tanta, nec teli metuenda torti,
quanta cum coniunx viduata taedis
ardet et odit;
non ubi hibernos nebulosus imbres
Auster advexit properatque torrens
Hister et iunctos vetat esse pontes
ac vagus errat;
non ubi impellit Rhodanus profundum,
aut ubi in rivos nivibus solutis
sole iam forti medioque vere
tabuit Haemus.
caecus est ignis stimulatus ira
nec regi curat patiturve frenos
aut timet mortem: cupit ire in ipsos
obvius enses.
parcite, o divi, veniam precamur,
vivat ut tutus mare qui subegit.
sed furit vinci dominus profundi
regna secunda.
ausus aeternos agitare currus
immemor metae iuvenis paternae
quos polo sparsit furiosus ignes
ipse recepit.
constitit nulli via nota magno:
vade qua tutum populo priori,
rumpe nec sacro violente sancta
foedera mundi.
quisquis audacis tetigit carinae
nobiles remos nemorisque sacri
Pelion densa spoliavit umbra,
quisquis intravit scopulos vagantes
et tot emensus pelagi labores
barbara funem religavit ora
raptor externi rediturus auri,
exitu diro temerata ponti
iura piavit.
exigit poenas mare provocatum:
Tiphys in primis, domitor profundi,
liquit indocto regimen magistro;
litore externo, procul a paternis
occidens regnis tumuloque vili
tectus ignotas iacet inter umbras.
aulis amissi memor inde regis
portibus lentis retinet carinas
stare querentes.
ille vocali genitus Camena,
cuius ad chordas modulante plectro
restitit torrens, siluere venti,
cum suo cantu volucris relicto
adfuit tota comitante silva,
Thracios sparsus iacuit per agros,
at caput tristi fluitavit Hebro:
contigit notam Styga Tartarumque,
non rediturus.
stravit Alcides Aquilone natos,
patre Neptuno genitum necavit
sumere innumeras solitum figuras:
ipse post terrae pelagique pacem,
post feri Ditis patefacta regna
vivus ardenti recubans in Oeta
praebuit saevis sua membra flammis
tabe consumptus gemini cruoris,
munere nuptae.
stravit Ancaeum violentus ictu
saetiger; fratrem, Meleagre, matris
impius mactas morerisque dextra
matris iratae: meruere cuncti
morte quod crimen tener expiavit
Herculi magno puer inrepertus,
raptus, heu, tutas puer inter undas.
ite nunc, fortes, perarate pontum
fonte timendo.
Idmonem, quamvis bene fata nosset,
condidit serpens Libycis harenis;
omnibus verax, sibi falsus uni
concidit Mopsus caruitque Thebis.
ille si vere cecinit futura,
exul errabit Thetidis maritus;
fulmine et ponto moriens Oileus
crimine poenas.
igne fallaci nociturus Argis
Nauplius praeceps cadet in profundum;
coniugis fatum redimens Pheraei
uxor impendes animam marito.
ipse qui praedam spoliumque iussit
aureum prima revehi carina
[ustus accenso Pelias aeno]
arsit angustas vagus inter undas.
iam satis, divi, mare vindicastis:
parcite iusso.
No force of flame or swelling wind,
Nor brandished spear, is half as great
As a wife of wedding-torches robbed
Who burns with hate;
Nor when the cloudy South Wind brings
The winter rains, and Hister roars
In wandering torrents, bursts each bridge
That spans its shores;
Nor when the Rhone strikes at the deep,
Nor when with streams of melting snows,
As the sun is strong at height of spring,
The Haemus flows.
Blind is the fire that anger feeds:
It brooks no rule, the bridle spurns,
And fears not death; to rush at swords
Headlong it burns.
Spare and forgive, ye gods, we pray;
May he who tamed the sea live on.
But the wrath of the lord of the deep is roused—
The next realm's won.
When the boy dared play the charioteer,
Unmindful of his father's track,
The fires he flung across the sky
Himself did rack.
The well-known path has no great cost;
The past's safe ways be the ways for thee,
And do not break the sacred bond
Of Earth's decree.
Whoever touched the noble oars
Of that bold ship, and the thick shade
Of sacred woods from Pelion stripped,
And into the Rocks that Wander strayed,
And strove so greatly on the sea,
And anchored on barbarian shores
To seize their gold and homeward bend,
Paid for the ocean's outraged laws
With dreadful end.
The sea, once roused, exacts her toll:
First Tiphys, whom the deep obeyed,
Left his helm to untaught hands,
And far from his father's realm is laid;
His bones rest in a humble tomb
'Mid unknown shades on a foreign strand,
And Aulis mourns its absent lord,
And its complaining ships must stand
In harbor moored.
