This cloth, embroidered with the ancient figures of men
depicts the deeds of heroes with wondrous skill.
For (Ariadne) looking out from the wave-resounding shore of Dia,
she (Ariadne) sees Theseus withdrawing with the fast fleet,
Ariadne (who is) bearing uncontrollable furies in (her) heart
And not even yet does she believe that she sees what she sees,
Naturally since she who was at that point first roused from deceitful sleep
perceives that she herself was unhappy, deserted on a lonely beach.
But the unmindful youth fleeing strikes the shallows with oars,
leaving behind empty promises to the windy storm.
Whom far off out of the seaweed the Minoan with sad little eyes,
as stony as a statue of a Maenad, watches, alas,
watches and is agitated in the great waves of cares,
Not holding back the fine-spun headdress on the blond head,
Her chest not having been covered by the light cloak,
Her milk white breasks not having been bound by a smooth girdle,
All which having slipped from the whole body here and there
the waves of salt were playing with before the feet of she herself.
But she caring for the plight neither then of the of the headdress
nor then of the floating cloak, she having been destroyed, was
depending on you Theseus out of her whole chest, whole spirit, whole mind.
Wretched one, whom the Erycinian maddened with constant griefs
sowing thorny cares in the chest,
in that age, out of which time bold Theseus
having set forth from the curved shores of Piraeus
touched the Gortynian temples of an unjust king.
For they say that once having been forced by a cruel plague
to set free the punishments of Androgenian slaughter
Athens was accustomed to give to the Minotaur as sacrifice
Youths having been chosen and the flower of virgins at the same time
Who the narrow walls were worried by the evil,
Theseus himself wished to throw down his own body
for dear Athens rather than let such corpses
of Athens to Crete as corpses be carried.
And thus pressing on in a light ship and with gentle breezes
he comes to great-hearted Minos and the haughty seats.
And at the same time the royal virgin caught sight of this man
with desiring eyes, whom the chaste little bed breathing out
pleasant odors was nourishing in the soft embrace of the mother,
Like how the rivers of the Eurota gird around the myrtle trees
or the vernal breeze leads out the various colors,
Not before she had turned her burning eyes from that one
she received a flame in the whole body
and whole blazed up utterly in the deepest marrows.
Alas stirring up the furies from the miserable one with cruel heart
sacred boy, you mix the cares (and) joys of men,
and you who rule Golgi and leafy Idalium,
with what kind of waves have you tossed the girl having been
inflamed in the mind, often sighing in the golden haired guest!
What great fears that one carried in the weak heart!
With what great brilliance more great than gold she grew pale often,
When Theseus desiring to contend against the savage beast
was seeking out either death or the rewards of praise!
Promising a not unpleasant little gift in vain to the gods
she offered prayers with a silent little lip.
For as an oak shaking the branches on highest Taurus
or a coniferous pine sweating with the bark
(when) an uncontrollable storm twisting the oak with a gust
roots up (far off, having been wrenched up by the rots
lies face-down, breaking whatever is in the way widely,)
Thus Theseus laid low the savage one with the body having been subdued
tossing the horns in vain to the empty winds.
Thereafter safe, he turned back the foot with much praise
ruling the wandering footsteps with a thin thread,
lest going out of the labyrinthine windings
the imperceptible maze of the house may deceive him.
But why do I having digressed from the first poem recall
more, how the daughter leaving behind the face of the father,
the embrace of the sister, finally of the mother,
who miserable, having been destroyed, was happy in the daughter,
how she preferred the love of Theseus to these:
or how she came having been carried by raft to the foamy shores of Dia
or how the husband departing with an unmindful heart left behind
her having been binded in respect to the eyes by sleep?
Often they say that she raging in the burning heart
poured out clear-sounding voices out of the deepest chest,
and that then the sad one climbs the steep mountains,
Whence she might stretch out the sight on the vast swells of the sea,
then that she runs out into the opposing waves of trembling salt
raising the soft nude backs of the calves,
and that the sad one said these final complaints,
Uttering chilly sobs with a wet face:
Thus me having been carried, wicked one, from the paternal altars
wicked one, did you leave behind on the deserted shore, Theseus?
