The Fifth Book.
Attack of Phineus and his friends on Perseus. Defeat of the former, and their change to statues. Atchievements of Perseus in Argos, and Seriphus. Minerva's visit to the Muses. Fate of Pyreneus. Song of the Pierides. Song of the Muses. Rape of Proserpine. Change of Cyane, to a fountain. Search of Ceres. Transformation of a boy to an eft. Of Ascalaphus to an owl. Change of the companions of Proserpine to Sirens. Story of Arethusa. Journey of Triptolemus. Transformation of Lyncus to a lynx. The Pierides transformed to magpies.
THE Fifth Book OF THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID.
These wonders, while the son of Danae tells, Circled around by Cepheus' noble troop; Sudden th' imperial hall with tumults loud Resounds. Not clamor such as oft we hear, The bridal feasts, in songs of joy attend: But what stern war announces. Much the change, (The peaceful feast to instant riot turn'd) Seem'd like the placid main, when the fierce rage Of sudden tempests lash its surges high.
First Phineus stepp'd, the leader of the crowd; Soul of the riot; and his ashen spear, Arm'd with a brazen point, he brandish'd high;-- "Lo, here!" he shouts, "lo, here I vengeful come "On him who claims my spouse! Not thy swift wings; "Nor cheating Jove, chang'd to a golden shower, "Shall save thee from my arm,"--and pois'd to fling, The dart was held, but Cepheus loud exclaim'd,-- "Brother! what dost thou? what dire madness sways "To wicked acts thy soul? Is this the meed "His gallant deeds deserve? Is this the dower, "We for the valued life he sav'd bestow? "List but to truth,--not Perseus of thy wife "Bereft thee, but the angry Nereid nymphs,-- "The horned Ammon,--and the monster huge! "Prepar'd to glut his hunger with my child. "Then was thy spouse snatch'd from thee, when remain'd "Of help no hope; to all she lost appear'd. "Thy savage heart perhaps had ev'n rejoic'd "To see her perish, that our greater grief "Might lighten part of thine. Couldst thou her see "Fast chain'd before thee? uncle! spouse betroth'd! "And yet no aid afford! And storm'st thou thus? "She to another now her safety owes; "And would'st thou snatch the prize? So high if seems "To thee her precious value, thy bold arm "Should on the rock where chain'd she lay, have sought "And have deserv'd her. Now permit that he "Who sought her there; through whom my failing age "Is not now childless, grant that he enjoy "Peaceful, what through his merits he no less, "Than our firm compact claims: not him to thee, "But him to certain loss I preference gave."
Nought Phineus answer'd, but his furious eyes Now Perseus, now the king alternate view; Doubtful or this to pierce, or that: his pause Was short; his powerful arm, by fury nerv'd, At Perseus hurl'd the quivering spear,--in vain! Fixt in the couch it stood. Quick bounded up Th' indignant youth, and deep in Phineus' breast, Had plung'd the point returning, but he shrunk Behind an altar; which, O shame! preserv'd The impious villain. Yet not harmless sped The weapon;--full in Rhaetus' front it stuck; Who lifeless dropp'd; broke in the bone the steel; He spurn'd, and sprinkled all the feast with gore. Then rag'd with ire ungovern'd all the crowd, And hurl'd in showers their weapons; some fierce cry'd, Cepheus, no less than Perseus, death deserv'd. But Cepheus left the hall, adjuring loud, The hospitable gods; justice; and faith; That he was guiltless of the sanguine fray.
Minerva comes; her sheltering AEgis shields Her brother's body; in his breast she breathes Redoubled valor. Atys, Indian bred, Whom fair Limnate, Ganges' daughter, bore, 'Tis told, amid the waters' crystal caves, Scarce sixteen years had seen. His beauteous form, In gorgeous dress more beauteous still appear'd. A purple garment fring'd around with gold, Enwrapp'd him; round his neck were golden beads; And pins and combs of gold his lovely locks, With myrrh sweet-smelling, held. Well skill'd the youth To hurl the javelin to its distant mark; But more to bend the bow. Him Perseus smote, The flexile bow just bending, with a brand Snatch'd flaming from the altar; crush'd, his face A horrid mass of fractur'd bones appears. His beauteous features Lycabas beheld In blood convuls'd: his dearest comrade he, And one who proud his ardent love display'd. Griev'd to behold the last expiring breath, Of Atys parting from the furious wound, He seiz'd the bow the youth had bent, and cry'd;-- "The battle try with me!--not long thy boast "Of conquest o'er a boy; a conquest more "By hate than fame attended." Railing thus, The piercing weapon darted from the string.
