Speaker 1: Oh hello, and welcome to another episode where I just
Speaker 1: read you a source from the ancient world because it's
Speaker 1: fun and nice and it makes both of us happy.
Speaker 1: This is let's talk about myths, baby, and I'm your host,
Speaker 1: the woman who loves one Roman writer and his name
Speaker 1: is Avid. My name is Live though, So yeah, here
Speaker 1: I am once again with the reading of Ovid's metamorphosease
Speaker 1: because it's fucking fun and I love it and that
Speaker 1: source generally is just so good and nice and that
Speaker 1: you all need to hear it in the flesh for real.
Speaker 1: Of course, I am still here with us old and
Speaker 1: stuffy translation because copyright law, but all the same, it's
Speaker 1: still Avid and thus still great. Before we dive in, though,
Speaker 1: I just want to let you all know that once
Speaker 1: again I'll be doing a New Year Q and A episode.
Speaker 1: Last year, you all had some awesome questions and I
Speaker 1: really enjoyed answering them, so I'm excited to be doing
Speaker 1: it again. That episode will air on the first Friday
Speaker 1: in January, so make sure you ask your questions before
Speaker 1: like the end of the year, really early early January,
Speaker 1: so that I have a chance to answer them. You
Speaker 1: can send in your questions at myths baby dot com
Speaker 1: slash questions. There is a form there, and there's a
Speaker 1: link to that form in this episode's description. Today we're
Speaker 1: diving into book four of its Metamorphoses. We've talked about
Speaker 1: the cursed family of Thebes, though some of them will
Speaker 1: return soon enough, but in book four we're starting off
Speaker 1: with a real bang, because well you'll see m hm hm.
Speaker 1: This is Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by brooks More. Book four,
Speaker 1: Part one. Al Kithoe, daughter of King Minias, consents not
Speaker 1: to the orgies of the god, denies that Bacchus is
Speaker 1: the son of Jove, and her two sisters join her
Speaker 1: in that crime. Itwas festival day when matrons and their maids,
Speaker 1: keeping it sacred, had forbade all toil, and having draped
Speaker 1: their bosoms with wild skins, they loosed their long hair
Speaker 1: for the sacred reeves and took the leafy thursis in
Speaker 1: their hands. For so the priest commanded them austeraere the
Speaker 1: wrath of Bacchus, if his power be scorned. Mothers and
Speaker 1: youthful brides obeyed the priest, and, putting by their wickers
Speaker 1: and their webs, dropped their unfinished toils to offer up
Speaker 1: frankincense to the god, invoking him with many names. Oh
Speaker 1: bacchus O twice born, Oh Fire, begot you only child,
Speaker 1: twice mothered, God of all those who plant the luscious grape,
Speaker 1: Oh Lee bear all these names and many more for
Speaker 1: ages known throughout the lands of Greece. Your youth is
Speaker 1: not consumed by wasting time. And oh, you are an
Speaker 1: ever youthful boy, most beautiful of all the gods of heaven,
Speaker 1: smooth as a virgin when your horns are hid. The
Speaker 1: distant east to tawny India's climb where rolls remotest Ganges
Speaker 1: to the sea, was conquered by your might, Oh, most revered,
Speaker 1: you did destroy the doubting Pentheus, and hurled the sailor's
Speaker 1: bodies into the deep, and smote like Kurgis, whielder of
Speaker 1: the axe. And you do give your lynxes double yoked
Speaker 1: with showy harness. Satyrs follow you, and backnals, and old
Speaker 1: silenist drunk unsteady on his staff, jolting so roughly on
Speaker 1: his small back, bent ass, and all the way resounds
Speaker 1: a youthful clamor, and the screams of women, and the
Speaker 1: noise of tambourines, and the hollow symbols, and the boxwood
Speaker 1: flutes fitted with measured holes. You are implored by all
Speaker 1: his Menian women to appear peaceful and mild, and they
Speaker 1: perform your rights. Only the daughters of King Minias are
Speaker 1: carding wool within their fastened doors, or twist sting with
Speaker 1: their thumbs the fleecy yarn, or working at the web.
Speaker 1: So they corrupt the sacred festival with needless toil, keeping
Speaker 1: their handmaids busy at the work, And one of them,
Speaker 1: while drawing out the thread with nimble thumb, Anon began
Speaker 1: to speak, while others loiter and frequent These rights fantastic
Speaker 1: we the wards of palace much to be preferred by speaking.
