BOOK XXXVIII

When the thirty-eighth takes its turn, you have the fate of unhappy Phaethon in the chariot, with a blazing brand. The games were over. The people retired into the recesses of the forest, and entered their huts. The rustic Pans housed themselves under shelter in the ravines, for they occupied at evening time the natural caverns of a lioness in the wilds. The Satyrs dived into a bear's cave, and hollowed their Uttle bed in the rock with sharp finger-nails in place of cutting steel ; until the lightbringing morning shone, and the brightness of Dawn newly risen showed itself peacefully to both Indians and Satyrs. For then Time rolling in his ambit prolonged the truce of combat and strife between Indians and Mygdonians ; there was no carnage among them then, no conflict, and the shield which Bacchos had borne for six years lay far from the battle covered with spiders' webs." year of warfare, a foreboding sign was shown to winefaced Bacchos in the sky, an incredible wonder.

For at midday, a sudden darkness was spread abroad, " From Bacchylides, frag. 3 (Jebb), 6-7. Nonnos means there n as perfect peace. Xaov oXov uapcrwev, on ; povu io kvBoiuoO o Nonnos seems to think that a solar cdipae Mf and a midday obscurity covered Phaethon with its black pall, and the hills were overshadowed as his beams were stolen away. Many a stray brand fell here and there scattered from the heavenly car ; thousands of rainshowers deluged the surface of the earth, the rocks were flooded by drops from the sky, until fiery Hyperion rose again shining high on his chariot after his hard struggle. Bacchos, an eagle flying high through the air, holding a horned snake in his sharp talons. The snake twisted his bold neck, and slipt away of itself diving into the river Hydaspes. Trembling silence held all that Idmon the treasury of learned lore, for he had been taught the secrets of Urania, the Muse who knows the round circuit of the stars : he had been taught by his learned art the shades on the Moon's orb when in union with the Sun, and the ruddy flame of Phaethon stolen out of sight from his course behind the cone of darkness, and the clap of thunder, the heavenly bellow of the bursting clouds, and the shining comet, and the flame of meteors,'' and the fiery leap of the thunderbolt. Having been taught all these doings by Urania the goddess he stood with dauntless heart, while the limbs of every man were loosened. But Idmon that ancient seer encouraged all the host, with laughing countenance, and words of confident persuasion upon his lips : "I know," he said, " that victory is near, and soon it will end this long struggle." roLOS iojv yXvKcpfjaiv in iXiriaiv, w cw fUotn Kcopd ojv MapaOcovi per 'Ap€a Arjpia&TJog, o Is this a reminiscence of St. Paul vonk «■ lkt gian prophet, when he saw the portents of Highest Zeus, whether they were favourable to the enemy or to Indian-slaying Dionysos. He did not so much wish for the end of the conflict, but rather to hear the message from Olympos, the theme of mystical tales, and the orders of circling stars, and the round moon, and the sunset at midday which has no light of Phaethon because this is stolen away. Always the citizens of ancient Athens are ready to hear discourses concerning the gods." Euian thyrsus instead of the Panopeian laurel, he uttered these words of interpretation with his mouth : consoling tale which only the gods know who dwell in Olympos ? Well, I will speak, as my laurelled Apollo has taught me. Tremble not at the lightning, fear not the travelling brand, nor the darkened course of Helios, nor the bird of Olympos, first harbinger of Lyaios's victory to come ; as that horned snake, torn by the sharp pointed claws of the robber bird and pierced by its talons, slipt into the waters of the river, and old Hydaspes swallowed the reptile corpse, so Deriades shall be swallowed in the flood of his father's stream under the likeness of his bullhorned sire." " Thus spoke the old prophet ; and at the diviner's words all the host was glad, but beyond others the citizen of unmothered Athene mingled gladness with wonder, as full of joy in his sweet hopes as if he were triumphing in Marathon itself after the war with ' And now to Dionysos, alone among the rocks crvyyovos ovpavoStv A to? dyycAoy nXv6€V 'Epftiftt TjiiLharjg a€dojv, Trorafiw 5 cVpimrcTO KcAr which he loved, came Hermes his brother from heaven as messenger of Zeus, and spoke assuring him of ''s Tremble not at this sign, even though night came at midday. This sign, fearless Bacchos, your father Cronion has shown you to foretell your victory in the Indian War. For I liken Bacchos the hghtbringer to the sun shining again, and the bold black Indian to the thick darkness. That is what is meant by the picture in the sky. For as the darkness blotted out and covered the light of shining day, and then Helios rose again in his fireshining chariot and dispersed the gross darkness, so you also shall shake from your eyes far far away the darksome sightless gloom of the Tartarian Fury, and blaze again on the battlefield like Hyperion. So great a marvel ancient eternal Time our foster-father has never brought, since Phaethon, struck by the steam of fire divine, fell tumbling half-burnt from Helios 's lightbearing chariot, and was swallowed up in the Celtic river ; and the daughters of Helios are still on the banks of Eridanos, lamenting the audacious youth with their whimpering leaves." victory ; then he questioned Hermes and wished to hear more of the Olympian tale which the Celts of the west know well : how Phaethon tumbled over and over through the air, and why even the daughters of Helios were changed into trees beside the moaning Eridanos, and from their leafy trees drop sparkling tears into the stream.

