Singing Match between Daphnis and Menalcas

Daphnis the graceful met as he was herding cattle, while pasturing sheep, as they say, along the long mountains, Menalcas.

Both indeed were red-haired, both young, both skilled in playing the pipe, both skilled in singing.

Then indeed Menalcas, looking at Daphnis, first spoke: "Daphnis, guardian of lowing cattle, do you wish to sing with me?

I say that I will defeat you, by as much as I wish when singing myself." And Daphnis then answered him with such a speech: "Menalcas, piper, shepherd of woolly sheep, never will you defeat me, not even if you should suffer anything in singing." "Do you wish then to see this?

Do you wish to lay down a prize?" "I wish to see this, I wish to lay down a prize." "And what shall we set, who would be sufficient for us?" "I shall set a calf; and you set a lamb of equal size to its mother." "I shall never set a lamb, since my father is harsh and my mother too, and they count all the sheep in the evening." "But what then will you set?

And what more will the winner have?" "I made a beautiful pipe with nine tones, having white wax, equal below, equal above; this I would set, but the things of my father I will not set." "Indeed, I too have a pipe with nine tones, having white wax, equal below, equal above.

I joined it just the other day; still I pain even this finger of mine, since a split reed cut me." "But who will judge us?

Who will be our listener?" "How if we call that goatherd here, at whose kids the white-spotted dog is barking?" And the boys shouted, and the goatherd came to listen.

And the boys sang, and the goatherd was willing to judge.

Then Menalcas, having drawn the lot, first sang loudly, and then Daphnis took up the responsive song.

"Valleys and rivers, divine race, if ever Menalcas the piper sang a beloved melody, nourish the lambs from your heart; and if ever Daphnis comes with his heifers, let him have no less." "Springs and pastures, sweet vegetation, if indeed like the nightingales Daphnis makes music, fatten this herd; and if ever Menalcas leads his flock here, may he, rejoicing, pasture all in abundance." "There are sheep, there are goats bearing twins, there bees fill hives, and oaks are taller, where the beautiful Milon walks; but if he departs, both the shepherd there is withered and the pastures." "Everywhere is spring, everywhere pastures, everywhere milk fills udders, and the young are nourished, where the beautiful girl visits; but if she departs, both the one pasturing the cattle and the cattle are drier." "O he-goat, husband of the white goats, where the depth of the forest is infinite, (O flat-nosed kids, come here for water;) for in that place is he; go, O stump-tailed one, and say: 'Milon, Proteus even though being a god pastured seals.'" "May it not be mine to have the land of Pelops, nor golden talents, nor to run faster than the winds; but under this rock I shall sing, holding you in my arms, looking at our grazing flock together, and out toward the Sicilian sea." "To trees winter is a fearful evil, to waters drought, to birds the trap, to wild beasts nets, and to man the desire for a tender maiden.

O father Zeus, I am not the only one who loved; you too are a lover of women." These things indeed the boys sang in alternating verses; and the final song Menalcas thus began: "Spare the kids, spare my breeding mothers, wolf, nor wrong me, because being small I accompany many." "O Lampurus, dog, does such deep sleep possess you?

It is not right to sleep deeply when herding with a young master." "And you, sheep, do not hesitate to satisfy yourselves with tender grass; you will not tire of it, when it grows back again.

Sitta, feed, feed, and fill all your udders, so that the lambs may have some, and I may store some in cheese-baskets." Daphnis next in turn began to sing sweetly: "For me too yesterday from the cave a maiden with meeting eyebrows, seeing me pasturing heifers, said I was beautiful, very beautiful; indeed I did not even answer her with a word, not even a bitter one, but looking down I went along our way." "Sweet is the voice of the heifer, sweet its breath; and sweet in summer to sleep in the open air by flowing water." "To the oak acorns are an ornament, to the apple-tree apples, to the cow the calf, and to the herdsman the cattle themselves." Thus the boys sang, and the goatherd spoke thus: "Sweet is your mouth and desirable your voice, O Daphnis.

It is better to hear you singing than to lick honey.

Take the pipe; for you have won in singing.

And if you wish to teach me also as I pasture goats, I shall give you that hornless goat as your teaching-fee, which always fills the milk-pail above the brim." How the boy rejoiced, and leaped up and clapped his hands having won, as a fawn might leap beside its mother.

And how the other was consumed and cast down in his heart with grief, as a bride being married might be grieved.

And from this time Daphnis became first among the shepherds, and while still in early youth he married the Naiad Nymph.