowsy sweet, and thy ways, I cannot tell of them !
Milon — Verily our clown was a maker of lovely songs, and we knew it not! How well he meted out and shaped his harmony; woe is me for the beard that I have grown, all in vain ! Come, mark thou too these lines of godlike Lityerses.
THE LITYERSES SONG
Demeter, rich in fruit and rich in grain, may this corn be easy to win, and fruitful exceedingly !
Bind, ye bandsters, the sheaves, lest the wayfarer should cry, "Men of straw were the workers here, ay, and their hire was wasted ! "
See that the cut stubble faces the north wind or the west ; 'tis thus the grain waxes richest.
They that thresh corn should shun the noonday sleep ; at noon the chaff parts easiest from the straw.
As for the reapers, let them begin when the crested lark is waking, and cease when he sleeps, but take holiday in the heat.
Lads, the frog has a jolly life, he is not cumbered about a butler to his drink, for he has liquor by him unstinted.
Boil the lentils better, thou miserly steward ; take heed lest thou chop thy fingers when thou'rt splitting cumin seed.
'Tis thus that men should sing who labor i' the sun, but thy starveling love, thou clod, 'twere fit to tell to thy mother when she stirs in bed at dawning.
vol. iv. — 23
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS.
Idyl XI. — The Cyclops. (Translation of Mrs. Browning. )
And so an easier life our Cyclops drew, The ancient Polyphemus, who in youth
Loved Galatea while the manhood grew
Adown his cheeks and darkened round his mouth.
No jot he cared for apples, olives, roses ;
Love made him mad : the whole world was neglected,
The very sheep went backward to their closes From out the fair green pastures, self-directed.
And singing Galatea, thus, he wore
The sunrise down along the weedy shore,
And pined alone, and felt the cruel wound Beneath his heart, which Cypris' arrow bore,
With a deep pang ; but, so, the cure was found ; And sitting on a lofty rock he cast —
His eyes upon the sea, and sang at last :
" O whitest Galatea, can it be
That thou shouldst spurn me off who love thee so ? More white than curds, my girl, thou art to see,
More meek than lambs, more full of leaping glee
Than kids, and brighter than the early glow On grapes that swell to ripen, — sour like thee ! Thou comest to me with the fragrant sleep,
And with the fragrant sleep thou goest from me ; Thou fliest . . . fliest, as a frightened sheep
Flies the gray wolf ! — yet Love did overcome me,
I loved thee, maiden, first of all
So long ; —
When down the hills (my mother fast beside thee)
I saw thee stray to pluck the summer fall
Of hyacinth bells, and went myself to guide thee :
And since my eyes have seen thee, they can leave thee
No more, from that day's light ! But thou . . . by Zeus,
Thou wilt not care for that, to let it grieve thee ! I know thee, fair one, why thou springest loose
From my arm round thee. Why ? I tell thee, Dear ! One shaggy eyebrow draws its smudging road
Straight through my ample front, from ear to ear, — One eye rolls underneath ; and yawning, broad
Flat nostrils feel the bulging lips too near.
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS. 355
Yet . . . ho,ho! —I,—whatever Iappear,— Do feed a thousand oxen ! When I have done,
I milk the cows, and drink the milk that's best ! I lack no cheese, while summer keeps the sun ;
And after, in the cold, it's ready prest !
And then, I know to sing, as there is none
. . .
Sweet apple of my soul, on love's fair tree,
Of all the Cyclops can,
a song of thee,
And of myself who love thee . . . till the West Forgets the light, and all but I have rest.
I feed for thee, besides, eleven fair does,
And all in fawn ; and four tame whelps of bears. Come to me, Sweet ! thou shalt have all of those
I will not halve the shares.
In change for love !
Leave the blue sea, with pure white arms extended
To the dry shore ; and, in my cave's recess, — Thou shalt be gladder for the noonlight ended,
For here be laurels, spiral cypresses,
Dark ivy, and a vine whose leaves enfold Most luscious grapes ; and here is water cold,
The wooded iEtna pours down through the trees
From the white snows, — which gods were scarce too bold
To drink in turn with nectar. Who with these Would choose the salt wave of the lukewarm seas ?
If I am hairy and rough,
Nay, look on me !
I have an oak's heart in me ; there's a fire
In these gray ashes which burns hot enough ; And when I burn for thee, I grudge the pyre No fuel . . . not my soul, nor this one eye, —
Most precious thing I have, because thereby
I
I wish
My mother had borne me finned like a fish,
see thee, Fairest ! Out, alas !
That I might plunge down in the ocean near thee, And kiss thy glittering hand between the weeds,
If still thy face were turned ; and I would bear thee Each lily white, and poppy fair that bleeds
Its red heart down its leaves ! — one gift, for hours Of summer, — one, for winter; since, to cheer thee,
I could not bring at once all kinds of flowers. Even now, girl, now, I fain would learn to swim,
If stranger in a ship sailed nigh, I wis, —
That I may know how sweet a thing it is To live down with you in the Deep and Dim ! Come up, 0 Galatea, from the ocean,
And, having come, forget again to go !
356
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS.
As I, who sing out here my heart's emotion
Could sit forever. Come up from below ! —
Come keep my flocks beside me, milk my kine,
Come, press my cheese, distrain my whey and curd ! Ah, mother ! she alone . . . that mother of mine . . .
Did wrong me sore !
Of kindly intercession did she address
Thine ear with for my sake ; and ne'ertheless
She saw me wasting, wasting, day by day :
Both head and feet were aching, I will say, All sick for grief, as I myself was sick.