Thus departing with the divine will of the gods having been neglected
unmindful ah! do you carry cursed perjuries home?
Was no thing able to turn the decision of the cruel
mind? Was there no clemency to you at hand,
Cruel one, so that the chest wishes to show compassion to us?
But you did not give these promises once to me with a soothing
voice, you were not ordering (me) miserable to hope for these things
but a happy marriage, but weddings having been wished for,
which all the airy winds tear to pieces.
Now now let now woman believe in a man pledging,
let not anyone hope the speakings of man to be faithful;
Who while the mind desiring is eager to obtain something,
they fear to swear nothing, they refrain to promise nothing:
but and at the same time the lust of the desiring mind is satiated
they fear nothing from words, they care nothing for perjuries.
Certainly you turning in the middle whirlwind of death
I snatched away, and rather I decided to send away the brother
than to fail deceptive you in the final time.
For which I will be given to the beasts and birds to be torn apart
as prey, and dead having been tossed in the earth I will not be buried.
For what lioness gave birth to you under a lone crag,
What sea spit you having been conceived from foaming waves,
what Syrtis, what predator Scylla, what vast Carybdis (bore you),
you who return such reward for sweet life?
If our marriages had not been to you to the heart,
because you were bristling at the savage order of the ancient parent,
but yet you were able to lead me into your seats,
I who as a slave could serve you with pleasant labor,
soothing the pure footsteps with clear waters,
or covering your bed with a purple cloth.
But why should I having been terrified by evil complain
to the senseless airs who having been augmented with no senses
are able to neither hear nor return the voices having been sent?
He meanwhile now near is turned in the middle waves
nor does any mortal appear in the empty seaweed.
Thus savage fortune even insulting too much in the final time
begrudges (her) ears with our complaints.
Almighty Jupiter, I would the ships of Athens
had not touched the Gnosian shores in the first time,
nor the faithless voyager bearing dire tributes to the
uncontrollable bull had tied his ropes into Crete,
nor this wicked one hiding cruel decisions in a sweet
form had rested in our seats as a guest!
For where should I return myself? Destroyed, what hope do I lean on?
Should I seek the Idonian mountains? But a savage surface of water
separating with a wide sea divides (it and me).
But should I hope for help of the father? Whom I myself left behind
following the youth splattered with fraternal slaughter?
Should I console myself with the faithful love of the husband?
Who flees bending his flexible oars in the sea?
Besides the lone island is nourished by no roof,
nor does an exit of the sea open with the waves girding.
No way of flight, no hope; all is quiet,
All are deserted, all things show death.
Not however before my eyes grow weak with death,
nor before the senses fall from my tired body,
I having been betrayed will demand from the gods just punishment
and pray for the faith of the heavenly ones in the last hour.
Wherefore Eumenides, punishing the deeds of men with vengeful
penalty, for whom a forehead crowned with snaky hair
brings forth angers of the exhaling chest,
Here, here, come, listen to my complaints,
Which I, woe to unhappy (me), impoverished, am compelled to
bring forth from the last marrows, raging, blind with insane fury.
Which since they are born true from the deepest chest,
You! Do not suffer our grief to vanish,
But with like what mind Theseus left me alone
With such a mind, goddesses, let he pollute with death himself and his own.
After she had poured these voices from the sad chest,
Uneasy demanding punishment for the savage deeds,
The ruler of the celestial ones assented with unconquerable divine will;
With which motion the earth and the bristling seas trembled
and the heavens shook the shining stars.
But Theseus himself with blind darkness
having been beset sent away from the chest having forgotten every
instruction which before he was holding in the constant mind,
nor raising the sweet signs to the wretched parent
did he show that he himself, safe saw the Athenian harbor.
