The Metamorphoses of Ovid Part 29

She orders the son of aeson to go far thence, and the attendants, too, to go afar; and warns them to withdraw their profane eyes from her mysteries. At her order, they retire. Medea, with dishevelled hair, goes round the blazing altars like a wors.h.i.+pper of Bacchus, and dips her torches, split into many parts, in the trench, black with blood, and lights them, {thus} dipt, at the two altars. And thrice does she[34]

purify the aged man with flames, thrice with water, and thrice with sulphur. In the meantime the potent mixture[35] is boiling and heaving in the brazen cauldron, placed {on the flames}, and whitens with swelling froth. There she boils roots cut up in the Haemonian valleys, and seeds and flowers and acrid juices. She adds stones fetched from the most distant East, and sand, which the ebbing tide of the ocean has washed. She adds, too, h.o.a.r-frost gathered at night by the light of the moon, and the ill-boding wings of a screech owl,[36] together with its flesh; and the entrails of an ambiguous wolf, that was wont to change its appearance of a wild beast into {that of} a man. Nor is there wanting there the thin scaly slough of the Cinyphian water-snake,[37]

and the liver of the long-lived stag;[38] to which, besides, she adds the bill and head of a crow that had sustained {an existence of} nine ages. When, with these and a thousand other things without a name, the barbarian {princess} has completed the medicine prepared for the mortal {body}, with a branch of the peaceful olive long since dried up, she stirs them all up, and blends the lowest {ingredients} with the highest.

Behold! the old branch, turned about in the heated cauldron, at first becomes green; and after no long time a.s.sumes foliage, and is suddenly loaded with heavy olives. Besides, wherever the fire throws the froth from out of the hollow cauldron, and the boiling drops fall upon the earth, the ground becomes green, and flowers and soft gra.s.s spring up.

Soon as Medea sees this, she opens the throat[39] of the old man with a drawn sword; and allowing the former blood to escape, replenishes {his veins} with juices. Soon as aeson has drunk them in, either received in his mouth or in his wound, his beard and his hair[40] laying aside their h.o.a.riness, a.s.sume a black hue. His leanness flies, being expelled; his paleness and squalor are gone. His hollow veins are supplied with additional blood, and his limbs become instinct with vigor. aeson is astonished, and calls to recollection that he was such four times ten years before.

Liber had beheld from on high the miraculous operations of so great a prodigy; and taught {thereby} that youthful years can be restored to his nurses,[41] he requests this present from the daughter of aeetes.[42]

And that her arts[43] may not cease, the Phasian feigns a counterfeited quarrel with her husband, and flies as a suppliant to the threshold of Pelias[44] and (as he himself is oppressed with old age) his daughters receive her; whom, after a short time, the crafty Colchian engages to herself by the appearance of a pretended friends.h.i.+p. And while among the greatest of her merits, she relates that the infirmities of aeson have been removed, and is dwelling upon that part {of the story}, a hope is suggested to the damsels, the daughters of Pelias, that by the like art their parent may become young again; and this they request {of her}, and repeatedly entreat her to name her own price. For a short time she is silent, and appears to be hesitating, and keeps their mind in suspense, as they ask, with an affected gravity.

