§87da, da tuendos, Iuppiter, saltem deos: §88illa licebit fulmen a parte auferas, §89ego quam tuebor, sive glacialem polum, §90seu me tueri fervidam partem iubes, §91hac esse superos parte securos puta.
Give, give, Jupiter, at least gods to be protected: you may take away the thunderbolt from that quarter, which I shall protect, whether you command me to protect the frozen pole or the burning part, consider the gods secure in this quarter.
§92Cirrhaea Paean templa et aetheriam domum §93serpente caeso meruit: o quotiens iacet §94Python in hydra! Bacchus et Perseus deis
Paean merited the Cirrhaean temples and the heavenly home by slaying the serpent: oh, how many times Python lies in the hydra!
Bacchus and Perseus have already introduced themselves to the gods: but what a small part of the world is the conquered East, or how much is the wild Gorgon?
§97quis astra natus laudibus meruit suis
Who born of you and my stepmother merited the stars by his own praises?
§98ex te et noverca? quem tuli mundum peto.
I seek the world which I supported.
§99Sed tu, comes laboris Herculei, Licha, §100perfer triumphos, Euryti victos lares §101stratumque regnum, vos pecus rapite ocius §102qua templa tollens acta Cenaei Iovis §103austro timendum spectat Euboicum mare.
But you, Lichas, companion of Herculean labor, carry the triumphs, the conquered household gods of Eurytus and his overthrown kingdom; do you, [slaves], seize the flock more swiftly where the Euboean sea, fearing the south wind, looks upon the shore-rising temple of Cenaean Jove.
§104Par ille est superis cui pariter dies §105et fortuna fuit, mortis habet vices §106lente cum trahitur vita gementibus.
Equal to the gods is he whose days and fortune have ended together; it has the turn of death when life is slowly dragged out by those who groan.
§107quisquis sub pedibus fata rapacia §108et puppem posuit fluminis ultimi, §109non captiva dabit bracchia vinculis §110nec pompae veniet nobile ferculum: §111numquam est ille miser cui facile est mori.
Whoever has placed under his feet the rapacious fates and the ship of the ultimate river, will not yield captive arms to chains, nor will he come as a noble display for a procession: he is never wretched for whom it is easy to die.
§112illum si medio decipiat ratis §113ponto, cum Borean expulit Africus §114aut Eurus Zephyrum, cum mare dividunt, §115non puppis lacerae fragmina conligit, §116ut litus medio speret in aequore: §117vitam qui poterit reddere protinus, §118solus non poterit naufragium pati.
Even if a ship should betray him in the middle of the sea, when the southwest wind has driven out the north wind, or the east wind the west wind, as they divide the sea, he does not gather the fragments of the shattered ship to hope for a shore in the midst of the deep: he who is able to return his life at once, he alone cannot suffer shipwreck.
Ugly emaciation and tears hold us, and hair filthy with ancestral dust.
§121nos non flamma rapax, non fragor obruit: §122felices sequeris, mors, miseros fugis, §123stamus, nec patriae messibus heu locus §124at silvis dabitur, lapsaque sordidae §125fient templa casae; iam gelidus Dolops 125 §126hac ducet pecudes qua tepet obrutus §127stratae qui superest Oechaliae cinis, §128illo Thessalicus pastor inops loco §129indocta referens carmina fistula §130cantu nostra canet tempora flebili; §131et dum pauca deus saecula contrahet, §132quaeretur patriae quis fuerit locus, §133felix incolui non steriles focos §134nec ieiuna soli iugera Thessali: §135ad Trechina vocor, saxa rigentia §136et dumeta iugis horrida torridis, §137vix gratum pecori montivago nemus, §138at si quas melior sors famulas vocat, §139illas aut volucer transferet Inachus §140aut Dircaea colent moenia, qua fluit §141Ismenos tenui numine languidus— §142hic mater tumidi nupserat Herculis.
