Speaker 1: Well, well, well, here we finally are. This is let's
Speaker 1: talk about Miths Baby, and I am your host, live
Speaker 1: here with the final reading of a It's Metamorphoses. This
Speaker 1: has been an utterly wild ride, and honestly, I am
Speaker 1: in awe that it has taken so long to get
Speaker 1: through the whole thing. I know it's my own fault.
Speaker 1: At the beginning, we were doing them in two episodes,
Speaker 1: and then it was so much smarter to do them
Speaker 1: in one episode, and oh my gosh, in any case,
Speaker 1: we are at the end of OVID. Wow. When I
Speaker 1: first started doing these readings, it was entirely on a whim,
Speaker 1: and frankly, it was just something to pass the time
Speaker 1: during the very beginning of COVID, like when I briefly
Speaker 1: was not working my old regular job and just kind
Speaker 1: of bored and looking for more things to do with
Speaker 1: the podcast, Like I just started reading Home Resilient because
Speaker 1: why not. And the rest is some kind of history
Speaker 1: of me sharing with you all some of the most
Speaker 1: beautiful and fascinating ancient sources from Greece and sometimes Rome,
Speaker 1: because you know, sometimes they were cool. It is. It's
Speaker 1: one of my favorite things to record, even if I
Speaker 1: try to limit them to just like once or twice
Speaker 1: a month. But I'm honestly just so thrilled that you
Speaker 1: all enjoy these episodes, like I hear from you now
Speaker 1: and then of just like how nice it is to
Speaker 1: hear that. It's like a chill thing to listen to.
Speaker 1: You get to listen to this ancient source. I think
Speaker 1: it's just a really unique and important piece of understanding
Speaker 1: the ancient world. Like just to hear these sources directly,
Speaker 1: even if the translations I often have to read arbit
Speaker 1: stuff to say the least, it's just hearing them straight
Speaker 1: out is so different from hearing them interpreted through somebody else.
Speaker 1: Not that the translations aren't also interpretations regardless, my point stands.
Speaker 1: But well, like here we are finally about to dive
Speaker 1: into the final book of Ovid's Metamorphoses, where frankly, things
Speaker 1: get even weirder and very Roman and like oddly historical
Speaker 1: or probably more like his like pseudohistorical, because I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure Julius Caesar is a god of some kind. But
Speaker 1: we started this and we're going to finish it now.
Speaker 1: For all this bit does also devolve into some weird romanness.
Speaker 1: We get this enormous section that is about Pythagoras. Ostensibly,
Speaker 1: I don't know enough of the real Pythagoras, and I
Speaker 1: don't believe most of this. It is still avid, like
Speaker 1: six hundred years later, but the name Pathagoras isn't given.
Speaker 1: But it's wild. There's a lot about vegetarianism, seems chill.
Speaker 1: Then there's a lot of absolutely hilarious stuff. Anyway, I
Speaker 1: think you're gonna love. Actually, I was worried with this
Speaker 1: would be too much Rome, but God's this bit is weird,
Speaker 1: and so I would love to know what you all
Speaker 1: would like me to read next. And with the help
Speaker 1: of a wonderful feature from Spotify that I really wish
Speaker 1: Apple would mimic in some way, I get to ask
Speaker 1: all of you what you want to hear, provided you're
Speaker 1: listening on Spotify. If you're not, I'm sorry. It's just
Speaker 1: the limitations of the apps. I might, you know, put
Speaker 1: up a poll on Instagram. Basically, I am still kind
Speaker 1: of working through what this is going to look like
Speaker 1: because I'm having trouble finding translations that I am able
Speaker 1: to read, or more likely having trouble finding the deaths
Speaker 1: of certain translators, and therefore whether I can read them.
Speaker 1: It's a whole thing. I'm working on it. At the
Speaker 1: end of the episode, though, you will get some more
Speaker 1: information about what exactly I want from you via the
Speaker 1: spotify ability. Hopefully it's nice and detailed. And remember there
Speaker 1: are just a few days left to get your questions
Speaker 1: in for the New Year's qu and A. Is there
Speaker 1: a character that you desperately want to know more about
Speaker 1: or are curious why I've never done an episode on
Speaker 1: them and you just want to yell it at me, like,
Speaker 1: write it in. I will explain and that will be
Speaker 1: helpful to both of us. Do you want to know
Speaker 1: more about ancient sources or the intricacies of literally anything
Speaker 1: when it comes to Greek myth, because God's damn is
Speaker 1: it intricate? Write it in. I also just love to
Speaker 1: hear your comments or thoughts on the characters, books, literally
Speaker 1: whatever you want to share, send it in. There is
Speaker 1: a link in this episode's description, or head to mythsbaby
Speaker 1: dot com slash questions. This is ovid Metamorphoses, translated by
Speaker 1: brooks More book fifteen. While this was happening, they began
Speaker 1: to seek for one who could endure the weight of
Speaker 1: such a task and could succeed a king so great
Speaker 1: and fame. The harbinger of truth destined illustrious Numa for
Speaker 1: the sovereign power. It did not satisfy his heart to
Speaker 1: know only the sabine ceremonials, and he conceived in his
Speaker 1: expansive mind much greater views, examining the depth and cause
Speaker 1: of things his country and his cares forgotten. This desire
Speaker 1: led him to visit the city that once welcomed Hercules.
Speaker 1: Numa desired to know what founder built a Grecian city
Speaker 1: on Italian shores. One of the old inhabitants, who was
Speaker 1: well acquainted with past history, replied rich in Iberian herds,
Speaker 1: the son of Jove turned from the ocean, and with
Speaker 1: favoring wind, it said, he landed on le Kinneyan shores,
Speaker 1: and while the herd strayed in the tender grass, he
Speaker 1: visited the house, the friendly home of far famed Croton.
Speaker 1: There he rested from his arduous labors. At the time
Speaker 1: of his departure, he said, here in future days shall
Speaker 1: be a city of your numerous race. The passing years
Speaker 1: have proved the promise true. For Miscellus, choosing that sight
Speaker 1: marked out a city's walls, argive Alamon's son, Of all
Speaker 1: the men in his generation, he was most acceptable to
Speaker 1: the heavenly gods. Bending over him. Once at dawn, while
Speaker 1: he was overwhelmed with drowsiness of sleep, the huge clubbearer
Speaker 1: Hercules addressed him, Thus, come now, desert your native shores.
Speaker 1: Go quickly to the pebbly flowing stream of distant Esar.
Speaker 1: And he threatened ill in fearful words unless he should
Speaker 1: obey sleep, and the god departed instantly. Alamon's son, arising
Speaker 1: from his couch, pondered his recent vision thoughtfully, with his
Speaker 1: conclusions at cross purposes. The god commanded him to quit
Speaker 1: that land, and the laws forbade departure, threatening death to
Speaker 1: all who sought to leave their native land. The brilliant
Speaker 1: Sun had hidden in the sea his shining head, and
Speaker 1: darkest Night had then put forth her starry face, and
Speaker 1: at that time it seemed as if the same god,
Speaker 1: Hercules was present and repeating his commands, threatening still more
Speaker 1: and graver penalties if he should fail to obey. Now,
Speaker 1: sore afraid, he set about to move his household gods
Speaker 1: to a new settlement, but rumors then followed him through
Speaker 1: the city, and he was accused of holding statutes in contempt.
Speaker 1: The accusation hardly had been made, when his offense was
Speaker 1: evidently proved, even without a witness. Then he raised his
Speaker 1: face and hands up to the gods above, suppliant in
Speaker 1: neglected garb exclaimed, Oh Mighty Hercules, for whom alone the
Speaker 1: twice six labors gave the privilege of heavenly residence, Give
Speaker 1: me your aid, for you were the true cause of
Speaker 1: my offense. It was an ancient custom of that land
Speaker 1: to vote with chosen pebbles, white and black. The white absolved,
Speaker 1: the black condemned the man, And so that day the
Speaker 1: fateful votes were given. All cast into the cruel urn
Speaker 1: were black. Soon as that erne inverted poured forth all
Speaker 1: the pebbles to be counted, everyone was changed completely from
Speaker 1: its black to white. And so the vote adjudged him innocent.
Speaker 1: By that most fortunate aid of Hercules, he was exempted
Speaker 1: from the country's law. Miscellis breathing thanks to Hercules, with
Speaker 1: favoring wind sailed on the Ionian Sea, past Silentine, Neretum, Sibaris,
Speaker 1: Spartan Tarentum, and the Syrine Bay Crimisa, and on beyond
Speaker 1: the Apigean fields. Then skirting shores which faced these lands.
