Complete works of lucan, p.98
Complete Works of Lucan, page 98
quis latet hic superum? quod numen ab aethere pressum
dignatur caecas inclusum habitare cauernas?
quis terram caeli patitur deus, omnia cursus
aeterni secreta tenens mundoque futuri
conscius, ac populis sese proferre paratus 90
contactumque ferens hominis, magnusque potensque,
siue canit fatum seu, quod iubet ille canendo,
fit fatum? forsan, terris inserta regendis
aere libratum uacuo quae sustinet orbem,
totius pars magna Iouis Cirrhaea per antra 95
exit et aetherio trahitur conexa Tonanti.
hoc ubi uirgineo conceptum est pectore numen,
humanam feriens animam sonat oraque uatis
soluit, ceu Siculus flammis urguentibus Aetnam
undat apex, Campana fremens ceu saxa uaporat 100
conditus Inarimes aeterna mole Typhoeus.
Which of the immortals is hidden here? What deity, descending from heaven, deigns to dwell pent up in these dark grottoes? What god of heaven endures the weight of earth, knowing every secret of the eternal process of events, sharing with the sky the knowledge of the future, ready to reveal himself to the nations, and patient of contact with mankind? A great and mighty god is he, whether he merely predicts the future or the future is itself determined by the fiat of his utterance. It may be that a large part of the whole divine element is embedded in the world to rule it, and supports the globe poised upon empty space; and this part issues forth through the caves of Cirrha, and is inhaled there, though closely linked to the Thunderer in heaven. When this inspiration has found a harbour in a maiden’s bosom, it strikes the human soul of the priestess audibly, and unlocks her lips, even as the crown of Etna in Sicily boils over from the pressure of the flames; and as Typhoeus, where he lies beneath the everlasting mass of Inarime, makes hot the rocks of Campania by his unrest.
hoc tamen expositum cunctis nullique negatum
numen ab humani solum se labe furoris
uindicat. haud illic tacito mala uota susurro
concipiunt, nam fixa canens mutandaque nulli 105
mortales optare uetat; iustisque benignus
saepe dedit sedem totas mutantibus urbes,
ut Tyriis, dedit ille minas inpellere belli,
ut Salaminiacum meminit mare; sustulit iras
telluris sterilis monstrato fine, resoluit 110
aera tabificum. non ullo saecula dono
nostra carent maiore deum, quam Delphica sedes
quod siluit, postquam reges timuere futura
et superos uetuere loqui. nec uoce negata
Cirrhaeae maerent uates, templique fruuntur 115
iustitio. nam, siqua deus sub pectora uenit,
numinis aut poena est mors inmatura recepti
aut pretium; quippe stimulo fluctuque furoris
conpages humana labat, pulsusque deorum
concutiunt fragiles animas. sic tempore longo 120
inmotos tripodas uastaeque silentia rupis
Appius Hesperii scrutator ad ultima fati
sollicitat. iussus sedes laxare uerendas
antistes pauidamque deis inmittere uatem
Castalios circum latices nemorumque recessus 125
Phemonoen errore uagam curisque uacantem
corripuit cogitque fores inrumpere templi.
