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THE MIMES OF HERONDAS. 335
Bitinna — By your own confession, Your " pardon but this once ! "
Gastron — To cool
Your answer was it spoken.
Bitinna [to Pyrrhias] — Fool,
To stand and stare ! Cydilla, slap The rascal's hideous victual-trap.
Go where I told thee. Quick, depart ; And thou, if Pyrrhias will but start, Go, Drachon, too. Cydilla, slave, 'Twould be considerate if you gave The fiend a rag or so to grace
His passage through the market place. Now, Pyrrhias, I'll repeat it : say From me to Hermon, he's to lay
Two thousand on : a thousand here, And there a thousand. Do you hear ? From this if you one inch deflect, Your person answers the neglect,
And pays with interest. Off !
[Pyrrhias with Gastron begins to go; Bitinna stops him with a
gesture. ']
And please To take him not by Miccale's,Pyrrhias
But straight. {Exeunt and Gastron. ) And one thing I forgot —
Kun, run, Cydilla (he is not Yet far), and call him.
Cydilla [in sudden distress] — Art deaf ? Alas ! she's
Pyrrhias I calling.
Hi ! Ay,
Bitinna —
As hard upon his fellow-slave,
As if the wretch had robbed a grave !
But, Pyrrhias, mark ! Though he is sent Now in your charge to punishment, Cydilla, sure as these are two
[Holding up and shaking at him two of her fingers. ] Within four days shall witness you
Lodged in the jail, and fretting there
Those anklets which you lately wear.
Hark you ! His bonds are to remain So, till you both come back again. Fetch Cosis, the tattooer, who
Must bring his ink and needles too ;
836
HYMN TO ZEUS.
And while we have him, I will see He puts some ornament on thee :
'Twill save a journey. For cat and mouse ! "
Cydilla —
Not now, not now !
To see the happy wedding day
Of your Batyllis, to embrace
Her children, grant one little grace : Pardon this once.
Bitinna — Cydilla! There! Your worries, if you don't take care,
I'll run away ! — Well, folks may scoff; I'll let the deep-dyed rascal off ; Though every woman in the place Might spit contempt upon my face,
" Which is so little royal ! " — Yet, Since he's so liable to forget
He's mortal, he shall have it now
" Equal fine
Nay, mother mine, Oh, as you pray
Cydilla —Writ for reminder on his brow.
This is the twentieth, and before
The Day of Souls come only four. Bitinna —
First, then, I now discharge you ; bless For that, Cydilla, (dear not less
Than my Batyllis she to me ;
These arms have nursed her) ; presently The Banquet of the Dead, with least Expense, will serve your marriage feast.
HYMN TO ZEUS.
By CLEANTHES.
[Stoic philosopher : succeeded Zeus in his school about b. c. 270. ]
(Translated by Edward Beecher. )
Great Jove, most glorious of the immortal gods, Wide known by many names, Almighty One, King of all nature, ruling all by law.
HYMN TO ZEUS.
We mortals thee adore, as duty calls ;
For thou our father art, and we thy sons,
On whom the gift of speech thou hast bestowed Alone of all that live and move on earth.
Thee, therefore, will I praise ; and ceaseless show To all thy glory and thy mighty power.
This beauteous system circling round the earth Obeys thy will, and wheresoe'er thou leadest, Freely submits itself to thy control.
Such is, in thine unconquerable hands,
The two-edged, fiery, deathless thunderbolt ;
Thy minister of power, before whose stroke
All nature quails and, trembling, stands aghast : By which the common reason thou dost guide, Pervading all things, filling radiant worlds,
The sun, the moon, and all the host of stars.
So great art thou, the universal king,
Without thee naught is done on earth, 0 God ! Nor in the heavens above, nor in the sea ;
Naught save the deeds unwise of sinful men.
Yet harmony from discord thou dost bring ;
That which is hateful, thou dost render fair ;
Evil and good dost so coordinate,
That everlasting reason shall bear sway,
Which sinful men, blinded, forsake and shun, Deceived and hapless, seeking fancied good.
The law of God they will not see nor hear ; Which if they would obey, would lead to life.