Now Phineus, fearful hand to hand to meet The foe, his javelin hurl'd, the point ill-aim'd On Idas glanc'd, who vainly kept aloof With neutral weapon. Phineus, stern he view'd, "With threatening frown, exclaiming;--"though no share "In this mad broil I took, now, Phineus, feel "The power of him whom thou hast forc'd a foe; "And take reciprocally wound for wound." Then from his side the weapon tore to hurl; But fast the life-stream gush'd, he instant fell. Here, by the sword of Clymenus was slain, Odites, noblest lord in Cepheus' court; Protenor fell by Hypseus; Hypseus sunk Beneath Lyncides' arm. Amid the throng Was old Emathion too, friend to the just, And fearer of the gods; though ancient years Forbade his wielding arms, what aid his words Could give, he spar'd not: curs'd the impious war, In loud upbraidings. As with trembling arms, He grasp'd the altar, Chromis' gory sword His neck divided; on the altar dropp'd The head; and there the trembling, dying tongue, Faint imprecations utter'd; 'midst the flames He breath'd his spirit forth. By Phineus' hand, Broteas and Ammon fell: the brother-twins Unconquer'd in the fight, the caestus shower'd; Could but the caestus make the falchion yield: But Perseus felt it not,--its point hung fixt Amidst his garments' folds. On him he turn'd, The falchion, glutted with Medusa's gore, And plung'd it in his breast. Dying, he looks Around, with eyes rolling in endless night, For Atys, and upon him drops: then pleas'd, Thus join'd in death, he seeks the shades below. Methion's son, Syenian Phorbas, now And fierce Amphimedon, in Lybia born, Rush in the fight to mingle; both fall prone, The slippery earth wide spread with smoking blood. The sword attacks them rising; in his throat Phorbas receives it, and the other's side. But Erythis, of Actor born, whd rear'd An axe tremendous, not the waving sword Of Perseus meets: a cup of massive bulk, With both his hands high-heaving, fierce he hurls Full on his foe: he vomits gory floods; Falls back, and strikes with dying head the earth. Then Polydaemon falls, sprung from the blood Of queen Semiramis; Lycetes brave, The son of Spercheus; Abaris, who dwelt On frozen Caucasus; and Helicen With unshorn tresses; Phlegias; Clitus too; Those with the rest beneath his weapon fall; And on the rising heaps of dead he stands. And fell Ampycus; Ceres' sacred priest, His temples with a snow-white fillet bound. Thou, O, Japetides! whose string to sound Such discord knew not; but whose harp still tun'd, The works of peace, in concord with thy voice; Wast bidden here to celebrate the feast: And cheer the nuptial banquet with thy song! Him, when at distance Pettalus beheld, Handling his peaceful instrument, he cry'd In mocking laughter;--"go, and end thy song, "Amid the Stygian ghosts,"--and instant plung'd Through his left temple, his too deadly sword. Sinking, his dying fingers caught the strings, And, chance-directed, gave a mournful sound. Not long the fierce Lycormas saw his fall Without revenge: a massy bar of oak From the right gate he tore, and on the bones Behind the neck, the furious blow was aim'd: Prone on the earth, like a crush'd ox he fell. Pelates of Cinypheus, strove to rend A like strong fastening from th' opposing door; The dart of Corythus his tugging hand Transfix'd, and nail'd him to the wood confin'd: Here Abas, with his spear, deep pierc'd his side: Nor dying fell he;--by the hand retain'd, Firm to the post he hung. Melaneus fell. The arms of Perseus aiding; Dorilas, The wealthiest lord in Nasamonia's land, Fell too beside him: rich was he in fields; In wide extent no lands with his could vie; Nor equal his in hoarded heaps of grain. Obliquely in his groin, the missive spear Stuck deep,--a mortal spot: his Bactrian foe His rolling eyes beheld, and dying breath In sobs convulsive flitting, and exclaim'd;-- "This spot thou pressest, now of all thy lands, "Possess,"--and turning left the lifeless corse. Avenging Perseus hurls at him the spear, Torn from the smoking wound; the point, receiv'd Full in the nostrils, pierces through the neck: Before, behind, expos'd the weapon stands.
Now fortune aids his blows, the brother pair, Clanis, and Clytius fall, by different wounds. Hurl'd by his nervous arm, the ashen spear Transfix'd the thighs of Clytius: Clanis dy'd Biting the steel that pierc'd his mouth. Now fell Mendesian Celadon; and Astreus borne By Hebrew mother, to a doubtful sire. Now dy'd Ethion, once deep skill'd to see The future fates; now by his skill deceiv'd. Thoactes, who the monarch's armor bore; And base Agyrtes, murderer of his sire. Crowds though he conquers, thickening crowds remain; For all united wage on him the war. In every quarter fight the press, conspir'd To aid a cause to worth and faith oppos'd. The sire, with useless piety,--the queen, And new-made bride, the hero's party take; And fill the hall with screams. The clang of arms, And groans of dying men their screamings drown. The houshold deities, polluted once, The fierce Bellona bathes with gore again; With double fury lighting up the war.