Speaker 1: He found the place foretold the river Esar's Mouth, and
Speaker 1: found not far away a burial mound which covered with
Speaker 1: its soil the hallowed bones of Croton. There Upon the
Speaker 1: appointed land he built up walls, and he conferred the
Speaker 1: name of Croton, who was there entombed on his new city,
Speaker 1: which has ever since been called Crotona. By tradition, it
Speaker 1: is known such strange deeds caused that city to be
Speaker 1: built by men of Greece. Upon the Italian coast. Here
Speaker 1: lived a man by birth a Samian. He had fled
Speaker 1: from Samos and the ruling class, a voluntary exile for
Speaker 1: his hate against all tyranny. He had the gift of
Speaker 1: holding mental converse with the gods who live far distant
Speaker 1: in the height of heaven, and all that nature has
Speaker 1: denied to man and human vision. He reviewed with eyes
Speaker 1: of his enlightened soul. And when he had examined all
Speaker 1: things in his careful mind with watchful study, he released
Speaker 1: his thoughts to knowledge of the public. He would speak
Speaker 1: to crowds of people, silent and amazed, while he revealed
Speaker 1: to them the origin of this vast universe, the cause
Speaker 1: of things, what is nature? What a god? Whence came
Speaker 1: the snow the cause of lightning? Was it Jupiter? Or
Speaker 1: did the winds that thundered when the cloud was rent
Speaker 1: asunder cause the lightning flash? What shook the earth? What
Speaker 1: laws controlled the stars as they were moved? And every
Speaker 1: hidden thing? He was the first man to forbid the
Speaker 1: use of any animal's flesh as human food. He was
Speaker 1: the first to speak with learned lips, though not believed
Speaker 1: in this, exhorting them no mortals, he would say, do
Speaker 1: not permit pollution of your bodies with such food. For
Speaker 1: there are grain and good fruits which bear down the
Speaker 1: branches by their weight, and ripened grapes upon the vine,
Speaker 1: and herbs, though sweet by nature, and those with which
Speaker 1: grow tender and mellow with a fire, and flowing milk
Speaker 1: is not denied, nor honey redolent of blooming time. The
Speaker 1: lavish earth yields rich and healthful foods, affording dainties without slaughter,
Speaker 1: death and bloodshed. Dull beasts delight to satisfy their hunger
Speaker 1: with torn flesh. And yet not all horses and sheep
Speaker 1: and cattle live on grass, but all the savage animals,
Speaker 1: the fierce Armenian tigers and ferocious lions and bears, together
Speaker 1: with the roving wolves delight and veans reeking with warm blood. Oh,
Speaker 1: ponder a moment such a monstrous crime, vitals in vitals
Speaker 1: gorged one greedy body, fattening with plunder of another's flesh,
Speaker 1: a living being fed on another's life, in that abundance
Speaker 1: which our earth, the best of mothers, will afford. Have
Speaker 1: you no joy unless your savage teeth can gnaw the
Speaker 1: piteous flesh of some flayed animal to reenact the Cyclopean crime.
Speaker 1: And can you not appease the hungry void, the perverted
Speaker 1: craving of a stomach's greed, unless you first destroy another's life.
Speaker 1: That age of old time, which is given the name Golden,
Speaker 1: was so blessed in fruit of trees and in the
Speaker 1: good herbs which the earth produced, that it never would
Speaker 1: pollute the mouth with blood. The birds then safely moved
Speaker 1: their wings in air. The timid hares would wander in
Speaker 1: the fields with no fear, and their own credulity had
Speaker 1: not suspended fishes from the hook. All life was safe
Speaker 1: from treacherous wiles, fearing no injury. A peaceful world after
Speaker 1: that time, some one of ill advice. It does not
Speaker 1: matter who it might have been, envied the ways of lions,
Speaker 1: and gulped into his greedy paunch stuff from a carcass vial.
Speaker 1: He opened the foul paths of wickedness. It may be that,
Speaker 1: in killing beasts of prey, our steel was for the
Speaker 1: first time warmed with blood, and that could be defended,
Speaker 1: For I hold that predatory creatures which attempt destruction of
Speaker 1: mankind are put to death without evasion of the sacred laws.
Speaker 1: But though with justice they are put to death, that
Speaker 1: cannot be a cause for eating them. This wickedness went further,
Speaker 1: and the sow was thought to have deserved death as
Speaker 1: the first of victims, for with her long turned up
Speaker 1: snout she spoiled the good hope of a harvest year.
Speaker 1: The ravenous goat that gnawed on a sprouting vine was
Speaker 1: led for slaughter to the altar fires of angry bacchus.
Speaker 1: It was their own fault that surely caused their ruin.
Speaker 1: Of those two, but why have sheep deserved sad destiny?
Speaker 1: Harmless and useful for the good of man? With nectar
Speaker 1: in full utters, their soft wool affords the warmest coverings
Speaker 1: for our use. Their life and not their death, would
Speaker 1: help us more. Why have the oxen of the feet
Speaker 1: deserved a sad and innocent without deceit, and harmless without guile,
Speaker 1: born to endure hard labor without gratitude? Is he unworthy
Speaker 1: of the gift of harvest fields? Who, after he relieved
Speaker 1: his worker from weight of the curving plow, would butcher him,
Speaker 1: could sever with an axe that toil worn neck by which,
Speaker 1: so often, with hard work, the ground has been turned up,
Speaker 1: so many harvests reared. For some, even crimes like these
Speaker 1: are not enough. They have imputed to the gods themselves abomination.
Speaker 1: They believe a god in heaven above rejoices at the
Speaker 1: death of a laborious ox a victim free of blemish,
Speaker 1: and most beautiful in form perfection brings destruction. Is adorned
Speaker 1: with garlands and with gilded horns. Before the altar. In
Speaker 1: his ignorance, he hears one praying, and he sees the
Speaker 1: very grain he labored to produce fixed on his head
Speaker 1: between the horns and felled. He stains with blood the
Speaker 1: knife which just before he may have seen reflected in
Speaker 1: clear water. Instantly they snatch out entrails from his throbbing form,
Speaker 1: and seek in them intentions of the gods. Then, in
Speaker 1: your lust for a forbidden food, you will presume to
Speaker 1: batten on his flesh. Oh, a race of mortals, do
Speaker 1: not eat such food. Give your attention to my serious words.
Speaker 1: And when you next present the slaughtered flesh of Oxen, too,
Speaker 1: your palates know and feel that you gnaw on your
Speaker 1: fellow tillers of the soil. And since a god impels
Speaker 1: me to speak out, I will obey the god who
Speaker 1: urges me, and will disclose to you the heavens above,
Speaker 1: and I will even reveal the oracles of the divine will.
Speaker 1: I will sing to you of things most wonderful, which
Speaker 1: never were investigated by the intellects of ancient times, and
Speaker 1: things which have been long concealed from man. In fancy.
Speaker 1: I delight to float among the stars, or take my
Speaker 1: stand on my face the Atlas's shoulders, and to look
Speaker 1: afar down on men wandering here and there, afraid in life,
Speaker 1: yet dreading unknown death, And in these words exhort them.
Speaker 1: Then reveal the sequence of events ordained by fate. Oh,
Speaker 1: sad humanity, Why do you fear alarms of icy death?
Speaker 1: Afraid of sticks, fearful of moving shadows, and empty names
Speaker 1: of subjects harped on by the poet's tales the fabled
Speaker 1: perils of a fancied life. Whether the funeral pile consumes
Speaker 1: your flesh with hot flames, or old age dissolves it
Speaker 1: with a gradual wasting power, be well assured. The body
Speaker 1: cannot meet with further ill, and souls are all exempt
Speaker 1: from power of death. When they have left their first
Speaker 1: corporeal home, they always find and live in newer homes.
Speaker 1: I can declare, for I remember well that in the
Speaker 1: days of the great Trojan War, as Euphorbus, son of Panthus,
Speaker 1: in my opposing breast was planted. Then the heavy spear
Speaker 1: point of the younger son of Atreus not long past,
Speaker 1: I recognize the shield once burden of my left arm,
Speaker 1: where it hung in Juno's temple at ancient Argos, the
Speaker 1: Realm of Abbas. Everything must change, but nothing perishes. The
Speaker 1: moving soul may wander, coming from that spot to this,
Speaker 1: from this to that, in changed possession, live in any limbs,
Speaker 1: whatever it may pass, from beasts to human bodies, and
Speaker 1: again to those of beasts. The soul will never die.
Speaker 1: In the long lapse of time, as pliant wax is
Speaker 1: molded to new forms and does not stay as it
Speaker 1: has been, nor keep this self same form. Yet is
Speaker 1: the self same wax. Be well assured the soul is
Speaker 1: always the same spirit, though it passes into different forms. Therefore,
Speaker 1: that natural love may not be vanquished by unnatural craving
Speaker 1: of the appetite. I warn you stop expelling kindred souls
Speaker 1: by deeds abhorrent as cold murder. Let not blood be
Speaker 1: nourished with its kindred blood. Since I am launched into
Speaker 1: the open sea, and I have given my full sails
Speaker 1: to the wind, nothing in all the world remains unchanged.
Speaker 1: All things are in a state of flux. All shapes
Speaker 1: receive a changing nature. Time itself glides on with constant motion. Ever,
Speaker 1: as a flowing river, neither river nor the fleeting hour
Speaker 1: can stop its constant course. But as each wave drives
Speaker 1: on a wave, as each is pressed by that which follows,
Speaker 1: and that press on that before it, so the moments
Speaker 1: fly and others follow, so they are renewed. The moment
Speaker 1: which moved on before is past, and that which was
Speaker 1: not now exists in time, and everyone comes, goes and
Speaker 1: is replaced. See see how night glides by and then
Speaker 1: proceeds on to the dawn. Then brilliant light of day
Speaker 1: succeeds the dark night. There is not the same appearance
Speaker 1: in the heavens when all things for weariness are resting
Speaker 1: in vast night, as when bright Lucifer rides his white steed.
