The Old Ways

Hellenic · Dionysiaca, Vol. III · 5 of 13

BOOK XL

Nonnus, tr. W.H.D. Rouse (1940)

The fortieth has the Indian chief wounded, and how Dionysos visited Tyre, the native place Yet he escaped not allseeing Justice, nor the inflexible threads of Fate herself the inexorable Spinner. No — Pallas Athena beheld him in flight, for she sat on a headland high over the sea, and watched the Indians contending in their battle on the sea. Down from the height she leapt, and put on the shape of a man, the form of Morrheus ; and, all to please Dionysos, she checked Deriades, cajoUng the Indian chieftain with mindstealing whispers. As if anxious about the conflict, she poured out words of affright in reproachful tones : charge of the seafight ? How can you show yourself to the people ? Or how will you look in the face of dauntless Orsiboe, if she hears that Deriades is in flight and will not stand before women ? Have respect for manbreaking Cheirobie, let her not see you shrinking from fight with Lyaios unarmed — why, she held a furious spear, she heaved up an oxhide and fought the Bassarids following her husband ! Give place, please, to Morrheus — you have left the field, and if you please, I will be champion myself and panther and it turns into a lion.

destroy that weakling Bacchos. I call you goodfather no more, you, a runaway — let your girl Cheirobie find another husband : for I am ashamed country, I will go to Scythia, that I may not be called your goodson. understands warfare ! ' There are Amazons about Caucasos, and many women are there far better champions than Cheirobie. There I will carry off a strong one for my bed, captive of my spear, to wed me without brideprice, if I like. For I will never receive into my bridechamber your daughter, whose father is a fugitive from the battle ! ' ades, and gave him courage again, that he might be struck down by the mandestroying thyrsus of warring Bromios. He knew not that it was deceitful Athena before him ; he heard the reproachful voice of the pretended Morrheus, and bold again, spoke comforting words with shamed hps : fearless Morrheus ? No soldier is this, no soldier, who is always changing shape. Indeed I am at a loss who it is I am fighting and whom I strike. Eager to shoot Dionysos with a feathered arrow, or to cut through his neck with a sword, or desiring to cast a spear and pierce his belly — instead of Lyaios I find a speckled panther charging upon me. . . . A lion is fighting and I hasten to shear his neck, and I see a bold horrible serpent instead of a lion — I attack, and instead of a serpent I behold a bear's back — I cast my furious spear at the curving neck, but in vain I hurl vvaaav is rjtpirfv opow Kuprovfuvot vSmp.

the long shaft, for instead of a bear appears a flame flickering up into the air uninjured ! I see a boar rushing and I hear a bull's bellow, instead of the boar I see a bull lowering his head sideways and stabbing our elephants with flashing horns. I swing my sword against all sorts of beasts, and cannot overcome that one beast. I behold a tree and take aim, but it is off and I see a spout of water curving into the path of the sky. Therefore I tremble at the bewitched miracles of his art, and shrink from the changeable warfare of Dionysos. But I will confront Bromios again, until I lay bare the cunning enchantments of Dionysos the botcher of guile ! " as before ; again the uproar of battle rose on the plain — there after the seafight he met Dionysos in arms. He had forgotten the former victory of Bromios, when his neck was entangled in leafy bonds and he offered his prayers of many supplications to Bacchos, who saw it all. Again he was a soldier fighting against the gods ; doubtful only whether to kill or make Bromios a slave. Thrice he cast a spear, and missed, striking nothing but air ; but when the fourth time in his arrogance Deriades rushed upon wineface Bacchos, and cast his spear through the air at a mark which could not be hit, he called his goodson to help him — and Morrheus was no longer to be seen, but Athena had changed her deceptive shape and stood beside the vinegod. Deriades saw her, and his knees trembled with overwhelming fear : he understood that the human shape which bore the likeness of Morrheus was all a deception, and recognized the iJtoi o ficv TTorafUHO rrap " vai dvXrrot my, deluding trick of wise Athena. But Dionysos was glad when he saw Athena, and knew in his heart that she had been helping him in disguise.