Afterwards, when she has promised them, she says, "That there may be the greater confidence in this my skill, the leader of the flock among your sheep, which is the most advanced in age, shall become a lamb by this preparation." Immediately, a fleecy {ram}, enfeebled by innumerable years, is brought, with his horns bending around his hollow temples; whose withered throat, when she has cut with the Haemonian knife, and stained the steel with its scanty blood, the enchantress plunges the limbs of the sheep, and her potent juices together, into the hollow copper. The limbs of his body are lessened, and he puts off his horns, and his years together with his horns; and in the midst of the kettle a low bleating is heard. And without any delay, while they are wondering at the bleating, a lamb springs forth, and gambols in its course, and seeks the suckling dugs. The daughters of Pelias are amazed; and after her promises have obtained her credit, then, indeed, they urge her still more strongly. Phbus had thrice taken the yoke off his horses sinking in the Iberian sea;[45] and upon the fourth night the radiant stars were twinkling, when the deceitful daughter of aeetes set pure water upon a blazing fire, and herbs without any virtue. And now sleep like to death, their bodies being relaxed, had seized the king, and the guards together with their king, which her charms and the influence of her enchanting tongue had caused. The daughters {of the king}, {as} ordered, had entered the threshold, together with the Colchian, and had surrounded the bed; "Why do you hesitate now, in your indolence? Unsheathe your swords," says she, "and exhaust the ancient gore, that I may replenish his empty veins with youthful blood. The life and the age of your father is now in your power. If you have any affection and cherish not vain hopes, perform your duty to your father, and drive away old age with your weapons, and, thrusting in the steel, let out his corrupted blood."

Upon this exhortation, as each of them is affectionate, she becomes especially undutiful, and that she may not be wicked, she commits wickedness. Yet not one is able to look upon her own blow; and they turn away their eyes, and turning away their faces, they deal chance blows with their cruel right hands. He, streaming with gore, yet raises his limbs on his elbows, and, half-mangled, attempts to rise from the couch; and in the midst of so many swords stretching forth his pale arms, he says, "What are you doing, my daughters? What arms you against the life of your parent?" Their courage and their hands fail {them}. As he is about to say more, the Colchian severs his throat, together with his words, and plunges him, {thus} mangled, in the boiling cauldron.

[Footnote 20: _Of the triple form._--Ver. 177. Hecate, the G.o.ddess of enchantment.]

[Footnote 21: _With bare feet._--Ver. 183. To have the feet bare was esteemed requisite for the due performance of magic rites, though sometimes on such occasions, and probably in the present instance, only one foot was left unshod. In times of drought, according to Tertullian, a procession and ceremonial, called 'nudipedalia,' were resorted to, with a view to propitiate the G.o.ds by this token of grief and humiliation.]

[Footnote 22: _Three-faced Hecate._--Ver. 194. Though Hecate and the Moon are here mentioned as distinct, they are frequently considered to have been the same Deity, with different attributes.

The three heads with which Hecate was represented were those of a horse, a dog, and a pig, or sometimes, in the place of the latter, a human head.]

[Footnote 23: _Temesaean._--Ver. 207. Temesa was a town of the Brutii, on the coast of Etruria, famous for its copper mines. It was also sometimes called Tempsa. There was also another Temesa, a city of Cyprus, also famous for its copper.]

[Footnote 24: _Chalky regions._--Ver. 223. Such was the characteristic of the mountainous country of Thessaly, where she now alighted.]

[Footnote 25: _Brazen sickle._--Ver. 227. We learn from Macrobius and Caelius Rhodiginus that copper was preferred to iron in cutting herbs for the purposes of enchantment, in exorcising spirits, and in aiding the moon in eclipses against the supposed charms of the witches, because it was supposed to be a purer metal.]

[Footnote 26: _Apida.n.u.s._--Ver. 228. This and Amphrysus were rivers of Thessaly.]

[Footnote 27: _Sh.o.r.es of Bbe._--Ver. 231. Strabo makes mention of lake Bbeis, near the town of Bbe, in Thessaly. It was not far from the mouth of the river Peneus.]

[Footnote 28: _Anthedon._--Ver. 232. This was a town of Botia, opposite to Euba, being situated on the Euripus, now called the straits of Negropont.]

[Footnote 29: _Glaucus._--Ver. 233. He was a fisherman, who was changed into a sea G.o.d, on tasting a certain herb. His story is related at the end of the 13th Book.]

[Footnote 30: _Ninth day._--Ver. 234. The numbers three and nine seem to have been deemed of especial virtue in incantations.]