and noised out his inspired tale to Bacchos eagerly jxvdov oXov a dovros €yw aroiYpSov Mdtw, vrix TO TTaTpu)oiaiv i-niOKolpovoa p€4BpOiis, ' For the literary historj- of Phafthon from AlcH " The Zodiac (because all the planets more w¥tUm f The Greeks called the seven heavenly bodies pkncts; life ! If sweet desire constrains you to hear these ancient stories, I will tell you the whole tale of Phaethon from beginning to end. of the sky, who leads his water earth-encompassing round the turning point which he bathes, was joined in primeval wedlock with Tethys. The watery bridegroom begat Clymene, fairest of the Naiads, whom Tethys nursed on her wet breast, her youngest, a maiden with lovely arms. For her beauty Helios pined, Helios who spins round the twelvemonth lichtgang, and travels the sevenzone circuit garland-wise fire ! The torch of love was stronger than the blaze of his car and the shining of his rays, when over the bend of the reddened Ocean as he bathed his fiery form in the eastern waters, he beheld the maiden close by the way, while she swam naked and sported in her father's waves. Her body gleamed in her bath, she was one like the full Moon reflected in the evening waters, when she has filled the compass of her twin horns with light. Half-seen, unshod, the girl stood in the waves shooting the rosy shafts from her cheeks at Helios ; her shape was outlined in the waters, no stomacher hid her maiden bosom, but the glowing circle of her round silvery breasts illuminated the stream.

charioteer. The lightfoot Seasons acclaimed Clywere the real planets. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and also the sun and moon. Thus the Zodiac is called sevenzoned. Note that they did not regard the Earth as a planet, and did not know the planets Uranus and Neptune t P u» ■• . mene's bridal with Helios Lightbringer, the Naiad Nymphs danced around ; in a watery bridal-bower the fruitful maiden was wedded in a flaming union, and received the hot bridegroom into her cool arms. The light that shone on that bridal bed came from the starry train ; and the star of Cypris, Lucifer, herald of the union, wove a bridal song. Instead of the wedding torch, Selene sent her beams to attend the wedding. The Hesperides raised the joy-cry, and Oceanos beside his bride Tethys sounded his song with all the fountains of his throat. ful union, and when the birth ripened she brought forth a baby son divine and brilhant with light. At the boy's birth his father's ether saluted him with song ; as he sprang from the childbed, the daughters of Oceanos cleansed him, Clymene's son, in his grandsire's waters, and wrapt him in swaddlings. The stars in shining movement leapt into the stream of Oceanos which they knew so well, and surrounded the boy, with Selene our Lady of Labour, sending forth her sparkling gleams. Helios gave his son his own name, as well suited the testimony of his form ; for upon the boy's shining face was visible the father's inborn radiance.