For they say once, when Aegeus entrusted his son to the winds
leaving the walls of the goddess with his fleet,
that the one embracing gave such orders to the youth:
"My son, my only, more pleasant to me than long life,
Son, whom I send away into doubtful misfortunes,
having returned to me recently in the final limit of old age,
since my fortune and your burning virtue
snatches you from unwilling me, to whom the slow eyes
are not yet satisfied with the dear figure of the son,
I, not rejoicing with a glad chest, will send you,
and not will I a low you to bring signs of following fortune,
but first I will bring out many complaints from the mind,
defiling my white hair with earth and dust having been poured;
thence I will hang sails having been painted on the wandering mast,
so that the sail having been covered with Spanish rust colored dye
will show our griefs and our loves of the mind.
Because if to you the sacred resident of Itonus,
who it is declared that protects our race and seats of Erectheus,
shall grant that you sprinkle the right hand with the blood of the bull,
then in truth make it that these orders thrive in the heart having
been founded in mindful you, nor let any time cause it to be forgotten;
that at the same time the eyes see our hills
let the sails put down from all sides the deadly cloth
and let the twisted ropes raise the pure sail,
which as I first discerning will realize glad things in the happy
mind, when favorable time will set up you returning."
These orders left behind Theseus remembering in the constant mind
just as clouds having been pushed with a gust of the winds
left behind an airy snowy peak of a mountain.
But the father, as he was seeking out sight from the highest arc,
exhausting th anxious eyes in constant cryings,
as soon as he spotted the linen of the inflated sail,
threw himself headfirst from the top of the crags,
believing Theseus having been lost to cruel fate.
Thus bold Theseus stepping forth into the houses (and) the
paternal roofs fatal with death, just like the grief he had brought
to Ariadne with his forgetful mind, so he himself received.
Who then looking forth sad on the retreating keel
was turning many cares in the wounded spirit.
But out of another part flowering Bacchus was wandering
with the rout of the Satyrs and Nysian Silenus
seeking you, Ariadne, having been inflamed with love of you.
|
haec vestis priscis hominum variata figuris
heroum mira virtutes indicat arte.
namque fluentisono prospectans litore Diae,
Thesea cedentem celeri cum classe tuetur
indomitos in corde gerens Ariadna furores,
necdum etiam sese quae visit visere credit,
utpote fallaci quae tum primum excita somno
desertam in sola miseram se cernat harena.
immemor at iuvenis fugiens pellit vada remis,
irrita ventosae linquens promissa procellae.
quem procul ex alga maestis Minois ocellis,
saxea ut effigies bacchantis, prospicit, eheu,
prospicit et magnis curarum fluctuat undis,
non flavo retinens subtilem vertice mitram,
non contecta levi velatum pectus amictu,
non tereti strophio lactentis vincta papillas,
omnia quae toto delapsa e corpore passim
ipsius ante pedes fluctus salis alludebant.
sed neque tum mitrae neque tum fluitantis amictus
illa vicem curans toto ex te pectore, Theseu,
toto animo, tota pendebat perdita mente.
misera, assiduis quam luctibus externavit
spinosas Erycina serens in pectore curas,
illa tempestate, ferox quo ex tempore Theseus
egressus curuis e litoribus Piraei
attigit iniusti regis Gortynia templa.
nam perhibent olim crudeli peste coactam
Androgeoneae poenas exsolvere caedis
electos iuvenes simul et decus innuptarum
Cecropiam solitam esse dapem dare Minotauro.
quis angusta malis cum moenia vexarentur,
ipse suum Theseus pro caris corpus Athenis
proicere optavit potius quam talia Cretam
funera Cecropiae nec funera portarentur.
atque ita nave levi nitens ac lenibus auris
magnanimum ad Minoa venit sedesque superbas.
hunc simul ac cupido conspexit lumine virgo
regia, quam suavis exspirans castus odores
lectulus in molli complexu matris alebat,
quales Eurotae praecingunt flumina myrtus
aurave distinctos educit verna colores,
non prius ex illo flagrantia declinavit
lumina, quam cuncto concepit corpore flammam
funditus atque imis exarsit tota medullis.
