Delphi Complete Works of Longus Page 4

  9. Of this sort then was their nocturnal schooling. When it was day and their flocks were driven to the field, they ran, as soon as they saw one another, to kiss and embrace, which before they never did. Yet of that third remedy which the old Philetas taught, they durst not make experiment; for that was not only an enterprise too bold for maids, but too high for young goatherds. Therefore still, as before, came night without sleep, and with remembrance of what was done and with complaint of what was not: “We have kissed one another and are never the better; we have clipped and embraced, and that’s as good as nothing too. Therefore to lie together is certainly the only remaining remedy of love. That must be tried by all means.

  There’s something in it, without doubt, more efficacious then in a kiss.”

  6. While they indulged these kind of thoughts, they had, as it was like, their amorous dreams, kissing and clipping; and what they did not in the day, that they acted in the night, and lay together. But the next day they rose up still the more possessed, and drive their flocks with a whistling to the fields, hasting to their kisses again, and when they saw one another, smiling sweetly ran together. Kisses passed, embraces passed, but that third remedy was slow to come; for Daphnis durst not mention it, and Chloe too would not begin, till at length even by chance they made this essay of it:

  7. They sate both close together upon the trunk of an old oak, and having tasted the sweetness of kisses they were ingulfed insatiably in pleasure, and there arose a mutual contention and striving with their clasping arms which made a close compression of their lips. And when Daphnis hugged her to him with a more violent desire, it came about that Chloe inclined a little on her side, and Daphnis, following his kiss, fell beside her. And remembering that they had an image of this in their dreams the night before, they lay a long while clinging together. But being ignorant as yet, and thinking that this was the end of love, they parted, most part of the day spent in vain, and drove their flocks home from the fields with a kind of hate to the oppression of the night.

  And perchance something that was real had then bin done, but that this tumult and noise filled all that rural tract:

  12. Some young gallants of Methymna, thinking to keep the vintage holy-days and choosing to take the pleasure abroad, drew a small vessel into the water, and putting in their own domestic servants to row, sailed about those pleasant farms of Mytilene that were near by the seashore. For the maritim coast has many good and safe harbours, and all along is adorned with many stately buildings. There are besides many baths, gardens, and groves, these by art, those by nature, all brave for a man to take his pastime there.

  The ship therefore passing along and from time to time putting in at the bays, they did no harm or injury to any, but recreated themselves with divers pleasures, sometimes with angles, rods, and lines taking fish from this or the other prominent rock, sometimes with dogs or toils hunting the hares that fled from the noise of the vineyards; then anon they would go a fowling, and take the wild-goose, duck, and mallard, and the bustard of the field; and so by their pleasure furnished themselves with a plenteous table. If they needed anything else they paid the villagers above the price. But there was nothing else wanting but only bread and wine and house-room. For they thought it unsafe, the autumn now in its declination, to quit the land and lie all night aboard at sea; and therefore drew the vessel ashore for fear of a tempestuous night.

  13. Now it happened that a country fellow wanting a rope, his own being broke, to haul up the stone wherewith he was grinding grape-stones, sneaked down to the sea, and finding the ship with nobody in her, loosed the cable that held her and brought it away to serve his business. In the morning the young men of Methymna began to enquire after the rope, and (nobody owning the thievery) when they had a little blamed the unkindness and injury of their hosts, they loosed from thence, and sailing on thirty furlongs arrived at the fields of Daphnis and Chloe, those fields seeming the likeliest for hunting the hare. Therefore being destitute of a rope to use for their cable, they made a with of green and long sallow-twigs, and with that tied her by her stem to the shore. Then slipping their dogs to hunt, they cast their toils in those paths that seemed fittest for game.

  The deep-mouthed dogs opened loud, and running about with much barking, scared the goats, that all hurried down from the mountains towards the sea; and finding nothing there in the sand to eat, coming up to that ship some of the bolder mischievous goats gnawed in pieces the green sallow-with that made her fast. 14. At the same moment there began to be a bluster at sea, the wind blowing from the mountains. On a sudden therefore the backwash of the waves set the loose pinnace adrift and carried her off to the main.

