§39.10.1haec amoris pignora cum essent, nec quicquam secretum alter ab altero haberent, per iocum adulescens vetat eam mirari, si per aliquot noctes secubuisset: §39.10.2religionis se causa, ut voto pro valetudine sua facto liberetur, Bacchis initiari velle.
Since these were proofs of their love, and they had no secrets from each other, the young man, in jest, told her not to wonder if he should sleep apart from her for a few nights: saying that for religious reasons, in order to be released from the vow made for his recovery, he wished to be initiated into the rites of Bacchus.
id ubi mulier audivit, perturbata “dii meliora!” inquit: mori et sibi et illi satius esse quam id faceret; et in caput eorum detestari minas periculaque, qui id suasissent.
When the woman heard this, she cried out in agitation, "May the gods grant better things! It would be better for both you and me to die than for you to do that"; and she invoked curses, with all their threats and dangers, upon the heads of those who had advised it.
§39.10.3admiratus cum verba tum perturbationem tantam adulescens parcere exsecrationibus iubet: matrem id sibi adsentiente vitrico imperasse.
The young man, wondering both at her words and at such great agitation, ordered her to spare her curses, saying that his mother, with his stepfather's consent, had commanded this of him.
“vitricus ergo” inquit “tuus — §39.10.4matrem enim insimulare forsitan fas non sit — pudicitiam famam spem vitamque tuam perditum ire hoc facto properat. ” §39.10.5eo magis mirabundo quaerentique, quid rei esset, pacem veniamque precata deorum dearumque, si coacta caritate eius silenda enuntiasset, ancillam se ait dominae comitem id sacrarium intrasse, liberam numquam eo accessisse.
"Your stepfather, then," she said, "— for perhaps it would not be right to accuse your mother — is hastening, by this act, to ruin your chastity, reputation, hope, and life." When he, wondering all the more, asked what the matter was, she first prayed for the peace and pardon of the gods and goddesses, if, compelled by her love for him, she should disclose secrets; then she said that she, as a slave girl, had entered that sanctuary as a companion to her mistress, but as a free woman she had never approached it.
§39.10.6scire corruptelarum omnis generis eam officinam esse; et iam biennio constare neminem initiatum ibi maiorem annis viginti.
She said she knew that place to be a workshop of all kinds of corruption; and that for two years now it was well known that no one older than twenty years had been initiated there.
§39.10.7ut quisque introductus sit, velut victimam tradi sacerdotibus.
As soon as anyone was introduced, he was handed over to the priests like a sacrificial victim.
eos deducere in locum, qui circumsonet ululatibus cantuque symphoniae et cymbalorum et tympanorum pulsu, ne vox quiritantis, cum per vim stuprum inferatur, exaudiri possit.
They led them to a place that resounded with wailings, the sound of music, and the beating of cymbals and drums, so that the voice of anyone crying out for help, when violation was being committed by force, could not be heard.
§39.10.8orare inde atque obsecrare, ut eam rem quocumque modo discuteret nec se eo praecipitaret, ubi omnia infanda patienda primum, deinde facienda essent.
She then begged and implored him to break off this matter in any way possible and not to plunge himself headlong into a place where all kinds of unspeakable abominations must first be suffered, and then committed.
§39.10.9neque ante dimisit eum, quam fidem dedit adulescens ab his sacris se temperaturum.
And she did not let him go until the young man gave his promise that he would keep away from these rites.