Ovid 692-733 Flashcards
‘praebuimus longis‘ Pentheus ‘ambagibus aures‘ inquit, ’ut ira mora vires absumere posset. praecipitem, famuli, rapite hunc cruciataque diris corpora tormentis Stygiae demittite nocti.’ [692-695]
‘We have offered our ears to your lengthy ramblings’ said Pentheus ‘so that wrath could spend its strength by the passage of time. Snatch this man away headlong, slaves, and, having tormented his body with dreadful instruments of torture, send him down to the Stygian night.’
protinus abstractus solidis Tyrrhenus Acoetes clauditur in tectis; et dum crudelia iussae
instrumenta necis ferrumque ignesque parantur, sponte sua patuisse fores lapsasque lacertis sponte sua fama est nullo solvente catenas. [696-700]
Having at once been dragged away, Etruscan Acoetes is confined in a strong building; and while the cruel tools of the commanded execution, the iron and the fires, are being prepared, of their own accord the doors opened and the story is told that of their own accord the chains fell from his arms, although nobody unfastened them.
perstat Echionides, nec iam iubet ire, sed ipse vadit, ubi electus facienda ad sacra Cithaeron cantibus et clara bacchantum voce sonabat.
ut fremit acer equus, cum bellicus aere canoro signa dedit tubicen pugnaeque assumit amorem, Penthea sic ictus longis ululatibus aether movit, et audito clamore recanduit ira. [701-706]
Pentheus stood firm and did not now order others to go, but he himself went, where Cithaeron - chosen for the celebration of the rites - resounded with the singing and the bright voices of the Bacchants. As a spirited horse snorts, when the trumpeter of war has given the signals with his tuneful bronze trumpet, and takes up the love of the fight, thus did the air, struck by the long cried, stir Pentheus, and his anger glowed white-hot when he heard the uproar.
monte fere medio est, cingentibus ultima silvis, purus ab arboribus, spectabilis undique, campus. hic oculis illum cernentem sacra profanis
prima videt, prima est insano concita cursu, prima suum misso violavit Penthea thyrso
mater et ‘o geminae‘ clamavit ‘adeste sorores. ille aper, in nostris errat qui maximus agris, ille mihi feriendus aper.’ [706-715]
On the middle point of a mountain, with woods encircling its edges, clear of trees, there is a plain able to be looked at on all sides. Here his mother was the first to see him seeing the rites with his uninitiated eyes, the first to wound her own Pentheus with her hurled thyrsus and ‘O twin sisters,’ she shouted, ‘come and help. That boar, the very big one which wanders in our fields, that boar is mine to strike.’
ruit omnis in unum turba furens; cunctae coeunt trepidumque sequuntur, iam trepidum, iam verba minus violenta loquentem, iam se damnantem, iam se peccasse fatentem. saucius ille tamen ’fer opem, matertera‘ dixit ‘Autonoe! moveant animos Actaeonis umbrae.’ [715-720]
Raging, the whole crowd rushes against him alone; they all come together and pursue the fearful man, now he is fearful, now he is speaking less violent words, now he curses himself, now he confesses he has made a mistake. Injured, nevertheless he said ‘Bring help, aunt Autonoe; let the shades of Actaeon move your feelings.’
illa quis Actaeon nescit dextramque precantis abstulit, Inoo lacerata est altera raptu.
non habet infelix quae matri bracchia tendat, trunca sed ostendens deiectis vulnera membris ‘aspice, mater!’ ait. visis ululavit Agaue collaque iactavit movitque per aera crinem avulsumque caput digitis complexa cruentis clamat ‘io comites, opus hoc victoria nostra est.’ [721-728]
She does not know who Actaeon is and she has ripped off the suppliant’s right arm: the other is torn off by Ino’s seizing of it. The wretched man does not have arms to stretch out to his mother, but displaying the bleeding stumps with his arms having been thrown down he says ‘Look, mother!’ Agave whooped at what she saw and she tossed her head back and moved her hair through the air and embracing his torn-off head with her blood-stained fingers she shots ‘Io, comrades, this deed represents victory for us.’
non citius frondes autumni frigore tactas iamque male haerentes alta rapit arbore ventus, quam sunt membra viri manibus direpta nefandis. talibus exemplis monitae nova sacra frequentant turaque dant sanctasque colunt Ismenides aras. [729-733]
No more quickly does the wind snatch the leaves touched by the cold of autumn and only just clinging on, from the high tree, than are the man’s limbs wrenched off by abominable hands. Warned by such examples, the women of Thebes celebrate the new rites assiduously and they make offerings of incense and they venerate the holy altars.