Speaker 1: Novel thoughts may lighten labor. Let us each in turn
Speaker 1: relate an attentive audience a novel tale, and so the
Speaker 1: hours may glide. It pleased her sisters, and they ordered
Speaker 1: her to tell the story that she loved the most,
Speaker 1: So as she counted in her well stored mind the
Speaker 1: many tales she knew. First doubted she whether to tell
Speaker 1: the tale of Dorkueto, the Babylonian, who ever the tribes
Speaker 1: of Palestine in limpid ponds, yet lives her body changed
Speaker 1: and scars upon her limbs. Or how her daughter, having
Speaker 1: taken wings, passed her declining years in whitened towers. Or
Speaker 1: should she tell of Nias, who, with herbs too potent
Speaker 1: into fishes, had transformed the bodies of her lovers until
Speaker 1: she met herself the same sad fate. Or of that
Speaker 1: tree which sometimes bore white fruit, and now is changed
Speaker 1: and darkened by the blood that stained its roots. Pleased
Speaker 1: with the novelty of this at once she tells the
Speaker 1: tale of Pyramus and Thisbe, and swiftly as told it
Speaker 1: unto them, the fleecy wool was twisted into threads. When
Speaker 1: Pyramus and Thisbe, who were known the one most handsome
Speaker 1: of all youthful men, the other loveliest of all Eastern girls,
Speaker 1: lived in adjoining houses near the walls that Queen Samaramus
Speaker 1: had built of brick around her famous city. They grew
Speaker 1: fond and loved each other, meeting often there, and as
Speaker 1: the days went by their love increased. They wished to
Speaker 1: join in marriage, but that joy their fathers had forbidden
Speaker 1: them to hope. And yet the passion that with equal
Speaker 1: strength inflamed their minds. No parents could forbid, No relatives
Speaker 1: had guessed their secret love. For all their converse was
Speaker 1: by nods and signs. And as a smoldering fire may
Speaker 1: gather heat, the more it smothered, so their love increased.
Speaker 1: Now it so happened a partition built between their houses
Speaker 1: many years ago was made defective with a little chink,
Speaker 1: a small defect observed by none, although for ages there.
Speaker 1: But what is hid from love? Our lovers found the
Speaker 1: secret opening and used the passage to convey the sounds
Speaker 1: of gentle murmured words, whose tuneful note passed off in
Speaker 1: safe through that hidden way. There many a time they
Speaker 1: stood on either side, Fizby on one and Pyramis the other,
Speaker 1: And when their warm breath touched from lip to lip,
Speaker 1: their size were such as this, you, envious wall, Why
Speaker 1: are you standing in the way of those who die
Speaker 1: for love? What harm could happen? That you should permit
Speaker 1: us to enjoy our love? But if we ask too much,
Speaker 1: let us persuade that you will open while we kiss.
Speaker 1: But once, for we are not ungrateful unto you, we
Speaker 1: owe our debt. But here you have left a way
Speaker 1: that breathed words may enter loving ears, so vainly whispered they,
Speaker 1: And when the night began to darken, they exchanged farewells,
Speaker 1: made presents that they kissed a fond farewell, vain kisses
Speaker 1: that to love might none avail. When dawn removed the
Speaker 1: glimmering lamps of night, and the bright sun had dried
Speaker 1: the dewy grass, again, they met where they had told
Speaker 1: their love, And, now, complaining of their hapless fate in
Speaker 1: murmurs gentle, they at last resolved away to slip upon
Speaker 1: that quiet night elude their parents. And as soon as
Speaker 1: their free quit the great builded city and their homes,
Speaker 1: fearful to wander in the pathless fields, they chose a
Speaker 1: trysting place, the tomb of Ninus, where safely they might
Speaker 1: hide unseen, beneath the shadow of a tall mulberry tree
Speaker 1: covered with snow white fruit, close by a spring. All
Speaker 1: is arranged according to their hopes. And now the daylight,
Speaker 1: seeming slowly moved, sinks into the deep waves, and the
Speaker 1: tardy night arises from the spot where day declines quickly.