He rose lofty and huge, like the rock of Parnassos, and pursued swiftrunning Deriades ; he raced off light and quick as the hurrying winds, but when they reached the place where ancient Hydaspes rolled his warbreeding water in wild bubbling waves, he stood immense on the river bank as having now an ally, his father, roaring loud, to shoot with his waters against Dionysos in battle : there the vine-deity cast his fleshcutting thyrsus and just grazed the skin of Deriades. Struck with the mandestroying ivy bunch he slipt headfirst into his father's flood, and bridged all that water himself with his long frame. turned again to Olympos with Zeus the Lord of all ; the Bacchants cheered in triumph around Dionysos the invincible, crying Euoi for the conflict, and many thronged round Deriades piercing him everywhere with their spears." lamentable dirge, sorrowing for her husband who lay so newly slain ; she scratched her cheeks with her fingernails in sorrow, and heedlessly tore out bunches of her curling hair, and poured smoking ashes on her head. Cheirobie lamented for her dead father, and scored her black arms, rent her white robe and bared all her breast ; Protonoe unshod tore her to this line, the death of Hector in Iliad xxii. is closely " Daughter of Deriades, wife of Orontes (xxvi. 17).

KXaUv in afuftoTtpoiai teat iv4pii koX yfprr pt, cheeks and smeared her face all over with dirty dust, weeping for both husband and father, with twofold agony, and cried in tones of sorrow — You have left me a widow in the house ere I have borne a child, no baby son I have to console me ! I never saw my husband come home a second time after victory, but he slew himself with his own steel, and gave his name to the stream, and died among strangers, that I should have to call the watery Orontes my husband, childless, self-slain, never returned ! I wail for both Deriades and Orontes, both perished by one watery fate : Deriades the death of many men was buried in the wave, the flood swallowed Orontes. But I am not like my mother ; for Orsiboe sang her hymn over her daughters' weddings accomplished, she saw the marriage of Protonoe, she received Orontes as goodson, she joined Cheirobie to an unconquered husband, whom Bacchos trembled at great as he is ; Cheirobie has her dear husband alive, no thyrsus, no flood has brought him down — but I it seems doubly suffer, my husband gone and my father vain. Let me have my husband, and I will not bewail my father ; show me a child to console me for my husband's loss ! Who will take me and bring me to the broad stream of Hydaspes, that I may kiss the wave of that honey dropping river ? Who will take me and bring me to the sacred vale of Daphne, that I may embrace Orontes even in the waters ? O that I too could be a lovely stream ! O that I might also become a fountain there, watered by my own tears, a watery bride where my husband dead rolls his Six ablais 8 oSutT aiv tfidaG€To, Kai ytyrnjptg KaL TLva pivOov ccittci' eov pnfi aua ;(trtui a daughter of Pterelaos, who loved Amphitrjon. and chI Pterelaos s golden hair which made him ImmoriaL killed by Amphitryon.

beautiful waters ! Then I shall be hke Comaitho," who in olden days was enamoured of a lovely river and still has the joy of holding Cydnos her husband in her arms, as I hear is a favourite story among those Cihcian men. So says Morrheus my goodbrother. charming Orontes whom I love, I will not draw back my winding water and avoid a watery spouse. If it. was not ordained that I should die near his neighbour Daphne, may Hydaspes my father's father drown me in his waves, and save me from sleeping in the arms of a horned Satyr, and seeing Phrygian revels, rattling their cymbals in my hands, joining their sportive rites ; that I may not see Maionia and Tmolos, the house of Lyaios or the all-burdensome yoke of slavery ; that men may not say — The daughter of Deriades the spearbold king, taken captive after the war, is now a servant to Dionysos.' " piteously with her,'' those who had lost a son or a brother, whose fathers were dead or husband untimely taken, with the down on his chin. And Cheirobie tore the hair from her head and scored her cheeks ; she was tormented by double sorrow, and she groaned not so much for her father as she was indignant against her husband, for she had heard the enamoured passion of her husband and the delusive guile of chaste Chalcomedeia. She rent her dress Oineus of Calydon. See the play of Pacuvius, entitled " An echo of Iliad xxii. 515. This whole passage is a feeble imitation of the wailing for Hector.