Speaker 1: And only think of that most glorious change, when loved Aurora,
Speaker 1: Pallas's daughter comes before the day and tints the world
Speaker 1: almost delivered to bright Phoebus. Even the disk of that god,
Speaker 1: rising from beneath the earth, is of a ruddy color
Speaker 1: in the dawn, and ruddy when concealed beneath the world
Speaker 1: when highest, it is a most brilliant white, For there
Speaker 1: the ether is quite purified, and far away avoids infection
Speaker 1: from impurities of earth. Diana's form at night remains not equal.
Speaker 1: Nor the sametis less today than it will be tomorrow
Speaker 1: if she is waxing, greater if she wanes. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: do you not see how the year moves through four seasons,
Speaker 1: imitating human life. In early spring it has a nursling's
Speaker 1: ways resembling infancy, For at that time the blade is
Speaker 1: shooting and devoid of strength. Its flaccid substance, swelling gives
Speaker 1: delight to every watching husbandman alive in expectation. Then all
Speaker 1: things are rich in blossom, and the genial meadow smiles
Speaker 1: with tints of blooming flowers. But not as yet is
Speaker 1: there a sign of vigor in the leaves. The year
Speaker 1: now waxing stronger. After spring, it passes into summer, and
Speaker 1: its youth becomes robust. Indeed, of all the year, the
Speaker 1: summer is most vigorous and most abounds with glowing and
Speaker 1: life giving warmth. Autumn then follows, and the vim of
Speaker 1: life removed. That ripe and mellow time succeeds between youth
Speaker 1: and old age, and a few white hairs are sprinkled
Speaker 1: here and there upon his brow then aged. Winter, with
Speaker 1: his tremulous step, follows repulsive strips of graceful locks or
Speaker 1: white with those he has retained so long. Our bodies
Speaker 1: also always change unceasingly. We are not now what we
Speaker 1: were yesterday, or we shall be tomorrow. And there was
Speaker 1: a time when we were only seeds of man, mere
Speaker 1: hopes that lived within a mother's womb. But nature changed
Speaker 1: us with her skillful touch, determined that our bodies should
Speaker 1: not be held in such narrow room below the entrails
Speaker 1: in our distended parent, And in time she brought us
Speaker 1: forth into the vacant air, brought into light, the helpless
Speaker 1: infant lies. Then on all fours he lifts his body up,
Speaker 1: feeling his way like any young wild beast, And then
Speaker 1: by slow degrees he stands upright, weak, need and trembling,
Speaker 1: steadied by support of some convenient prop and soon more
Speaker 1: strong and swift. He passes through the hours of year,
Speaker 1: and when the years of middle age are past, slides
Speaker 1: down the steep path of declining age. This undermines him
Speaker 1: and destroys the strength of former years, and Milon now
Speaker 1: grow old weeps when he sees his arms, which once
Speaker 1: were firm with muscles big as those of Hercules, hang
Speaker 1: flabby at his side. And Helen weeps when in the
Speaker 1: glass she sees her wrinkled face and wonders why two
Speaker 1: heroes fell in love and carried her away. O time,
Speaker 1: devourer of all things and envious age. Together you destroy
Speaker 1: all that exists, and, slowly gnawing bring on lingering death. Yes,
Speaker 1: even things which we call elements do not endure. Now
Speaker 1: listen well to me, and I will show the ways
Speaker 1: in which they change. The everlasting universe contains four elemental parts,
Speaker 1: and two of these are heavy Earth and water, and
Speaker 1: are borne downwards by weight. The other two, devoid of weight,
Speaker 1: are air and even lighter fire, And if these, too
Speaker 1: are not constrained, they seek the higher regions. These four elements,
Speaker 1: though far apart in space, are all derived from one another.
Speaker 1: Earth dissolves as flowing water. Water thin still more departs
Speaker 1: as wind and air, and the light air, still losing weight,
Speaker 1: sparkles on high as fire. But they return along their
Speaker 1: former way. The fire, assuming weight, is changed to air
Speaker 1: and then more dense. That air is changed again to water,
Speaker 1: and that water, still more dense, compacts itself again as
Speaker 1: primal earth. Nothing retains the form that seems its own,
Speaker 1: and nature, the renewer of all things, continually changes every
Speaker 1: form into some other shape. Believe my word. In all
Speaker 1: this universe of vast extent, not one thing ever perished,
Speaker 1: all changed appearance. Men say a certain thing is borne
Speaker 1: if it takes a different form from what it had.
Speaker 1: And yet they say that certain thing has died if
Speaker 1: it no longer keeps the self same shape. Though distant
Speaker 1: things move near and near things far always the sum
Speaker 1: of all things is unchanged. For my part, I cannot
Speaker 1: believe a thing remains long under the same form unchanged.
Speaker 1: Look at the change of times from gold to iron.
Speaker 1: Look at the change in places. I have seen what
Speaker 1: had been solid earth become salt waves. And I have
Speaker 1: seen dry land made from the deep and far away
Speaker 1: from ocean seashells strewn, and on the mountaintops old anchors.
Speaker 1: Found water has made that which was once a plain
Speaker 1: into a valley, and the mountains have been leveled by
Speaker 1: the floods down to a plain. A former marshland is
Speaker 1: now parched dry sand, and places which endured severest drought
Speaker 1: are wet with standing pools. Here nature has opened fresh springs,
Speaker 1: and there has shut them up. Rivers aroused by ancient
Speaker 1: earthquakes have rushed out or vanished as they lost their depth.
Speaker 1: So when the Lycus had been swallowed by a chasm
Speaker 1: in the earth, it rushes forth at a distance and
Speaker 1: is reborn a different stream. The Erasinus, now flows down
Speaker 1: into a cave, now runs beneath the ground a darkened course,
Speaker 1: then rises lordly in the argolic fields. They say the Misus,
Speaker 1: wearied of his spring, and of his former banks appears
Speaker 1: elsewhere and takes another name, the Caicus. The Amenanus in
Speaker 1: Sicilian sands, now smoothly rolling, at another time is quenched
Speaker 1: because its fountains springs are dry. The water of the
Speaker 1: Anagros formerly was used for drinking, but it pours out
Speaker 1: now foul water, which you would decline to touch, because
Speaker 1: unless all credit is denied to poets long ago, the Centaurs,
Speaker 1: those strange mortals, double limbed, bathed in the stream wounds
Speaker 1: which club bearing her Ailes had made with his strong bow. Yes,
Speaker 1: does not Hypanus, descending fresh from mountains of Sarmatia become
Speaker 1: embittered with the taste of salt. Antissa, Pharos and Phoenician
Speaker 1: Tear were once surrounded by the wavy sea. They are
Speaker 1: not islands now. Long years ago Lucas was mainland, if
Speaker 1: we can believe what the old timers there will tell.
Speaker 1: But now the waves sweep round it. Zakli was a
Speaker 1: part of Italy until the sea cut off the neighboring
Speaker 1: land with strong waves in between. Should you see Kalike
Speaker 1: and Buris, those two cities of Acaia, you will find
Speaker 1: them underneath the waves where sailors point to sloping roofs
Speaker 1: and streets in the clear deep near pathian trees, and
Speaker 1: a steep high hill, quite bare of trees. Was once
Speaker 1: a level plain, but now is a hill for dreadful
Speaker 1: even to tell the raging power of winds. Long pent
Speaker 1: in deep dark caverns tried to find a proper vent.
Speaker 1: Long struggling to attain free sky, finding no opening from
Speaker 1: the prison caves imperious to their force, they raised the
Speaker 1: earth exactly as pent air breathed from the mouth inflates
Speaker 1: a bladder, or the bottle hides stripped off the two
Speaker 1: horned goats. The swollen earth remained on that spot and
Speaker 1: has ever since appearance of a high hill, hardened by
Speaker 1: the flight of time. Of many strange events that I
Speaker 1: have heard and known, I will add a few. Why
Speaker 1: does not water give and take strange forms? Your wave,
Speaker 1: Oh horned ammon, will turn cold at midday, but is
Speaker 1: always mild and warm at sunrise and at sunset. I
Speaker 1: have heard that Athamanians kindle wood if they pour water
Speaker 1: on it when the waning moon has shrunk away into
Speaker 1: her smallest orb. The people of Kconia have a stream
Speaker 1: which turns the drinker's entrails into stone, which changes into marble.
