Metamorphoses

Ovid

Ovid. Metamorphoses. More, Brookes, translator. Boston: Cornhill Publishing Co., 1922.

  1. Ere this transpired,
  2. observed the consort of the Thunder-God
  3. her altered mien; but she for ripening time
  4. withheld severe resentment. Now delay
  5. was needless for distracted Juno heard
  6. Calisto of the god of Heaven had borne
  7. a boy called Arcas. Full of jealous rage,
  8. her eyes and thoughts enkindled as she cried;
  9. “And only this was wanting to complete
  10. your wickedness, that you should bear a son
  11. and flaunt abroad the infamy of Jove!
  12. Unpunished you shall not escape, for I
  13. will spoil the beauty that has made you proud
  14. and dazzled Jupiter with wanton art.”
  15. So saying, by her forehead's tresses seized
  16. the goddess on her rival; and she dragged
  17. her roughly to the ground. Pleading she raised
  18. her suppliant arms and begged for mercy.—While
  19. she pled, black hair spread over her white limbs;
  20. her hands were lengthened into feet, and claws
  21. long-curving tipped them; snarling jaws deformed
  22. the mouth that Jove had kissed. And lest her prayers
  23. and piteous words might move some listening God,
  24. and give remembrance, speech was so denied,
  25. that only from her throat came angry growls,
  26. now uttered hoarse and threatening.
  27. Still remains
  28. her understanding, though her body, thus
  29. transformed, makes her appear a savage bear.—
  30. her sorrows are expressed in many a groan,
  31. repeated as she lifts her hands—if we
  32. may call them so—repeated as she lifts
  33. them towards the stars and skies, ungrateful Jove
  34. regarding; but her voice accuses not.
  35. Afraid to rest in unfrequented woods,
  36. she wandered in the fields that once were hers,
  37. around her well-known dwelling. Over crags,
  38. in terror, she was driven by the cries
  39. of hounds; and many a time she fled in fear,
  40. a huntress from the hunters, or she hid
  41. from savage animals; forgetting her
  42. transformed condition. Changed into a bear,
  43. she fled affrighted from the bears that haunt
  44. the rugged mountains; and she feared and fled
  45. the wolves,—although her father was a wolf.
  46. When thrice five birthdays rounded out the youth
  47. of Arcas, offspring of Lycaon's child,
  48. he hunted in the forest of his choice;
  49. where, hanging with his platted nets the trees
  50. of Erymanthian forest, he espied
  51. his transformed mother,—but he knew her not;
  52. no one had told him of his parentage.
  53. Knowing her child, she stood with levelled gaze,
  54. amazed and mute as he began approach;
  55. but Arcas, frightened at the sight drew back
  56. to pierce his mother's breast with wounding spear.—
  57. but not permitting it the god of Heaven
  58. averted, and removed them from that crime.
  59. He, in a mighty wind—through vacant space,
  60. upbore them to the dome of starry heaven,
  61. and fixed them, Constellations, bright amid
  62. the starry host.
  63. Juno on high beheld
  64. Calisto crowned with glory—great with rage
  65. her bosom heaved. She flew across the sea,
  66. to hoary Tethys and to old Oceanus,
  67. whom all the Gods revere, and thus to them
  68. in answer to their words she made address;
  69. “And is it wondered that the Queen of Gods
  70. comes hither from ethereal abodes?
  71. My rival sits upon the Throne of Heaven:
  72. yea, when the wing of Night has darkened
  73. let my fair word be deemed of no repute,
  74. if you behold not in the height of Heaven
  75. those new made stars, now honoured to my shame,
  76. conspicuous; fixed in the highest dome of space
  77. that circles the utmost axis of the world.
  78. “Who, then, should hesitate to put affront
  79. on Juno? matchless goddess! each offense
  80. redounds in benefit! Who dreads her rage?
  81. Oh boundless powers! Oh unimagined deeds!
  82. My enemy assumes a goddess' form
  83. when my decree deprives her human shape;—
  84. and thus the guilty rue their chastisement!
  85. “Now let high Jove to human shape transform
  86. this hideous beast, as once before he changed
  87. his Io from a heifer.—Let him now
  88. divorce his Juno and consort with her,
  89. and lead Calisto to his couch, and take
  90. that wolf, Lycaon, for a father-in-law!
  91. “Oh, if an injury to me, your child,
  92. may move your pity! drive the Seven Stars
  93. from waters crystalline and azure-tint,
  94. and your domain debar from those that shine
  95. in Heaven, rewarded for Jove's wickedness.—
  96. bathe not a concubine in waters pure.”—