  As soon as the Methymnaeans heard the news, some of them posted to the sea, some stayed to take up the dogs, all made a hubbub through the fields, and brought the neighbouring rurals in. But all was to no purpose; all was lost, all was gone. For the wind freshening, the ship with an irrevocable pernicity and swiftness was carried away.

  Therefore the Methymnaeans, having a great loss by this, looked for the goatherd, and lighting on Daphnis, fell to cuff him, and tore off his clothes, and one offered to bind his hands behind him with a dog-slip. But Daphnis, when he was miserably beaten, cried out and implored the help of the country lads, and chiefly of all called for rescue to Lamo and Dryas. They presently came in, and opposed themselves, brawny old fellows and such as by their country labour had hands of steel, and required of the furious youths concerning those things that had happened a fair legal debate and decision. 15. And the others desiring the same thing, they made Philetas the herdsman judge. For he was oldest of all that were there present, and famous for uprightness among the villagers.

  The Methymnaeans therefore began first, and laid their accusation against Daphnis, in very short and perspicuous words as before a herdsman-judge: “We came into these fields to hunt. Wherefore with a green sallow-with we left our ship tied to the shore while our dogs were hunting the grounds. Meanwhile his goats strayed from the mountains down to the sea, gnawed the green cable in pieces, set her at liberty, and let her fly. You saw her tossing in the sea, but with what choice and rich good laden! what fine clothes are lost! what rare harness and ornaments for dogs are there! what a treasury of precious silver! He that had all might easily purchase these fields. For this damage we think it but right and reason to carry him away our captive, him that is such a mischievous goatherd to feed his goats upon those other goats, to wit, the waves of the sea.”

  16. This was the accusation of the Methymnaeans. Daphnis on the other side, although his bones were sore with basting, yet seeing his dear Chloe there, set it at naught and spoke thus in his own defence: “I, in keeping my goats, have done my office well. For never so much as one of all the neighbours of the vale has blamed me yet, that any kid or goat of mine has broke into and eaten up his garden or browzed a young or sprouting vine. But those are wicked cursed hunters, and have dogs that have no manners, such as with their furious coursing and most vehement barking have, like wolves, scared my goats and tossed them down from the mountains through the valleys to the sea. But they have eaten the green with. For they could find nothing. else upon the sand, neither arbute, wilding, shrub, nor thyme. But the ship’s lost by wind and wave. That’s not my goats, but the fault of seas and tempests. But there were rich clothes and silver aboard her. And who that has any wit can believe that a ship that is so richly laden should have nothing for her cable but a with?”

  17. With that Daphnis began to weep, and made the rustics commiserate him and his cause, so that Philetas the judge called Pan and the Nymphs to witness that neither Daphnis nor his goats had done any wrong, but that it was the wind and sea, and that of those there were other judges. Yet by this sentence Philetas could not persuade and bind the Methymnaeans, but again in a fury they fell to towse Daphnis, and offered to bind him. With which the villagers being moved, fell upon them like flocks of starlings or jackdaws, and carried him away as he was bustling amongst them, never ceasing
till with their clubs they had driven them the ground, and beaten them from their coasts into other fields.

  18. While thus they pursued the Methymnaeans, Chloe had time without disturbance to bring Daphnis to the fountain of the Nymphs, and there to wash his bloody face, and entertain him with bread and cheese out of her own scrip, and (what served to restore him most of all) give him with her soft lips a kiss sweet as honey. 19. For it wanted but a little that then her dear Daphnis had bin slain.

  But these commotions could not thus be laid and at an end. For those gallants of Methymna, having been softly and delicately bred, and every man his wounds about him, travelling now by land, with miserable labour and pain got into their own country; and procuring a council to be called, humbly petitioned that their cause might be revenged, without reporting a word of those things which indeed had happened, lest perchance over and above their wounds they should be laughed at for what they had suffered at the hands of clowns; but accused the Mytilenaeans that they had taken their ship and goods in open warfare.