Speaker 1: All at raves, the Acayan Crathis, and the Sibaris, which
Speaker 1: flow not far from here, will turn the hair to
Speaker 1: something like clear amber or bright gold. What is more wonderful,
Speaker 1: there are some waters which change not only bodies, but
Speaker 1: the mines. Who has no knowledge of the Selmachus and
Speaker 1: of its ill famed waves. Who has not heard of
Speaker 1: the lakes of Ethiopia, How those who drink of them
Speaker 1: go raving mad or fall in a deep sleep. Most
Speaker 1: wonderful in heaviness. Whoever quenches thirst from the Cletorian spring
Speaker 1: will hate all wine and soberly secure great pleasure from
Speaker 1: pure water, either that spring as a power the opposite
Speaker 1: of wine heat, or, perhaps, as natives tell us, after
Speaker 1: the famed son of Amethion, by his charms and herbs
Speaker 1: delivered from their base insanity, the stricken Pritides, he threw
Speaker 1: the rest of his mind healing herbs into the spring,
Speaker 1: where hatred of all wine has since remained. Unlike in nature,
Speaker 1: flows another stream of the country called Lyncestius. Everyone who
Speaker 1: drinks of it, even with most temperate care, will real
Speaker 1: as if he had drunk unmixed wine. In Arcadia is
Speaker 1: a place called Phineus by men of old, which is
Speaker 1: mistrusted for the twofold nature of its waters. Stand in
Speaker 1: dread of them at night. If drunk at night they
Speaker 1: harm you, but in daytime they will do no harm
Speaker 1: at all. So lakes and rivers have now this, now
Speaker 1: that effect. Ortigia once moved like a ship that drifts
Speaker 1: among the waves, Now it is fixed. The argo was
Speaker 1: in dread of the simplegates, which moved apart with waves
Speaker 1: in rushing. Now immovable, they stand resisting the attack of winds. Etna,
Speaker 1: which burns with sulfur furnaces, will not be always concentrated fire,
Speaker 1: nor was it always fiery. If the earth is like
Speaker 1: an animal and is alive and breathes out flame at
Speaker 1: many openings, then it can change these many passages used
Speaker 1: for its breathing, and when it is moved, may close
Speaker 1: these caverns as it opens up some others. Or if
Speaker 1: rushing winds are penned in deepest caverns and they drive
Speaker 1: great stones against the rock, and substances which have the
Speaker 1: properties of flame and fire are made by those concussions.
Speaker 1: When the winds are calmed, the caverns will of course
Speaker 1: be cool again. Or if some black bitchumen catches fire
Speaker 1: or yellow sulfur burns with little smoke, then surely, when
Speaker 1: the ground no longer gives such food and oily nutriment
Speaker 1: for flames, and they, in time have ravened all their store,
Speaker 1: their greedy nature soon will pine with death. It will
Speaker 1: not bear such famine, but depart, and when deserted, will
Speaker 1: desert the place. 'tis said that the hyperboreans of Paullini
Speaker 1: can cover all their bodies with light plumes by plunging
Speaker 1: nine times in Minerva's marsh. But I cannot believe another
Speaker 1: tale that that Skithian women get a like result by
Speaker 1: having poison sprinkled on their limbs. If we give any
Speaker 1: credit to the things proved by experience, we can surely
Speaker 1: know whatever bodies are decayed by time, or by dissolving heat,
Speaker 1: or by such means changed into tiny animals, come now
Speaker 1: very choice bullocks killed for sacrifice. And it is well
Speaker 1: known by experience that the flower gathering bees are so
Speaker 1: produced miraculous from entrails putrefied. These, like the faithful animals
Speaker 1: from which they were produced, inhabit the green fields delight
Speaker 1: in toil and labor for reward. The warlike steed, when
Speaker 1: buried in the ground, is a known source of hornets.
Speaker 1: If you cut the bending claws off from the seashore
Speaker 1: crab and bury the remainder in the earth, a scorpion
Speaker 1: will come forth from the dead crab buried there, threatening
Speaker 1: with its crooked tail. The worms which cover leaves with
Speaker 1: their white threads, a thing observable by husbandmen, will change
Speaker 1: themselves to funeral butterflies. Mud holds the seeds that generate
Speaker 1: green frogs, at first producing tadpoles with no feet, and
Speaker 1: soon it gives them legs adapted for their swimming, and
Speaker 1: so they may be as well adapted to good leaping.
Speaker 1: Their hind legs are longer than the fore legs. The
Speaker 1: mother beared do not bring forth a cub, but a
Speaker 1: limp mass of flesh that hardly can be called alive.
Speaker 1: By licking it, the mother forms the limbs and brings
Speaker 1: it to a shape just like her own. Do not
Speaker 1: the offspring of the honey bees, concealed in cells hexagonal
Speaker 1: at first get life with no limbs, and assume in
Speaker 1: time both feet and wings. Unless the fact were known,
Speaker 1: could anyone suppose it possible that Juno's bird, whose tail
Speaker 1: is bright with stars, the eagle armor bearer of high jove,
Speaker 1: the doves of Catheria, and all birds emerge from the
Speaker 1: middle part of eggs. And some believe the human marrow
Speaker 1: turns into a serpent when the spine at length has
Speaker 1: putrefied in the closed sepulcher. Now these I named derive
Speaker 1: their origin from other living forms. There is one bird
Speaker 1: which reproduces and renews itself. The Assyrians gave this bird
Speaker 1: his name, the phoenix. He does not live either on
Speaker 1: grain or herbs, but only on small drops of frankincense,
Speaker 1: and juice is of amomum. When this bird completes a
Speaker 1: full five centuries of life straightway with talons and with
Speaker 1: shining beak, he builds a nest among palm branches, where
Speaker 1: they join to form the palm tree's waving top. As
Speaker 1: soon as he is strewn in this new nest, the
Speaker 1: cassia bark and the ears of sweet spikenard and some
Speaker 1: bruised cinnamon with yellow mr He lies down on it
Speaker 1: and refuses life among those dreamful odors. And they say
Speaker 1: that from the body of the dying bird is reproduced
Speaker 1: a little phoenix, which is destined to live just as
Speaker 1: many years. When time is given to him sufficient strength
Speaker 1: and he is able to sustain the weight, he lifts
Speaker 1: the nest up from the lofty tree and dutifully carries
Speaker 1: from that place his cradle and the parent sepulcher. As
Speaker 1: soon as he is reached through yu fielding air the
Speaker 1: city of Hyperion, he will lay the burden just before
Speaker 1: the sacred doors within the Temple of Hyperion. But if
Speaker 1: we wonder at strange things like these, we ought to
Speaker 1: wonder also when we learn that a hyena has a
Speaker 1: change of sex, the female quitting her embracing male herself
Speaker 1: becomes a male. That animal, which feeds upon the winds
Speaker 1: and air, at once assumes with contact any color touched.
Speaker 1: Conquered India gave to the vine crowned Bacchus Lynxes, whose
Speaker 1: urine turns, they say, to stones hardening in air. So
Speaker 1: coral too, as soon as it has risen above the
Speaker 1: sea turns hard below the waves. It is a tender plant.
Speaker 1: The day will fail me. Phoebus will have bathed his
Speaker 1: panting horses in the deep sea waves before I can
Speaker 1: include in my discourse the myriad things transforming to new shapes.
Speaker 1: In lapse of time, we see the nations change grow
Speaker 1: in power. Some wane Troy was once great in riches
Speaker 1: and in men, so great she could, for ten unequaled years,
Speaker 1: afford much blood. Now she lies low and offers to
Speaker 1: our gaze, but ancient ruins, and instead of wealth ancestral tombs.
Speaker 1: Sparta was famous once and great Myceni with was most flourishing,
Speaker 1: and key crops is, Citadel and amphions shone in ancient power.
Speaker 1: Sparta is nothing now save bare and ground. The proud
Speaker 1: Myceni fell. What is the thebes of storied Oedipus except
Speaker 1: a name, and of Pandeon's Athens. What now remains beyond
Speaker 1: the name? Reports come to me that Dardanian Rome is rising,
Speaker 1: and beside the Tiber's waves, whose springs are high in
Speaker 1: the Apennines, is laying her deep foundations. So in her growth,
Speaker 1: her form is changing, and one day she will be
Speaker 1: the sole mistress of the boundless world. They say that
Speaker 1: soothsayers and that oracles revealers of our destiny, declare this fate,
Speaker 1: And if I recollect it right, Helenus, son of Priam,
Speaker 1: prophesied unto Aeneas when he was in doubt of safety
Speaker 1: and lamenting for the state of Troy about to fall. Oh,
Speaker 1: son of a Goddess, if you yourself will fully understand
Speaker 1: this prophecy now surging in my mind, Troy shall not,
Speaker 1: while you are preserved to life, fall utterly flames, and
Speaker 1: the sword shall give you passage. You shall go and
Speaker 1: bear away Pergama ruined, till a foreign soil more friendly
Speaker 1: to you than your native land shall be the lot
Speaker 1: of Troy and of yourself. Even now I know it
Speaker 1: is decreed by fate that our posterity, born far from Troy,
Speaker 1: will build a city greater than exists, or ever will exist,
Speaker 1: or ever has been seen in former times. Through a
Speaker 1: long lapse of ages. Other noted men shall make it strong,
Speaker 1: but one of the race of Ulus shall make it
Speaker 1: the great mistress of the world. After the earth has
Speaker 1: thoroughly enjoyed his glorious life, ethereal abodes shall gain him,
Speaker 1: and immortal heaven shall be his destiny. Such was the
Speaker 1: prophecy of Helenus when Great Aneas took away his guardian deities.