Oceanos would have a pretty game, lifting Phaethon on his midbelly and letting him drop down ; he would throw the boy high in the air, rolling over and over moving in a high path as quick as the wandering wind, and catch him again on his arm ; then he would shoot him up again, and the boy would avoid the ready hand of Oceanos, and turn a somersault round and round till he splashed into the dark daK-qaas he XcnaSva Koi dvBoKOfiwv diro «n7«(tfr TrAcf as" AfTTToAcotat Xvyois rpiiXucrov IpAaBXtp ITS opdiov €vda Koi €v6a f €pavy€a BaXov cpciba; Kov l)t,a€ Oepfid AcTraSi'a koi darepoeaaav ifuiavXff , waters, prophet of his own death. The old man groaned when he saw it, recognizing the divine oracle, and hid all in prudent silence, that he might not tear the happy heart of Clymene the loving mother by foretelling the cruel threads of Phaethon's Fate. down on his lip, sometimes frequented his mother Clymene 's house, sometimes travelled even to the meadows of Thrinacia," where he would often visit and stay with Lampetie, tending cattle and sheep . . .

There he would long for his father the charioteer divine ; made a wooden axle with skilful joinery, fitted on a sort of round wheel for his imitation car, fashioned yoke-straps, took three light withies from the flowering garden and plaited them into a lash, put unheardof bridles on four young rams. Then he made a clever imitation of the morning star round like a wheel, out of a bunch of white flowers, and fixed it in front of his spokewheeled waggon to show the shape of the star Lucifer. He set burning torches standing about his hair on every side, and mimicked his father with fictitious rays as he drove round and round the coast of the seagirt isle. youth, he often touched his father's fire, lifted with his little hand the hot yokestraps and the starry whip, busied himself with the wheel, stroked the horses' coats with snow-white hands — and so the playful boy enjoyed himself. With his right hand he touched the fireshotten bridle, mad with longing to manage the horses. Seated on his father's knees, he shed imploring tears, and begged for a run with of the Sun were, see Od, xii. 127 ; Lampetie was in charge ldvv€(,v ifJLov dpp.a, ro -rrtp fioyii rfvioxtvio.

the fiery chariot and heavenly horses. His father said no, but he only begged and prayed all the more with gracious pleading. Then the father said in affectionate words to his young son in the highfaring ask me another boon ; what have you to do with the chariot of the sky ? Let alone the course of horsemanship. You cannot attain it, for you cannot guide my car — I can hardly drive it myself ! Furious Ares never armed him with flaming thunderbolt, but he blares his tune with a trumpet, not with thunder. Hephaistos never collects his father's clouds ; he is not called Cloudgatherer like Cronion, but hammers his iron anvil in the forge, and pours artificial blasts of artificial wind. Apollo has a winged swan, not a running horse. Hermes keeps his rod and wears not his father's aegis, lifts not his father's fiery lightning. But you will say — " He gave Zagreus the flash of the thunderbolt." Yes, Zagreus held the thunderbolt, and came to his death ! Take good care, my child, that you too suffer not woes like his.