Speaker 1: The clever thisby having first deceived her parents, opened the
Speaker 1: closed door. She flitted in the silent night away, and
Speaker 1: having veiled her face, reached the great tomb and sat
Speaker 1: beneath the tree. Love made her bold there. As she waited,
Speaker 1: a great lioness approached the nearby spring to quench her thirst,
Speaker 1: her frothing jaws covered with blood of slaughtered oxen. As
Speaker 1: the moon was bright, thisby could see her, and affrighted,
Speaker 1: fled with trembling footstep to a gloomy cave, and as
Speaker 1: she ran she slipped and dropped her veil, which fluttered
Speaker 1: to the ground. She did not dare save it. Wherefore,
Speaker 1: when the savage beast had taken a great drink and
Speaker 1: quenched her thirst, and then had turned to seek her
Speaker 1: forest lair, she found it on her way, and, full
Speaker 1: of rage, tore it and stained it with her bloody jaws.
Speaker 1: But thisby fortunate escaped unseen. Now pyramids had not gone
Speaker 1: out so soon after thisby as to the tryst, And
Speaker 1: when he saw the certain races of that savage beast
Speaker 1: imprinted in the yielding dust, his face went white with fear.
Speaker 1: But when he found the veil covered with blood, he cried, Oh,
Speaker 1: one night has caused the ruin of two lovers. You
Speaker 1: were most deserving of completed days. But as for me,
Speaker 1: my heart is guilty. I destroyed you, Oh my love,
Speaker 1: I asked you to come out in the dark night
Speaker 1: to a lonely haunt, and failed to go before. Oh
Speaker 1: whatever lurks beneath this rock, though ravenous lion, tear my
Speaker 1: guilty flesh, and with most cruel jaws devour my cursed
Speaker 1: and trails what not. So it is a craven part
Speaker 1: to wish for death. So he stopped briefly and took
Speaker 1: up the veil, went straightway to the shadow of the tree,
Speaker 1: and as his tears be dued the well known veil,
Speaker 1: he kissed it and sighed, and said, kisses and tears
Speaker 1: are yours. Received my blood as well, and he imbued
Speaker 1: the steel gert at his side, deep in his bowels,
Speaker 1: and plucked it from the wound, a faint with death.
Speaker 1: As he fell back to earth, his spurting blood shot
Speaker 1: upward in the air, so that when decay has riffed
Speaker 1: a leaden pipe, a hissing jet of water spurts on high.
Speaker 1: But that dark tied the berries on the tree assumed
Speaker 1: a deeper tint, for as the roots soaked up the blood,
Speaker 1: the pendant mulberries were dyed a purple hue. Fisby returned,
Speaker 1: though trembling, still with fright. For now, she thought her
Speaker 1: lover must await her at the tree, and she should
Speaker 1: hasten before he feared for her, Longing to tell him
Speaker 1: of her great escape, She sadly looked for him with
Speaker 1: faithful eyes, But when she saw the spot and the
Speaker 1: changed tree, she doubted could they be the same. For
Speaker 1: so the color of the hanging fruit deceived, while doubt
Speaker 1: dismayed her. On the ground, she saw the wounded body
Speaker 1: covered with its blood. She started backwards, and her face
Speaker 1: grew pale and ashen, and she shuddered, like the sea,
Speaker 1: which trembles when its face is lightly schemed by the
Speaker 1: chill breezes. And she paused a space. But when she
Speaker 1: knew it was the one she loved, she struck her
Speaker 1: tender breast and tore her hair. Then, wreathing in her
Speaker 1: arms his loved form, she bathed the wound with tears,
Speaker 1: mingling her grief in his unquenched blood. And as she
Speaker 1: kissed his death, cold features wailed, Ah, Pyramus, what cruel
Speaker 1: fate has taken your life away? Piramius Pyramus, Awake, Awake.
Speaker 1: It is your dearest, thisbe that calls you. Lift your
Speaker 1: drooping head alas at thisbe's name. He raised his eyes,
Speaker 1: though languorous in death, and darkness gathered round him as
Speaker 1: he eased. And then she saw her veil, and near
Speaker 1: it lay his ivory sheath, but not the trusty sword.
Speaker 1: And once again she wailed, your own right hand and
Speaker 1: your great passion have destroyed you. And I, my hand
Speaker 1: shall be as bold as yours. My love shall nerve
Speaker 1: me to the fatal deed you. I will follow to eternity,
Speaker 1: though I be censured for the wretched cause, so surely
Speaker 1: I shall share your wretched fate, Oh, whom death could
Speaker 1: meet alone bereave, You shall not from my love, bereft
Speaker 1: by death. Oh your wretched parents, mine and his. Let
Speaker 1: our misfortunes and our pleadings melt your hearts, that you
Speaker 1: no more deny. To those whom constant love and lasting
Speaker 1: death unite and tune us in a single sepulcher. And oh,
Speaker 1: this tree of many branching bows, spreading dark shadows on
Speaker 1: the corpse of one destined to cover two, take our
Speaker 1: fate upon your head. Mourn our untimely death. Let your
Speaker 1: fruit darken for a memory, an emblem of our blood.