heu misere exagitans immiti corde furores
sancte puer, curis hominum qui gaudia misces,
quaeque regis Golgos quaeque Idalium frondosum,
qualibus incensam iactastis mente puellam
fluctibus, in flavo saepe hospite suspirantem!
quantos illa tulit languenti corde timores!
quanto saepe magis fulgore expallvit auri,
cum saevum cupiens contra contendere monstrum
aut mortem appeteret Theseus aut praemia laudis!
non ingrata tamen frustra munuscula divis
promittens tacito succepit vota labello.
nam velut in summo quatientem brachia Tauro
quercum aut conigeram sudanti cortice pinum
indomitus turbo contorquens flamine robur,
eruit (illa procul radicitus exturbata
prona cadit, late quaevis cumque obvia frangens,)
sic domito saevum prostravit corpore Theseus
nequiquam vanis iactantem cornua ventis.
inde pedem sospes multa cum laude reflexit
errabunda regens tenui vestigia filo,
ne labyrintheis e flexibus egredientem
tecti frustraretur inobservabilis error.
sed quid ego a primo digressus carmine plura
commemorem, ut linquens genitoris filia vultum,
ut consanguineae complexum, ut denique matris,
quae misera in gnata deperdita laeta
omnibus his Thesei dulcem praeoptarit amorem:
venerit aut ut vecta rati spumosa ad litora Diae
aut ut eam devinctam lumina somno
liquerit immemori discedens pectore coniunx?
saepe illam perhibent ardenti corde furentem
clarisonas imo fudisse e pectore voces,
ac tum praeruptos tristem conscendere montes,
unde aciem pelagi vastos protenderet aestus,
tum tremuli salis adversas procurrere in undas
mollia nudatae tollentem tegmina surae,
atque haec extremis maestam dixisse querellis,
frigidulos udo singultus ore cientem:
'sicine me patriis avectam, perfide, ab aris
perfide, deserto liquisti in litore, Theseu?
sicine discedens neglecto numine divum,
immemor a! devota domum periuria portas?
nullane res potuit crudelis flectere mentis
consilium? tibi nulla fuit clementia praesto,
immite ut nostri vellet miserescere pectus?
at non haec quondam blanda promissa dedisti
voce mihi, non haec miserae sperare iubebas,
sed conubia laeta, sed optatos hymenaeos,
quae cuncta aereii discerpunt irrita venti.
nunc iam nulla viro iuranti femina credat,
nulla viri speret sermones esse fideles;
quis dum aliquid cupiens animus praegestit apisci,
nil metuunt iurare, nihil promittere parcunt:
sed simul ac cupidae mentis satiata libido est,
dicta nihil metuere, nihil periuria curant.
certe ego te in medio versantem turbine leti
eripui, et potius germanum amittere crevi,
quam tibi fallaci supremo in tempore dessem.
pro quo dilaceranda feris dabor alitibusque
praeda, neque iniacta tumulabor mortua terra.
quaenam te genuit sola sub rupe leaena,
quod mare conceptum spumantibus exspuit undis,
quae Syrtis, quae Scylla rapax, quae vasta Carybdis,
talia qui reddis pro dulci praemia vita?
si tibi non cordi fuerant conubia nostra,
saeva quod horrebas prisci praecepta parentis,
attamen in vestras potuisti ducere sedes,
quae tibi iucundo famularer serva labore,
candida permulcens liquidis vestigia lymphis,
purpureave tuum consternens veste cubile.
sed quid ego ignaris nequiquam conquerar auris,
externata malo, quae nullis sensibus auctae
nec missas audire queunt nec reddere voces?
ille autem prope iam mediis versatur in undis,
nec quisquam apparet vacua mortalis in alga.
sic nimis insultans extremo tempore saeva
fors etiam nostris inuidit questibus auris.
