§3.21.1ἔδει δὲ ἄρα καὶ τοῦτον ἄνθρωπον ὄντα μὴ πάντα διευτυχεῖν, ἀλλʼ ἀπολαῦσαί τι τοῦ φθονεροῦ δαίμονος, ὃς αὐτὸν ἐκ μικροῦ μέγαν ἐν ὀλίγῳ θεὶς χρόνῳ καὶ εἰς ἐπιφάνειαν θαυμαστὴν καὶ παράδοξον ἐξάρας κατέβαλε φέρων αὐθημερὸν εἰς ἄχαριν συμφορὰν ἀδελφοκτόνον.
Yet it was after all necessary for this man also, since he was but human, not to be prosperous in all things, but to taste something of the envious deity, who, having made him great from a small beginning in a short time and raised him to a wonderful and unexpected distinction, cast him down on the very same day, bringing him into the miserable calamity of slaying his sibling.
§3.21.2ὡς γὰρ ἐγγὺς ἐγένετο τῶν πυλῶν, ἄλλον τε ὄχλον ὁρᾷ παντοδαπὸν ἐκχεόμενον ἐκ τῆς πόλεως καὶ δὴ καὶ τὴν ἀδελφὴν προστρέχουσαν· διαταραχθεὶς δὲ κατὰ τὴν πρώτην ὄψιν, ὅτι καταλιποῦσα τὴν μετὰ μητρὸς οἰκουρίαν παρθένος ἐπίγαμος εἰς ὄχλον αὑτὴν ἔδωκεν ἀγνῶτα, καὶ πολλοὺς λαμβάνων λογισμοὺς ἀτόπους τελευτῶν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἐπιεικεῖς καὶ φιλανθρώπους ἀπέκλινεν, ὡς ἀσπάσασθαί τε πρώτη τὸν σωθέντα ἀδελφὸν ποθοῦσα καὶ τὰς ἀρετὰς τῶν τεθνηκότων παρʼ αὐτοῦ μαθεῖν βουλομένη τῶν εὐσχημόνων ὑπερίδοι γυναικεῖόν τι πάσχουσα.
For as he drew near to the gates, he saw a diverse crowd of all sorts pouring out of the city, and in particular his sister running toward him; and though he was disturbed at the first sight, because a maiden of marriageable age, leaving her domestic life with her mother, had thrown herself into a crowd of strangers, and though he entertained many strange thoughts, in the end he inclined toward the mild and charitable ones, supposing that she, longing to be the first to greet her surviving brother and wishing to learn from him the brave deeds of the deceased, had overlooked the rules of decorum, affected by some womanly emotion.
§3.21.3ἡ δὲ ἄρα οὐ τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς ποθοῦσα τὰς ἀσυνήθεις ἐτόλμησεν ἐξελθεῖν ὁδούς, ἀλλʼ ἔρωτι κρατουμένη τῶν ἀνεψιῶν ἑνός, ᾧ καθωμολόγητο ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐπὶ γάμῳ, καὶ κρύπτουσα τὸ πάθος ἀπόρρητον ἐπειδὴ τῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ στρατοπέδου τινὸς ἤκουσεν ἀπαγγέλλοντος τὰ περὶ τὴν μάχην, οὐκέτι κατέσχεν, ἀλλʼ ἐκλιποῦσα τὴν οἰκίαν ὥσπερ αἱ μαινάδες ἐφέρετο πρὸς τὰς πύλας οὐδὲν ἐπιστρεφομένη τῆς ἀνακαλούσης τε καὶ μεταδιωκούσης τροφοῦ.
But she, as it turned out, was not longing for her brothers when she dared to go out into the unaccustomed streets, but being mastered by love for one of her cousins, to whom she had been betrothed by her father for marriage; and keeping her passion secret, when she heard someone from the camp reporting the events of the battle, she could no longer contain herself, but leaving the house, she rushed toward the gates like the maenads, paying no attention to her nurse who was calling her back and pursuing after her.
§3.21.4ἔξω δὲ γενομένη τῆς πόλεως ὡς τὸν ἀδελφὸν εἶδε περιχαρῆ· τοὺς ἐπινικίους ἐπικείμενον στεφάνους, οἷς αὐτὸν ὁ βασιλεὺς ἀνέδησε, καὶ τοὺς ἑταίρους αὐτοῦ φέροντας τὰ τῶν πεφονευμένων σκῦλα, ἐν οἷς ἦν πέπλος ποικίλος, ὃν αὐτὴ μετὰ τῆς μητρὸς ἐξυφήνασα τῷ μνηστῆρι δῶρον εἰς τὸν μέλλοντα γάμον ἀπεστάλκει ʽποικίλους γὰρ ἔθος ἐστὶν ἀμφιέννυσθαι. πέπλους Λατίνων τοῖς μετιοῦσι τὰς νύμφασʼ, τοῦτον δὴ τὸν πέπλον θεασαμένη πεφυρμένον αἵματι τόν τε χιτῶνα κατερρήξατο καὶ ταῖς χερσὶν ἀμφοτέραις παίουσα τὸ στῆθος ἐθρήνει καὶ ἀνεκαλεῖτο τὸν ἀνεψιόν, ὥστε πολλὴν κατάπληξιν εἰσελθεῖν ἅπαντας ὅσοι κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν ἦσαν τόπον.
When she was outside the city, and saw her brother overjoyed, wearing the triumphal crowns with which the king had bound his head, and his companions carrying the spoils of the slain, among which was an embroidered robe which she herself, having woven it with her mother, had sent to her betrothed as a gift for their future marriage (for it is the custom of the Latins for those who go to fetch their brides to be arrayed in embroidered robes)—beholding this robe defiled with blood, she tore her tunic, and beating her breast with both her hands, she lamented and called upon her cousin, so that great consternation seized everyone who was in the same place.
§3.21.5ἀνακλαυσαμένη δὲ τὸν μόρον τοῦ μνηστῆρος ἀτενέσι τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς εἰς τὸν ἀδελφὸν ὁρᾷ καὶ λέγει· μιαρώτατε ἄνθρωπε, χαίρεις ἀποκτείνας τοὺς ἀνεψιοὺς κἀμὲ τὴν παναθλίαν ἀδελφὴν ἀποστερήσας γάμου, ὦ δύστηνες3 ἀλλʼ οὐδʼ ἔλεος εἰσέρχεταί σε τῶν ἀπολωλότων συγγενῶν, οὓς ἀδελφοὺς ἐκάλεις, ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ ἀγαθόν τι διαπεπραγμένος ἐξέστηκας τῶν φρενῶν ὑπὸ τῆς ἡδονῆς καὶ στεφάνους ἐπὶ τοῖς τοιούτοις ἐπίκεισαι κακοῖς τίνος ἔχων ψυχὴν θηρίου;
Having lamented the fate of her betrothed, she looked at her brother with fixed eyes and said: "Most polluted of men, do you rejoice in having slain your cousins and in having deprived me, your most wretched sister, of marriage, O wretched man? Does not even pity for your perished kinsmen, whom you used to call brothers, enter your mind, but as if you had performed some good deed, you are out of your senses with pleasure and wear crowns upon such calamities? Possessing the soul of what beast do you do this?"