limine terrifico metuens consistere Phoebas
absterrere ducem noscendi ardore futura
cassa fraude parat. ‘quid spes’ ait ‘inproba ueri 130
te, Romane, trahit? muto Parnasos hiatu
conticuit pressitque deum, seu spiritus istas
destituit fauces mundique in deuia uersum
duxit iter, seu, barbarica cum lampade Python
arsit, in inmensas cineres abiere cauernas 135
et Phoebi tenuere uiam, seu sponte deorum
Cirrha silet farique sat est arcana futuri
carmina longaeuae uobis conmissa Sibyllae,
seu Paean solitus templis arcere nocentis,
ora quibus soluat, nostro non inuenit aeuo.’ 140
This sacred shrine, which welcomes all men and is denied to none, nevertheless alone is free from the taint of human wickedness. There no sinful prayers are framed in stealthy whisper; for the god forbids mankind to pray for anything, and only proclaims the doom that none may change. To the righteous he shows favour: when whole cities, as in the case of Tyre, were abandoned by their inhabitants, he has often given them a place to dwell in; he has enabled others to dispel the dangers of war, as the sea of Salamis has not forgotten; he has removed the anger of the barren earth by revealing a remedy; he has cleared the air from the taint of plague. But the Delphian oracle became dumb, when kings feared the future and stopped the mouth of the gods; and no divine gift is more sorely missed by our age. Yet the priestesses of Delphi feel no grief that utterance is denied them: nay, they rejoice in the cessation of the oracle. For, if the god enters the bosom of any, untimely death is her penalty, or her reward, for having received him; because the human frame is broken up by the sting and surge of that frenzy, and the stroke from heaven shatters the brittle life. — So when Appius, probing the last secrets of Roman destiny, urged his quest, the tripods had long been motionless and the mighty rock silent. When the priest was bidden to unbar the awful shrine and usher the terrified priestess into the divine presence, Phemonoe was wandering free from care about the spring of Castalia and the sequestered grove; he laid hands upon her and compelled her to rush within the temple doors. Fearing to take her stand on that dread threshold, Apollo’s priestess sought by vain deceit to discourage Appius from his eagerness to learn the future. “Why,” she asked, “does presumptuous hope of learning the truth draw you hither, O Roman? The chasm of Parnassus, fallen dumb and silent, has buried its god. Either the breath of inspiration has failed yonder outlet and has shifted its path to a distant region of the world; or, when Pytho was burned by the brands of barbarians, the ashes sank into the vast caverns and blocked the passage of Phoebus; or Delphi is dumb by the will of Heaven, and it is thought enough that the verses of the ancient Sibyl, entrusted to your nation, should tell forth the hidden future; or else Apollo, accustomed to exclude the guilty from his shrine, finds none in our age for whose sake to unseal his lips.”
uirginei patuere doli, fecitque negatis
numinibus metus ipse fidem. tum torta priores
stringit uitta comas, crinesque in terga solutos
candida Phocaica conplectitur infula lauro.
haerentem dubiamque premens in templa sacerdos 145
inpulit. illa pauens adyti penetrale remoti
fatidicum prima templorum in parte resistit
atque deum simulans sub pectore ficta quieto
uerba refert, nullo confusae murmure uocis
instinctam sacro mentem testata furore, 150
haud aeque laesura ducem cui falsa canebat
quam tripodas Phoebique fidem. non rupta trementi
uerba sono nec uox antri conplere capacis
sufficiens spatium nulloque horrore comarum
excussae laurus inmotaque limina templi 155
securumque nemus ueritam se credere Phoebo
prodiderant. sensit tripodas cessare furensque
Appius ‘et nobis meritas dabis, impia, poenas
et superis, quos fingis,’ ait ‘nisi mergeris antris
deque orbis trepidi tanto consulta tumultu 160
desinis ipsa loqui’. tandem conterrita uirgo
confugit ad tripodas uastisque adducta cauernis
haesit et insueto concepit pectore numen,
quod non exhaustae per tot iam saecula rupis
spiritus ingessit uati; tandemque potitus 165
pectore Cirrhaeo non umquam plenior artus
Phoebados inrupit Paean mentemque priorem
expulit atque hominem toto sibi cedere iussit
pectore. bacchatur demens aliena per antrum
colla ferens, uittasque dei Phoebeaque serta 170
erectis discussa comis per inania templi
ancipiti ceruice rotat spargitque uaganti
obstantis tripodas magnoque exaestuat igne
iratum te, Phoebe, ferens. nec uerbere solo
uteris et stimulis flammasque in uiscera mergis: 175
accipit et frenos, nec tantum prodere uati
quantum scire licet. uenit aetas omnis in unam
congeriem, miserumque premunt tot saecula pectus,
tanta patet rerum series, atque omne futurum
nititur in lucem, uocemque petentia fata 180
luctantur; non prima dies, non ultima mundi,
non modus Oceani, numerus non derat harenae.
qualis in Euboico uates Cumana recessu
indignata suum multis seruire furorem
gentibus ex tanta fatorum strage superba 185
excerpsit Romana manu, sic plena laborat
Phemonoe Phoebo, dum te, consultor operti
Castalia tellure dei, uix inuenit, Appi,
inter fata diu quaerens tam magna latentem.
spumea tum primum rabies uaesana per ora 190
effluit et gemitus et anhelo clara meatu
murmura, tum maestus uastis ululatus in antris
extremaeque sonant domita iam uirgine uoces:
‘effugis ingentes, tanti discriminis expers,
bellorum, Romane, minas, solusque quietem 195
Euboici uasta lateris conualle tenebis’.
cetera suppressit faucesque obstruxit Apollo.