But they unhappy rush, each in his way : —
For glory some in eager conflict strive ;
Others are lost inglorious, seeking gain ;
To pleasure others turn, and sensual joys,
Hasting to ruin, whilst they seek for life.
But thou, 0 Jove ! the giver of all good,
Darting the lightning from thy house of clouds,
Permit not man to perish darkling thus ;
From folly save them ; bring them to the light ; Give them to know the everlasting law
By which in righteousness thou rulest all,
That we, thus honored, may return to thee
Meet honor, and with hymns declare thy deeds,
And though we die, hand down thy deathless praise, Since not to men nor gods is higher meed
Than ever to extol with righteous praise
The glorious, universal King Divine.
vol. iv. — 22
338 INVASION OF GREECE BY THE GAULS, B. C. 279.
INVASION OF GREECE BY THE GAULS, B. C. 279. By PAUSANIAS.
(Translated by J. G. Frazer. )
[Pausanias, Greek antiquarian and art cataloguer, lived under Hadrian and the Antonines, middle of the second century a. d. His chief work, still extant in full, was the "Periegesis (Guide-Book) of Hellas," very valuable not only for its topographical descriptions, but its account of art objects. ]
The Gauls inhabit the farthest parts of Europe, on the shore of a great sea (Northern Ocean) which at its extremities is not navigable. The sea ebbs and flows, and contains beasts quite unlike those in the rest of the sea. The name Gauls came into vogue late, for of old the people were called Celts both by themselves and others. A host of them mustered and marched toward the Ionian Sea ; they dispossessed the Illyrian nation and the Macedonians, as well as all the intervening peo ples, and overran Thessaly. When they were come near to Thermopylae, most of the Greeks awaited passively the attack of the barbarians ; for they had suffered heavily before at the hands of Alexander and Philip, and afterwards the nation had been brought low by Antipater and Cassander, so that in their weakness each thought it no shame to refrain from taking part in the national defense.
But the Athenians, although they were more exhausted than any of the Greeks by the long Macedonian war and many de feats in battle, nevertheless appointed Callipus to the com mand, and hastened to Thermopylae with such of the Greeks as volunteered. Having seized the narrowest part of the pass, they attempted to hinder the barbarians from entering into Greece. But the Celts discovered the pass by which Ephialtes the Trachinian once guided the Medes ; and, after overpower ing the Phocians, who were posted on they crossed Mount CEta before the Greeks were aware. Then was that the Athenians rendered great service to Greece for on both sides, surrounded as they were, they kept the barbarians at
But their comrades on the ships labored the most for at Thermopylae the Samnian Gulf swamp, the cause of which, seems to me, the warm water which here flows into the sea. So their trial was the greater for when they had taken the Greeks on board, they made shift to sail through the mud in ships weighed down with arms and men.
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INVASION OF GREECE BY THE GAULS, B. C. 279. 839
But the Gauls were inside of Pylae ; and, scorning to cap ture the other towns, they were bent on plundering Delphi and the treasures of the gods. The Delphians, and those of the Phocians who inhabit the cities round about Parnassus, put themselves in array against them, and there came also a force of iEtolians ; for at that time the iEtolian race excelled in youthful vigor. But when they came to close quarters, thunder bolts and rocks, breaking away from Parnassus, came hurtling down upon the Gauls ; and dreadful shapes of men in arms appeared against the barbarians. They say that two of these phantom warriors, Hyperochus and Amadocus, came from the Hyperboreans, and the third was Pyrrhus, son of Achilles.
Most of the Gauls crossed to Asia in ships and plundered the seacoast. But afterwards the people of Pergamus, which was called Teuthrania of old, drove them away from the sea into the country now called Galatia. They captured Ancyra, a city of the Phrygians, founded in former days by Midas, son of Gordius, and took possession of the land beyond the Sangarius. The anchor which Midas found still existed even down to my time, in the sanctuary of Zeus ; and there is a fountain called the fountain of Midas —they say that Midas mixed wine with the water of the fountain to catch Silenus. This town of Ancyra, then, was captured by the Gauls, and likewise Pessi- nus, under Mount Agdistis, where they say that Attis Agdistis is buried. The Pergamenians have spoils taken from the Gauls, and a picture representing the battle with them.