Speaker 1: No more, she said, And having fixed the point below
Speaker 1: her breast, she fell on the keen sword, still warm
Speaker 1: with his red blood. But though her death was out
Speaker 1: of nature's law, her prayer was answered, for it moved
Speaker 1: the gods and moved their parents. Now the gods have
Speaker 1: changed the ripened fruit which darkens on the branch, And
Speaker 1: from the funeral pile their parents sealed their gathered ashes
Speaker 1: in a single urn. So ended she at once Laconoi
Speaker 1: took the narrator's thread, and as she spoke her sisters
Speaker 1: all were silent. Even the sun that rules the world
Speaker 1: was captive. Made of love. My theme shall be a
Speaker 1: love song of the sun, to say the Lord of
Speaker 1: the day, whose wakeful eye beholds at once whatever may transpire,
Speaker 1: witnessed the loves of Mars and Venus. Grieved to know
Speaker 1: the wrong. He called the son of Juno Vulcan, and
Speaker 1: gave full knowledge of the deed, showing how Mars and
Speaker 1: Venus shamed his love and they defiled his bed. Vulcan amazed.
Speaker 1: The nimble thoughted, Vulcan lost his wits so that he
Speaker 1: dropped the work his right handheld, but turning from all else,
Speaker 1: said once he set to file out chains of brass,
Speaker 1: delicate fine, from which to fashion nets invisible filmy of
Speaker 1: mesh and air are as the thread of insect web,
Speaker 1: and that from the rafter swings implicit woven, that they
Speaker 1: yielded soft the slightest movements or the gentlest touch. With
Speaker 1: cunning skill, he drew them round the bed, where they
Speaker 1: were sure to dally. Presently appeared the faithless wife, and
Speaker 1: on the couch lay down to languish with her paramore.
Speaker 1: Meshed in the chains, they could not thence arise, nor
Speaker 1: could they else but lie in strict embrace, cunningly, thus
Speaker 1: entrapped by Vulcan's wit. At once the Lemnian Cuckold opened
Speaker 1: wide the folding ivory doors and called the gods to witness.
Speaker 1: There they lay, disgraced and bound. What were many of
Speaker 1: the lighter gods who wished themselves and like disgraceful bonds.
Speaker 1: The gods were moved to laughter, and the tale was
Speaker 1: long most noted in the courts of heaven. The Catharian
Speaker 1: Venus brooded on the sun the betrayal of her stolen
Speaker 1: joys and thought to torture him in passions, pains and
Speaker 1: re requittal for the pain he caused, Son of hyperion,
Speaker 1: What avails your light? What is the profit of your
Speaker 1: glowing heat? Oh, you whose flames have parched in numerous lands,
Speaker 1: yourself are burning with another flame, And you, whose orbs
Speaker 1: should joy the universe, are gazing only on Lucothea's charms.
Speaker 1: Your glorious eye, on the one fair Maide, is fixed
Speaker 1: forgetting all. Besides, too early you are rising from the
Speaker 1: bed of orient skies. Too late you are setting in
Speaker 1: the western waves, so taking time to gaze upon your love.
Speaker 1: Your frenzy lengthens out the wintry hour, and often you
Speaker 1: are darkened in eclipse, dark shadows of this trouble in
Speaker 1: your mind, unwanted aspect casting man, perplexed in abject terror,
Speaker 1: pale you are, though not between you and the earth,
Speaker 1: the shadowest moon be dims thy devious way. Your passion
Speaker 1: gives to grief your countenance for her, your heart alone
Speaker 1: is grieving. Clymene and Rhodos and Persa, mother of deluding Sirci,
Speaker 1: and all forgotten for your doting hope, even Clytie, who
Speaker 1: is yearning for your love, no more can charm you.