oXki jlov, dXXoTrpoaaXXov, o to tpovtoiTa Avaitp, lit father, and no one avenged his death. For desire of that hateful Chalcomede he did not rout the women on the field — nay, he still shows favour to the Bassarids. Tell me, Fates; what jealousy" destroyed the Indian city ? What jealousy came down suddenly upon both daughters of Deriades ? Dying on the battlefield, Orontes made his wife Protonoe a widow to mourn uncared-for ; Cheirobie still living was repudiated by her husband. And I have more cruel things to suffer than my sister. Protonoe had a husband who defended her that nursed him ; Cheirobie had a husband who destroyed his country, a useless warrior, the lackey of Cyprogeneia, a strong man unstable, a partisan of Lyaios. Even my marriage was my enemy, for the Indian city was sacked because my Morrheus fell in love. I was robbed of my father for my husband's sake ; I so proud once, and daughter of a king, I once the mistress of the Indians, I too shall be one of the servants ; perhaps I shall be so unhappy as to give the title of mistress to Chalcomedeia the serf! Traitor Morrheus, to-day India is your home ; to-morrow unbidden you will go to the Lydian land, a menial of Dionysos because of Chalcomede 's beauty. Husband Morrheus, make no secret of your union with Chalcomede ; for you fear no longer the threatening tongue of Deriades.

Begone ! the serpent calls you back, the one that chased you away with hisses from the wedding which you failed to force ! " Protonoe wailed a second time. Their mother rested an arm on each and dolorously cried — longer I see Deriades my husband, no longer Orontes my son. Deriades is dead ; the city of the Indians is plundered. The unbreakable citadel of my country has fallen : would that I myself may be taken by Bacchos and slain with my dead husband ! May he seize and cast me into the swift-flowing Hydaspes, for I refuse the earth. Let my goodfather's water receive me, may I see Deriades even in the waters ; may I not see Protonoe following Dionysos perforce, may I never hear another piteous groan from Cheirobie while she is dragged to a captive wedlock ; may I not see another husband after Deriades, my man. May I dwell with the Naiads, since Seabluehair received Leucothea also living and she is called one of the Nereids ; and may I appear another watery Ino, no longer white, but blackfooted." " women, standing in a row upon the loud-echoing now made an end of warring, and they cried with one voice : " We have won great glory ! we have slain the Indian chieftain ! " the joy of victory. Now resting from his labours and the bloody contest, he first gave their due to the crowd of unburied dead. He built round the pyre one vast tomb for all alike with a wide bosom, a hundred feet long. Round about the bodies the melodious Mygdonian syrinx sounded their dirge, and the Phrygian pipers wove their manly tune with W7raa€ Xvai doiai Btovb a t(oipavo¥ lrSoSr» Aofa Kvpiarrjrfjpi no v ojc vtro naXfL , iroAufcc oAof — iroAAay irf aAav voftor, tile tune of DUUIT iMldl mournful lips, while the Bacchant women danced and Ganyctor trolled his dainty song with Euian voice.