[Footnote 31: _One to youth._--Ver. 241. This G.o.ddess was also called Hebe, from the Greek word signifying youth. She was the daughter of Juno, and the wife of Hercules. She was also the cup-bearer of the G.o.ds, until she was supplanted by Ganymede.]

[Footnote 32: _Goblets._--Ver. 246. 'Carchesia.' The 'carchesium'

was a kind of drinking cup, used by the Greeks from very early times. It was slightly contracted in the middle, and its two handles extended from the top to the bottom. It was employed in the wors.h.i.+p of the Deities, and was used for libations of blood, wine, milk, and honey. Macrobius says that it was only used by the Greeks. Virgil makes mention of it as used to hold wine.]

[Footnote 33: _King of the shades._--Ver. 249. Pluto and Proserpine. Clarke translates this line and the next, 'And prays to the king of shades with his kidnapped wife, that they would not be too forward to deprive the limbs of the old gentleman of life.']

[Footnote 34: _Thrice does she._--Ver. 261. Clarke thus renders this and the two following lines: 'And purifies the old gentleman three times with flame, three times with water, and three times with sulphur. In the meantime the strong medicine boils, and bounces about in a brazen kettle set on the fire.']

[Footnote 35: _The potent mixture._--Ver. 262. This reminds us of the line of Shakespeare in Macbeth, 'Make the h.e.l.l-broth thick and slab.']

[Footnote 36: _A screech owl._--Ver. 269. 'Strigis.' The 'strix'

is supposed to have been the screech owl, and was a favorite bird with the enchanters, who were supposed to have the power of a.s.suming that form. From the description given of the 'striges' in the Sixth Book of the Fasti, it would almost appear that the qualities of the vampyre bat were attributed to them.]

[Footnote 37: _Water snake._--Ver. 272. The 'chelydrus' was a venomous water-snake of a powerful and offensive smell. The Delphin Commentator seems to think that a kind of turtle is here meant.]

[Footnote 38: _Long-lived stag._--Ver. 273. The stag was said to live four times, and the crow nine times, as long as man.]

[Footnote 39: _Opened the throat._--Ver. 285-6. Clarke translates the words 'quod simul ac vidit, stricto Medea recludit Ense senis jugulum,' 'which as soon as Medea saw, she opens the throat of the old gentleman with a drawn sword.']

[Footnote 40: _And his hair._--Ver. 288. Medea is thought by some writers not only to have discovered a dye for giving a dark color to grey hair, but to have found out the invigorating properties of the warm bath.]

[Footnote 41: _To his nurses._--Ver. 295. These (in Book iii.

l. 314.) he calls by the name of Nysedes; but in the Fifth Book of the Fasti they are styled Hyades, and are placed in the number of the Constellations. A commentator on Homer, quoting from Pherecydes, calls them 'Dodonides.']

[Footnote 42: _Daughter of aeetes._--Ver. 296. The reading in most of the MSS. here is Tetheia, or 'Thetide;' but Burmann has replaced it by aeetide, 'the daughter of aeetes.' It has been justly remarked, why should Bacchus apply to Tethys to have the age of the Nymphs, who had nursed him, renewed, when he had just beheld Medea, and not Tethys, do it in favor of aeson?]

[Footnote 43: _That her arts._--Ver. 297. 'Neve doli cessent' is translated by Clarke, 'and that her tricks might not cease.']

[Footnote 44: _Pelias._--Ver. 298. He was the brother of aeson, and had dethroned him, and usurped his kingdom.]

[Footnote 45: _The Iberian sea._--Ver. 324. The Atlantic, or Western Ocean, is thus called from Iberia, the ancient name of Spain; which country, perhaps, was so called from the river Iberus, or Ebro, flowing through it.]

EXPLANATION.

The authors who have endeavored to explain the true meaning and origin of the story of the rest.i.tution of aeson to youth, are much divided in their opinions concerning it. Some think it refers to the mystery of reviving the decrepit and aged by the transfusion of youthful blood.

