I congratulate Oechalia on being added to our titles; I complain that the victor has succumbed to the vanquished.
§9.3Fama Pelasgiadas subito pervenit in urbes §9.4Decolor et factis infitianda tuis, §9.5Quem numquam Iuno seriesque inmensa laborum §9.6Fregerit, huic Iolen inposuisse iugum.
A rumor has suddenly reached the Pelasgian cities, shameful and to be denied by your deeds, that he whom Juno and an immense series of labors could never break, on him Iole has imposed a yoke.
§9.7Hoc velit Eurystheus, velit hoc germana Tonantis, §9.8Laetaque sit vitae labe noverca tuae; §9.9At non ille, brevis cui nox — si creditur — una §9.10Luctanti, ut tantus conciperere, fuit.
Eurystheus would wish this, the sister of the Thunderer would wish this, and your stepmother would be glad at the stain of your life; but not he, for whom — if it is believed — one single short night was not enough as he struggled that you, so great, might be conceived.
§9.11Plus tibi quam Iuno, nocuit Venus: illa premendo §9.12Sustulit, haec humili sub pede colla tenet.
Venus has harmed you more than Juno; the latter, by pressing you down, raised you, while the former holds your neck under her low foot.
Look back upon the world pacified by your avenging strength, wherever blue Nereus surrounds the broad earth.
To you the peace of the earth, to you the safe seas owe themselves; you have filled both houses of the sun with your merits.
The heaven which is to bear you, you yourself bore first; Atlas stood firm under the stars with Hercules placed beneath them.
What is it but notoriety sought for your wretched shame, if you crown your former deeds with a disgraceful mark?
Do they say that you tightly squeezed the twin snakes, when, a tender babe in the cradle, you were already worthy of Jupiter?
You began better than you end; the last things yield to the first; this man and that boy are unlike.
He whom a thousand beasts, whom the host of Sthenelus' son, whom Juno could not conquer, love conquers.
§9.27At bene nupta feror, quia nominer Herculis uxor, §9.28Sitque socer, rapidis qui tonat altus equis.
Yet I am said to be well married because I am named the wife of Hercules, and have a father-in-law who thunders high with his swift horses.
As poorly as unequal young bulls come to the plow, so is the lesser bride pressed down by her great husband.
It is not an honor but a burden, a beauty that will harm the bearer; if you wish to marry fitly, marry your equal.
§9.33Vir mihi semper abest, et coniuge notior hospes, §9.34Monstraque terribiles persequiturque feras.
My husband is always away, and a stranger is better known to me than my spouse, and he pursues monsters and terrible beasts.
§9.35Ipsa domo vidua votis operata pudicis §9.36Torqueor, infesto ne vir ab hoste cadat; §9.37Inter serpentes aprosque avidosque leones §9.38Iactor et haesuros terna per ora canes.
I myself in a widowed house, occupied with chaste prayers, am tortured lest my husband should fall by a hostile foe; among serpents and boars and greedy lions I am tossed, and dogs that will cling with triple mouths.
The entrails of beasts and the empty phantoms of sleep and omens sought in the secret night disturb me.
Unhappy, I catch at the whispers of uncertain rumor, and fear falls with doubtful hope, and hope falls with fear.
§9.43Mater abest queriturque deo placuisse potenti, §9.44Nec pater Amphitryon nec puer Hyllus adest; §9.45Arbiter Eurystheus astu Iunonis iniquae §9.46Sentitur nobis iraque longa deae.
My mother is away and complains that she pleased a powerful god, neither father Amphitryon nor my boy Hyllus is present; the arbiter Eurystheus, by the craft of unjust Juno, is felt by us, and the long wrath of the goddess.
Is it too little for me to bear these things? You add foreign loves, and any mother at all can be made by you.
§9.49Non ego Partheniis temeratam vallibus Augen, §9.50Nec referam partus, Ormeni nympha, tuos; §9.51Non tibi crimen erunt, Teuthrantia turba, sorores, §9.52Quarum de populo nulla relicta tibi est.
I will not speak of Auge defiled in the Parthenian valleys, nor of your offspring, nymph of Ormenus; the sisters of the Teuthrantian crowd will not be a charge against you, of whose multitude not one was left untouched by you.
One, a recent crime, is reported as an adulteress to us, whence I have been made a stepmother to Lydian Lamus.
§9.55Maeandros, terris totiens errator in isdem, §9.56Qui lassas in se saepe retorquet aquas, §9.57Vidit in Herculeo suspensa monilia collo §9.58Illo, cui caelum sarcina parva fuit.
The Meander, a wanderer so many times in the same lands, which often turns back its tired waters into itself, saw necklaces hanging on the neck of Hercules — that neck for which the sky was a light burden.
Were you not ashamed to bind your strong arms with gold, and to place gems upon your solid muscles?
Indeed, under these arms the Nemean pest yielded its life, whence your left shoulder has its covering!
§9.63Ausus es hirsutos mitra redimire capillos!
You dared to bind your rough hair with a ribbon!
§9.64Aptior Herculeae populus alba comae.
The white poplar is more fitting for the hair of Hercules.
And do you not think it disgraced you, in the manner of a wanton Lydian girl, to be girt with a sash?
Does not the image of cruel Diomedes come to your mind, who fiercely fed his mares on human banquets?
If Busiris had seen you in that dress, you, the victor, would surely have been a cause of shame to him, the vanquished.
Let Antaeus pull off the ribbons from your hard neck, lest he should regret having succumbed to an effeminate man.
Among the Ionian girls you are said to have held the wool-basket and to have dreaded the threats of a mistress.
§9.75Non fugis, Alcide, victricem mille laborum §9.76Rasilibus calathis inposuisse manum, §9.77Crassaque robusto deducis pollice fila, §9.78Aequaque famosae pensa rependis erae?
Do you not shrink, Alcides, from placing the hand that conquered a thousand labors upon smooth wool-baskets, and do you draw out thick threads with your strong thumb, and return the weighed task to your famous mistress?
Ah, how often, while you twist the threads with your hard fingers, did your too powerful hands crush the spindles!
§9.81Ante pedes dominae
Before the feet of your mistress...