The double Berecyntian pipes in the mouth of Cleochos drooned a gruesome Libyan lament, one which long ago both Sthenno and Euryale with one manythroated voice sounded hissing and weeping over Medusa newly gashed, while their snakes gave out voice from two hundred heads, and from the lamentations of their curling and hissing hairs they uttered the " manyheaded dirge of Medusa." body with water, and assigned a governor for the Indians, choosing the godfearing Modaios ' ; they now pacified touched one table with banqueting Bacchoi over a, common bowl, and drank the yellow water from the winebreeding river. There was dancing without end. Many a Bassarid skipt about, tapping the floor with wild slipper ; many a Satyr stormed the resounding ground with heavy foot, and revelled with side-trippings of his tumbling feet as he rested an arm on the neck of some maddened Bacchant. The foot-soldiers of Bromios danced round with their oxhides and mimicked the pattern of the shieldbearing Corybants, wildly circling in the quick dance under arms. The horsemen in their glancing helmets also stood up for the dance, acclaiming the all vanquishing victory of Dionysos. Not a soul was silent — the Euian tones went up to the sevenzone sky with shouts of triumph from every tongue.

over, and Dionysos had gathered all the spoil after his lAvyhoviriv toTrevhtv is ova n6p&aXt¥ iXtnw fjuipfxapa Kov4 it,ovT€9 'Ecoia 5ojpa OaXdaofK, the god, but the fact that it has the same is enough to awaken Nonnos's Indian War, he remembered the land of his ancient home, now he had swept away the foundations of that seven years' conflict. The whole wealth of the enemy was given to the army as their plunder. One got an Indian jasper, one the jewel of Phoibos's patterned sapphire " and the smooth green emerald ; another hurried under the lofty peaks of broad-based Imaios the straight-legged elephants which he had captured by his spear. Here was one by the deepcavemed mountain of Hemodos " driving to exile a team of Indian lions, in triumph ; there was another pulling a panther to the Mygdonian shore with a chain fast about its neck. A Satyr rushed along with a striped tiger before him, which he flogged in his wild way with a handful of tippling-leaves. Another returned with a gift for his Cybeleid bride, the fragrant plants of seagrown reeds and the shining stone which is the glory of the Erythraian brine. Many a blackskin bride was dragged out of her chamber by the hair, her neck bound fast under the yoke of slavery, spoil of war along with her newly wedded husband. The Bacchant woman god-possessed returned to the hills of Tmolos with hands full of streaming riches, chanting Euoi for the return of Dionysos.

among his followers, after the Indian War, and sent returning home the whole host who had shared his labours. The people made haste to go, laden with shining treasures of the Eastern sea and birds of many strange forms. Their return was a triumphal march with universal acclaim to Dionysos the invincible; " Himalaya, Imaios in 258. all revelled, for they left behind them all memory of that toilsome war, to blow away with the north wind, and each came returning home at last with his thankofferings for victory. Asterios alone did not now return to his own country ; instead, he settled near the footunwashen Bears," about the river Phasis '' in a cold land by the Massagetic Gulf, ' where he dwelt under the snowburdened feet of his father's father, Tauros the Bull, translated to the stars. He avoided the Cnossian city and the sons of his family, hating Pasiphae and his own father Minos, and preferring Scythia to his own country. But Bacchos, followed only by his Satyrs and the Indianslaying Bacchant women, after a war in the Caucasos beside the Amazonian River, visited Arabia the second time, where he stayed and taught the Arabian people who knew not Bacchos to uplift the mystic fennel, and crowned the Nysian hills with the vineclusters of his fruitful plant.