It is, however, not improbable, that Medea obtained the reputation of being a sorceress, only because she had been taught by her mother the virtues of various plants: and that she administered a potion to aeson, which furnished him with new spirits and strength.

The daughters of Pelias being desirous to obtain the same favor of Medea for their father, she, to revenge the evils which he had brought upon her husband and his family, may possibly have mixed some venomous herbs in his drink, which immediately killed him.

FABLE III. [VII.350-401]

Medea, after having killed Pelias, goes through several countries to Corinth, where, finding that Jason, in her absence, has married the daughter of king Creon, she sets fire to the palace, whereby the princess and her father are consumed. She then murders the two children which she had by Jason, before his face, and takes to flight.

And unless she had mounted into the air with winged dragons, she would not have been exempt from punishment; she flies aloft, over both shady Pelion, the lofty habitation[46] of the son of Phillyra, and over Othrys, and the places noted for the fate of the ancient Cerambus.[47]

He, by the aid of Nymphs, being lifted on wings into the air, when the ponderous earth was covered by the sea pouring over it, not being overwhelmed, escaped the flood of Deucalion. On the left side, she leaves the aeolian Pitane,[48] and the image of the long Dragon[49] made out of stone, and the wood of Ida,[50] in which Bacchus hid a stolen bullock beneath the appearance of a fict.i.tious stag; {the spot} too, where the father of Corythus[51] lies buried beneath a little sand, and the fields which Maera[52] alarmed by her unusual barking.

The city, too, of Eurypylus,[53] in which the Coan matrons[54] wore horns, at the time when the herd of Hercules[55] departed {thence}; Phbean Rhodes[56] also, and the Ialysian Telchines,[57] whose eyes[58]

corrupting all things by the very looking upon them, Jupiter utterly hating, thrust beneath the waves of his brother. She pa.s.sed, too, over the Cartheian walls of ancient Cea,[59] where her father Alcidamas[60]

was destined to wonder that a gentle dove could arise from the body of his daughter.

After that, she beholds the lakes of Hyrie,[61] and Cycneian Tempe,[62]

which the swan that had suddenly become such, frequented. For there Phyllius, at the request of the boy, had given him birds, and a fierce lion tamed; being ordered, too, to subdue a bull, he had subdued him; and being angry at his despising his love so often, he denied him, {when} begging the bull as his last reward. The other, indignant, said, "Thou shalt wish that thou hadst given it;" and {then} leaped from a high rock. All imagined he had fallen; but, transformed into a swan, he hovered in the air on snow-white wings. But his mother, Hyrie, not knowing that he was saved, dissolved in tears, and formed a lake {called} after her own name.

Adjacent to these {places} is Pleuron;[63] in which Combe,[64] the daughter of Ophis, escaped the wounds of her sons with trembling wings.

After that, she sees the fields of Calaurea,[65] sacred to Latona, conscious of the transformation of their king, together with his wife, into birds. Cyllene is on the right hand, on which Menephron[66] was {one day} to lie with his mother, after the manner of savage beasts. Far hence she beholds Cephisus,[67] lamenting the fate of his grandson, changed by Apollo into a bloated sea-calf; and the house of Eumelus,[68]

lamenting his son in the air.

At length, borne on the wings of her dragons, she reached the Pirenian Ephyre.[69] Here, those of ancient times promulgated that in the early ages mortal bodies were produced from mushrooms springing from rain. But after the new-made bride was consumed, through the Colchian drugs, and both seas beheld the king's house on fire, her wicked sword was bathed in the blood of her sons; and the mother, having {thus} barbarously revenged herself, fled from the arms of Jason. Being borne hence by her t.i.tanian dragons,[70] she entered the city of Pallas, which saw thee, most righteous Phineus,[71] and thee, aged Periphas,[72] flying together, and the granddaughter of Polypemon[73] resting upon new-formed wings.