Now Phineus, followed by a furious throng Surrounds him single; thicker fly their darts Than wintry hail, on every side; his sight They cloud, and deafening, whiz his ears around. By crowds opprest, retreating, Perseus leans His shoulders 'gainst a massive pillar's height; And, safe behind, dares all the furious fight. Chaonian Molpeus rushes on his left; Ethemon, Nabathaean, on his right: Thus a fierce tiger, urg'd by famine, hears Combin'd the lowings of two different herds, Far distant in the vale; in doubt he stands, On this, or that to rush; and furious burns On both at once to thunder. Perseus so, To left and right inclin'd at once to bear, Plerc'd first the thigh of Molpeus,--straight he fled Unfollow'd; for Ethemon fiercely press'd. He, furious aiming at the hero's neck, With ill-directed strength, his weapon broke Against a column;--back the shiver'd point Sprung, and his throat transfix'd: slight was the wound; To doom to death unable. Perseus plung'd His mortal falchion, as the trembling wretch His helpless arms extended, in his breast. But now his valor Perseus found oppress'd By crowds unequal, and aloud exclaim'd;-- "Since thus you force me, from my very foe "More aid I'll ask;--my friends avert your eyes!" Then shew'd the Gorgon's head. "Go, elsewhere seek," Said Thescelus,--"for those such sights may move:"-- The deadly javelin poising in his hand, In act to throw, a marble form he stands, In the same posture. Near him Ampyx rear'd, Against the brave Lyncides' breast his sword; His uprais'd hand was harden'd; here, or there, To wave unable. Nileus now display'd Seven argent streams upon a shield of gold; False boasting offspring from the seven-mouth'd Nile; And cry'd;--"Lo! Perseus, whence my race deriv'd; "Down to the silent shades this solace bear "By such a hand to die." The final words Were lost; his sounding voice abrupt was stay'd; His open'd mouth still seem'd the words to form, Incapable to utter. Eryx storm'd At these, exclaiming;---"not the Gorgon's hairs "Freeze ye, but your own trembling, dastard souls: "Rush forth with me, and on the earth lay low, "The youth who battles thus with magic arms." Fierce had he rush'd, but firmly fixt his feet Held him to earth, a rigid, fasten'd stone; A statue arm'd. These well their fate deserv'd, But one, Aconteus, while in aid he fought Of Perseus, sudden stood to stone congeal'd; As star'd the Gorgon luckless in his face. Him saw Astyages, but thought he liv'd; And fierce attack'd him with a mighty sword. Shrill tinkling sounds the blow: astonish'd stands Astyages;--astonish'd seems the stone; For while he stares, he too to marble turns. Long were the tale, of each plebeian death To tell; two hundred still unhurt remain; By Gorgon's head two hundred stiffen'd stand: When Phineus seems the strife unjust to mourn. But what to act remains? Around him crowd, The forms of numerous friends: his friends he knows, Their aid intreats, and calls on each by name: Still doubting, seizes those his grasp can reach And finds them stone! Averse he turns his eyes; Raises his conscious arms and hands oblique, And suppliant begs;--"go Perseus,--conqueror, go! "Remove that dreadful monster,--bear away "That stone-creating visage, Gorgon's head! "Whate'er it be, I pray thee bear it hence. "Nor hate, nor lust of empire, rais'd our arms "Against thee;--for my wife alone we warr'd. "Thy cause, by merit best; mine, but by time. "Bravest of men, me much it grieves I e'er, "Thy claim oppos'd: existence only give, "All else be thine." To him, as thus he begg'd, Fearing his eyes, to whom he suppliant spoke To turn;--"thou dastard, Phineus!" Perseus cry'd,-- "What I can grant, I will; and what I grant "To souls like thine a mighty boon must seem. "Dispel thy terror; rest from steel secure. "Yet must a during monument remain, "Still in the dwelling of my spouse's sire, "Conspicuous. So my bride may daily see "Her imag'd husband." Speaking thus, he held The Gorgon's head, where pallid, Phineus turn'd; So turning stiffen'd stood the neck; so turn'd Appear'd th' inverted eyes; the humid balls To stone concreted. Still the timid look, And suppliant face, and tame-petitioning arms, And guilty awe-struck look, in stone remain'd.