Speaker 1: And I rejoice to see my kindred walls rise high
Speaker 1: and realize how much the Trojans won by that resounding
Speaker 1: victory of the Greeks, But that we may not range
Speaker 1: afar with steeds forgetful of the goal. The heavens and
Speaker 1: all beneath them, and the earth and everything upon it
Speaker 1: change in form, we likewise change. Who are a portion
Speaker 1: of the universe. And since we are not only things
Speaker 1: of flesh, but winged souls as well, we may be
Speaker 1: doomed to enter into beasts as our own abode, and
Speaker 1: even to be hidden in the breasts of cattle. Therefore,
Speaker 1: should we not allow these bodies to be safe, which
Speaker 1: may contain the souls of parents, brothers, or of those
Speaker 1: allied to us by kinship, or of men at least,
Speaker 1: who should be saved from every harm. Let us not
Speaker 1: gorge down a thyestean feast. How greatly does a man
Speaker 1: disgrace himself, how impiously does he prepare himself for shedding
Speaker 1: human blood? Who with the knife cuts the calf's throat
Speaker 1: and offers a deaf ear to its death longings? Who
Speaker 1: can kill the kid while it is sending forth heartrending
Speaker 1: cries like those of a dear child, Or who can
Speaker 1: feed upon the bird which she has given food. How
Speaker 1: little do such deeds? Does these fall short of actual murder? Yes,
Speaker 1: where will they lead? Let the ox plow, or let
Speaker 1: him owe his death to wait of years, and let
Speaker 1: the sheep give us defense against the cold of boreas,
Speaker 1: and let the well fed she goats give to man
Speaker 1: their utters for the pressure of kind. Hands away with
Speaker 1: cruel nets and springs and snares and fraudulent contrivances, deceive
Speaker 1: not birds with bird limed twigs, do not deceive the trusting.
Speaker 1: Deer with dreaded feather foils, do not conceal barbed hooks
Speaker 1: with treacherous bait. If any beast is harmful, take his life.
Speaker 1: But even so let killing be enough. Taste not his flesh,
Speaker 1: but look for harmless food. They say that Numa, with
Speaker 1: a mind well taught by these and other precepts, traveled
Speaker 1: back to his own land, and, being urged again, assumed
Speaker 1: the guidance of the Latin state, blessed with a nympha's consort,
Speaker 1: blessed also with the muses for his guides. He taught
Speaker 1: the rights of sacrifice and trained in arts of peace,
Speaker 1: a race accustomed long to savage war ripe in years
Speaker 1: he ended reign and life. The Latin matrons, the fathers
Speaker 1: of the state, and all the people wept for Numa's death,
Speaker 1: for the nymph his widow had withdrawn from Rome, concealed
Speaker 1: within the thick groves of the veil Arichia, where with
Speaker 1: groans and wailing she disturbed the holy rites of Cynthia
Speaker 1: established by arrestes Ah. How often nymphs of the grove
Speaker 1: and lake entreated her to cease and offered her consoling words.
Speaker 1: How often the son of theseus said to her, control
Speaker 1: your sorrow. Surely your sad lot is not the only one.
Speaker 1: Consider now the like calamities by others born, and you
Speaker 1: can bear your sorrow to my grief. My own disaster
Speaker 1: was far worse than yours. At least it can afford
Speaker 1: you comfort, now, Is it not true? Discourse has reached
Speaker 1: yours ears that one Hippolytus met with his death through
Speaker 1: the credulity of his loved sire, deceived by a stepmother's
Speaker 1: wicked arm. It will amaze you much, And I may
Speaker 1: fail to prove what I declare, but I am he
Speaker 1: long since the daughter of Passife tempt me to defile
Speaker 1: my father's bed and failing, feigned that I had wished
Speaker 1: to do what she herself had wished, perverting truth, either
Speaker 1: through fear of some discovery or else through spite at
Speaker 1: her deserved repulse. She charged me with attempting the foul crime.
Speaker 1: Though I was guiltless of all wrong. My father banished me,
Speaker 1: and while I was departing, laid on me a mortal
Speaker 1: curse towards pittheus and treason. I fled aghast, guiding the
Speaker 1: swift chariot near the shore of the Corinthian Gulf, when
Speaker 1: all at once the sea rose up and seemed to
Speaker 1: arch itself and lift high as a white topped mountain, height,
Speaker 1: make bellowings and open at the crest. Then, through the
Speaker 1: parting waves, a horned bull emerged with head and breast
Speaker 1: into the wind, spouting white foam from his nostrils in
Speaker 1: his mouth. The hearts of my attendants quailed with fear.
Speaker 1: Yet I, unfrightened, thought but of my exile. Then my
Speaker 1: fierce horses turned their necks to face the waters, and
Speaker 1: with ears erect, they quaked before the monster shape. They
Speaker 1: dashed in flight along the rock strewn ground below the cliff.
Speaker 1: I struggled, but with unavailing hand to use the reins,
Speaker 1: now covered with white foam, and throwing myself back, pulled
Speaker 1: on the thongs with weight and strength. Such effort might
Speaker 1: have checked the madness of my steeds, had not a
Speaker 1: wheel striking the hub and on projecting stump been shattered
Speaker 1: and hurled in fragments from the axle. I was thrown
Speaker 1: forward from my chariot, and with the reins entwined about
Speaker 1: my legs, my palpitating entrails could be seen dragged on
Speaker 1: my sinews fastened on a stump. My torn legs followed,
Speaker 1: but a part remained behind me, caught by various snags.
Speaker 1: The breaking bones gave out a crackling noise. My tortured
Speaker 1: spirit soon had fled away. No part of the torn
Speaker 1: body could be known. All that was left was only
Speaker 1: one crushed wound. How can how dare you, nymph compare
Speaker 1: your ills to my disaster? I saw the lower world
Speaker 1: deprived of light, and I have bathed my flesh so
Speaker 1: tortured in the waves of Phlegathon. Life could not have
Speaker 1: been given to me, but through the remedies Apollo's Sun
Speaker 1: applied to me. After my life returned by potent herbs,
Speaker 1: and the Peonian aid despite the will of Pluto. Cynthia
Speaker 1: then threw heavy clouds around that I might not be
Speaker 1: seen and cause men envy by new life, and that
Speaker 1: she might be sure my life was safe. She made
Speaker 1: me seem an old man, and she changed me so
Speaker 1: that I could not be recognized. A long time she
Speaker 1: debated whether she would give me crete or Dilo. Says
Speaker 1: my home Delos and crete abandoned. She then brought me
Speaker 1: here and at the same time ordered me to lay
Speaker 1: aside my former name, one which when mentioned would remind
Speaker 1: me of my steeds. She said to me, you were Hippolotus,
Speaker 1: but now instead you shall be Verbious. And from that
Speaker 1: time I have inhabited this grove, and as one of
Speaker 1: the lesser gods, I live concealed and numbered in her train.
Speaker 1: The grief of others could not ease the woe of Sadageria,
Speaker 1: and she laid herself down at a mountain's foot, dissolved
Speaker 1: in tears. Till moved by pity for her faithful sorrow,
Speaker 1: Diana changed her body to a spring, her limbs into
Speaker 1: a clear, continual stream. This wonderful event surprised the nymphs
Speaker 1: and filled Hippolytus with wonder, just as great as when
Speaker 1: the Etrurian plowman saw a fate revealing cloud move of
Speaker 1: its own accord among the fields, while not a hand
Speaker 1: was touching it, till finally it took human form without
Speaker 1: the quality of clouted earth, and opened its new mouth
Speaker 1: and spoke, revealing future destinies. The natives called him Taggies.
Speaker 1: He was the first who taught Etrurians to foretell events.
Speaker 1: They were astonished, even as Romulus, when he observed the spear,
Speaker 1: which once had grown high on the palatine, put out
Speaker 1: new leaves and stand with roots, not with the iron
Speaker 1: point which he had driven in. Not as a spear,
Speaker 1: it then stood there, but as a rooted tree with
Speaker 1: limber twigs, for many to admire while resting under the
Speaker 1: surprising shade, Or as when Kippus first observed his horns
Speaker 1: in the clear stream, he truly saw them there. Believing
Speaker 1: he had seen a falsity, he often touched his forehead
Speaker 1: with his hand, and so returning touched the thing he saw,
Speaker 1: assured at last that he could trust his eyes. He
Speaker 1: stood entranced, as if he had returned victorious from the
Speaker 1: conquest of his foes, and raising eyes and hands towards heaven,
Speaker 1: he cried, you, God's above, whatever is foretold by this
Speaker 1: great prodigy, If it means good, then let it be
Speaker 1: auspicious to my land and to the inhabitants of the Quirinus.
Speaker 1: If ill, let that misfortune fall on me. He made
Speaker 1: an offering at new altars built of grassy, thick green turf,
Speaker 1: with fragrant fires, presenting wine in bowls, and he took
Speaker 1: note of panting entrails from new slaughtered sheep to learn
Speaker 1: the meaning of the event for him. When an Etruscan
Speaker 1: seer examined them, he found the evidence of great events
Speaker 1: as yet obscure. And when he raised keen eyes up
Speaker 1: from the entrails to the horns of Kippis, O King,
Speaker 1: all hail, he cried, for in future time, this country
Speaker 1: and the Latin towers will live in homage to you,
Speaker 1: Kippis and your horns. But you must promptly put aside
Speaker 1: delay hasten to enter the wide open gates. The fates
Speaker 1: command you. Once received within the city, you shall be
Speaker 1: its chosen king, and safely shall enjoy a lasting reign.
