BOOK XXXIV

In the thirty-fourth, Deriades attacks and massacres the Bacchant women within the walls. Tue girl passed over the hills in her quickmoving step, until she silently passed into the woody uplands; nor did Thetis herself linger upon the shore, but she too returned to the weedy hall of her father the cloudless heaven and watching the circling stars ; and he spoke, lashing his spirit with cares : one counsel guides me, no one resolve; wishes throng round me in crowds, and I cannot fulfil one of them. Shall Ε kill Chaleomedeia, my beloved ὃ Then what can I do, that she too may not kill me with longing, after her fate? Or shall I leave her alive and unwounded, and drag the girl openly into marriage ? But in my heart I fear Deriades and pity Cheirobié.? 1 will never kill the girl; if I strike her down, how can 1 live when I see the girl no more ἢ many plans, boiling with the pangs of his desireup and down and forgetful of his bride left alone in her bed, bold Hyssacos his trusty guardian, wide awake, saw him. He was shrewd enough to recognize the secret sting of some undivined love, so he began to ask crafty questions and spoke in beguiling words, as follows : bride to wander about in the dark, fearless Morrheus ?

Has Deriades affrighted you with a threat? Is Cheirobié angry with you in a jealous temper, and thinks you in love with some captive Bacchant ? For when women see their partners wild with love, they are always jealous of some secret intrigue. Perhaps that allvanquishing braggart Desire has been aiming at you bridal sparks from his unresting quiver! Do you want one of the Bassarids, perhaps ? As I hear, there are three Graces, the dancers of Orchomenos, handmaids of Phoibos—but Lyaios the danceweaver has whole rows of Graces three hundred strong, one of whom shines pre-eminent above all, as Selene herself quenches the light of the stars with her brighter beams when she scatters her shimmering around. And she arms herself with two shots on one count She is a helmeted Pasithea,? whom the Bacchants name Chaleomede: but I will call her Silverfoot Artemis or Goldenshield Athena.”’ sick Morrheus drawing his brows together answered with shamefast lips : the sea for fear of Lycurgos, and armed the Nereids in the bosom of the deep, and out of the brine he brought against Ares his own sister, Aphrodite of the brine: instead of the fragrant dress for a bridegift he gave her a steel corselet to wear, instead of the cestus he gave her a spear of bronze ; he changed her name, and Aphrodite armed became Chalcomede.

She is in the company of the Bassarids, and I have two to fight, without knowing it—both Cypris and Dionysos. Why do I vainly lift my valiant spear? Yield, my point! If the Paphian has conquered the master of the thunderbolt, if she vanquishes the king of battles with her spark, if she has burnt up flaming Phaéthon with a fire greater than his own and harasses the fiery one, what could I do with steel? Tell me some device to help against Cyprogeneia. Shall I wound Eros? but how shall I catch that winged one? Shall I lift aspear? Fire is his weapon. Shall I draw the sword? He has an arrow, and his arrow is fire kindling my heart. wounded, some physician has made me whole by his lifesaving art, by laying an allheal flower on the wound of my body. Hyssacos, hide it not, tell me what varied store of balsams can 1 apply in my heart to cure the wound of love! To my adversaries I am always bold ; but when I see Chaleomede before me, my sharp point grows womanish. I fear not Dionysos, but I shrink before a woman, for she shoots bright shafts from her lovesmit countenance and pierces me with her beauty. I cannot aim my bow then. So I have seen one of the Nereids. If I dare say it, either Thetis or Galateia ὦ is fighting beside Dionysos ! ” slowly and carefully, so as not to awaken his sleeping wife in the night, he entered his chamber again. Far from the black bosom of his bride he turned his eyes away, and wished that Chalcomede might stand shining before him and dawn appear. Chafing with love he fell on his sad couch; and his watchful guardian Hyssacos, longing for quiet rest, fell asleep once more on his oxhide shield.

came flying from the deluding gates of ivory? to cajole him, and uttered a comforting but deceitful a willing bride! Welcome your bride in your own bed after your battles! In the day when you saw me you delighted your eyes—in the night, sleep by the side of your loving Chalcomedeia! Even in sleep marriage has its charm, even in dreams it has a passion of sweet desire. I would fain hold you in my arms, and dawn is near.”’ rheus leapt out of his sleep and saw the beginning of Dawn, the thief of love. He thought Chaleomede desired him, and at once said silently to himself, feeding his delusive hope of love : mist! You bring Chaleomede, and you bring the daylight, and you drive night away !_ O Chalcomede, do you appear to me also, and comfort wakeful Morrheus, you, rosier yourself than rose-crowned Dawn: no such roses are brought by the Seasons to our meadows. Charming maiden, your cheeks present a meadow of the Springtime which time knows not how to wither. Your flowers are in bloom when the fruitwasting Autumn Seasons are here: your lilies can be seen even in winter; your body is all one blushing anemone never-fading, which the Graces tend and the winds never destroy.

