Shall the captive Iole give brothers to my children, and shall a daughter-in-law spun from a slave-woman spin for Jupiter?
Will flame and torrent speed on their courses together, and the dry Bear drink of the blue sea?
I shall not go unavenged: though you have borne the heavens and the whole world owes its peace to you.
§284est aliquid hydra peius: iratae dolor
There is something worse than the hydra: the grief of an angry wife.
What fire of burning Aetna rages so greatly into heaven? Whatever was conquered by you, this mind of mine will conquer.
§287hic vincet animus, capta praeripiet toros?
Shall a captive snatch away my marriage bed?
Until now I feared monsters, but now there is no evil: the plagues have yielded, and in place of the wild beast has come the hated mistress.
§290invisa paelex, summe pro rector deum §291et clare Titan, Herculis tantum fui §292coniunx timentis; vota quae superis tuli,
Oh, highest ruler of the gods, and bright Titan, I was only the wife of a fearing Hercules; the vows I offered to the gods above have yielded to the captive.
§293cessere captae, paelici felix fui, §294illi meas audistis, o superi, preces, §295incolumis illi remeat.
I was fortunate for my rival: for her sake, O gods above, you heard my prayers; for her sake he returns unharmed.
o nulla dolor §296contente poena, quaere supplicia horrida, §297incogitata, infanda, Iunonem doce, §298quid odia valeant: nescit irasci satis.
O grief content with no punishment, seek out horrible, unthought-of, unspeakable torments; teach Juno what hatred can achieve: she does not know how to rage enough.
§299pro me gerebas bella, propter me vagas §300Achelous undas sanguine infecit suo, §301cum lenta serpens fieret, in taurum trucem §302nunc flecteret serpente deposita minas, §303et mille in hoste vinceres uno feras.
For my sake you used to wage wars; on my account Achelous stained his wandering waves with his own blood, when he became a flexible serpent, or now, having laid aside the serpent, directed his threats as a fierce bull, and you conquered a thousand beasts in a single enemy.
§304iam displicemus, capta praelata est mihi.
Now I am displeased; the captive is preferred to me.
She shall not be preferred: the day which is to be the last of our marriage-bed shall be the last of your life.
What is this? My mind retreats and lays aside its threats; now my anger ceases.
quid miser langues dolor?
Why, wretched grief, do you grow languid?
You lose your madness, and return to me once more the loyalty of a silent wife.— Why do you forbid the flames to be nourished?
§311quid fragilis ignes? hunc mihi serva impetum, §312pares eamus, non erit votis opus: §313aderit noverca quae manus nostras regat §314vel invocata.
Why do you break the fires? Keep this impulse for me; let us go as equals, there will be no need for vows: the stepmother will be present to guide our hands, even uninvoked.
§314bQuod paras demens scelus?
What crime do you prepare, madwoman?
§315perimes maritum, cuius extremus dies §316primusque laudes novit et caelo tenus §317erecta terras fama suppositas habet?
Will you destroy your husband, whose last day and first day knew his praises, and whose fame, raised up to heaven, holds the subject earth?
§318Graiorum in istos terra consurget lares §319domusque soceri prima et Aetolum genus §320sternetur omne, saxa iam dudum ac faces §321in te ferentur, vindicem tellus suum
The Greek land will rise up against those hearths of yours, and the house of your father first, and the whole Aetolian race will be laid low; stones and torches will long since be cast at you; all the earth will defend its avenger.
§322defendet omnis: una quot poenas dabis?
How many punishments will you alone pay?
§323effugere terras crede et humanum genus §324te posse, fulmen genitor Alcidae gerit: §325iam iam minaces ire per caelum faces §326specta et tonantem fulmine excusso diem.
Believe that you can escape the lands and the human race— yet the father of Alcides wields the thunderbolt: look now, look at the threatening brands going through the sky and the day thundering with the shaken-out thunderbolt.
Fear also death itself, which you think safe: there rules the uncle of your Alcides.
Wherever you go, wretched woman, you will see related gods there.
That a most great crime is being committed, I myself also confess, but grief orders it to be done.
§332Moriere,
You will die.
§332bMoriar Herculis nempe induti §333coniunx nec ullus nocte discussa dies §334viduam notabit nec meos paelex toros
I shall die, indeed, as the wife of Hercules who clad himself [in the lion's skin]; and once night is dispelled, no day shall mark me as widowed, nor shall a captive mistress take my marriage bed.
§335captiva capiet, ante ab occasu dies §336nascetur, Indos ante glacialis polus §337Scythasve tepida Phoebus inficiet rota, §338quam me relictam Thessalae aspiciant nurus, §339meo iugales sanguine extinguam faces.
The day shall rise from the west, and the icy pole shall dye the Indians, or Phoebus with his warm wheel the Scythians, before the Thessalian brides behold me abandoned; with my own blood I shall extinguish the nuptial torches.
§340aut pereat aut me perimat; elisis feris §341et coniugem addat, inter Herculeos licet §342me quoque labores numeret: Alcidae toros §343moritura certe corpore amplectar meo.
Let him either perish or destroy me; let him add his wife to the slain beasts, and let him count me too among the labors of Hercules: dying, I shall surely embrace the bed of Alcides with my body.
§344ire, ire ad umbras Herculis nuptam libet, §345sed nοn inultam: si quid ex nostro Hercule §346concepit Iole, manibus evellam meis §347ante et per ipsas paelicem invadam faces.
It pleases me to go, to go to the shades as the wife of Hercules, but not unavenged: if Iole has conceived anything by our Hercules, I shall tear it out with my own hands beforehand, and attack my rival through the very torches.
Let him strike me, hostile, as a victim on the nuptial day, while I fall upon the lifeless Iole.
§350felix iacet quicumque quos odit premit.
Happy lies whoever crushes those whom they hate.
§351Quid ipsa flammas pascis et vastum foves
Why do you yourself feed the flames and cherish vast grief of your own accord?
§352ultro dolorem? misera, quid cassum times?
Wretched woman, why do you fear in vain?
§353dilexit Iolen: nempe cum staret parens §354regisque natam peteret, in famulae locum §355regina cecidit: perdidit vires amor §356multumque ab illa traxit infelix status.
He loved Iole—but indeed, when her father was standing and he sought the king's daughter, the princess fell into the place of a slave-girl: love lost its strength, and her unhappy state dragged much away from it.
§357illicita amantur, excidit quicquid licet.
Forbidden things are loved; whatever is allowed falls away.
§358Fortuna amorem peior inflammat magis: §359amat vel ipsum quod caret patrio lare, §360quod nudus auro crinis et gemma iacet, §361ipsas misericors forsan aerumnas amat; §362hoc usitatum est Herculi: captas amat.
A worse fortune inflames love the more: he loves even the very fact that she lacks her ancestral home, that her hair lies bare of gold and gems, perhaps, compassionate, he loves her very troubles; this is customary for Hercules: he loves captives.