Page images
PDF
EPUB

Aphrodite. Here am I at your elbow, and examine carefully each part of me, one by one, passing over nothing, but dwelling upon every one of my charms; and, if you will, my handsome youth, listen to this from me. I have reason to ask you to do so; for I have long ago observed you to be young and good-looking, of such sort, that I doubt if all Phrygia supports another like you, and I congratulate you on your good looks: but I blame you, that you do not leave these lonely cliffs and these rocks, and go and live in the city, instead of wasting your sweetness on the desert air. For what enjoyment can such as you obtain from the mountains? And what satisfaction can your cows derive from your handsome face? You ought by this time to have married-not, however, some hoydenish and rustic girl, such as are the women of Ida, but some girl out of Hellas, from Argos, or from Korinth, or a Spartan lady, such as Helen, young and beautiful, and in no way inferior to myself; and, what is, indeed, most to the point, of an amorous disposition. For, I tell you, if she were but only to see you, she would, I am sure, leave all and give herself up soul and body to you, and would follow your fortunes and live with you. But, surely, even you have heard something of her fame.

Paris. Not a word, Aphrodite, and I should now be glad to hear from you a full account of her.

Aphrodite. She is the daughter of Leda, the famous beauty, to whom Zeus flew down in the shape of a swan. Paris. What is she like to look at ?

Aphrodite. Pale and fair, as the daughter of a swar might be expected to be, and delicate, like one bred in an egg; trained naked, for the most part, in the gymnasium, and skilled in the art of wrestling. And she has been, in a manner, so much, indeed, in request that there has even been a war on her account, Theseus having run away with

The Spartan girls, as is well known, were trained in the same Palestra, or Gymnasium, with the boys, with whom they contended yuuvai, i.e., probably, in their chitons. Cf. Avoiσrpara, and the accomplishments of the Spartan lady Lampito (80-85). Wieland objects that "Venus here commits an anachronism, apparently for this gymnastic practice of the Spartan girls is represented as in force before the Lycurgan laws."

her when not yet in her teens : 1 not, indeed, but that, since she arrived at her majority, all the greatest princes of the Achæans met together to woo her, and Menelaus, of the family of the Pelopida, was preferred. If you wish it, I say, I will bring about the nuptials for you. Paris. What, with a girl already married? Aphrodite. You are young and countrified. however, how affairs of this sort are to be managed.

I know,

Paris. How? For I should like to know, too, myself. Aphrodite. You will set out on your travels, as if with the purpose of seeing Hellas, and, as soon as ever you arrive at Lacedæmon, Helen shall see you; and from that moment it would be my business that she shall fall in love, and run away with you.

Paris. That's the very thing that seems to me hard to believe that she should leave her husband, and be ready to sail off with a foreigner and a stranger.

Aphrodite. As far as that's concerned, have no fear, for I have two handsome boys, Desire and Love:2 them I will give you to be guides of the way; and Love, stealthily assailing her with all his might, will compel the lady to fall in love, while Desire, shedding his whole influence over yourself, will render you what he is himself, an object of desire and of love-and I will be present in person to assist them. I will request of the Graces, also, to attend you, so that all of us together may persuade her.

Paris. How it will all turn out, is not clear, Aphrodite. But I am already in love with this Helen, and I fancy, I

1 " *Αωρον. Lit. "immature." With the aid of his friend Peirithous, Theseus had carried her off to Athens, from which involuntary escapade and captivity she was brought back by her twin brothers Kastor and Polydeukes. Lucian represents her as maintaining her extraordinarily fascinating charms even in the future life. During his memorable visit to the Isle of the Blessed, she again elopes from her husband Menelaus with a certain handsome youth; although, we are assured, she was this time quickly recaptured by her uxorious lord. See the 'Aλŋong 'Iσr. ii. 335.

2 Ιμερος καὶ Ἔρως. See Hesiod. Θεογ. 201. One of the most famous representations of these attendants of Aphrodite was the sculpture of Skopas at Megara. With them was figured, also, Пółoç (" Passionate Longing"), who is introduced below. See 'IX. iii. 440-445, Lucian, ‘Aliɛvç, 36, Paus. ‘EX. 'IIɛp. i. Pliny, Hist Nat. xxxvi. 5.

don't know how, I even see her, and am on my voyage straight for Hellas, and am staying at Sparta-yes, and am now returning home with my wife, and I feel vexed I am not already engaged about all this.

Aphrodite. Don't fall in love, Paris, before you have rewarded your match-maker and the bridesmaid' with your favourable sentence: for it would be proper for me, too, to be with you as the bringer of victory, and at once to celebrate your marriage2 and to sing your triumphal odes. For it is in your own power to purchase everything—love, beauty, marriage-with this apple here.

Paris. I am afraid that, after the verdict, you may forget me.

Aphrodite. Would you have me, then, give you my oath upon it?

Paris. Not at all. But just promise me once again.

Aphrodite. I promise you, I say, to give over to you Helen for your wife, and that she shall run away with you and shall come to Ilium to you; I myself will certainly be present, and will assist you in everything.

Paris. And you will bring Love and Desire and the Graces ?

Aphrodite. Be sure of it, and I will take with me Passionate Longing and Hymen, besides.