The first foreign expedition of the Celts was made under the leadership of Cambaules. They advanced as far as Thrace, but did not dare to push on any farther, conscious that they were too few in numbers to cope with the Greeks. But when they resolved a second time to carry their arms into an enemy's camp, — a step to which they were chiefly instigated by the men who had been out with Cambaules, and in whom the expe rience of marauding had bred a love of plunder and booty, — a large force of infantry assembled, and there was no lack of re cruits for the cavalry. So the leaders divided the army into three parts, and each was ordered to march against a different country. Cerethrius was to lead his force agajnst the Thra- cians and the Triballian tribe ; Brennus and Acichorius com manded the army destined to attack Poeonia ; while Bolgius marched against the Macedonians and Illyrians, and engaged in conflict with Ptolemy, then king of Macedonia. It was this
340 INVASION OF GREECE BY THE GAULS, B. C. 279.
Ptolemy who first sought the protection of Seleucus, son of Antiochus, and then assassinated his protector, and whose excessive daring earned him the nickname of Thunderbolt. Ptolemy himself fell in the battle, and the Macedonian loss was heavy ; but again the Celts had not the courage to march against Greece, and so the second expedition returned home again.
Hereupon Brennus, at public assemblies and in private as semblies with the leading men, energetically urges an expedi tion against Greece, pointing to the present weakness of Greece, to the wealth of her public treasures, and to the still greater wealth stored up in her sanctuaries in the shape of offerings and of gold and silver coin. So he prevailed on the Gauls to march against Greece, and amongst his colleagues in command, whom he chose from among the leading men, was Acichorius. The assembled army numbered 152,000 foot and 20,400 horse. But though that was the number of the cavalry always on service, the real number was 61,200 ; for every trooper was attended by two servants, who were themselves good riders and were provided with horses. When the cavalry was engaged, the servants kept in the rear and made themselves useful
thus : —
The spirit of the Greeks had fallen very low, but the very excess of their fear roused them to the necessity of defending Greece. They saw that the struggle would not now be for freedom, as it had been in the Persian War, and that safety was not to be had by a gift of water and earth ; for the fate that had overtaken the Macedonians, Thracians, and Paeonians in the former inroads of the Gauls were still fresh in their mem ory, and reports were reaching them of the atrocities that even then were being perpetrated on the Thessalians. Death or victory, that was the alternative that every man and every state prepared to face. . . .
To meet the barbarians who had come from the ocean, the following Greek forces marched to Thermopylae : 10,000
If a trooper had his horse killed, the servant brought him a fresh mount ; if the trooper himself was slain, the slave mounted his master's horse ; but if both horse and man were killed, the slave was ready mounted to take their place. If the man was wounded, one of the slaves brought the wounded man off the field to the camp, while the other took his place in the ranks. — Such was the force and such the intentions with which Brennus marched against Greece.
INVASION OF GREECE BY THE GAULS, B. C. 279. 341
heavy-armed infantry and 500 horse from Boeotia ; the Boeo- tarchs were Cephisodotus, Thearidas, Diogenes, and Lysander. From Phocis, 500 horse, and infantry to the number of 3000, under the command of Critobulus and Antiochus. The Lo- crians, who dwell opposite the island of Atalanta, were led by Midias ; their number was 700 ; they had no cavalry. From Megara there came 400 heavy infantry ; the Megarian cavalry was led by Megareus. The iEtolian force was very numerous, and included every arm. The strength of their cavalry is not given. Their light infantry numbered ninety and —, their heavy infantry numbered 7000. The ^tolians were led by Polyarchus, Polyphron, and Lacrates. The general of the Athenians was Callippus, son of Moerocles, as I have men tioned before, and the Athenian forces consisted of all their seaworthy galleys, 500 horse, and 1000 foot. In virtue of their ancient prestige, they held the command. The kings of Macedonia and Asia contributed 500 mercenaries each. 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.