  The citizens easily believed their story because they saw they were all wounded, and knowing them to be of the best of their families, thought it just to revenge the injury. And therefore they decreed a war against the Mytilenaeans without denouncing it by any herald, and commanded Bryaxis their general with ten sail to infest the maritim coast of Mytilene. For the winter now approaching, they thought it dangerous to trust a greater squadron at sea.

  20. At dawn of the next day the general sets sail with his soldiers at the oars, and putting to the main comes up to the maritims of Mytilene, and hostilely invades them, plundering and raping away their flocks, their corn, their wines (the vintage now but lately over), with many of those that were employed in such business. They sailed up, too, to the fields of Daphnis and Chloe, and coming suddenly down upon them, preyed upon all that they could light on.

  It happened that Daphnis was not then with his goats, but was gone to the wood, and there was cutting green leaves to give them for fodder in the winter. Therefore, this incursation being seen from the higher ground, he hid himself in an hollow beech-tree. But his Chloe was with their flocks, and the enemies invading her and them, she fled away to the cave of the Nymphs, and begged of the enemies that they would spare her and her flocks for those holy Goddesses’ sakes. But that did not help her at all. For the Methymnaeans did not only mock at and rail upon the statues of the Nymphs but drove away her flocks and her before them, thumping her along with their battons as if she had bin a sheep or a goat. 21. But now their ships being laden with all manner of prey, they thought it not convenient to sail any further but rather to make home, for fear of the winter no less then of their enemies. Therefore they sailed back again, and were hard put to it to row because there wanted wind to drive them.

  The tumults and hubbubs ceasing, Daphnis came out of the wood into the field they used to feed in, and when he could find neither the goats, the sheep, nor Chloe, but only a deep silence and solitude and the pipe flung away wherewith she entertained herself, setting up a piteous cry and lamenting miserably, sometimes he ran to the oak where they sate, sometimes to the sea to try if there he could set his eyes on her, then to the Nymphs whither she fled when she was taken, and there flinging himself upon the ground began to accuse the Nymphs as her betrayers:

  22. “It was from your statues that Chloe was drawn and ravished away! and how could you endure to see it? she that made the garlands for you, she that every morning poured out before you and sacrificed her first milk, and she whose pipe hangs up there a sweet offering and donary! The wolf indeed has taken from me never a goat, but the enemy has my whole flock together with my sweet companion of the field; and they will kill and slay the sheep and goats, and Chloe now must live in a city. With what face can I now come into the sight of my father and my mother, without my goats, without Chloe, there to stand a quit-work and runaway? For now I have nothing left to feed, and Daphnis is no more a goatherd. Here I’ll fling myself on the ground, and here I’ll lie expecting my death or else a second war to help me. And dost thou, sweet Chloe, suffer now in thyself heavy things as these? Dost thou remember and think of this field, the Nymphs, and me? Or takest thou some comfort from thy sheep and those goats of mine which are carried away with thee into captivity?”

  22. While he was thus lamenting his condition, by his weeping so much and the heaviness of his grief he fell into a deep sleep, and those three Nymphs appeared to him, ladies of a tall stature; very fair, half-naked, and bare-footed, their hair dishevelled, and in all things like their statues. At first they appeared very much to pity his cause, and then the eldest, to erect him, spoke thus: “Blame not us at all, Daphnis; we have greater care of Chloe then thou thyself hast. We took pity on her when she was yet but an infant, and when she lay in this cave took her ourselves and saw her nursed. She does not at all belong to the fields, nor to the flocks of Dryas. And even now we have provided, as to her, that she shall not be carried a slave to Methymna, nor be any part of the enemies’ prey. We have begged of Pan, Pan that stands under yonder pine, whom you have never honoured so much as with flowers, that he would bring back thy Chloe and our votary. For Pan is more accustomed to camps then we are, and leaving the countryside has made many wars; and the Methymnaeans shall find him an infesting enemy. Trouble not thyself any longer, but get thee up and shew thyself to Myrtale and Lamo, who now themselves lie cast on the ground thinking thee too to be part of the rapine. For Chloe shall certainly come to thee to-morrow, accompanied with the sheep and the goats. You shall feed together as before and play together on the pipe. For other things concerning you, Love himself will take the care.”

