Lines 333-356

Question 1

At mater sonitum thalamo sub fluminis alti
sensit. Eam circum Milesia vellera Nymphae
carpebant hyali saturo fucata colore,

Answer 1

But his mother felt the cry from her chamber in the river’s depths,
Around her the Nymphs were spinning fleeces
from Miletus, dyed with deep glassy colours:

Question 2

drymoque Xanthoque Ligeaque Phyllodoceque,

caesariem effusae nitidam per candida colla,

Answer 2

Drymo and Xantho and Phyllodoce and Ligea,

their shining hair flowing over their white necks,

Question 3

[Nesaee Spioque Thaliaque Cymodoceque,]
Cydippeque et flava Lycorias, altera virgo,
altera tum primos Lucinae experta labores,
Clioque et Beroe soror, Oceanitides ambae,
ambae auro, pictis incinctae pellibus ambae,

Answer 3

Cydippe and golden-haired Lycorias, one a virgin,
the other then having endured the labour of first childbirth,
Clio and her sister Beroe, both daughters of Ocean,
both ornamented with gold, both clothed in painted skins:

Question 4

atque Ephyre atque Opis et Asia Deiopea
et tandem positis velox Arethusa sagittis.
Inter quas curam Clymene narrabat inanem
Vulcani Martisque dolos et dulcia furta,
aque Chao densos divum numerabat amores.

Answer 4

Ephyre and Opis, and Asian Deiopea,
and swift Arethusa, her arrows at last set aside.
Among them Clymene was telling of Vulcan’s
empty efforts, and Mars’s tricks and stolen sweetness,
and recounting the endless loves of the gods, from Chaos on.

Question 5

carmine quo captae dum fusis mollia pensa
devolvunt, iterum maternas impulit aures
luctus Aristaei, vitreisque sedilibus omnes
obstipuere; sed ante alias Arethusa sorores
prospiciens summa flavum caput extulit unda

Answer 5

And while they unwound the soft thread from the spindles,
captivated by the song, Aristaeus’s cry again struck
his mother’s ear, and all were startled, sitting on their crystal seats:
But Arethusa, before all her other sisters,
lifted her golden hair above the wave’s surface, looking out,

Question 6

et procul: ‘O gemitu non frustra exterrita tanto,
Cyrene soror, ipse tibi, tua maxima cura,
tristis Aristaeus Penei genitoris ad undam
stat lacrimans et te crudelem nomine dicit.’

Answer 6

and called from far off: ‘O Cyrene, sister, your fear at such great groaning is not in vain,
I tell you your own sad Aristaeus, your chief care,
stands weeping by the waters of father Peneus,
calling to you and naming you as cruel.’