§6.82Non expectata vulnus ab hoste tuli. §6.83Nec facie meritisque placet, sed carmina novit §6.84Diraque cantata pabula falce metit. §6.85Illa reluctantem cursu deducere lunam §6.86Nititur et tenebris abdere solis equos; §6.87Illa refrenat aquas obliquaque flumina sistit; §6.88Illa loco silvas vivaque saxa movet. §6.89Per tumulos errat passis discincta capillis §6.90Certaque de tepidis colligit ossa rogis. §6.91Devovet absentis simulacraque cerea figit, §6.92Et miserum tenuis in iecur urget acus — §6.93Et quae nescierim melius.
I, not expecting it, received a wound from an enemy. She does not please by her beauty or her merits, but she knows magic songs, and she reaps dire herbs with her enchanted sickle. She strives to draw down the struggling moon from its course and to hide the horses of the sun in darkness; she restrains the waters and stops the winding rivers; she moves forests and living rocks from their places. She wanders among tombs with disheveled hair and ungirt robes, and gathers specific bones from warm funeral pyres. She curses the absent, pierces waxen images, and drives fine needles into the wretched liver — and things which I had better not know.
male quaeritur herbis §6.94Moribus et forma conciliandus amor. §6.95Hanc potes amplecti thalamoque relictus in uno §6.96Inpavidus somno nocte silente frui? §6.97Scilicet ut tauros, ita te iuga ferre coegit §6.98Quaque feros anguis, te quoque mulcet ope. §6.99Adde, quod adscribi factis procerumque tuisque §6.100Sese avet, et titulo coniugis uxor obest. §6.101Atque aliquis Peliae de partibus acta venenis §6.102Inputat et populum, qui sibi credat, habet: §6.103'Non haec Aesonides, sed Phasias Aeetine §6.104Aurea Phrixeae terga revellit ovis. ' §6.105Non probat Alcimede mater tua — consule matrem — §6.106Non pater, a gelido cui venit axe nurus. §6.107Illa sibi a Tanai Scythiaeque paludibus udae §6.108Quaerat et a ripa Phasidos usque virum! §6.109Mobilis Aesonide vernaque incertior aura, §6.110Cur tua polliciti pondere verba carent? §6.111Vir meus hinc ieras: cur non meus inde redisti? §6.112Sim reducis coniunx, sicut euntis eram! §6.113Si te nobilitas generosaque nomina tangunt — §6.114En, ego Minoo nata Thoante feror! §6.115Bacchus avus; Bacchi coniunx redimita corona §6.116Praeradiat stellis signa minora suis. §6.117Dos tibi Lemnos erit, terra ingeniosa colenti; §6.118Me quoque dotalis inter habere potes. §6.119Nunc etiam peperi; gratare ambobus, Iason! §6.120Dulce mihi gravidae fecerat auctor onus. §6.121Felix in numero quoque sum prolemque gemellam, §6.122Pignora Lucina bina favente dedi. §6.123Si quaeris, cui sint similes, cognosceris illis. §6.124Fallere non norunt; cetera patris habent. §6.125Legatos quos paene dedi pro matre ferendos; §6.126Sed tenuit coeptas saeva noverca vias. §6.127Medeam timui: plus est Medea noverca; §6.128Medeae faciunt ad scelus omne manus. §6.129Spargere quae fratris potuit lacerata per agros §6.130Corpora, pignoribus parceret illa meis? §6.131Hanc tamen o demens Colchisque ablate venenis, §6.132Diceris Hypsipyles praeposuisse toro. §6.133Turpiter illa virum cognovit adultera virgo; §6.134Me tibi teque mihi taeda pudica dedit. §6.135Prodidit illa patrem; rapui de clade Thoanta. §6.136Deseruit Colchos; me mea Lemnos habet. §6.137Quid refert, scelerata piam si vincet et ipso §6.138Crimine dotata est emeruitque virum? §6.139Lemniadum facinus culpo, non miror, Iason; §6.140Quamlibet ignavis iste dat arma dolor. §6.141Dic age, si ventis, ut oportuit, actus iniquis §6.142Intrasses portus tuque comesque meos, §6.143Obviaque exissem fetu comitante gemello — §6.144Hiscere nempe tibi terra roganda fuit! — §6.145Quo vultu natos, quo me, scelerate, videres? §6.146Perfidiae pretio qua nece dignus eras? §6.147Ipse quidem per me tutus sospesque fuisses — §6.148Non quia tu dignus, sed quia mitis ego. §6.149Paelicis ipsa meos inplessem sanguine vultus, §6.150Quosque veneficiis abstulit illa suis! §6.151Medeae Medea forem! quodsi quid ab alto