he prodded his father and wetted his tunic with hotter tears. He put out his hands and touched his father's fiery beard ; kneeling on the ground he bent his arched neck, pleading, and when the father saw, he pitied the boy. Clymene cried and begged too. Then although he knew in his heart the immovable inflexible spinnings of Fate, he consented regretful, and wiped with his tunic the rain of tears from the unsmiling face of sad Phaethon, and kissed the boy's lips while he said : irXriaas rjddSa firjva TcX€a f 6pov' ovS iroptlffw icoAAei a; dreXcarov dnlxTrepov otfAoy dfL€ifiut, kvkXov oXov TrXrjaaaa Go f w nvpi fJirjva. Xoxaki, " i.e. Saturn takes two and a half years to trai sign (30°), and therefore thirtj- years for the whole Zodiac " A line to this effect has perhaps been lost. The mMiitii is very odd : Saturn is " seventh," i . from the earth, b«l ' The sun (regarded by the Greeks as a planet) never l set in the circle of the rounded Zodiac, one close after another in a row, each separate ; through these alone is the inclined winding path of the restless planets rolling in their courses. All round these Cronos crawls from house to house on his heavy knees along the seventh zone upon the circle, until at last with difficulty he completes thirty circuits of returning Selene. On the sixth, quicker than his father, Zeus has his course opposite, and goes his round in a Hchtgang. By the third, fiery Ares passes [one sign that is, of the Zodiac ] in sixty days, near your father. I myself rise in the fourth, and traverse the whole sky garland-wise in my car, following the winding circles of the heavenly orbits. I carry the measures of time, surrounded by the four Seasons, about the same centre, until I have passed through a whole house and fulfilled one complete month as usual ; I never leave my journey unfinished and change to a backward course, nor do I go forward again ; since the other stars, the planets, in their various courses always run contrary ways : they check backwards, and go both to and fro ; when the measures of their way are half done they run back again, thus receiving on both sides my one-sided light." One of these planets is the horned moon whitening the sky ; when she has completed all her circuit, she brings forth with her wise fire the month, being at first half seen, then curved, then full moon with her whole face.

trogresses, as the other planets appear to do dvaaeipdCovres). As half the other planets (Including the moon) are above and half below him (on the geocentric theory), each of them gets his light from one side only. olarpov €;(ot9, icat vvooav 6pi'qd€a narpof idofji, " Where the moon cuts the ecliptic. The cooe b tiM conical shadow of the earth, but this of course b oa the iidt away from the sun. Nonnos Ls hopelcMly oonfiaaed. " The arctic, the two tropic, the equatorial and Ite antarctic circles. He must keep betwrrn the tropkiu imaginary parallel circles dra -n through the two ■iilAfcil points in Cancer and Capricorn, as these txnind the Against the moon I move my rolling ball, the sparkUng nourisher of sheafproducing growth, and pass on my endless circuit about the turning-point of the Zodiac, creating the measures of time. When I have completed one whole circle passing from house to house I bring off the lichtgang. Take care of the crossing-point itself," lest when you come close, rounding the cone of darkness with your car, it should steal all the light from your overshadowed chariot. And in your driving do not stray from the usual circuit of the course, or be tempted to leave your father's usual goal by looking at the five parallel circles with their multiple bond of long encompassing lines, or your horses may run away and carry you through the air out of your course. Do not, when you look about on the twelve circles ' as you cross them, hurry from house to house. When you are driving your car in the Ram, do not try to drive over the Bull. Do not seek for his neighbour, the Scorpion moving among the stars, the harbinger of the plowtree, when you are driving under the Balance, until you complete the thirty degrees.

thing. When I reach the Ram, the centre f of the universe, the navel-star of Olympos, I in my exaltation let the Spring increase ; and crossing the herald of the west wind, the turning-line which balances night equal with day, I guide the dewy course of that " An absurd inaccuracy for the 12 signs. beginning of the next is 30 degrees. What follows describes the Sun's yearly course through the Signs. f More absurdity ; Aries is the starting-point on the circle of the Zodiac, not the centre of anything. vipiTcvTjs napa vvaaav or ciV pofiov MO cvoi Season when the swallow comes. Passing into the lower house, opposite the Ram, I cast the hght of equal day on the two hooves ; and again I make day balanced equally with dark on my homeward course when I bring in the leafshaking course of the autumn Season, and drive with lesser light to the lower turningpoint in the leafshedding month. Then I bring winter for mankind with its rains, over the back of fishtailed Capricorn, that earth may bring forth her gifts full of life for the farmers, when she receives the bridal showers and the creative dew. I deck out also corntending summer the messenger of harvest, flogging the wheatbearing earth with hotter beams,, while I drive at the highest point of my course " in the Crab, who is right opposite to the cold Capricorn : both Nile and grapes together I make to grow.