shadowy forests he measured the Assyrian road on foot, and had a mind to see the Tyrian land, Cadmos's country ; for thither he turned his tracks, and with stuffs in thousands before his eyes he admired the manycoloured patterns of Assyrian art, as he stared at the woven work of the Babylonian Arachne ; he examined cloth dyed with the Tyrian shell, shooting out sea-sparklings of purple : on that shore once a dog busy by the sea, gobbling the wonderful lurking fish with joyous jaws, stained his white jowl with the blood ' The Caspian Sea, called a gulf because it was supposed to open out into the so-called Northern Ocean. and weaver ; she challenged Athena, and was changed into a StfrAoof cAAa c ddfifiof, trci Tii or fir oAi trciTOi of the shell, and reddened his lips with running fire, which once alone made scarlet the sea-dyed robes of shaker surrounded with a Hquid girdle of sea, not wholly, but it got the shape which the moon weaves in the sky when she is almost full, falling short of fullness by one point. And when he saw the mainland joined to the brine, he felt a double wonder, since Tyre lies in the brine, having her own share in the land but joined with the sea which has joined one girdle with the three sides together. Unshakable, it is like a swimming girl, who gives to the sea head and breast and neck, stretching her arms between under the two waters, and her body whitened with foam from the sea beside her, while she rests both feet on mother earth. And Earthshaker holding the city in a firm bond floats all about like a watery bridegroom, as if embracing the neck of his bride in where alone the herdsman's way was near the fisherman, and he kept company with his piping along the shore, and goatherd with fisher again when he drew his net, and the glebe was cleft by the plow while opposite the oars were cutting the waters. Shepherds near the seaside woods gossiped in company [with boatmen, fisher with] woodmen, and in one place was the loud noise of the sea, the lowing of cattle, the whispering of leaves, rigging and trees, navigation and forest, water, ships, and lugger, plowtail, " discoverers," eupcVai, to another (see M. Kremmer, Be catalogis heurematum, Leipzig 1890, pp. 45, 94), is told by St.

Kcjifnjs dppoxov dpp.a Ka0imr€vovrt yaAijn f , CO iroAi 7Taaifi€XoiH7a, rvno ySovo , aiBipo$ mIkw , pappapvyr v dv€if aivov dpoifiaUno prrdXXov IfO sheep, reeds, and sickle, boats, lines, sails, and corselet. As he surveyed all this, he thus expressed his mainland ? If I may say so, never have I beheld such beauty. Lofty trees rustle beside the waves, the Nereid speaks on the deep and the Hamadryad hears hard by. A delicate breeze of the south breathes from Lebanon upon Tyrian seas and seaside plowland, pouring a breath of wind which fosters the corn and speeds the ships at once, cools the husbandman and draws the seaman to his voyage. Here harvesthome Deo brings the sickle of the land close to the trident of the deep, and speaks to the monarch of the wet, who drives his car unwetted upon the soundless calm, while she asks him to guide her rival car on the same course, and herself whips the bounteous backs of her aerial dragons. O world-famous city, image of the earth, picture of the sky ! You have a belt of sea grown into one with your three sides ! " casting his eyes about. He gazed at the streets paved with mosaic of stones and shining metals ; he saw the house of Agenor his ancestor, he saw the courtyards and the women's apartments of Cadmos ; he entered the ill-guarded maiden chamber of Europe, the bride stolen long ago, and thought of his own horned Zeus.

Still more he wondered at those primeval fountains, where a stream comes pouring out through the bosom of the earth, and after one hour plenty of water bubbles up again with flood self-produced. He saw the creative stream of Abarbaree," he saw the " Not the same as in xv. 378. For the stories of these otherwise unknown fountains, see below, 538 if. Koi araxvoiv (vSlvas dvoASoiPci; a o ftcoic W lovely fountain named after Callirhoe, he saw the bridal water of Drosera herself spouting daintily his curiosity, he went revelling to the temple of the Starclad and there called loudly upon the leader of the stars in mystic words : universe ! O Helios, longshadowed shepherd of human life, coursing round the whole sky with shining disk and wheeling the twelvemonth lichtgang the son of Time ! Circle after circle thou drivest, and from thy car is shaped the running lifespace for youth and age ! Nurse of wise birth, thou bringest forth the threefold image of the motherless Moon, while dewy Selene milks her imitative light from thy fruitful beam, while she fills in her curving bull's-horn. Allshining Eye of the heavens, thou bringest in thy four-horse chariot winter following autumn, and changest spring to summer. Night pursued by thy shooting torch moves and gives place, when the first morning glimpse comes of thy straightnecked steeds drawing the silver yoke under thy lashes ; when thy Hght shines, the varied heavenly meadow no longer shines brighter dotted with patterns of bright stars.