Speaker 1: You are so fordone. Luke Atha is the cause of
Speaker 1: many tears. Luke Atha, daughter of your enemy, most beauteous
Speaker 1: matron of Arabia strand where spicy odors blow your enemy
Speaker 1: in youthful prime, excelled her mother's grace, and save her
Speaker 1: daughter all excelled besides luke athas father, or Chamus was
Speaker 1: king where Akamene's willem held this way, and Orchamus from
Speaker 1: ancient Bellus's death might count his reign the seventh. In
Speaker 1: descent the dark night, pastors of Apollo steeds are hid
Speaker 1: below the western sky. When there and spent with toil
Speaker 1: in lieu of nibbling herbs, they take ambrosial food. It
Speaker 1: gives their limbs restoring strength and nourishes anew. Now, while
Speaker 1: these coursers eat celestial food, and Night resumes his reign,
Speaker 1: the God appears, disguised, unguessed as old your enemy to
Speaker 1: fair luke with fea, as she draws the threads, all
Speaker 1: smoothly twisted from her spindle. There she sits with twice
Speaker 1: six handmaids ranged around, and as the God beholds her
Speaker 1: at the door, he kisses her as if a child beloved,
Speaker 1: and he her mother, and he spoke to her. Let
Speaker 1: your twelve handmaids leave us undisturbed, for I have things
Speaker 1: of close import to tell, and seemly from a mother
Speaker 1: to her child. So when they all withdrew, the God began. Oh,
Speaker 1: I am he who measures the long year. I see
Speaker 1: all things, and through me the wide world may see
Speaker 1: all things. I am the glowing eye of the broad universe.
Speaker 1: You are to me the glory of the earth. Filled
Speaker 1: with alarm from her relaxed fingers, she let fall the
Speaker 1: distaff and the spindle. But her fear, so lovely in
Speaker 1: her beauty, seemed the God no longer brooke delay. He
Speaker 1: changed his form back to his wonted beauty and resumed
Speaker 1: his bright celestial startled at the sight that made recoil
Speaker 1: the space, But presently the glory of the God inspired
Speaker 1: her love, and all her timid doubts dissolved away without complaint.
Speaker 1: She melted in his arms so ardently. The bright Apollo
Speaker 1: loved that Cletie, envious of Lucathea's joy, where evil none
Speaker 1: was known, a scandal made, and having published why their
Speaker 1: secret love, Lucothea's father also heard the tale. Relentlessly and fearce,
Speaker 1: his cruel hand buried his living daughter in the ground, who,
Speaker 1: while her arms implored the glowing sun, complained, for love
Speaker 1: of you, my life is law. And as she wailed,
Speaker 1: her father sewed her there. Hyperion Son began with piercing
Speaker 1: heat to scatter the loose sand away, too open that
Speaker 1: she might look with beauteous features. Forth too late for
Speaker 1: smothered by the compact earth, you cannot lift your drooping
Speaker 1: head alas a lifeless corpse remains no sadder sight since
Speaker 1: Fithon was blasted by the bolt down hurled by Jove,
Speaker 1: had ever grieved the god who daily drives his winged
Speaker 1: steeds in vain. He strives with all the magic of
Speaker 1: his rays to warm her limbs anew. The deed is done.
Speaker 1: What vantage gives his might. If fate deny, he sprinkles
Speaker 1: fragrant nectar on her grave and lifeless corpse, and as
Speaker 1: he wails, exclaims, but not shall hinder you to reach
Speaker 1: the skies at once. The maiden's body, steeped in dues
Speaker 1: of nectar, sweet and odor, it dissolves and adds its
Speaker 1: fragrant juices to the earth. Slowly from this a spout
Speaker 1: of frankincense takes rude and riched soil, and bursting through
Speaker 1: the sandy hillock, shows its top. No more to clight.
Speaker 1: He comes the author of sweet light. For though her
Speaker 1: love might make excuse of grief, and grief may plead
Speaker 1: to pardon jealous words, his heart disdained the schemest of
Speaker 1: his woe. And she who turned the sours the sweet
Speaker 1: of love, from that unhallowed moment, pined away, envious, in
Speaker 1: hating all her sister nymphs, day after day and through
Speaker 1: the lonely nights, all unprotected from the chilly breeze, her
Speaker 1: hair disheveled, tangled, unadorned, she sat unmoved upon the bare,
Speaker 1: hard ground. Nine days the nymph was nourished by the jews,
Speaker 1: or happily by her own tears bitter brine. All other
Speaker 1: nourishment was not to her. She never raised herself from
Speaker 1: the bare ground, though on the God her gaze was
Speaker 1: ever fixed. She turned her features towards him as he moved.
Speaker 1: They say that after a while her limbs took root
Speaker 1: and fastened to the ground. A pearly white overspread her
Speaker 1: countenance that turned as pale and bloodless as the dead.