side of Cerne, and take Lucifer as guide to lead the way for your car, and you will not go astray ; twelve circhng Hours ' in turn will direct your way.' on Phaethon's head and crowned him with his own fire, winding the seven rays like strings upon his hair, and put the white kilt girdlewise round him over his loins ; he clothed him in his own fiery robe and laced his foot into the purple boot, and gave his chariot to his son. The Seasons brought the fiery horses of Helios from their eastern manger ; Lucifer came boldly to the yoke, and fastened the horses' necks in the bright yokestraps for their service. ' The Sun has twelve minor hours attendant upon him, which are elsewhere assigned to the months, here clearly to the hours of the day. Kal Oae cuv a cVcAAci' 'EiuioH cutv) fiaimt , TTavrodi TTVpyiodiLGav xmwpo f ioiaiv arfnu 31A a0 dyaacipafovTos" lov poov €is coi' uScup.

Koi NoTtov TTapd T€pp.a KOX dpKTta vurra Sopijof him the reins to manage, shining reins and gleaming whip : he shook in trembhng silence, for he understood that his son had not long to Hve. Clymene his mother could be half seen near the shore," as she watched her dear son mounting the flaming car, and shook with joy. and Phaethon rose traversing the eastern ambit, after his bath in the waters of Oceanos his grandsire. The bold driver of brilliant horses, running on high, scanned the heavens dotted with the company of the stars, girdled about by the seven Zones ; he beheld the planets moving opposite, he saw the earth fixed in the middle like a centre, uplifted on tall cliffs and fortified on all sides by the winds in her caverns, he scanned the rivers, and the brows of Oceanos, driving back his own water into his own stream. the flood of stars, the diverse races of earth and the restless back of the sea, gazing round and round on the foundations of the infinite universe, the shining horses rolled along under the yoke over their usual course through the zodiac. Now inexperienced Phaethon with his fiery whip could be seen flogging the horses' necks ; they went wild shrinking under the goad of their merciless charioteer, and all unwilling they ran away over the limit of their ancient road beyond the mark of the zodiac, expecting a different call from their familiar driver. Then there was tumult along the bounds of the South and the back of the North Wind ; the quickfoot Seasons at the celestial fiTj Spaavs pLwv a€ KaTotcrtivtu fiaxfUfffl, irXayKTris 8 Imrocvvr) cti Sko, firfid at a co To$€irrfjpa, riraivofiairji dno vtvprjs Kal Kvvl a€LpidovTL Acwv Ppvxrjoaro Xaifup, gate wondered at the strange and unreal day, Dawn trembled, and star Lucifer cried out.

have you gone mad with reins in your hand ? Spare your headstrong lash ! Beware of these two companies— both planets and company of fixed stars, lest bold Orion kill you with his knife, lest ancient Bootes hit you with fiery cudgel. Spare this wild driving, and let not the Olympian Whale entomb you in his belly in high heaven ; let not the Lion tear you to pieces, or the Olympian Bull arch his neck and strike you with fiery horn ! Respect the Archer, or he may kill you with a firebarbed arrow from his drawn bowstring. Let there not be a second chaos, and the stars of heaven appear at the rising day, or erratic Dawn meet Selene at noonday in her car ! ' drawing his car aside to South, to North, close to the West, near to the East. There was tumult in the sky shaking the joints of the immovable universe : the very axle bent which runs through the middle of the port the selfrolling firmament of stars, as he rested on his knees with bowed back under this greater burden.