Your name you have adorned by the triumphs of your spear; your name fits your valour—not in vain are you called Chalecomede, for brazen Ares begat you, tumbling on the bed of love-begetting Cypris. All the world calls you Chaleomede, but I alone call you Chrysomede, because you have the beauty of golden Aphrodite; I believe you come from Sparta, for as I think, Aphrodite Steelcorselet ¢ was the mother of Chalcomede.”’ farshooting Dawn with crimson face leapt up sending forth her light as the forerunner of battle, Ares musterhost armed the Indian nation; then the Indians fully equipped ran from their wellwheeled ὃ beds to gather round the chariot of Deriades. amissing, poured forth downcast on the plain. No longer in confident heart they marched to the fight, but they were stricken with fear. No longer with manbreaking madness the women in bronze corselets rushed frantic to the field, no more they scattered foam from their bellowing throats with deep growlings ; but in silence undisturbed the untanned calfskins lay unbeaten. Their torches sent forth no shining flame of martial brands nor belched the deathbringing smoke ; but under the goad of the divine lash the warriors turned to women. The Satyrs made no noise, no sound echoed as of yore from the pipes to awaken the conflict. The Seilenoi went to battle in sober silence with their wits about them ; they had not painted their faces with crimson like fresh blood, nor purpled their yellow skin to deceive and affright, nor daubed their foreheads with white chalk as usual. The Pans had drunk no hot blood fresh from the veins of a lioness of the wilds, and rushed not swift as the wind frenzied into the conflict, but they were mild with fear: hesitating they pawed the ground with gentle noiseless hooves, and ceased the terrible leaps of their battle, shaking his pointed horn like a helmet plume ; Morrheus leapt raging against the company of women. For Chalcomedeia did not stand beside the Bacchant women to make him pitiful, and check the blade which darted against the women purpled with blood ; but now the lovely young girl, a new bowfamed Amazon, took hand in the fight beside the front ranks in the plain, clad in light robes and a shining tunic. For that is what wise Thetis told her to do, that she might save the whole host, so distressed while Dionysos was being plagued.

image of the Graces, saved alive eleven of the weak Bassarids, whom he judged to be next after Chalcomede. He bound the Mainalids’ arms behind them in a knot too tight to be undone ; then dragging them with hair flowing loose to the yoke of slavery, he gave them to his goodfather Deriades as servants won by the spear, to be a second brideprice for his wife ; for whose sake he had fought beside peaksoaring Tauros, to win her for his bride, when he joined to himself in the bonds of wedlock the young princess, Deriades’ daughter, his yearsmate Cheirobié. For the Indian chieftain had received no marriage gift for his daughter, no precious gold, no bright stone of the sea ; herds of oxen and flocks of sheep Deriades refused, and joined his daughters in marriage without price, to stirring warriors, taking for goodsons Morrheus and ninecubit Orontes---gave his own children as brides to two champions, Cheirobié to Morrheus and Protonoeia to Orontes. For Morrheus was not like men of this earth, but he resembled the national strength of the earthborn Indians in highnecked body and gigantic limbs; he had the earthborn breed which towering Typhon had, when near the neighbouring rock of firebreeding Arima he? displayed his inborn courage for Cydnos to behold. The brideprice which he brought was the sweat of Cilician labours ; a bridegroom without possessions, he possessed his bride by valour. So in those days Assyria bent the knee to the steel that wooed a bride for Morrheus, Cilician Tauros bowed his rocky neck to the yoke of Deriades, bold Cydnos curtseyed, and for that reason in the Cilician land Morrheus is still called Heracles Sandes.? But that is an old story ; in this later conflict Morrheus captured the Thyiads with pitiless spear, and triumphant shouted an unbridled identified with Heracles, seems really to have been a Cilician god; see Roscher’s Lexikon iv. 322. 39. His connexion with Morrheus is fanciful.

your daughter which I bring first ; later I will give of the flashing helmet. You paid me price enough for your shieldbearing marriage by enslaving the Cilician cities in the lofty valour of victory. Now again you bestow new gifts. If it be your pleasure, make prisoners of the Bassarids as well, and fill the whole palace of Cheirobié with handmaids ; but for Bacchos I need not Morrheus; I myself will drag Dionysos to a yoke of slavery laden with galling fetters. Only I bid you take care not to lust after a captive for your bed, that I may not see you just like the womanmad Indians. Do not look upon the eyes and silvery neck of a Bacchant woman, that you may not make my girl jealous by your lusts. But when I have destroyed the whole army of Bromios, I will invade the Maionian land, and thence I will drain the infinite wealth of Lydia, all that Pactolos produces; I will march to vineclad Phrygia, where Rheia dwells who cared for Bromios in boyhood, and I will destroy the wealthy ground of silvery Alybe hard by, that I may bring home shining white sheets from mines that roll in riches.