Speaker 1: Kippis retreated, and he turned his grave eyes from the
Speaker 1: city's walls, and said, oh, far, oh, far away, the
Speaker 1: righteous gods should drive such omens from me. Better it
Speaker 1: would be that I should pass my life in exile
Speaker 1: than be seen a king throned in the capital. Such
Speaker 1: words he spoke and forthwith He convoked the people and
Speaker 1: the grave, and honored senate. But first he veiled his
Speaker 1: horns with laurel, which betokens peace. Then, standing on a
Speaker 1: mound raised by the valiant troops, he made a prayer
Speaker 1: after the ancient mode. And then he said, there is
Speaker 1: one here who will be a king. If you do
Speaker 1: not expel him from your city, I will show him
Speaker 1: to you surely by a sign, although I will not
Speaker 1: tell his name. He wears horns on his head. The
Speaker 1: Augur prophesies that if he enters this your city, he
Speaker 1: will give you laws as if you were his slaves.
Speaker 1: He might have forced his way within your gates, for
Speaker 1: they stand open, but I have hindered him, although nobody
Speaker 1: is to see him so close as I myself. Good Romans,
Speaker 1: then forbid your city to this man, Or if you
Speaker 1: find that he deserves still worse, than bind him fast
Speaker 1: with heavy fetters, or else end your fears by knowledge
Speaker 1: of the destined tyrant's death, as murmurs which arise among
Speaker 1: the groves of pine trees thick above us, when the
Speaker 1: fierce east wind is whistling in them, or as sound
Speaker 1: produced by breaking waves when it is heard far off,
Speaker 1: such the noise made by the crowd. But in that
Speaker 1: angry stirring of the throng, one cry could be distinguished,
Speaker 1: which is he? And they examined the foreheads, and they
Speaker 1: sought predicted horns. Kippis then spoke again. The man whom
Speaker 1: you demand, he said, is here, and fearless of the people,
Speaker 1: he threw back the chaplet from his forehead, and so
Speaker 1: that all could see his temples plainly wonderful for their
Speaker 1: two horns. All then turned down their eyes and uttered groans.
Speaker 1: And was it possible they looked unwillingly upon that head
Speaker 1: famed for its merit. They could not permit him to
Speaker 1: remain there, long deprived of honors, And they placed upon
Speaker 1: his head the festive chaplet, And the Senate gave you, Kippus,
Speaker 1: since you never more must come within the walls, a
Speaker 1: proof of their esteem. So much land as your oxen
Speaker 1: and their plow could circle round from dawn to setting sun. Moreover,
Speaker 1: they engraved the shapely horns on the bronze pillars of
Speaker 1: the city gate, which for long ages kept his name revered.
Speaker 1: Relate O muses guardian deities of poets, for you know,
Speaker 1: and the remote antiquity conceals it not from you. The
Speaker 1: reason why an island which the deep stream of Tiber
Speaker 1: closed about, has introduced Coronus's child among the deities guarding
Speaker 1: the city of famed Romula. A dire contagion had infested
Speaker 1: long the Latin air, and men's pale bodies were deformed
Speaker 1: by a consumption that dried up the blood. When frightened
Speaker 1: by so many deaths, they found all mortal efforts could
Speaker 1: avail them nothing, and physician's skill had no effect. They
Speaker 1: sought the aid of heaven. They sent envoys to Delphi,
Speaker 1: center of the world, and they entreated Phoebus to give
Speaker 1: aid in their distress, and by response, renew their wasting
Speaker 1: lives and end a city's woe. While ground and laurels
Speaker 1: and the quivers which which the god hung there all shook.
Speaker 1: The tripod gave this answer from the deep recesses hidden
Speaker 1: within the shrine, and stirred with trembling their astonished hearts.
Speaker 1: What are you seeking here, o, Romans, you should seek
Speaker 1: for nearer? You then seek it nearer, For you do
Speaker 1: not need Apollo to relieve your wasting plague. You need
Speaker 1: Apollo's son. Go then to him with a good omen
Speaker 1: and invite his aid. After the prudent senate had received
Speaker 1: Phoebus Apollo's words, they took much pains to learn what
Speaker 1: town the son of Phoebus might inhabit. They dispatched ambassadors
Speaker 1: under full sail to the coast of Epidaurus. When the
Speaker 1: curved ships had touched the shore, these men in haste
Speaker 1: went to the Grecian elders there and prayed that Rome
Speaker 1: might have the deity whose presence would drive out the
Speaker 1: mortal ill from their Ausonian nation, for they knew response
Speaker 1: Unerring had directed them. The councilors, dismayed, could not agree
Speaker 1: on their reply. Some thought that aid ought not to
Speaker 1: be refused, but many more held back, declaring it was
Speaker 1: wise to keep the god for their own safety and
Speaker 1: not give away a guardian deity. And while they talked
Speaker 1: discussing it, the twilight had expelled the waning day and
Speaker 1: darkness on the earth spread a thick mantle over the
Speaker 1: wide world. Then in your sleep, the healing deity appeared,
Speaker 1: o Roman leader by your couch. As in his temple
Speaker 1: he is used to stand, holding in his left hand
Speaker 1: a rustic staff, stroking his long beard. With his right,
Speaker 1: he seemed to utter from his kindly breast these words,
Speaker 1: Forget your fears, for I will come to you and
Speaker 1: leave my altar. But now well, look at the serpent
Speaker 1: with its binding folds entwined around this staff, and accurately
Speaker 1: mark it with your eyes that you may recognize it.
Speaker 1: I will transform myself into this shape, but of a
Speaker 1: greater size. I will appear enlarged, of a magnitude to
Speaker 1: which a heavenly being ought to be transformed. The God
Speaker 1: departed when he said these words, and sleep went when
Speaker 1: the God and words were gone, and genial light came
Speaker 1: when the sleep had left. The morning then dispersed fire
Speaker 1: given stars. The envoys met together in much doubt within
Speaker 1: the temple of the long sought God. They prayed the
Speaker 1: God to indicate for them, by clear celestial tokens in
Speaker 1: what spot he wished to dwell. Scarce had they ceased
Speaker 1: the prayer for guidance. When the God, all glittering with
Speaker 1: gold and as a serpent crest erect, sent forth a
Speaker 1: hissing as to notify a quick approach, and in his
Speaker 1: coming shook his statue and the altars, and the doors,
Speaker 1: the marble pavement, and the gilded roof. Then up to
Speaker 1: his breast the serpent stood erect with the temple. He
Speaker 1: gazed on all with eyes that sparkled fire. The waiting
Speaker 1: multitude was frightened, but the priest, his chased hair bound
Speaker 1: with a white filet, knew the deity. Behold the God,
Speaker 1: he cried, It is the God. Think holy thoughts and
Speaker 1: walk in silent reverence. All who are present, Oh most beautiful,
Speaker 1: let us behold you to our benefit, and give aid
Speaker 1: to this people that performs your sacred rites. All present
Speaker 1: then adorned the deity, as bidden by the priest. The
Speaker 1: multitude repeated his good words, and the descendants of Aeneas
Speaker 1: gave good omen with their feelings and their speech, nodding
Speaker 1: well pleased and moving his great crest. The God at
Speaker 1: once assured them of his favor, and hissed repeatedly with
Speaker 1: darting tongue, and then he gilded down the polished steps,
Speaker 1: turned back his head and ready to depart, gazed on
Speaker 1: the altars he had known for so long, a last
Speaker 1: salute to the temple of his love. While all the
Speaker 1: people strewed his way with flowers. The great snake wound
Speaker 1: in sinuous course a long and passing through the middle
Speaker 1: of their town, came to the harbor and its curving wall.
Speaker 1: He stopped there, and it seemed that he dismissed his
Speaker 1: train and dutiful attendant crowd, and with a placid countenance,
Speaker 1: he placed his mighty body in the Ausonian ship, which
Speaker 1: plainly showed the great weight of the god. The glad
Speaker 1: descendants of Aeneas all rejoiced, and they sacrificed a bull
Speaker 1: beside the harbor, wreathed the ship with flowers, and loosed
Speaker 1: the twisted hawsers from the shore. As a soft breeze
Speaker 1: impelled the ship within her curving stern, the God reclined
Speaker 1: his coils uprising high, and gazed down on the blue
Speaker 1: Ionian waves. So wafted by the favoring winds, they came
Speaker 1: in six days to the shores of Italy. There he
Speaker 1: was borne past the Lecinian Cape, ennobled by the goddess
Speaker 1: Juno's shrine and the Scilakian coasts. He left behind Yepigia.
Speaker 1: Then he shunned Amphrisian rocks of the left and on
Speaker 1: the other side escaped Cochinthian crags. He passed nearby Rumechium
Speaker 1: and Cowlon and Nerikia, crossed the Sicilian Sea, went through
Speaker 1: the strait sailed by Pilorus and the island home of
Speaker 1: Eolus and the copper mines of Temesa. He turned then
Speaker 1: towards Lucosia and toward mild Pastum, famous for the rose.