Iuppiter omnipotens, utinam ne tempore primo
Gnosia Cecropiae tetigissent litora puppes,
indomito nec dira ferens stipendia tauro
perfidus in Cretam religasset navita funem,
nec malus hic celans dulci crudelia forma
consilia in nostris requiesset sedibus hospes!
nam quo me referam? quali spe perdita nitor?
Idaeosne petam montes? at gurgite lato
discernens ponti truculentum dividit aequor.
an patris auxilium sperem? quemne ipsa reliqui
respersum iuvenem fraterna caede secuta?
coniugis an fido consoler memet amore?
quine fugit lentos incurvans gurgite remos?
praeterea nullo colitur sola insula tecto,
nec patet egressus pelagi cingentibus undis.
nulla fugae ratio, nulla spes: omnia muta,
omnia sunt deserta, ostentant omnia letum.
non tamen ante mihi languescent lumina morte,
nec prius a fesso secedent corpore sensus,
quam iustam a divis exposcam prodita multam
caelestumque fidem postrema comprecer hora.
'quare facta virum multantes vindice poena
Eumenides, quibus anguino redimita capillo
frons exspirantis praeportat pectoris iras,
huc huc adventate, meas audite querellas,
quas ego, vae misera, extremis proferre medullis
cogor inops, ardens, amenti caeca furore.
quae quoniam verae nascuntur pectore ab imo,
vos nolite pati nostrum vanescere luctum,
sed quali solam Theseus me mente reliquit,
tali mente, deae, funestet seque suosque.'
has postquam maesto profudit pectore voces,
supplicium saevis exposcens anxia factis,
annuit inuicto caelestum numine rector;
quo motu tellus atque horrida contremuerunt
aequora concussitque micantia sidera mundus.
ipse autem caeca mentem caligine Theseus
consitus oblito dimisit pectore cuncta,
quae mandata prius constanti mente tenebat,
dulcia nec maesto sustollens signa parenti
sospitem Erechtheum se ostendit visere portum.
namque ferunt olim, classi cum moenia divae
linquentem gnatum ventis concrederet Aegeus,
talia complexum iuveni mandata dedisse:
'gnate mihi longa iucundior unice vita,
gnate, ego quem in dubios cogor dimittere casus,
reddite in extrema nuper mihi fine senectae,
quandoquidem fortuna mea ac tua feruida virtus
eripit inuito mihi te, cui languida nondum
lumina sunt gnati cara saturata figura,
non ego te gaudens laetanti pectore mittam,
nec te ferre sinam fortunae signa secundae,
sed primum multas expromam mente querellas,
canitiem terra atque infuso pulvere foedans,
inde infecta vago suspendam lintea malo,
nostros ut luctus nostraeque incendia mentis
carbasus obscurata dicet ferrugine Hibera.
quod tibi si sancti concesserit incola Itoni,
quae nostrum genus ac sedes defendere Erecthei
annuit, ut tauri respergas sanguine dextram,
tum vero facito ut memori tibi condita corde
haec vigeant mandata, nec ulla oblitteret aetas;
ut simul ac nostros inuisent lumina collis,
funestam antennae deponant undique vestem,
candidaque intorti sustollant vela rudentes,
quam primum cernens ut laeta gaudia mente
agnoscam, cum te reducem aetas prospera sistet.'
haec mandata prius constanti mente tenentem
Thesea ceu pulsae ventorum flamine nubes
aereum nivei montis liquere cacumen.
at pater, ut summa prospectum ex arce petebat,
anxia in assiduos absumens lumina fletus,
cum primum infecti conspexit lintea veli,
praecipitem sese scopulorum e vertice iecit,
amissum credens immiti Thesea fato.
sic funēsta domus ingressus tecta paterna
morte ferox Theseus, qualem Minoidi luctum
obtulerat mente immemori, talem ipse recepit.
quae tum prospectans cedentem maesta carinam
multiplices animo volvebat saucia curas.
at parte ex alia florens volitabat Iacchus
cum thiaso Satyrorum et Nysigenis Silenis,
te quaerens, Ariadna, tuoque incensus amore.
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