O Cyclops, Cyclops, whither hast thou sent
—
I blame her ! Not a word
Thy soul on fluttering wings ? If thou wert bent On turning bowls, or pulling green and thick
The sprouts to give thy lambkins, — thou wouldst make thee
A wiser Cyclops than for what we take thee. Milk dry the present ! Why pursue too quick That future which is fugitive aright ? —
Thy Galatea thou shalt haply find,
Or else a maiden fairer and more kind ; For many girls do call me through the night,
"
And, as they call, do laugh out silverly.
I, too, am something in the world, I
see !
While thus the Cyclops love and lambs did fold, Ease came with song he could not buy with gold.
Idyl XIV.
This idyl, like the next, is dramatic in form. One jEschines tells Thyonichus the story of his quarrel with his mistress, Cynisca. He speaks of taking foreign service, and Thyonichus recommends that of Ptolemy. The idyl was prob ably written at Alexandria, as a compliment to Ptolemy, and an inducement to Greeks to join his forces. There is nothing, however, to fix the date.
JEschines — All hail to the stout Thyonichus ! Thyonichus — As much to you, iEschines. JEichines — How long it is since we met !
Thyonichus — Is it so long? But why, pray, this melan choly?
JEschines — I am not in the best of luck, Thyonichus. Thyonichus — 'Tis for that, then, you are so lean, and hence
comes this long moustache, and these lovelocks all adust. Just such a figure was a Pythagorean that came here of late, bare
beautiful Cynisca, — she flouts me !
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS. 357
foot and wan, — and said he was an Athenian. Marry, he too was in love, methinks, with a plate of pancakes.
JEschines — Friend, you will always have your jest, — but
I shall go mad some day, I am but a hair's breadth on the
when no man looks for it ; hither side, even now.
Thyonichus —You are ever like this, dear JEschines, now mad, now sad, and crying for all things at your whim. Yet, tell me, what is your new trouble ?
jEschines — The Argive and I and the Thessalian rough rider, Apis, and Cleunichus the free lance were drinking to gether at my farm. I had killed two chickens and a sucking pig, and had opened the Bibline wine for them, — nearly four years old, — but fragrant as when it left the wine press. Truffles and shellfish had been brought out, it was a jolly drinking match. And when things were now getting for warder, we determined that each should toast whom he pleased, in unmixed wine, only he must name his toast. So we all drank, and called our toasts as had been agreed. Yet She said nothing, though I was there ; how think you I liked that ? " Won't you call a toast? ' You have seen the wolf ! ' " some one said in jest, " as the proverb goes " ; then she kindled ; yes, you could easily have lighted a lamp at her face. There is one Wolf, one Wolf there is, the son of Labes, our neighbor, — he is tall, smooth-skinned, many think him handsome. His was that illustrious love in which she was pining, yes, and a breath about the business once came secretly to my ears, but I never looked into it, beshrew my beard !
Already, mark you, we four men were deep in our cups, when the Larissa man, out of mere mischief, struck up, " My Wolf," some Thessalian catch from the very beginning. Then Cynisca suddenly broke out weeping more bitterly than a six- year-old maid that longs for her mother's lap. Then I, — you know me, Thyonichus, —struck her on the cheek with clenched fist, — one, two ! She caught up her robes, and forth she rushed, quicker than she came. "Ah, my undoing" (cried I), "I am not good enough for you, then — you have a dearer playfellow ? Well, be off and cherish your other lover, 'tis for him your tears run big as apples. "
And as the swallow flies swiftly back to gather a morsel, fresh food, for her young ones under the eaves, still swifter sped she from her soft chair, straight through the vestibule
■
358 IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS.
and folding doors, wherever her feet carried her. So, sure, the old proverb says, "the bull has sought the wild wood. "
Since then there are twenty days, and eight to these, and nine again, then ten others, to-day is the eleventh, add two more, and it is two months since we parted, and I have not shaved, not even in Thracian 1 fashion.
And now Wolf is everything with her. Wolf finds the door open o' nights, and I am of no account, not in the reckoning, like the wretched men of Megara, in the place dishonorable. 2
And if I could cease to love, the world would wag as well as may be. But now, — now, — as they say, Thyonichus, I am like the mouse that has tasted pitch. And what remedy there may be for a bootless love, I know not ; except that Simus, he who was in love with the daughter of Epicalchus, went over the seas, and came back heart-whole, — a man of my own age. And I too will cross the water, and prove not the first, maybe, nor the last, perhaps, but a fair soldier as times go.
Idyl XV.
This famous idyl should rather, perhaps, be called a mimus. It describes the visit paid by two Syracusan women, residing in Alexandria, to the festival of the resurrection of Adonis. The festival is given by Arsinoe, wife and sister of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and the poem cannot have been written earlier than his marriage, in B. C. 266 (? ) Nothing can be more gay and natural than the chatter of the women, which has changed no more in two thousand years than the song of birds.
Gorgo — Is Praxinoe at home ?
Praxinoi — Dear Gorgo, how long it is since you have been
here ! She is at home. The wonder is that you have got here at last ! Eunoe, see that she has a chair. Throw a cushion on it, too.
Gorgo — It does most charmingly as it is.
PraxinoS— Do sit down.
Grorgo — Oh, what a thing spirit is !
I have scarcely got to you alive, Praxinoe ! What a huge crowd, what hosts of four
1 Shaving in the bronze (and still more, of course, in the stone) age was an uncomfortable and difficult process. The backward and barbarous Thracians were therefore trimmed in the roughest way, like iEschines with his long, gnawed moustache.
a The Megarians, having inquired of the Delphic oracle as to their rank among Greek cities, were told that they were absolute last, and not in the reckoning at all.
IDYLS OF THEOCRITUS. 359
in-hands !