The maiden’s craft was plain, and even her fears proved the reality of the deity she denied. Then the circling band confined the tresses above her brow; and the hair that streamed down her back was bound by the white fillet and the laurel of Phocis. When still she paused and hesitated, the priest thrust her by force into the temple. Dreading the oracular recess of the inner shrine, she halted by the entrance, counterfeiting inspiration and uttering feigned words from a bosom unstirred; and no inarticulate cry of indistinct utterance proved that her mind was inspired with the divine frenzy. To Appius, who heard her false prophecy, she could do less harm than to the oracle and Apollo’s repute for truth. Her words, that rushed not forth with tremulous cry; her voice, which had not power to fill the space of the vast cavern; her laurel wreath, which was not raised off her head by the bristling hair; the unmoved floor of the temple and the motionless trees — all these betrayed her dread of trusting herself to Apollo. Appius perceived that the oracle was dumb, and cried out in fury: “Profane wretch, I myself and the gods whom you counterfeit will punish you even as you deserve, unless you go down into the cave and cease, when consulted concerning the mighty turmoil of a terrified world, to speak your own words.” Scared at last the maiden took refuge by the tripods; she drew near to the vast chasm and there stayed; and her bosom for the first time drew in the divine power, which the inspiration of the rock, still active after so many centuries, forced upon her. At last Apollo mastered the breast of the Delphian priestess; as fully as ever in the past, he forced his way into her body, driving out her former thoughts, and bidding her human nature to come forth and leave her heart at his disposal. Frantic she careers about the cave, with her neck under possession; the fillets and garlands of Apollo, dislodged by her bristling hair, she whirls with tossing head through the void spaces of the temple; she scatters the tripods that impede her random course; she boils over with fierce fire, while enduring the wrath of Phoebus. Nor does he ply the whip and goad alone, and dart flame into her vitals: she has to bear the curb as well, and is not permitted to reveal as much as she is suffered to know. All time is gathered up together: all the centuries crowd her breast and torture it; the endless chain of events is revealed; all the future struggles to the light; destiny contends with destiny, seeking to be uttered. The creation of the world and its destruction, the compass of the Ocean and the sum of the sands — all these are before her. Even as the Sibyl of Cumae in her Euboean cave, resenting that her inspiration should be at the service of many nations, chose among them with haughty hand and picked out from the great heap of destiny the fate of Rome, so Phemonoe, possessed by Phoebus, was troubled and sought long ere she found the name of Appius concealed among the names of mightier men — Appius, who came to question the god hidden in the land of Castalia. When she found it, first the wild frenzy overflowed through her foaming lips; she groaned and uttered loud inarticulate cries with panting breath; next, a dismal wailing filled the vast cave; and at last, when she was mastered, came the sound of articulate speech: “Roman, thou shalt have no part in the mighty ordeal and shalt escape the awful threats of war; and thou alone shalt stay at peace in a broad hollow of the Euboean coast.” Then Apollo closed up her throat and cut short her tale.
custodes tripodes fatorum arcanaque mundi
tuque, potens ueri Paean nullumque futuri
a superis celate diem, suprema ruentis 200
imperii caesosque duces et funera regum
et tot in Hesperio conlapsas sanguine gentis
cur aperire times? an nondum numina tantum
decreuere nefas et adhuc dubitantibus astris
Pompei damnare caput tot fata tenentur? 205
uindicis an gladii facinus poenasque furorum
regnaque ad ultores iterum redeuntia Brutos,
ut peragat fortuna, taces? tum pectore uatis
inpactae cessere fores, expulsaque templis
prosiluit; perstat rabies, nec cuncta locutae 210
quem non emisit, superest deus. illa feroces
torquet adhuc oculos totoque uagantia caelo
lumina, nunc uoltu pauido, nunc torua minaci;
stat numquam facies; rubor igneus inficit ora
liuentisque genas; nec, qui solet esse timenti, 215
terribilis sed pallor inest; nec fessa quiescunt
corda, sed, ut tumidus Boreae post flamina pontus
rauca gemit, sic muta leuant suspiria uatem.