Neither rapacious flame nor crashing ruin overwhelmed us: death, you follow the happy, you flee the wretched; we stand, and, alas, the place for our country's harvests will not be given to crops but to woods, and the fallen temples will become filthy huts; already the cold Dolopian will lead his flocks where the warm, buried ashes remain of overthrown Oechalia; in that place, a poor Thessalian shepherd, rendering untutored songs on his pipe, will sing of our times with a mournful strain; and while the god shortens a few generations, it will be asked what was the location of our country; happy did I dwell by no barren hearths, nor on the hungry acres of Thessalian soil: now I am called to Trachis, to stiff rocks and wild thickets on parched ridges, a grove scarcely pleasing even to the mountain-roaming flock; but if a better fate calls some of the maidservants, either the swift Inachus will carry them away, or they will inhabit the Dircaean walls where the Ismenus flows, sluggish with its thin stream— here the mother of haughty Hercules had wedded.
§147Falsa est de geminis fabula noctibus, §148aether cum tenuit sidera longius §149commisitque vices Lucifer Hespero §150et Solem vetuit Delia tardior:
False is the story about the double night, when the upper air held the stars longer and Lucifer committed his turn to Hesperus, and the slower Delia forbade the Sun.
§143quae cautes Scythiae, quis genuit lapis?
What crags of Scythia, what stone begot you?
§144num Titana ferum te Rhodope tulit, §145te praeruptis Athos, te fera Caspias, §146quae virgata tibi praebuit ubera?
Did savage Rhodope bear you, a wild Titan, did Athos with its steep cliffs, did the wild Caspian land, what striped beast offered her udders to you?
§151nullis vulneribus pervia membra sunt: §152ferrum sentit hebes, lentior est chalybs; §153in nudo gladius corpore frangitur §154et saxum resilit, fataque neglegit §155et mortem indomito corpore provocat,
His limbs are penetrable by no wounds: iron feels blunt, steel is softer; the sword is shattered on his naked body, and the stone rebounds; he neglects the fates and provokes death with his unsubdued body.
§156non illum poterant figere cuspides, §157non arcus Scythica tensus harundine, §158non quae tela gerit Sarmata frigidus §159aut qui soliferae suppositus plagae §160vicino Nabatae vulnera dirigit §161Parthus Gnosiacis certior ictibus,
Spears could not pierce him, nor the bow drawn with Scythian reed, nor whatever weapons the cold Sarmatian bears, or the Parthian who, placed under the sun-bearing region, directs wounds toward neighboring Nabataea, surer than Gnosian strikes.
§162muros Oechaliae corpore propulit, §163nil obstare valet; vincere quod parat §164iam victum est— quota pars vulnere concidit?
He pushed down the walls of Oechalia with his body, nothing is able to stand in his way; what he prepares to conquer is already conquered— how small a part fell by wounds?
His hostile countenance lay open in place of fate, and it was enough to have seen the Herculean threats.
§167quis vastus Briareus, quis tumidus Gyas, §168supra Thessalicum cum stetit aggerem §169caeloque inseruit vipereas manus, §170hoc vultu riguit? commoda cladibus
What vast Briareus, what swollen Gyas, when he stood upon the Thessalian mound and thrust his viperous hands into heaven, stiffened with this look?
Great advantages lie open to great disasters; nothing of evil remains: we, wretched, have seen the angry Hercules.
§173At ego infelix non templa suis §174conlapsa deis sparsosve focos, §175natis mixtos arsisse patres §176hominique deos, templa sepulchris, §177nullum querimur commune malum: §178alio nostras fortuna vocat §179lacrimas, alias flere ruinas §180Me fata iubent.
But I, unhappy, do not lament temples collapsed with their gods, or scattered hearths, or that fathers burned mingled with their children, and gods with man, temples with tombs; I complain of no common misfortune: fortune calls our tears elsewhere, and the fates command me to weep for other ruins.