Text, Notes, Translation

The Text: Book V, Lines 30-73

Ille nihil contra, sed et hunc et Persea vultu               30

alterno spectans petat hunc ignorat an illum:

cunctatusque brevi contortam viribus hastam,

quantas ira dabat, nequiquam in Persea misit.

ut stetit illa toro, stratis tum denique Perseus

exsiluit teloque ferox inimica remisso               35

pectora rupisset, nisi post altaria Phineus

isset: et (indignum) scelerato profuit ara.

fronte tamen Rhoeti non inrita cuspis adhaesit,

qui postquam cecidit ferrumque ex hoste revulsum est

calcitrat et positas adspergit sanguine mensas.               40

tum vero indomitas ardescit vulgus in iras,

telaque coniciunt, et sunt, qui Cephea dicunt

cum genero debere mori; sed limine tecti

exierat Cepheus testatus iusque fidemque

hospitiique deos, ea se prohibente moveri.               45

bellica Pallas adest et protegit aegide fratrem

datque animos.

Erat Indus Athis, quem flumine Gange

edita Limnaee vitreis peperisse sub undis

creditur, egregius forma, quam divite cultu

augebat, bis adhuc octonis integer annis,               50

indutus chlamydem Tyriam, quam limbus obibat

aureus; ornabant aurata monilia collum

et madidos murra curvum crinale capillos;

ille quidem iaculo quamvis distantia misso

figere doctus erat, sed tendere doctior arcus.               55

tum quoque lenta manu flectentem cornua Perseus

stipite, qui media positus fumabat in ara,

perculit et fractis confudit in ossibus ora.

Hunc ubi laudatos iactantem in sanguine vultus

Assyrius vidit Lycabas, iunctissimus illi               60

et comes et veri non dissimulator amoris,

postquam exhalantem sub acerbo vulnere vitam

deploravit Athin, quos ille tetenderat arcus

arripit et 'mecum tibi sint certamina!' dixit;

'nec longum pueri fato laetabere, quo plus               65

invidiae quam laudis habes.' haec omnia nondum

dixerat: emicuit nervo penetrabile telum

vitatumque tamen sinuosa veste pependit.

vertit in hunc harpen spectatam caede Medusae

Acrisioniades adigitque in pectus; at ille               70

iam moriens oculis sub nocte natantibus atra

circumspexit Athin seque adclinavit ad illum

et tulit ad manes iunctae solacia mortis.

English Translation

He [Phineus] replied with nothing, but looking at this man [Cephus] and Perseus

With his face alternating, he does not know whether to attack this one or that:

And having hesitated a moment, the spear balanced with all the strength

The rage provided, he sent in vain at Perseus.

When it stuck in the couch cushions, then finally Perseus

Leapt up, and fierce with the weapon, and having sent it back,

Would have pierced that enemy breast, had Phineus not gone

Behind the altars: and (shamefully) the altars protected the criminal.

However, the point stuck, not without effect, in the forehead of Rhoetus,

Who, after he fell and the iron was torn out from the enemy,

Kicks and splatters the set tables with blood.

Then truly the crowd catches fire with uncontrollable rage,

And they hurl their weapons, and there are those who say that Cepheus

Ought to die with his son-in-law; but from the threshold of the house

Cephus had gone out, having called witness to both justice and loyalty

And the gods of hospitality, that he was prevented by her from being moved.

Warlike Pallas [Athena] is present and protects her brother with the aegis

And gives him courage.

There was the Indian Athis, whom Limaee, born from the River Ganges,

Is believed to have given birth to beneath the glassy waves.

Extraordinary in beauty, which he enhanced with rich ornaments, 

still youthful at twice-eight years,

Clothed in a Tyrian cloak, which a golden border

Surrounded; golden necklaces adorned his neck,

And a curved hairpin adorned his hair, dripping with myrrh;

He indeed was skilled at hitting things, however distant, with a hurled javelin,

But more skilled at drawing the bow.

Then, also, as he was bending the flexible horns with his hand, Perseus

Struck him with a log, which lay smoking in the middle of the altar,

And smashed his face into broken bones.

When the Assyrian Lycabus saw him tossing his praised features 

in blood, Lycabus, most closely joined to him

As both a companion and one who did not hide his true love,

After he lamented Athis breathing out his life under the bitter wound,

He snatched up the bow that he had drawn

“Let your contest be with me!” he said, 

“You shall not long rejoice in the fate of the boy, for whom you have more

Hatred then praise.” All these things he had not yet

Finished saying; the piercing weapon flashed from the string,

But although avoided, it hung in Perseus’ billowing robe.

The descendant of Acrisius turned against him the curved sword, proven by the slaughter of Medusa

And drove it into his chest; But he,

Now dying, with eyes swimming under a black night,

Looked around for Athis and leaned himself towards him

And carried to the shades the comfort of their joined death.