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Lucian · Dialogues of The Sea-Gods §10.1-10.2

Xanthus Seeking Refuge with the Sea from Hephaestus

Passage 10 of 15 · Greek

Summary

Xanthus, boiled and burned by Hephaestus, seeks refuge with the Sea (Thalassa) and explains the situation. The Sea defends Hephaestus's intervention, noting that Xanthus had attacked her grandson Achilles.

§10.1ΞΑΝΘΟΣ Δέξαι με, ὦ θάλασσα, δεινὰ πεπονθότα καὶ κατάσβεσόν μου τὰ τραύματα.
XANTHUS Receive me, O Sea, who have suffered terrible things, and quench my wounds.
ΘΑΛΑΣΣΑ Τί τοῦτο, ὦ Ξάνθε;
THALASSA What is this, Xanthus?
τίς σε κατέκαυσεν;
Who burned you up?
ΞΑΝΘΟΣ Ὁ Ἥφαιστος.
XANTHUS Hephaestus.
ἀλλ’ ἀπηνθράκωμαι ὅλος ὁ κακοδαίμων καὶ ζέω.
I, wretched one, am completely turned to charcoal and am boiling.
ΘΑΛΑΣΣΑ Διὰ τί δαί σοι καὶ ἐνέβαλε τὸ πῦρ;
THALASSA And why indeed did he cast fire upon you?
ΞΑΝΘΟΣ Διὰ τὸν ταύτης υἱὸν τῆς Θέτιδος· ἐπεὶ γὰρ φονεύοντα τοὺς Φρύγας ἱκετεύσας οὐκ ἔπαυσα τῆς ὀργῆς, ἀλλ’ ὑπὸ τῶν νεκρῶν ἐνέφραττέ μοι τὸν ῥοῦν, ἐλεήσας τοὺς ἀθλίους ἐπῆλθον ἐπικλύσαι ἐθέλων, ὡς φοβηθεὶς ἀπόσχοιτο τῶν ἀνδρῶν.
XANTHUS On account of the son of this Thetis here; for when he was slaughtering the Phrygians and I, having implored him, did not make him cease from his anger, but he kept blocking my stream with the corpses, I, having pitied the wretched men, came upon him wishing to flood him out, so that he, having become afraid, might hold back from the men.
§10.2ΞΑΝΘΟΣ ἐνταῦθα ὁ Ἥφαιστος—ἔτυχε γὰρ πλησίον που ὤν—πᾶν οἶμαι ὅσον ἐν τῇ καμίνῳ πῦρ εἶχεν καὶ ὅσον ἐν τῇ Αἴτνῃ φέρων ἐπῆλθέ μοι, καὶ ἔκαυσε μὲν τὰς πτελέας μου καὶ μυρίκας, ὤπτησε δὲ καὶ τοὺς κακοδαίμονας ἰχθῦς καὶ τὰς ἐγχέλεις, αὐτὸν δὲ ἐμὲ ὑπερκαχλάσαι ποιήσας μικροῦ δεῖν ὅλον ξηρὸν εἴργασται.
XANTHUS Then Hephaestus—for he happened to be somewhere near—brought, I think, all the fire he had in his furnace and all that was in Etna and came upon me, and he burned my elms and tamarisks, and roasted the wretched fish and eels, and, having made me myself boil over, has made me almost entirely dry.
ὁρᾷς γοῦν ὅπως διάκειμαι ἀπὸ τῶν ἐγκαυμάτων.
At any rate, you see how I am situated from the burns.
ΘΑΛΑΣΣΑ Θολερός, ὦ Ξάνθε, καὶ θερμός, ὡς εἰκός, τὸ αἷμα μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν νεκρῶν, ἡ θέρμη δέ, ὡς φῄς, ἀπὸ τοῦ πυρός·
THALASSA Turbid, Xanthus, and hot, as is natural; the blood is from the corpses, and the heat, as you say, from the fire.
καὶ εἰκότως, ὦ Ξάνθε, ὃς ἐπὶ τὸν ἐμὸν υἱωνὸν ὥρμησας οὐκ αἰδεσθεὶς ὅτι Νηρεΐδος υἱὸς ἦν.
And with good reason, Xanthus, you who rushed against my grandson, not respecting that he was the son of a Nereid.
ΞΑΝΘΟΣ Οὐκ ἔδει οὖν ἐλεῆσαι γείτονας ὄντας τοὺς Φρύγας;
XANTHUS Was it not necessary then to pity the Phrygians, who are my neighbors?
ΘΑΛΑΣΣΑ Τὸν Ἥφαιστον δὲ οὐκ ἔδει ἐλεῆσαι Θέτιδος υἱὸν ὄντα τὸν Ἀχιλλέα;
THALASSA And was it not necessary for Hephaestus to pity Achilles, who is the son of Thetis?

Notes

  1. 317ταύτης ... τῆς Θέτιδος — The demonstrative pronoun ταύτης modifies the noun phrase τῆς Θέτιδος in a hyperbaton, enclosing υἱόν. Here, ταύτης indicates either that Thetis is nearby or is spoken of with immediate familiarity in relation to the Sea.
  2. 317φονεύοντα ... οὐκ ἔπαυσα τῆς ὀργῆς — The active verb ἔπαυσα ('I made [someone] cease') is transitive, and its direct object (Achilles in the accusative) is omitted. The present participle φονεύοντα ('slaughtering') modifies this omitted accusative object, while the nominative participle ἱκετεύσας ('having implored') agrees with the subject (Xanthus) in a concessive sense ('although I implored him').
  3. 10.2μικροῦ δεῖν — An idiomatic expression containing the infinitive of the impersonal verb δεῖ, which functions adverbially to mean 'almost' or 'all but', modifying the following perfect verb εἴργασται.
  4. 318ὃς ... ὥρμησας — Although the relative pronoun ὃς is third person singular in form, its antecedent is second person singular ('you'), and thus the verb in the relative clause agrees in the second person singular aorist indicative (ὥρμησας).

Cite this passage

Lucian, Dialogues of The Sea-Gods §10.1-10.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg067.humanitext-grc3:10.1-10.2

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