Speaker 1: But here and there a blushing tinge resolved in violet tint,
Speaker 1: and something like the blossom of that name of flower
Speaker 1: concealed her face. Although a route now holds her fast earth,
Speaker 1: the heliotrope turns ever to the sun, as if to
Speaker 1: prove that all may change, and love through all remain.
Speaker 1: Thus was the story ended. All were charmed to hear
Speaker 1: recounted such mysterious deeds. While some were doubting whether such
Speaker 1: were true, others affirmed that to the living gods is
Speaker 1: nothing to restrain their wondrous works. Though surely of the
Speaker 1: gods immortal none accorded Bacchus even thought or place. When
Speaker 1: all had made an end of argument, they bade al
Speaker 1: KISOWI take up the word. She busily working on the pen, didn't.
Speaker 1: Webb still shot the shuttle through the warp, and said,
Speaker 1: the amours of the shepherd Daftness known to many of you.
Speaker 1: I shall now relate the shepherd Daftness of Mount Ida,
Speaker 1: who was turned to stone, obdurate for the nymph whose
Speaker 1: love he slighted. So the rivalry of love neglected rouses
Speaker 1: to revenge. Neither shall I relate the story told of
Speaker 1: skithon double sext, who first was man, then altered to
Speaker 1: a woman. So I passed the tale of Kellmus turned
Speaker 1: to Adamant, who reared almighty Joe from tender youth. So
Speaker 1: likewise securities whom the rain brought forth to life, smile
Speaker 1: Ax and Crocus too transpitiated into little flowers. All these
Speaker 1: I pass to tell a novel tale, which haply may
Speaker 1: resolve in pleasant thoughts. Learn how the fountain Salmacus became
Speaker 1: so infamous. Learn how it entervates and softens the limbs
Speaker 1: of those who chanced to bathe. Although the fountain's propertys
Speaker 1: are known, the cause is yet unknown. The Naiads nursed
Speaker 1: and infant son of Hermes. Surely his of Aphrodite gotten
Speaker 1: in the caves of Ida, for the child resembled both
Speaker 1: the god and goddess, and his name was Theirs. The
Speaker 1: years passed by, and when the boy had reached the
Speaker 1: limit of three lustrums, he forsook his native mountains, for
Speaker 1: he loved to roam through unimagined places by the banks
Speaker 1: of undiscovered rivers, and the joy of finding wonders made
Speaker 1: his labor light. Leaving Mount Ida, where his youth was spent.
Speaker 1: He reached the land of Lycia, and from thence the
Speaker 1: verge of Karia, where a pretty pool of soft, translucent
Speaker 1: water may be seen, so clear the glistening bottom glads
Speaker 1: the eye. No barren sedge, no fenny reeds annoy, no
Speaker 1: rushes with their sharpened arrow points. But all around the
Speaker 1: edges of that pool, the softest grass in girdles with
Speaker 1: its green a nymph dwells there, unsuited to a chase,
Speaker 1: unskilled to bend the bow, slothful of foot, the only
Speaker 1: Naiad in the world unknown to rapid running Diana. Whensoever
Speaker 1: her Naiad sisters pled and winged words, take up the javelin,
Speaker 1: sister seal Macus, take up the painted quiver, and unite
Speaker 1: your leisure with the action of the chase. She only
Speaker 1: scorned the javelin and the quiver, nor joined her leisure
Speaker 1: to the active chase. Rather, she bathes her smooth and
Speaker 1: shapely limbs, or combs her tresses with the boxwood comb tatorian,
Speaker 1: or looking in the pool, consults the glass waters of
Speaker 1: effects increasing beauty. Or she decks herself in gauzy raiment
Speaker 1: and reposing lulls on cushioned leaves or grass and verdured beds,
Speaker 1: or gathers posies from the spangled lawns now happily as
Speaker 1: she called the sweetest flowers. She saw the youth, and
Speaker 1: longing in her heart made havoc as her greedy eyes beheld.
Speaker 1: Although her love could scarcely brook delay, she waited to
Speaker 1: enhance her loveliness in beauty, Hoping to allure her love
Speaker 1: all richly dight, she scanned herself and robes to know
Speaker 1: that every charm should fair appear, and she be worthy.
Speaker 1: Wherefore she began, Oh, god like youth, if you are
Speaker 1: of the skies, you are no other than the God
Speaker 1: of love. If mortal, blessed are they who gave you birth.