Speaker 1: He coasted by Caprii and around Minerva's promontory and the
Speaker 1: hills ennobled with sorrentine vines. From there to Herculaneum and
Speaker 1: to Stabiae and then Parthenope. Built for soft ease, he
Speaker 1: sailed near the Cumayan Sibyl's temple. He passed the warm
Speaker 1: springs and Laturnum where the mastic trees grow, and the
Speaker 1: river called Vulturnus, where thick sand whirls in the stream,
Speaker 1: over to Sinuesa's snow white doves, and then to Antium
Speaker 1: and its rocky coast. When all all the sails full spread,
Speaker 1: the ship came in the harbor there, for now the
Speaker 1: seas grew rough. The god uncoiled his folds, and, gliding
Speaker 1: out with sinuous curves and all his mighty length, entered
Speaker 1: the temple of his parent, where it skirts that yellow shore.
Speaker 1: But when the sea was calm again, the Epidaurian God,
Speaker 1: departing from his father's shrine where he awhile had shared
Speaker 1: the sacred residence, reared to a kindred deity, furrowed the
Speaker 1: sandy shore with weight of crackling scales. Again, he climbed
Speaker 1: into the lofty stern, and near the rudder, laid his
Speaker 1: head at rest. There he remained until the vessel passed
Speaker 1: by Castrum and Lavinium's sacred homes, to where the Tiber
Speaker 1: flows into the sea. There all the people of Rome
Speaker 1: came rushing out, mothers and fathers, and even those who
Speaker 1: tend your sacred fire. O Trojan, Goddess Vesta, and joyous
Speaker 1: shouted welcome to the God. Wherever the swift shops steered
Speaker 1: through the tide, they built up many altars in a line,
Speaker 1: so that perfuming frankencense with smoke crackled along the banks
Speaker 1: on either hand, and victims made the keen knives hot
Speaker 1: with blood. The serpent deity had entered Rome, the world's
Speaker 1: new capital, and lifting up his head above the summit
Speaker 1: of the mast, looked far and near for a congenial home.
Speaker 1: The river there, dividing, flows about a place known as
Speaker 1: the Island. On both sides an equal stream glides past
Speaker 1: dry middle ground. And here the serpent child of Phoebus
Speaker 1: left the Roman ship, took his own heavenly form, and
Speaker 1: brought the mourning city health once more. Apollo's son came
Speaker 1: to us from abroad. But Caesar is a god in
Speaker 1: his own land, the first in war and peace. He
Speaker 1: rose by wars which closed in triumph, and by civic
Speaker 1: deeds to glory quickly won. And even more his offspring's
Speaker 1: love exalted him as a new a heavenly sign and
Speaker 1: brightly flaming star. Of all the achievements of Great Julius Caesar,
Speaker 1: not one is more ennobling to his fame than being
Speaker 1: father of his glorious son. Was it more glorious for
Speaker 1: him to subdue the Britons guarded by their sheltering sea,
Speaker 1: or lead his fleet victorious up the stream seven mouthed
Speaker 1: of the Papyrus hearing Nile to bring beneath the Roman
Speaker 1: people's rule rebel Numidia, Libyan Juba, and strong Pontus, proud
Speaker 1: of Mithradates's fame, to have some triumphs and deserve far
Speaker 1: more than to be the father of so great a
Speaker 1: man with whom as a ruler of the human race. Oh, Gods,
Speaker 1: you bless us past all reckoning, and lest that son
Speaker 1: should come from mortal seed, Julius Caesar must change and
Speaker 1: be a god. When the golden mother of Aeneas was
Speaker 1: aware of this and saw a grievous end plotted against
Speaker 1: her high priest saw the armed conspiracy preparing for his
Speaker 1: death with pallid face, she met each god and said,
Speaker 1: look with what might this plot prepares itself against my cause?
Speaker 1: With how much guile it dooms the head which is
Speaker 1: the last that I have left from old time? Eulus,
Speaker 1: Prince and Heir of Troy. Shall I alone be harassed
Speaker 1: through all time by fear well grounded? First the son
Speaker 1: of Titeus must wound me with his Caledonian spear, And
Speaker 1: then I tremble at the tottering walls of ill defended Troy.
Speaker 1: I watch my son driven in so long wanderings tossed
Speaker 1: upon the sea, descending to the realm of silent shades
Speaker 1: and waging war with Turnus. Or if I should speak
Speaker 1: the truth with Juno, why do I recall disasters of
Speaker 1: my race from long ago? The present dread forbids my
Speaker 1: looking back at ills now past, See how the wicked
Speaker 1: swords are wetted for the crime. Forbid it. Now I
Speaker 1: pray you and prevent the deed. Let not the priest's
Speaker 1: warm blood quench vestal fires. Such words as these full
Speaker 1: of her anxious thoughts, Venus proclaimed through all the heavens
Speaker 1: in vain. The gods were moved, and since they could
Speaker 1: not break the ancient sister's iron decree, they gave instead
Speaker 1: clear portance of approaching woe. It is declared resounding arms
Speaker 1: heard from the black clouds and unearth lay trumpet blasts
Speaker 1: and clarions heard through all the highest heavens, for warned
Speaker 1: men of the crime. The sad Son's face gave to
Speaker 1: the frightened world a livid light, and in the night
Speaker 1: time torches seemed to burn amid the stars, and often
Speaker 1: drops of blood fell in rain showers. Then Lucifer shone
Speaker 1: blue with all his visits stained by darksome rust. The
Speaker 1: chariot of the Moon was sprinkled with red blood. The
Speaker 1: Stygian owl gave to the world ill omens in a
Speaker 1: thousand places, tears were shed by the ivory steptes. Dirges
Speaker 1: too are said to have been heard, and threatening words
Speaker 1: by unknown speakers in the sacred groves. No victim gave
Speaker 1: an omen of good life. The fibers showed great tumults imminent.
Speaker 1: The liver's cut off edge was found among the entrails
Speaker 1: in the forum, it is said, and round men's homes
Speaker 1: and temples of the gods. Dogs howled all through the night,
Speaker 1: and silent shades wandered abroad, and earthquakes shook the city.
Speaker 1: But portents of the gods could not avert the plots
Speaker 1: of men and stay approaching fate into a templed naked
Speaker 1: swords were brought into the Senate house. No other place
Speaker 1: in all our city was considered fit for perpetrating such
Speaker 1: a dreadful crime. With both hands, Kiferia beat her breast,
Speaker 1: and in a cloud she strove to hide the last
Speaker 1: of Great Neus's line, as in times past she had
Speaker 1: hid Paris from fierce Menelaus Aneus from the blade of Diamedes.
Speaker 1: But Jove her father cautioned her, and said to you,
Speaker 1: my daughter, without aid alone, attempt to change the fixed
Speaker 1: decrees of fate unaided, you may enter the abode of
Speaker 1: the Three Sisters, and can witness there a register of
Speaker 1: deeds the future brings. These rot of brass and solid iron,
Speaker 1: with vast labor, are unchangeable throughout all eternity, and have
Speaker 1: no weakening fears of thunder shocks from heaven, nor from
Speaker 1: the rage of lightnings. They are perfectly secure from all destruction.
Speaker 1: You will surely find the destinies of your descendants there,
Speaker 1: engraved in everlasting adamant tis certain, I myself have read
Speaker 1: them there, and I, with care have marked them in
Speaker 1: my mind. I will repeat them so that you may
Speaker 1: have unerring knowledge of those future days. Venus, the man
Speaker 1: on whose behalf you are so anxious, already has completed
Speaker 1: his allotted time. The years are ended which he owed
Speaker 1: to life on earth. You with his son, who now,
Speaker 1: as heir to his estate, must bear the burden of
Speaker 1: that great government will cause him as a deity to
Speaker 1: reach the heavens and to be worshiped in the temples.
Speaker 1: Here the valiant son will plan revenge on those who
Speaker 1: killed his father, and will have our aid in all
Speaker 1: his battles. The defeated walls of scarred Mutina, which he
Speaker 1: will besiege, shall sue for peace. For Salia's plain will
Speaker 1: dread his powers, and Macedonian Philippi be drenched with blood
Speaker 1: a second time. The name of one acclaimed as great
Speaker 1: shall be subdued in the Sicilian waves. Then Egypt's queen,
Speaker 1: wife of the Roman general Antony shall fall. While vainly
Speaker 1: trusting in his word, while vainly threatening that our capital
Speaker 1: must be submissive to Canopus's power, Why should I mention
Speaker 1: all the barbarous lands and nations east and west by
Speaker 1: Ocean's rim. Whatever habitable earth contains shall bow to him.
Speaker 1: The sea shall serve his will. With peace established all
Speaker 1: over the lands. He will then turn his mind to
Speaker 1: civil rule, and as a prudent legislator, will enact wise laws,
Speaker 1: and he will regulate the manners of his people by
Speaker 1: his own example. Looking forward to the days of future
Speaker 1: time and of posterity, he will command the offspring born
Speaker 1: of his devouted wife to assume the imperial name and
Speaker 1: the burden of his cares nor till his age shall
Speaker 1: equal Nestor's years, will he ascend two heavenly dwellings in
Speaker 1: his kindred stars. Meanwhile, transform the soul which shall be
Speaker 1: reft from this doomed body, to a starry light that always,
Speaker 1: godlike Julius may look down in future from his heavenly
Speaker 1: residence upon our forum and our capital. Jupiter hardly had
Speaker 1: pronounced these words, when kindly Venus, although seen by none,
Speaker 1: stood in the middle of the Senate House, and caught
Speaker 1: from the dying limbs and trunk of her own Caesar
Speaker 1: his departing soul. She did not give it time so
Speaker 1: that it could dissolve in air, but bore it quickly
Speaker 1: toward all the stars of heaven, and on the way
Speaker 1: she saw it gleam and blaze, and set it free.