From thy bath in the waters of the eastern Ocean thou shakest off the creative moisture from thy cool hair, bringing the fruitful rain, and discharging the early wet of the heavenly dew upon the prolific earth. With thy disk thou givest increase to the growth of " Melkart. He had long been identified with Heracles and, later, with the Sun. harvest, irrigating the bounteous corn in the life- Libya, thou art Apis by the Nile, Arabian Cronos, Assyrian Zeus ! On thy fragrant altar, that thousand-year-old wise bird the phoenix lays sweetsmelling woods with his curved claw, bringing the end of one life and the beginning of another ; for there he is born again, self-begotten, the image of equal time renewed — he sheds old age in the fire, and from the fire takes in exchange youthful bloom. Be thou called Sarapis, the cloudless Zeus of Egypt ; be thou Cronos, or Fhaethon of many names, or Mithras the Sun of Babylon, in Hellas Delphic Apollo ; be thou Gamos," whom Love begat in shadowy dreams, fulfilling the deceptive desire of a mock union, when from sleeping Zeus, after he had sprinkled the damp seed over the earth with the self-wedding point of the sword, the heights brought forth by reason of the heavenly drops ; be thou painquelling Paieon, or patterned Heaven ; be thou called the Starclad, since by night starry mantles illuminate the sky — O hear my voice graciously with friendly ears ! " form divine the Starclad flashed upon him in that dedicated temple. The fiery eyes of his countenance shot forth a rosy light, and the shining god, clad in a patterned robe like the sky, and image of the universe, with yellow cheek sparkling and a starry beard, held out a hand to Lyaios, and entertained him with good cheer at a friendly table. He enjoyed a feast without meatcarving, and touched nectar and ambrosia : why not indeed, if he did drink sweet nectar, after the immortal milk of Hera ? Then he spoke to the Starclad in words full of curiosity : city in the form of a continent and the image of an island ? What heavenly hand designed it ? Who lifted these rocks and rooted them in the sea ? Who made all these works of art ? Whence came the name of the fountains ? Who mingled island with mainland and bound them together with mother People dwelt here once whom Time, bred along with them, saw the only agemates of the eternal universe, holy offspring of the virgin earth, whose bodies came forth of themselves from the unplowed unsown mud.

These by indigenous art built upon foundations of rock a city unshakable on ground also of rock. Once on their watery beds among the fountains, while the fiery sun was beating the earth with steam, they were resting together and plucking at the Lethean wing of mind -rejoicing sleep. Now I cherished a passion of love for that city ; so I took the shadowed form of a human face, and stayed my step overhanging the head of these earthborn folk, and spoke to them my oracle in words of inspiration : me a new kind of vehicle to travel on the brine. Clear me this ridge of pinewoods with your sharp axes and make me a clever work. Set a long row of thickset standing ribs and rivet planks to them, then breast (without her knowledge, for the story varies) and so became her fosterson. vfUas dxAiJcic- teal dyfcvXoy tutpor a« impim a yyopuevov S€apoiai pAao¥ (vXo¥ o ior itcroBov ri€pUp tcoXirwaart dpof a frjj join them firmly together with a wellfitting bond — the chariot of the sea, the first craft that ever sailed, which can heave you over the deep ! But first let it have a long curved beam running from end to end to support the whole, and fasten the planks to the ribs fitted about it like a close wall of wood. Let there be a tall spar upright in the middle held fast with stays. Fasten a wide linen cloth to the middle of the pole with twisted ropes on each side. Keep the sail extended by these ropes, and let it belly out to the wind of heaven, pregnant by the breeze which carries the ship along. Where the newfitted timbers gape, plug them with thin pegs. Cover the sides with hurdles of wickerwork to keep them together, lest the water leak through unnoticed by a hole in the hollow vessel. Have a tiller as guide for your craft, to steer a course and drive you on the watery path with many a turn — twist it about everywhere as your mind draws you, and cleave the back of the sea in your wooden hull, until you come to the fated place, where driven wandering over the brine are two floating rocks, which Nature has named the Ambrosial Rocks." agemate, selfrooted and joined to the rock, in the very midst of the waterfaring stone. On the top of the foliage you will see an eagle perched, and a well-made bowl. From the flaming tree fire selfmade spits out wonderful sparks, and the glow devours the olive tree all round but consumes it not. A snake writhes round the tree with its highlifted leaves, increasing the wonder both for eyes and for ears. For the serpent " Where, if anywhere, Nonnos found this extraordinary tale of the founding of Tyre is unknown.

