Metamorphoses

Ovid

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

  1. While Perseus, the brave son of Jupiter,
  2. surrounded at the feast by Cepheus' lords,
  3. narrated this, a raging multitude
  4. with sudden outcry filled the royal courts—
  5. not with the clamours of a wedding feast
  6. but boisterous rage, portentous of dread war.
  7. As when the fury of a great wind strikes
  8. a tranquil sea, tempestuous billows roll
  9. across the peaceful bosom of the deep;
  10. so were the pleasures at the banquet changed
  11. to sudden tumult.
  12. Foremost of that throng,
  13. the rash ring-leader, Phineus, shook his spear,
  14. brass-tipped of ash, and shouted, “Ha, 'tis I!
  15. I come avenger of my ravished bride!
  16. Let now your flittering wings deliver you,
  17. or even Jupiter, dissolved in showers
  18. of imitation gold.” So boasted he,
  19. aiming his spear at Perseus.
  20. Thus to him
  21. cried Cepheus: “Hold your hand, and strike him not!
  22. What strange delusions, O my brother, have
  23. compelled you to this crime? Is it the just
  24. requital of heroic worth? A fair
  25. reguerdon for the life of her you loved?
  26. “If truth were known, not Perseus ravished her
  27. from you; but, either 'twas the awful God
  28. that rules the Nereides; or Ammon, crowned
  29. with crescent horns; or that monstrosity
  30. of Ocean's vast abyss, which came to glut
  31. his famine on the issue of my loins.
  32. Nor was your suit abandoned till the time
  33. when she must perish and be lost to you.
  34. So cruel are you, seeking my daughter's death,
  35. rejoicing lightly in our deep despair.—
  36. “And was it not enough for you to stand
  37. supinely by, while she was bound in chains,
  38. and offer no assistance, though you were
  39. her lover and betrothed? And will you grieve
  40. that she was rescued from a dreadful fate,
  41. and spoil her champion of his just rewards?
  42. Rewards that now may seem magnificent,
  43. but not denied to you if you had won
  44. and saved, when she was fettered to the rock.
  45. “Let him, whose strength to my declining years
  46. restored my child, receive the merit due
  47. his words and deeds; and know his suit was not
  48. preferred to yours, but granted to prevent
  49. her certain death.”
  50. not deigning to reply,
  51. against them Phineus stood; and glancing back
  52. from him to Perseus, with alternate looks,
  53. as doubtful which should feel his first attack,
  54. made brief delay. Then vain at Perseus hurled
  55. his spear, with all the force that rage inspired,
  56. but, missing him it quivered in a couch.
  57. Provoked beyond endurance Perseus leaped
  58. forth from the cushioned seats, and fiercely sent
  59. that outwrenched weapon back. It would have pierced
  60. his hostile breast had not the miscreant crouched
  61. behind the altars. Oh perverted good,
  62. that thus an altar should abet the wrong!
  63. But, though the craven Phineus escaped,
  64. not vainly flew the whizzing point, but struck
  65. in Rhoetus' forehead. As the barb was torn
  66. out of the bone, the victim's heels began
  67. to kick upon the floor, and spouting blood
  68. defiled the festal board. Then truly flame
  69. in uncontrolled rage the vulgar crowd,
  70. and hurl their harmful darts.
  71. And there are some
  72. who hold that Cepheus and his son-in-law
  73. deserved to die; but Cepheus had passed forth
  74. the threshold of his palace: having called
  75. on all the Gods of Hospitality
  76. and Truth and Justice to attest, he gave
  77. no comfort to the enemies of Peace.
  78. Unconquered Pallas is at hand and holds
  79. her Aegis to protect her brother's life;
  80. she lends him dauntless courage. At the feast
  81. was one from India's distant shores, whose name
  82. was Athis. It was said that Limnate,
  83. the daughter of the River Ganges, him
  84. in vitreous caverns bright had brought to birth;
  85. and now at sixteen summers in his prime,
  86. the handsome youth was clad in costly robes.
  87. A purple mantle with a golden fringe
  88. covered his shoulders, and a necklace, carved
  89. of gold, enhanced the beauty of his throat.
  90. His hair encompassed with a coronal,
  91. delighted with sweet myrrh. Well taught was he
  92. to hurl the javelin at a distant mark,
  93. and none with better skill could stretch the bow.
  94. No sooner had he bent the pliant horns
  95. than Perseus, with a smoking billet, seized
  96. from the mid-altar, struck him on the face,
  97. and smashed his features in his broken skull.
  98. And when Assyrian Lycabas had seen
  99. his dear companion, whom he truly loved,
  100. beating his handsome countenance in blood.
  101. And when he had bewailed his lost life,
  102. that ebbed away from that unpiteous wound,
  103. he snatched the bow that Athis used, and said;
  104. “Let us in single combat seek revenge;
  105. not long will you rejoice the stripling's fate;
  106. a deed most worthy shame.” So speaking, forth
  107. the piercing arrow bounded from the cord,
  108. which, though avoided, struck the hero's cloak
  109. and fastened in its folds.—
  110. Then Perseus turned
  111. upon him, with the trusted curving sword,
  112. cause of Medusa's death, and drove the blade
  113. deep in his breast. The dying victim's eyes,
  114. now swimming in a shadowous night, looked 'round
  115. for Athis, whom, beholding, he reclined
  116. upon, and ushered to the other world,—
  117. sad consolation of united death.