Speaker 1: Happy your brother, happy fortunate, your sister happy fortunate, and
Speaker 1: blessed the nurse who gave her bosom. But the joys
Speaker 1: surpassing all dearest and tenderest are hers whom you shall wed.
Speaker 1: So let it be, if you so young have deigned
Speaker 1: to marry, let my joys be stolen. If unmarried, join
Speaker 1: with me and wedlock. So she spoke and stood in silence,
Speaker 1: waiting for the youth to reply. He knows nor cares
Speaker 1: for love with loveliness, the mounting blushes tinge his youthful
Speaker 1: cheeks as blush red tint of apples on the true
Speaker 1: ripe in the summer sun, or as the hue of
Speaker 1: painted ivory, or the round moon red blushing in her splendor.
Speaker 1: When the clash of brass resounds in vain and long,
Speaker 1: the nymph implored almost clung on his neck, as smooth
Speaker 1: and white as ivory, unceasingly imploring him to kiss her,
Speaker 1: though as chaste as kisses to a sister. But the
Speaker 1: youth outwearied, Thus, I do beseech you make an end
Speaker 1: of this, or must I fly the place and leave
Speaker 1: you to your tears. Affrighted, then said sal Machus to you,
Speaker 1: I freely gave good stranger here remain. Although she made
Speaker 1: fair presence to retire. She hid herself that from a
Speaker 1: shrub grown covert on her knees she might observe unseen,
Speaker 1: as any boy that heedless deems his mischief unobserved. Now
Speaker 1: here Now there he rambled on the green, now in
Speaker 1: the bubbly ripples, dipped his feet, now dallied in the
Speaker 1: clear pool ankle deep, the warm feeling of the liquid
Speaker 1: vent so pleased him that without delay, he dotted his
Speaker 1: fleecy garments from his tender limbs. Uh salmacis amazement is
Speaker 1: your mead. You are consumed to know his naked grace,
Speaker 1: as the hot glitters of the round bright sun collected
Speaker 1: sparkle from the polished plate. Your eyes are glistened with
Speaker 1: delirious fires. Delay, She cannot panting for his joy, languid
Speaker 1: for his caressing craze distract her passion difficult as held
Speaker 1: in cheek, he claps his body with his hollow palms
Speaker 1: and lightly vaults into the limpid wave, and, darting through
Speaker 1: the water, hand over hand, shines in the liquid element,
Speaker 1: as though should one enhance a statue's ivory, or glaze
Speaker 1: the lily in a lake of glass. And thus the Naiad,
Speaker 1: I have gained my suit. His love is mine is mine.
Speaker 1: Quickly disrobed, she plunged into the yielding wave, seized him,
Speaker 1: caressing him, clung to him a thousand ways, kissed him
Speaker 1: us down her hands and touched his breast, reluctant and
Speaker 1: resisting his endeavors to make escape. But even as he struggles,
Speaker 1: she winds herself about him as entwines the serpent, with
Speaker 1: the royal bird on high, holds in his talons. As
Speaker 1: it hangs, it coils and sinuous folds around the eagle's feet,
Speaker 1: twisting its coils around his head and wings, or as
Speaker 1: the ivory clings to sturdy oaks, or as the polypus
Speaker 1: beneath the waves, by pulling down with suckers on all sides,
Speaker 1: Tenacious holds its prey. And yet the youth descendant of
Speaker 1: Great Atlas, not relents nor gives the Naiad joy. Pressing
Speaker 1: her suit, she winds her limbs around him and exclaims,
Speaker 1: you shall not escape me, struggle as you will perverse
Speaker 1: an obstinate. Hear me, you, gods, let never time release
Speaker 1: the youth from me. Time never let me from the youth.
Speaker 1: Release propitious deities accord her prayers. The angled bodies of
Speaker 1: the pair unite and fashion in a single human form.
Speaker 1: So one might see two branches underneath a single rind,
Speaker 1: uniting grow as one. So these two bodies, in a
Speaker 1: firm embrace no more are two, but with a twofold form.