Now the Serpent scraped vdih his WTithing belly the equator far away from the Bear, and hissed as he met with the starry Bull ; the Lion roared out of his throat against the scorching Dog, heating the air with ravening fire, and stood boldly to attack the eight claws of the Crab with his shaggy hair bristling, while the heavenly Lion's thirsty tail flogged the Mrgin hard by " Leo lashed his tail so hard that it hit the nest his hind leg, and the winged Maiden darting past the Waggoner came near the pole and met the Wain. The Morning Star sent forth his straying light in the setting region of the West and pushed away the Evening Star who met him there. Dawn wandered about ; blazing Sirius grabbed the thirsty Bear instead of his usual Hare. The two starry Fishes left one the South and one the North, and leapt in Olympos near Aquarius ; the Dolphin danced in a ring and tumbled about with Capricorn. Scorpios also had wandered around from the southern path until he came near to Orion and touched his sword — Orion trembled even among the stars, lest he might creep up slowly and pierce his feet once again with a sharp sting." The Moon leapt up at midday, spitting off the half-completed light from her face and growing black on the surface, for she could no longer steal the counterfeit light from the male torch of Phaethon opposite and milk out his inborn flame.

The sevenstar voices of the Pleiades rang circling round the sevenzone sky with echoing sound ; the planets from as many throats raised an outcry and rushed wildly against them. Cypris pushed Zeus, Ares Cronos ; my own wandering star approached the Pleiad of Spring, and mingling a kindred light with the seven stars he rose halfseen beside my mother Maia — he turned away from the heavenly chariot, beside which he always runs or before it in the " When he was on earth, Orion was killed by the sting of a huge scorpion, and the two constellations commemorate this. engaged. There are six Pleiades, omitting the one (Electra) which is too dim to see clearly. dXXov aKovTiaa€i€v an ald pos, ola irol oiMr morning, and in the evening when Helios sets he sends liis following light, and because he keeps equal course with him and travels with equal portion, astronomers have named him the Sun's Heart. Europa's bridegroom the Olympian Bull bellowed, stretching his neck drenched with damp snowflakes ; he raised a foot curved for a run, and inclining his head sideways with its sharp horn against Phaethon, stamped on the heavenly vault with fiery hooves. Bold Orion drew sword from sheath hanging by his glowing thigh ; Bootes shook his cudgel ; Pegasos neighed rearing and shaking the knees of his starry legs — halfseen the Libyan courser trod the firmament with his foot and galloped towards the Swan his neighbour, angrily flapping his wings, that again he might send another rider hurtling down from the sky as he had once thrown Bellerophontes himself out of the heavenly vault. No longer the circling Bears danced back to back beside the northern turningpost on high ; but they passed to the south, and bathed their unwashen feet in the unfamiliar Ocean beside the western main.

a thunderbolt, and sent him rolling helplessly from on high into the stream of Eridanos. He fixed again the joints which held all together with their primeval union, gave back the horses to Helios, brought the heavenly chariot to the place of rising ; and the agile Hours that attended upon Phaethon followed their ancient course. All the earth laughed again. Rain from Hfebreeding Zeus cleared all the fields, and with moist showers quenched the wandering fires, all that of the heavenly horse, here called Pegasos. ota rrdXiv TToOewv kcu €v darpaatv apfia roir of . the glowing horses had spat whinnying from their flaming throats out of the sky over all the earth. Helios rose driving his car on his road again ; the crops grew, the orchards laughed again, receiving as of yore the life-giving warmth from the sky. like a Charioteer, and bearing that name. As he holds in the radiant Chariot of the heavens with shining arm, he has the shape of a Charioteer starting upon his course, as if even among the stars he longed again for his father's car. The fire-scorched river also came up to the vault of the stars with consent of Zeus, and in the starry circle rolls the meandering stream of burning Eridanos," the weeping trees they distil precious dew out of 'Ev he rpiriKoarw evarat fura tcvfiara Xtvaatit ddfiPee Koi Oac oin-a Sc&otmara, ttw napa KcAro