The musical Camena's son—
Whose chords, when plectrum touched his string,
Made torrents pause and winds fall mute,
Made the songbird cease to sing
And draw near, the whole wood behind—
On Thracian fields his corpse they strew,
His head floats down sad Hebrus river
To the Styx and Tartarus he knew,
To dwell for ever.
Alcides slew Aquilo's sons,
And him of Neptune's getting, who
Assumed innumerable shapes;
But after bringing concord to
The land and sea, and opening
The realms of Dis, he, lying doomed
On burning Oeta, gave up life
And limbs, by twofold gore consumed,
Gift of his wife.
The fierce boar struck Ancaeus down;
Disloyal Meleager, you,
Slaughtering mother's brother, die
By mother's hand. They earned it, true,
But what sin did the boy's death pay
Whom mighty Hercules sought in vain,
Seized in the shallows, wretched waif?
Go, brave hearts, plough the watery main—
A spring's not safe.
Idmon, though well he knew the fates,
A snake entombed in Libyan sand;
Prophet for all but self alone
Died Mopsus, far from Theban land.
If he has sung the future true,
Then Thetis' mate will exiled stray;
By thunderbolt and ocean slain,
Oelius' son for his crime will pay
And his sire's stain.
With false fire seeking Argos' harm,
Into the deep will Nauplius fall;
For your Pheraean spouse's fate,
Wife, you'll trade away your soul.
The man who bade the first ship bring
The golden spoils, 'neath cauldron lid
Was roasted, in its trapped waves rolled.
The sea's avenged; spare him who did
As he was told.
coniugis fatum redimens Pheraei
uxor impendes animam marito.
ipse qui praedam spoliumque iussit
aureum prima revehi carina
[ustus accenso Pelias aeno]
arsit angustas vagus inter undas.
iam satis, divi, mare vindicastis:
parcite iusso.
No force of flame or swelling wind,
Nor brandished spear, is half as great
As a wife of wedding-torches robbed
Who burns with hate;
Nor when the cloudy South Wind brings
The winter rains, and Hister roars
In wandering torrents, bursts each bridge
That spans its shores;
Nor when the Rhone strikes at the deep,
Nor when with streams of melting snows,
As the sun is strong at height of spring,
The Haemus flows.
Blind is the fire that anger feeds:
It brooks no rule, the bridle spurns,
And fears not death; to rush at swords
Headlong it burns.
Spare and forgive, ye gods, we pray;
May he who tamed the sea live on.
But the wrath of the lord of the deep is roused—
The next realm's won.
When the boy dared play the charioteer,
Unmindful of his father's track,
The fires he flung across the sky
Himself did rack.
The well-known path has no great cost;
The past's safe ways be the ways for thee,
And do not break the sacred bond
Of Earth's decree.
Whoever touched the noble oars
Of that bold ship, and the thick shade
Of sacred woods from Pelion stripped,
And into the Rocks that Wander strayed,
And strove so greatly on the sea,
And anchored on barbarian shores
To seize their gold and homeward bend,
Paid for the ocean's outraged laws
With dreadful end.
The sea, once roused, exacts her toll:
First Tiphys, whom the deep obeyed,
Left his helm to untaught hands,
And far from his father's realm is laid;
His bones rest in a humble tomb
'Mid unknown shades on a foreign strand,
And Aulis mourns its absent lord,
And its complaining ships must stand
In harbor moored.
The musical Camena's son—
Whose chords, when plectrum touched his string,
Made torrents pause and winds fall mute,
Made the songbird cease to sing
And draw near, the whole wood behind—
On Thracian fields his corpse they strew,
His head floats down sad Hebrus river
To the Styx and Tartarus he knew,
To dwell for ever.
Alcides slew Aquilo's sons,
And him of Neptune's getting, who
Assumed innumerable shapes;
But after bringing concord to
The land and sea, and opening
The realms of Dis, he, lying doomed
On burning Oeta, gave up life
And limbs, by twofold gore consumed,
Gift of his wife.
The fierce boar struck Ancaeus down;
Disloyal Meleager, you,
Slaughtering mother's brother, die
By mother's hand. They earned it, true,
But what sin did the boy's death pay
Whom mighty Hercules sought in vain,
Seized in the shallows, wretched waif?
Go, brave hearts, plough the watery main—
A spring's not safe.
Idmon, though well he knew the fates,
A snake entombed in Libyan sand;
Prophet for all but self alone
Died Mopsus, far from Theban land.
If he has sung the future true,
Then Thetis' mate will exiled stray;
By thunderbolt and ocean slain,
Oelius' son for his crime will pay
And his sire's stain.
With false fire seeking Argos' harm,
Into the deep will Nauplius fall;
For your Pheraean spouse's fate,
Wife, you'll trade away your soul.
The man who bade the first ship bring
The golden spoils, 'neath cauldron lid
Was roasted, in its trapped waves rolled.
The sea's avenged; spare him who did
As he was told.