Speaker 1: Above the moon. It mounted into Heaven, leaving behind a
Speaker 1: long and fiery trail, and as a star it glittered
Speaker 1: in the sky. There. Wondering at the younger Caesar's deeds,
Speaker 1: Julius confessed they were superior to all of his, and
Speaker 1: he rejoiced because his son was greater even than himself.
Speaker 1: Although the Sun forbade men to regard his own deeds
Speaker 1: as the mightier fame that moves free and untrammeled by
Speaker 1: the laws of men, preferred him even against his own desire,
Speaker 1: and in that one point disobeyed his will. And so
Speaker 1: great Atreus yields to greater fame of Agamemnon. A Geus
Speaker 1: yields to Theseus, and Pelias to Achilles. Or to name
Speaker 1: a parallel befitting these two gods, so Saturn yields to Jove.
Speaker 1: Now Jupiter rules in high heavens and is the cauzarin
Speaker 1: over the waters and the worlds of shades, And now
Speaker 1: Augustus rules in all the lands. So each is both
Speaker 1: a father and a god. Gods who once guarded Ourrheneus
Speaker 1: when both swords and fire gave way, and native gods
Speaker 1: of Italy, and father Querinus Patron of Rome, and you
Speaker 1: grada Us too, the sire of Querinus the Invincible, and
Speaker 1: Vesta hallowed among Caesar's gods, and Phoebus over worshiped at
Speaker 1: his hearth. And Jupiter, who rules the citadel high on
Speaker 1: Tarpeia's cliff, and other gods, all gods to whom a
Speaker 1: poet rightfully and withal piety may make appeal. Far be
Speaker 1: that day postponed beyond our time, when Great Augustus shall
Speaker 1: forsake the earth which he now governs, and mount up
Speaker 1: to heaven from that far height to hear his people's prayers.
Speaker 1: And now I have completed a great work which not
Speaker 1: Jove's anger, and not fire nor steal, nor fast consuming
Speaker 1: time can sweep away. Whenever it will, let the day come,
Speaker 1: which has dominion only over this mortal frame, and end
Speaker 1: for me the uncertain course of life. Yet in my
Speaker 1: better part I shall be born immortal, far above the
Speaker 1: stars on high, and mine shall be a name indelible
Speaker 1: wherever Roman power extends her sway over the conquered lands.
Speaker 1: I shall be read by lips of men. If poets
Speaker 1: prophecies have any truth, through all the coming years of
Speaker 1: future ages, I shall live in fame. Oh was I
Speaker 1: not prepared to read the ending like that, But it
Speaker 1: felt only right that I love that. It's just like
Speaker 1: of its metamorphoses, is really just like a big book
Speaker 1: of Greek myths with just like a little Dutch of
Speaker 1: really overt Augustine propaganda there right at the end. I
Speaker 1: think there's a lot of debate about how Avid felt
Speaker 1: about this, like whether he actually thought Augustus was a
Speaker 1: fucking tool, and I think this shows that he did.
Speaker 1: I think that sounds like a man who was writing
Speaker 1: nice things for the man who holds the cards and
Speaker 1: who can control everything about his life, but also thinks
Speaker 1: that that man is a fucking dueb and it had
Speaker 1: to be read as such. Augustus was a fucking deep
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that was just truly enjoyable. Actually, that
Speaker 1: propaganda just rome as the world, the Julius Caesar as
Speaker 1: a god, the idea of Augustus telling everyone not to
Speaker 1: treat him special, but they do it against his will
Speaker 1: because he's that great. Anyway, that was that was a
Speaker 1: true joy at the end there. Actually, that was lovely.
Speaker 1: That was all of of its metamorphosies. What a fucking
Speaker 1: wild ride that end. Oh my god, I'm never getting
Speaker 1: over that end. Who So Okay, remember if you're listening
Speaker 1: on Spotify, I'm still trying to figure out how I'm
Speaker 1: going to do it, but vote in whatever whatever I
Speaker 1: give you, whatever I may happen. Basically, I'm looking for
Speaker 1: multiple options because I want you guys to pick from them.
Speaker 1: I only found two so far, but I'm hoping to
Speaker 1: find a third. But for now next reading is going
Speaker 1: to just be a one off I believe of LIKEO
Speaker 1: Fran's Alexandra, because it's I don't have time to see
Speaker 1: what you guys want before that, but we'll do it
Speaker 1: as whatever comes at for that will be whatever you pay, hopefully.
Speaker 1: But Alexandra, aside from being my legal name, is a
Speaker 1: Hellenistic work that tells the stories from Troy and the war.
Speaker 1: It's really all. It begins with a prophecy by Cassandra,
Speaker 1: which I believe that name is interchangeable with Alexandra, hence
Speaker 1: the title also confusing though to call it Alexandra when
Speaker 1: we call her Cassandra. Odd stuff. Anyway, That'll be next,
Speaker 1: but after that I would like to hear what you
Speaker 1: guys want. So the first option is Quintus Mernias is
Speaker 1: Fall of Troy. So this would be a really big series,
Speaker 1: probably fourteen episodes, so you know that's going to take
Speaker 1: a while. It's going to be kind of similar to Avid,
Speaker 1: though the first huge number of books of Ovid we
Speaker 1: did read in two parts, so it would be a little
Speaker 1: bit quicker than that. Thankfully. It is a very late
Speaker 1: Roman epic from around the fourth century CE, so a
Speaker 1: couple few centuries after Avid. It is basically our only
Speaker 1: surviving source for the events after the Iliad, though you know,
Speaker 1: the whole end of the Trojan War. It is presumably
Speaker 1: based on an ancient Greek version of the story, but
Speaker 1: we will never know for sure. Still, this is like,
Speaker 1: this is the source we have for you know, Achilles'
Speaker 1: fight with the Amazons, his death, the death of like
Speaker 1: a ton of other people in that war, and that
Speaker 1: old Trojan horse that we all hear so much about.
Speaker 1: So there's that option. And then there is pseudo Apollodorus's
Speaker 1: Library of Greek mythology. This would only be I think
Speaker 1: four books. It would be just straight mythology. That is
Speaker 1: the source where I like to call it the TLDR
Speaker 1: of Greek mythology. Someone that wasn't me coined that, and
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I forget who it was. It was years
Speaker 1: ago and on Twitter, but it's so true. It is
Speaker 1: very succinct mythological details. But it is a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff that is often not surviving elsewhere. So it's very
Speaker 1: like Quicken to the point, but gets through a ton
Speaker 1: of mythology in a short space of time. So we
Speaker 1: have that option. I can also read you the Plutarch's
Speaker 1: Life of Theseus. Maybe that would be one episode, but
Speaker 1: it could be wild. I've not read the whole thing,
Speaker 1: and if I think of another option before I have
Speaker 1: to set this poll, maybe there will be another one.
Speaker 1: So anyway, I pick what you like if you're listening
Speaker 1: on Spotify, and thank you. I just think it's a
Speaker 1: fun way to test out this function. Let's talk about this.
Speaker 1: Maybe is written and produced by me live Albert, or
Speaker 1: in this case the last bazillion episodes of readings Avid.
Speaker 1: Thanks Avid. I really think that you thought Augustus was adweeb,
Speaker 1: and I respect that MICHAELA. Smith is the Hermes to
Speaker 1: my Olympians. My assistant producer, Laura Smith is now the
Speaker 1: production assistant and audio engineer. The podcast is hosted and
Speaker 1: monetized by iHeartMedia. Listen on Spotify or wherever you Gear
Speaker 1: podcasts helped me continue bringing you the world of Greek
Speaker 1: mythology and the ancient Mediterranean by becoming a patron where
Speaker 1: you'll get bonus episodes and more. I have had to
Speaker 1: be sadly pretty inactive on that lately due to my
Speaker 1: entire life exploding around me amongst everything in the world
Speaker 1: that makes me want to cry, curlpinaball and just cry
Speaker 1: all the time. But there is like probably on a
Speaker 1: hundred episodes of back bonus stuff for you to take
Speaker 1: a listen to. If you want to sign up to
Speaker 1: the Patreon and eventually soon I'll be back. Visit patreon
Speaker 1: dot com slash myths baby, or click the link in
Speaker 1: this episode's description. I want to be clear with the Patreon.
Speaker 1: Maybe I should add to these uh uh end credits.
Speaker 1: I consider it you helping me with this free podcast.
Speaker 1: I try to provide as much bonus content as I can,
Speaker 1: and there is a lot that exists from the past,
Speaker 1: but I consider it helping me with the free podcast.
Speaker 1: I am not capable of providing you with a lot
Speaker 1: of bonus, and so if you're looking for that, you
Speaker 1: don't look elsewhere. Thank you. That's not the great way
Speaker 1: in it. I slightly I am losing my mind. Thank you
Speaker 1: all so much for listening. Reading of it has been
Speaker 1: an absolutely bananas bunker's wild ride and I am so
Speaker 1: here for it and also excited to move on to
Speaker 1: something different. I am live and I love this shit.
Speaker 1: Thank you Avid. You're a weird guy and I respect it.