does not creep silently to the eagle flying on high, and throw itself at him from one side with a threatening sweep to envelop him, nor spits deadly poison from his teeth and swallows the bird in his jaws ; the eagle himself does not seize in his talons that crawler with many curling coils and carry him off high through the air, nor will he wound him with sharptoothed beak ; the flame does not spread over the branches of the tall trunk and devour the olive tree, which cannot be destroyed, nor withers the scales of the twining snake, so close a neighbour, nor does the leaping flame catch even the bird's interlaced feathers. No — the fire keeps to the middle of the tree and sends out a friendly glow : the bowl remains aloft, immovable though the clusters are shaken in the wind, and does not slip and fall. flying eagle agemate of the olive, and sacrifice him to Seabluehair. Pour out his blood on the seawandering cliffs to Zeus and the Blessed. Then the rock wanders no longer driven over the waters ; but it is fixed upon immovable foundations and unites itself bound to the free rock. Found upon both rocks a builded city, with quays on two seas, on both sides.' Earthborn awaking were stirred, and the divine message of the unerring dreams still rang in the ears of each. I showed yet another marvel after the winged dreams to these troubled ones, indulging my mood of founding cities, myself destined to be Cityholder : out of the sea popped a nautilus fish, perfect image of what I meant and shaped like a ship, sailing on its voyage selftaught. Thus observing this creaat arofidrcjv €vroa6tv ooaxnfT fta m XMmt a avaaiipdt,ovr€S omiadcnox-oio irapi)POV dyxi Tvpov Trapd novrov in dppayitaoi hk wirpOMit ture so like a ship of the sea, they learnt without trouble how to make a voyage, they built a craft like to a fish of the deep and imitated its navigation of the sea. Then came a voyage : with four stones of an equal weight they trusted their balanced navigation to the sea, imitating the steady flight of the crane ; for she carries a ballast-stone in her mouth to help her course, lest the wind should beat her light wings aside as she flies." They went on until they saw that place, where the rocks were driven by the gales to navigate girt isle, and climbed the cliffs where the tree of Athena stood. When they tried to catch the eagle which was at home on the olive tree, he flew down willingly and awaited his fate. The Earthborn took their winged prey inspired, and drawing the head backwards they stretched out the neck free and bare, they sacrificed with the knife that selfsurrendered eagle to Zeus and the Lord of the waters. As the sage bird was sacrificed, the blood of prophecy gushed from the throat newly cut, and with those divine drops rooted the seafaring rocks at the bottom near to Tyre on the sea ; and upon those unassailable rocks the Earthborn built up their deepbreasted nurse.