Love is badly sought by herbs, which ought to be won by character and beauty. Can you embrace this woman, and left alone in one bedchamber, fearlessly enjoy sleep in the silent night? Of course, just as she forced the bulls, so she forced you to bear the yoke, and with the same power by which she pacifies wild serpents, she pacifies you too. Add, too, that she longs to be inscribed in the deeds of the heroes and in yours, and that the wife stands in the way of her husband's glory. And someone from Pelias' party attributes your deeds to her poisons, and has a populace that believes him: 'Not the son of Aeson, but the Phasian daughter of Aeetes tore away the golden fleece of Phrixus' sheep.' Your mother Alcimede does not approve — consult your mother — nor does your father, whose daughter-in-law comes from the frozen pole. Let her seek a husband for herself from the Tanais and the marshes of wet Scythia and even from the banks of the Phasis! Fickle son of Aeson, more uncertain than a spring breeze, why do your words lack the weight of a promise? You departed hence as my husband; why did you not return thence as mine? Let me be the wife of the returning one, just as I was of the departing one! If noble birth and generous names touch you — behold, I am said to be born of Minoan Thoas! Bacchus is my grandfather; the wife of Bacchus, crowned with her wreath, outshines the lesser constellations with her stars. Lemnos will be your dowry, a land fertile for the cultivator; you can also have me among the dowry's possessions. Now I have even given birth; congratulate us both, Jason! The author of my pregnancy had made the burden sweet to me. I am fortunate in their number too, and have given twin offspring, two pledges, with Lucina's favor. If you ask whom they resemble, you are recognized in them. They do not know how to deceive; in other things they take after their father. I almost sent them as messengers to be carried on their mother's behalf; but a cruel stepmother stopped the journey they had begun. I feared Medea: Medea is more than a stepmother; Medea's hands are fit for every crime. She who could scatter the torn body of her brother over the fields, would she spare my children? Yet you, O madman, swept away by Colchian poisons, are said to have preferred this woman to Hypsipyle's bed. She knew her man shamefully as an adulterous virgin; a modest marriage torch gave me to you, and you to me. She betrayed her father; I snatched Thoas from destruction. She deserted Colchis; my Lemnos holds me. What does it matter, if the wicked woman conquers the pious one, is dowered by crime itself, and has won her husband? I blame the deed of the Lemnian women, Jason, but I do not wonder at it; such grief gives weapons to even the most cowardly. Come say, if driven by unfavorable winds, as you should have been, you and your companion had entered my harbors, and I had gone out to meet you with our twin children — surely you would have had to ask the earth to open up for you! — with what face would you have looked at your sons, with what face at me, wicked man? By what death were you worthy of the reward of your perfidy? You yourself indeed would have been safe and sound through me — not because you are worthy, but because I am merciful. I myself would have filled my sight with the blood of your mistress, and the face which she snatched away by her sorceries! I would have been a Medea to Medea!
§6.152Iustus adest votis Iuppiter ille meis, §6.153Quod gemit Hypsipyle, lecti quoque subnuba nostri §6.154Maereat et leges sentiat ipsa suas; §6.155Utque ego destituor coniunx materque duorum, §6.156A totidem natis orba sit illa viro! §6.157Nec male parta diu teneat peiusque relinquat — §6.158Exulet et toto quaerat in orbe fugam! §6.159Quam fratri germana fuit miseroque parenti §6.160Filia, tam natis, tam sit acerba viro! §6.161Cum mare, cum terras consumpserit, aera temptet; §6.162Erret inops, exspes, caede cruenta sua! §6.163Haec ego, coniugio fraudata Thoantias oro. §6.164Vivite, devoto nuptaque virque toro!
But if from on high just Jupiter lends any ear to my prayers, may she who supplants our bed also mourn what Hypsipyle groans for, and may she herself feel her own laws; and as I am abandoned, a wife and mother of two, may she be bereaved of as many children and of her husband! Nor may she long hold what was badly acquired, and may she leave it worse — let her go into exile and seek flight throughout the whole world! As she was a sister to her brother and a daughter to her wretched parent, so may she be bitter to her children, so to her husband! When she has exhausted the sea and the lands, let her try the air; let her wander helpless, hopeless, bloody with her own slaughter! These things I pray, the daughter of Thoas defrauded of marriage. Live on, wife and husband, in your cursed bed!