dumque a luce sacra, qua uidit fata, refertur
ad uolgare iubar mediae uenere tenebrae. 220
inmisit Stygiam Paean in uiscera Lethen,
quae raperet secreta deum. tum pectore uerum
fugit et ad Phoebi tripodas rediere futura,
uixque refecta cadit. nec te uicinia leti
territat ambiguis frustratum sortibus, Appi; 225
iure sed incerto mundi subsidere regnum
Chalcidos Euboicae uana spe rapte parabas.
heu demens, nullum belli sentire fragorem,
tot mundi caruisse malis, praestare deorum
excepta quis Morte potest? secreta tenebis 230
litoris Euboici memorando condite busto,
qua maris angustat fauces saxosa Carystos
et, tumidis infesta colit quae numina, Rhamnus,
artatus rapido feruet qua gurgite pontus
Euripusque trahit, cursum mutantibus undis, 235
Chalcidicas puppes ad iniquam classibus Aulin.
Ye oracles that watch over destiny, ye mysteries of the universe, and thou, O Paean, master of truth from whom no day of future time is hidden by the gods, why is it that thou dreadest to reveal the last phase in the collapse of empire, the fall of captains and deaths of kings, and the destruction of so many nations in the carnage of Italy? Have the gods not yet resolved on so great a crime, and, because the stars still hesitate to doom Pompey to death, is the fate of many held in suspense? Or is this the object of thy silence — that Fortune may carry through the heroic deed of the avenging sword, that mad ambition may be punished, and that tyranny may meet once more the vengeance of a Brutus? — Now the doors gave way when the priestess dashed her breast against them, and forth she rushed, driven from the temple. The frenzy abides; and the god, whom she has not shaken off, still controls her, since she has not told all her tale. She still rolls wild eyes, and eyeballs that roam over all the sky; her features are never quiet, now showing fear, and now grim with menacing aspect; a fiery flush dyes her face and the leaden hue of her cheeks; her paleness is unlike that of fear but inspires fear; her heart finds no rest after its labour; and, as the swollen sea moans hoarsely when the North wind has ceased to blow, so voiceless sighs still heave her breast. While she was returning to the common light of day from the divine radiance in which she had seen the future, a darkness intervened. For Apollo poured Stygian Lethe into her inward parts, to snatch the secrets of heaven from her. Then the truth vanished from her bosom, and knowledge of the future went back to the tripods of the god; and down she fell, recovering with difficulty. But Appius, deceived by a riddling oracle, was not alarmed by the nearness of death: urged by vain hope, he was eager to take possession of a domain at Chalcis in Euboea, while the lordship over the world was still unsettled. Madman! what deity save Death alone can assure to a man that he will feel no crash of warfare and escape such worldwide suffering? Laid in a memorable tomb, you shall occupy a sequestered spot on the shore of Euboea, where a gorge of the sea is narrowed by the quarries of Carystos and by Rhamnus that worships a goddess who hates the proud; there the sea boils in the narrows with rushing waters, and there the Euripus with irregular current carries the ships of Chalcis to Aulis unkind to fleets.
interea domitis Caesar remeabat Hiberis
uictrices aquilas alium laturus in orbem,
cum prope fatorum tantos per prospera cursus
auertere dei. nullo nam Marte subactus 240
intra castrorum timuit tentoria ductor
perdere successus scelerum, cum paene fideles
per tot bella manus satiatae sanguine tandem
destituere ducem, seu maesto classica paulum
intermissa sono claususque et frigidus ensis 245
expulerat belli furias, seu, praemia miles
dum maiora petit, damnat causamque ducemque
et scelere inbutos etiamnunc uenditat enses.
haud magis expertus discrimine Caesar in ullo est
quam non e stabili tremulo sed culmine cuncta 250
despiceret staretque super titubantia fultus.
tot raptis truncus manibus gladioque relictus
paene suo, qui tot gentis in bella trahebat,
scit non esse ducis strictos sed militis enses.
non pauidum iam murmur erat nec pectore tecto 255
ira latens; nam quae dubias constringere mentes