  24. Now when Daphnis had seen and heard these things, he started up out of his sleep, and with tears in his eyes both of pleasure and of grief, adored the statues of the Nymphs, and vowed to sacrifice to them the best of all his she-goats if Chloe should return safe. And running to the pine where the statue of Pan was placed, the head homed, the legs a goat’s, one hand holding a pipe, the other a he-goat leaping, that too he adored, and made a vow for the safety of Chloe and promised Pan a he-goat.

  Scarce now with the setting of the sun he made a pause of his weeping, his wailing, and his prayers, and taking up the boughs he had cut in the wood, returned to the cottage, comforted Lamo and his household and made them merry, refreshed himself with meat and wine, and fell into a deep sleep; yet not that without tears, praying to see the Nymphs again and calling for an early day, the day that they had promised Chloe.

  That night seemed the longest of nights, but in it these wonders were done. 25. The general of the Methymnaeans, when he had borne off to sea about ten furlongs, would refresh his wearied soldiers after the incursion and plunder. Coming up therefore to a promontore which ran into the sea, winding itself into a half-moon within which the sea made a calmer station then in a port — in this place when he had cast anchor (lest the rustics should mischieve him from the land), he permitted them securely to rant and be jovial as in peace. The Methymnaeans, because by this deception they abounded with all things, feasted, caroused, and danced, and celebrated victorials.

  But the day being now spent and their mirth protracted to the night, on a sudden all the land seemed to be on a light fire; then anon their ears were struck with an impetuous clattering of oars as if a great navy were a coming. Some cried out the general must arm; some called this and others that; here some thought they were wounded, there others lay like dead men. A man would have thought he had seen a kind of nocturnal battle, when yet there was no enemy there.

  26. The night thus past in these spectres, the day arose far more terrible than the night. For on the horns of all Daphnis his goats there grew up on a sudden the berried ivy, and Chloe’s sheep were heard to howl like wolves in the woods. Chloe herself in the midst of her flocks appeared crowned with a most fresh and shady pine. In the sea itself too there happened many wonders, paradoxes, and prodigies. For when they laboured to weigh their anchors and be gone, th
eir anchors stuck as fast as the earth; and when they cast their oars to row, they snapped and broke; leaping dolphins with the thumping of their tails loosened the planks of the barges. From that crag which lifted up itself over the promontore, was heard a strange sound of a pipe; yet it was not pleasing as a pipe, but like a trumpet or a terrible comet, which made them run to their arms and call those enemies whom they saw not at all. Insomuch that they wished it night again, as if they should have a truce by that.

  Yet those things which then happened might very well be understood by such as were wise, namely that those spectres, phantasms, and sounds proceeded from Pan, shewing himself angry at the voyagers. Yet the cause they could not conjecture (for nothing sacred to Pan was robbed), until about high noon, their grand captain not without the impulse of some deity fallen into a sleep, Pan himself appeared to him and rated him thus: 27. “O ye most unholy and wickedest of mortals! What made you so bold as madly to attempt and do such outrages as these? You have not only filled with war these fields that are so dear to me, but also you have driven away herds of cattle, flocks of sheep and goats that were my care. Besides, you have taken sacrilegiously from the altars of the Nymphs a maid of whom Love himself will write a story. Nor did you at all revere the Nymphs that looked upon you when you did it, nor yet me whom very well you knew to be Pan. Therefore you shall never see Methymna, sailing away with those spoils, nor shall you escape that terrible pipe from the promontore, but I will drown you every man and make you food for the fish, unless thou speedily restore to the Nymphs as well Chloe as Chloe’s herds and flocks. Rise therefore and send the maid ashore, send her with all that I command thee; and I shall be as well to thee a convey in thy voyage home as to her a conduct on her way to the fields.”