soilbred race of the Earthborn, self born, Olympian, that you might know how the Tyrian breed of your ancestors sprang out of the earth. Now I will speak of the fountains. In the olden days they were chaste maidens primeval, but hot Eros was angered against " For some references to this story about cranes, see Sir their maiden girdles, and drawing a shaft of love he spoke thus to the marriage -hating nymphs : ' Naiad Abarbarie, so fond of your maidenhood, you too receive this shaft, which ajl nature has felt. Here I will build Callirhoe's bridechamber, here I will sing Drosera's wedding hymn — But you will say, Mine is a watery race, I came selfborn from the streams, and my nurse was a fountain. — Yes, Clymene was a Naiad, and the offspring of Oceanos ; but she yielded to wedlock, she also was a bride, when she saw Seabluehair the mighty a lackey of Eros, and shaken with the passion of Cypris. Primeval Oceanos, who commands all rivers and waters, knows love for Tethys and a watery wedding. Make the best of it, and endure as Tethys did. Another sprung from the sea so great and not from a little fountain, Galateia, has desire for melodious Polyphemos ° ; the deepsea maiden has a husband from the land, she migrates from sea to land, enchanted by the lute. Fountains also have known my shafts. I need not teach you of love in the waters ; you have heard of the watery passion of Syracusan Arethusa, that lovestricken fountain ; you have heard of Alpheios, who in a watery bower embraces the indwelling nymph with watery hands.

You — the offspring of a fountain — why are you pleased with the Archeress ? Artemis did not come from the water like Aphrodite. Tell that to Callirhoe, do not hide it from Drosera herself. You ought rather to please Cypris, because she herself bent her neck to Eros even though she is nurse of the loves. Accept the stings of desire, and I will call you by birth one waterwalking, by love sister of Aphrodite.' So he spoke ; and from his backbent bow let fly three Kal Tvplrj coTTCipc Onifytvi at ta ytvMaff," Tola luv ' HpoxA Tjf no6fio9 Mpo9 hvtmt B Jry ADDITIONAL NOTE TO HOOK 3CL called a conipcndium of MiUr yncretkm. OmuUt pmmt 4tm examples of the inf -niou.s throrixtnfr by which thb iMall W reached may be found then- or in Jaltftn's llwmm i» iThM Dionysos simply celebratcA the physical povcr of IIk mui t then begrin the identifications. He ia BdlM on dw Euphrates ; the Gnt-ks wrrr a. firmly cowrtoced ■• OMunr modem Bible-readers that the Smutea, or tlie OvfaalHI generally, worshipped a god calU-d Kaal or Bcl« IIm Iralll dP course being that baal Ls a S -niitic word for lord or wmtkatt and so is applied to a multitude of gods. Tlik BdL tiHB» being an important deity, must be the sun, the wtan to •• some of the gods bearing that title may have been ratllir solar. He is " Libyan Ammon " and " the Assyrian Zc«s because 2Leus is the same as Helios and Ammoii is " Apis is $olu nutar, Macrob. ibid, xxL 20, Crooot, loM shots. Then in that watery bower he joined in love sons of the soil to the Naiads, and sowed the divine race of your family." Bacchos in pleasant gossip. He was delighted at heart by the tale, and offered to Heracles a mixingbowl of gold bright and shining, which the art of heaven had made ; Heracles clad Dionysos in a of Tyre, and went on to another district of Assyria.

misinterpreted as Time, was very easy to identify with the best-known measure of time, and therefore the gods of other nations identified with him (we do not know what Arab god Nonnos means ; it would be interesting if it were Allah) are sun-gods too. Sarapis (399) had declared himself to be the Sun, Macrob. ibid. xx. 17, and so he must be Zeus also ; Phaethon means Helios scores of times in Nonnos, to say nothing of other writers ; Mithra really was a sun-god ; the " Helios of Babylon " might be simply El ; Apollo had been identified with Helios since the fifth century b.c. Paian is Apollo (407) and consequently Helios also ; to call the sun the ether or sky (ibid.) is but a small stretch of identification for a syncretist of those days ; remains Gamos (402), and here we seem to have neither cult nor philosophy, but a literary pedantry of Nonnos's own. Philoxenos the dithyrambic poet, in a passage cited by Athenaios, 6 a, had called sun is the most brilliant object in the universe, and un-