Speaker 1: Not man nor woman may be called, though both in
Speaker 1: seeming they are neither one of two. When that hermaphrodit
Speaker 1: has felt the change so wrought upon him by the
Speaker 1: languid found considered that he entered it a man, and
Speaker 1: now his limbs relaxing in the stream. He is not
Speaker 1: holy male, but only half. He lifted up his hands
Speaker 1: and thus implored, albeit with no manly voice, hear me,
Speaker 1: Oh father, hear me, Mother, grant to me this boon,
Speaker 1: to me whose name is yours, your son, whoso shall
Speaker 1: enter in this fount, a man must leave its waters,
Speaker 1: only half a man. Moved by the words of their
Speaker 1: by natured son, both parents yield assent. They taint the
Speaker 1: fount with essences of dual working powers. Now, though the
Speaker 1: daughters of King Minias have made an end of telling tales,
Speaker 1: they make no end of labor, for they so despise
Speaker 1: the deity and desecrate his feast. While busily engaged with
Speaker 1: sudden beat, they hear resounding tambourines and pipes, and crooked
Speaker 1: horns and tinkling brass renew unseen the note saffron and
Speaker 1: murr dissolved in dulcet odors, and beyond belief. The woven
Speaker 1: webs dependent on the loom take tints of green, put
Speaker 1: forth new ivy leaves, or change to grape vines verdant.
Speaker 1: There the thread is twisted into tendrils. There the warp
Speaker 1: is fashioned into many moving leaves. The purple lends its
Speaker 1: splendor to the grape. And now the day is past.
Speaker 1: It is the hour when night ambiguous merges into day,
Speaker 1: which dubious owns nor light, nor done obscure. And suddenly
Speaker 1: the house begins to shake, and torches, oil dipped seemed
Speaker 1: to flare around, and fires a glow to shine in
Speaker 1: every room, and phantoms feigned of savage beasts to howl,
Speaker 1: full of a fright. Amid the smoke halls. The sisters
Speaker 1: vainly hide, and wheresoever they deem security from flaming fires,
Speaker 1: fearfully flit. And when they seek to hide, a membrane
Speaker 1: stretches over every limb, and light wings open from their
Speaker 1: slender arms. In the weird darkness, they are unaware what
Speaker 1: measures rought to change their wanted shape. No plumus vans
Speaker 1: avail to lift their flight, Yet fair they balance on
Speaker 1: membraneous wing. Whenever they would speak, a tiny voice, diminutive
Speaker 1: apportioned to their size, in squeaking note, complains a dread
Speaker 1: the light they haunt avoid by day the leafy woods
Speaker 1: for somber addicts, where secure they rest till four that
Speaker 1: don't obscure their wings may stretch at our of vesper.
Speaker 1: This accords their name. Oh nerds, Nerds, Nerds, I how
Speaker 1: I too love to read aloud. It's just my favorite thing,
Speaker 1: especially that you all enjoy hearing straight readings of the sources.
Speaker 1: If you didn't catch it to those ladies were just
Speaker 1: turned into bats. It's pretty badass, as much as it's
Speaker 1: a bummer that we have to use these old, stuffy
Speaker 1: translations that have a healthy serving of of misogyny, but
Speaker 1: less so in this section that hermaphrodi This bit is bad.
Speaker 1: Oh cell macus, you are a problematic lady. Anyway, you
Speaker 1: still get the essence of the works, and it's an
Speaker 1: amazing way of taking in these stories and poems. So
Speaker 1: thank you for listening to them. I love them. And
Speaker 1: as mentioned last week and in episodes you've already heard,
Speaker 1: if you are keen to read of its Metamorphoses or self,
Speaker 1: there's a new translation that you should be reading. It's
Speaker 1: by Stephanie McCarter, who's on my show a little while
Speaker 1: ago to talk about how she went about translating it
Speaker 1: and I even right a little bit of it. It's
Speaker 1: it's great, it's good and modern and readable. And most importantly,
Speaker 1: it was translated through a feminist lens. I e. Just
Speaker 1: you know, trying to be aware of the misogyny and
Speaker 1: look at the stories through a lens of simple equality.
Speaker 1: What a concept. So yeah, if you want your own
Speaker 1: to read, go get that one. Let's talk about mis Maybe.
Speaker 1: Is written and produced by me Live Albert Michaelis. Smith
Speaker 1: is the Hermes to Olympians. She handled so many podcasts
Speaker 1: related things, from running the YouTube, to creating promotional images
Speaker 1: and videos, to editing and research. Stephanie Foley works to
Speaker 1: transcribe the podcast for YouTube captions and accessibility. The podcast
Speaker 1: is hosted and monetized by a cast. Help me continue
Speaker 1: bringing you the world of Greek mythology and the Antia
Speaker 1: Mediterranean by becoming a patron, we'll get bonus episodes and more.
Speaker 1: Visit patreon dot com or click the link in this
Speaker 1: episode description. I am living. I love the ship very much,
Speaker 1: like how could I not? You know? M