Paris. On these conditions, then, I give the apple to you on these conditions receive it.3

1 Nuμdaywyov. Lit. "the conductor of the bride." The special name applied to the friend of the bridegroom, who conducted the bride to her new home, when the former was a widower-in which case it was not proper for the husband to fetch her himself. See Hesychius.

2 Tápovç. The plural form, in later Greek, is very frequent. The word yapos, strictly, was the "wedding-feast," which, with the Greeks, formed the only legal witness of the marriage. For vinoópov "victorybringer," it has been proposed to read kavnoópov, "basket-carrier," the young girl who bore the sacred fruits in the Panathenaic festival at Athens. But neither the authority of the MSS. nor probability recommends the substitute.

3 See 'IX. xxiv. 25-28 for the only reference to the "Judicium Paridis, spretæque injuria formæ" in the Homeric epic. For an eloquent description of a representation of this scene on Mt. Ida, in the amphitheatre at Corinth, where the Goddesses are personated by young and beautiful girls, see Apuleius, De Aureo Asino. Cf. Euripides, in his Andromache and Helene. In the Greek Anthologia an epigrammatist, in

XXI.

ARES RIDICULES THE THREAT OF ZEUS, AND THE CHAIN LET DOWN FROM HEAVEN.

Ares and Hermes.

Ares. Did you hear, Hermes, what threats Zeus uttered against us, how arrogant and absurd? "If I should have a mind to it," says he, "I will let down a chain from Heaven, and you shall hang on it and use all your force to pull me down, but you will labour in vain ; for you will certainly not drag me down. Whereas should I wish to drag it up, not only you but both the Earth and Sea I will fasten together and suspend in mid air."1 And all the other menaces, which surely you have heard. Now I, for my part, would not deny that he is superior to and stronger than any of us taken separately; but that he surpasses so many of us together, so that we could not wear him out, .even though we brought to our aid Earth and Sea-that I could not believe.

Hermes. Fair speech, my dear Ares; for it's not safe to speak in this sort of way, for fear we reap some mischief from your idle talk.

Ares. Why, do you suppose that I should say this to everyone, and not to you alone, who, I knew, can hold

reference to three rival beauties of his day, expresses his feeling on the Judgment thus:—

"Rhodope, Melite, Rhodokleia contended with one another, which of the three had the most beauty, and they chose me as a judge; and they stood, as the Goddesses, gazed at from all sides, wanting nectar alone. But clearly knowing what Paris through his judgment suffered, I straight put crowns on the three immortals together." See Greek Anthology (Bohn's Series).

See IX. viii. 18-27. Lucian more than once seizes upon this fine opportunity for his ridicule. Cf. Ζεὺς Ελεγ. 4; Ζευς Τραγ. 45; Πῶς δεῖ Ιστ. συγ. 8. Plato (Θεαίτ.) says the σειρὴν χρυσέην is nothing less than the Sun.

2 Evonua. Lit. "Speak words of good omen." To what extent Euphemism was cultivated by the Greeks is well known. It appears conspicuously in such words as Eumenides, euonymos (left hand), euphrone (night), Euxeinos (the Hospitable Sea).

[ocr errors]

1

2

threatening, I could Why, I remember, Poseidon and Hera seize him and put

your tongue? But what, however, seemed to me especially ridiculous, as I listened while he was not possibly be silent about to you. no very long time before, when and Athena rose up and conspired to him in fetters, how he resorted to all sorts of devices in his terror, and that, though they were only three against him; and, if Thetis, in fact, out of pity, had not summoned to his aid Briareus of the hundred hands," he would have been bound hand and foot, his thunderbolt and all. As I thought of this, it constrained me to laugh at his fine grandiloquence.

Hermes. Hold your tongue, I say. For it is not safe either for you to talk, or for me to hear, this sort of language.

XXII.

PAN URGES HIS CLAIMS TO BE THE SON OF HERMES, WHO IS UNWILLING TO ADMIT HIS PATERNITY.

Pan and Hermes.

Pan. How do you do, my father Hermes ?
Hermes. And how are you? But how am I

4

[blocks in formation]

Pan. Are you not, perchance, the Kyllenian Hermes?
Hermes. Certainly. How, then, are you my son ?
Pan. I am the result of an irregular intrigue, your love-

child.5

1 'Exeμvleiv. This word which, in other writers, occurs only in Iamblichus, is found also in the 'Aλεктρúшv, 2—Jacob.

2 See 'IX. i. 399-406, Zɛvs Tpay. 40. Cf. Strabo, i. 3 See Hesiod. Oɛoy. 149-153, 617, 714, 734. Ζεὺς Τραγ. 40.

Virg. Æn. x. 567,

4 Pan, the great rural divinity, was generally believed to be son of Hermes by Kallisto, or Penelope, or some other Nymph. Apollodorus makes him the son of Zeus. According to one account, he was son of Penelope by all the wicked suitors. His most remarkable physical characteristics were horns, a tail, and cloven feet. See Pausanias ("Aprad.). In one respect, he may be considered to be the most interesting figure in the Greek and Latin Pagan theologies, since it is from that divinity Christian Diabolism has borrowed the principal and popular (corporeal) features of our Devil.

An alternative reading is apéros (adopted by Jacobitz), extra ordinem tibi natus. Lehmann prefers i púros, as above.

« PreviousContinue »