And I will devastate the land of sevengate Thebes, as they call it, and I will burn Semele’s fiery house, where the lady’s chamber still is in hot ruins from that parched bridal.” ceived the whole line of handmaidens, gifts of his warlike goodson from the battle. He handed over the Bacchants to Phlogios and Agraios, dragged along by the hair, their hands all girdled with unbreakable straps in one long line. through the city as tidings of the royal victory. Some were hung up beside the carved gateway of the palace, with nooses choking their encircled necks. To others he allotted a hot fate of death by fire. Others were entombed in water, in the earthdug hollows of a well, where water is drawn from deepsunk pools by the hard work of hand over hand. Then they would cry, half-seen, immovable, from the watery depths of the pit, one after another— and Water, and there is reason for that saying : for both are arrayed against me together! I am between death by earth and destruction by water, and I have a double fate near me. A strange chain of mud holds me fast, and I can no longer lift a foot ; my soaking knees are firmly rooted in mire, and I stand immovable ready for the Fates. There was a time when a river pursued me, and I feared not the running water; O that this also were a murmuring stream, that I might here also paddle my hands and into her open throat, perished slowly by a fate which gave her no burial.

for Chaleomede, drove the whole unweaponed band of Mainalids into the frowning city, prodding them with his spear from behind. As a shepherd drives scattered clumps of mingled sheep into the shelter of a roomy pen together, and guides his fleecy flocks of sheep with his staff all in a flurry, while many drovers run by his side, stretching out their joined hands, to encircle them and drive them on in close files headlong, for fear some group of the enclosed sheep should break aside and run away : so windswift Morrheus drove to the steepwalled city all the column of Bacchant women cut out from the battle, and herded the female crowd into the gates. But for all his trouble his scheme was useless. He wished to leave all this booty of fair women from the battle, and to hunt afterwards for Chaleomede, to drag her away, to make her his slave with other women, that she might be his servant by day and his bedfellow by night, and do the work of two goddesses in turn—Cypris in secret and Athena’s loom in turned over the timid women’s war to Deriades, who was fighting near him, and attacked the male part of Bacchos’s army, that he might cut off the men too ; and they were put to flight on the field. But the tempestuous girl stood in all her bravery in front of the city near the wall, a maiden unveiled. She mimicked the ways of love-mad women with artificial nods and becks, rolling her eyes, and her blushing breast gave colour to the white tunic which had escaped from its wonted belt. Morrheus gazed at her with delight, and saw the delicate round of her breast stretching the robe from within.

like a quoit, which would be a monstrous weight for a eart, and cast it with skilful hand at helmeted movement of Dionysos’s army induces the two Indian commanders to change places. Morrheus. The stone hurtled through the air with a loud whizzing sound, and scraped the surface of his shield, where a chased image of gold showed the imitation portrait of an unreal Cheirobié. It tore off the depicted head, and scratched the face with its shining edge and disfigured the artistic beauty of a rheus, and leapt about again and again, laughing in his heart as he said to himself, Peitho! Elegant image of Cypris, and of Athena in her cuirass! Bacchic Dawn, Selene who never sets! You have torn off the portrait of my wife : maiden in front of the walls, shouting threats but not lifting his hand, with volleys of words but no pricks of the spear for the maiden, for he lifted the sparing spear in a gentle hand merciful: as if in real anger, a friendly enemy with a rough voice he cried speeches meant to deceive ; for he both laughed in his heart and showed fury in his face. He gently brandished and cast a wavering lance at a useless mark, on purpose. The girl fled nimbleknee, quick as the blowing breezes. As she strained with moving windswift knee, the air spread abroad her clustering curls and bared the neck which rivalled Selene. Morrheus ran with sparing foot on purpose, now gazing at the feet bare of strapped shoes and at the rosy ankles, now watching the locks of hair tossed behind—so he chased Chaleomede, and now called to her in pleasant words, coaxing speech from a gentle throat : lover in arms! Your radiance saves you, not your speed! Sharp steel is not so strong to bring down not! for in this battle your beauty has beaten my point of steel. You need no spear, no shield. For sword, for furious spear, you have the rays of your countenance, and your cheeks are much more triumphant than the ashplant. The terrible strength of my hand is melted. No wonder if my valiant spear is conquered, for savage Ares himself turns woman when Cypris stands up to him. Receive me in the company of your Satyrs. In battle the Indians are best so long as I hold arms in my hands: but if it be your pleasure, I will serve Dionysos as lackey. If it be your pleasure, strike my neck or my flank: I care not for death if your blade pierces me. Only mourn me when dead; the tears of sorrowing Chaleomede will bring me back even from spear? Seeing your tresses lying tangled upon your uncovered shoulders, I have put my helmet from off my uncovered hair ; when I see the fawnskin, I hate to wear a corselet.” and joined the Bacchoi, and keeping out of the way of the murderous Morrheus, she boldly fought and battled against the armed men.

whirling conflict and had time to breathe, while Morrheus retired from the field. front of the city, striking with his sword, until he had driven them up to the walls, and the whole company was penned within the open gateway of the lofty fortress. So pursued with the sword, they entered the city, torn from their familiar forests. Unresting the columns marched away here and there by unfamiliar winding roads, divided into parts, these towards the wing of Euros, these to the uplands of Zephyros in the western clime of the world, others travelling along the plain of Notos, other Bassarids driven to the region of Boreas. Then the Mainads put off the manly temper which constrained them, and once more became women, refusing battle, remembering the art they loved of distaff and basket ; once more they wished to ply the spindle of Athena instead of the gear of Lyaios. And the blackskin men had wild uproar of defensive battle within the city, destroying the snow-white host.