XVI. AQUILA.
Haec est quae dicitur Ganymedem rapuisse et amanti Ioui tradidisse; hanc etiam Iuppiter primus ex auium genere sibi delegisse existimatur. quae sola tradita est memoriae contra solis exorientis radios contendere uolare. itaque supra Aquarium uolare uidetur; hunc enim conplures Ganymedem esse finxerunt. nonnulli etiam dixerunt Meropem quendam fuisse, qui Coum insulam tenuerit regno, et a filiae nomine Coon et homines ipsos a se Meropas appellaret. hunc autem habuisse uxorem quandam nomine Ethemeam, genere nympharum procreatam. quae cum desierit colere Dianam, ab ea sagittis figi coepit. tandem a Proserpina uiuam ad inferos abreptam esse. Meropem autem desiderio uxoris permotum, mortem sibi consciscere uoluisse; Iunonem autem misertam eius in aquilam corpus eius conuertisse et inter sidera constituisse, ne, si hominis effigie eum constitueret, hominis memoriam tenens, coniugis desiderio moueretur.
XVI. The Eagle
This is the one that is said to have carried off Ganymede and delivered him to Zeus in love; Zeus is also thought to have chosen this one first from the race of birds for himself. It alone is recorded as flying against the rays of the rising sun. And so it is seen to fly above Aquarius; for very many have imagined that he is Ganymede. Some have also said that there was a certain Merops, who held the island of Cos as his kingdom, and called the island Coos from his daughter's name, and the people themselves Meropes from himself. He, they say, had a wife named Ethemea, born of the race of nymphs. When she ceased to honour Artemis, she began to be struck by her arrows. At last she was snatched alive to the underworld by Persephone. Merops, moved by longing for his wife, wished to take his own life; but Hera, pitying him, turned his body into an eagle and placed him among the stars, lest, if she had set him there in the form of a man, remembering the man he had been, he should be moved by longing for his wife.
Aglaosthenes autem qui Naxica scripsit, ait Iouem Crete subreptum; Naxum delatum et ibi esse nutritum. qui postquam peruenerit ad uirilem aetatem et uoluerit bello lacessere Titanas, sacrificanti ei aquilam auspicatam; quo auspicio usum esse et eam inter astra collocasse. nonnulli etiam dixerunt Mercurium, alii autem Anapladem pulchritudine Ueneris inductum in amorem incidisse; et cum ei copia non fieret, animo, ut contumelia accepta, defecisse. Iouem autem misertum eius, cum Uenus in Acheloo flumine corpus ablueret, misisse aquilam, quae soccum eius in Amythaoniam Aegyptiorum delatum Mercurio traderet; quem persequens Uenus ad cupientem sui peruenit. qui copia facta, pro beneficio aquilam in mundo locauit.
Aglaosthenes, who wrote the Naxica, says that Zeus, stolen away from Crete, was carried to Naxos and nursed there; and that when he had come to manly age and wished to challenge the Titans to war, an eagle appeared as an omen to him as he sacrificed; having used this omen, he placed it among the stars. Some also said that Hermes, others Anaplas [?], was drawn into love by the beauty of Aphrodite; and when no opportunity was given him, he fainted in spirit, as though insulted. Zeus, pitying him, when Aphrodite was washing her body in the river Achelous, sent an eagle, which carried her sandal, brought to the Amythaonia of the Egyptians [?], and handed it to Hermes; Aphrodite, pursuing him, came to him who desired her. He, opportunity having been given, for the kindness placed the eagle in the heavens.
XVII. DELPHIN.
Hic qua de causa sit inter astra collocatus, Eratosthenes ita cum ceteris dicit: Neptunum, quo tempore uoluerit Amphitriten ducere uxorem, et illa cupiens conseruare uirginitatem fugerit ad Atlanta, complures eam quaesitum dimisisse, in his et Delphina quendam nomine. qui peruagatus insulas, aliquando ad uirginem peruenit eique persuasit, ut nuberet Neptuno, et ipse nuptias eorum administrauit. pro quo facto inter sidera Delphini effigiem collocauit. et hoc amplius: qui Neptuno simulacra faciunt, delphinum aut in manu, aut sub pede eius constituere uidemus; quod Neptuno gratissimum esse arbitrantur.
XVII. The Dolphin
For what reason this was placed among the stars, Eratosthenes, with others, says as follows: when Poseidon wished to marry Amphitrite, and she, wishing to keep her virginity, fled to Atlas, many were sent to seek her, among them a certain Delphinus by name. He, roaming the islands, at length came to the maiden and persuaded her to marry Poseidon, and himself arranged their wedding. For this deed Poseidon placed the likeness of a dolphin among the stars. And furthermore: those who make statues of Poseidon, we see, place a dolphin either in his hand or beneath his foot, which they think most pleasing to Poseidon.
Aglaosthenes autem, qui Naxica conscripsit, Tyrrhenos ait fuisse quosdam nauicularios, qui puerum etiam Liberum patrem receptum, ut Naxum cum suis comitibus trauectum redderent nutricibus nymphis; a quibus eum nutritum et nostri in progenie deorum et conplures Graeci dixerunt. sed ut ad propositum reuertamur, nauicularii spe praedae inducti, nauem auertere uoluerunt. quod Liber suspicatus, comites suos iubet symphoniam canere; quo sonitu inaudito Tyrrheni cum usque adeo delectarentur, ut etiam in saltationibus essent occupati cupiditate, se in mare inscii proiecerunt et ibi delphini sunt facti. quorum cogitationem cum Liber memoriae hominum tradere uoluisset, unius effigiem inter sidera collocauit.
Aglaosthenes, who wrote the Naxica, says that there were certain Tyrrhenian shipmen, who had received the boy Dionysus himself, in order to carry him across to Naxos with his companions and give him back to his nurses the nymphs; by whom, both our writers and very many Greeks have said, he was nursed among the offspring of the gods. But to return to our theme: the shipmen, led on by hope of booty, wished to turn the ship aside. Dionysus, suspecting this, orders his companions to play a symphony (music); at this sound, which they had not heard before, the Tyrrhenians, delighted to such a degree that they were even taken up in dances by desire, threw themselves unawares into the sea and there were made dolphins. When Dionysus wished to hand down their intention to men's memory, he placed the likeness of one of them among the stars.
alii autem dicunt hunc esse delphina, qui Ariona citharoedum ex Siculo mari Taenarum trauexit. qui cum ceteros artificio praestaret et circum insulas quaestus causa uagaretur, seruuli eius arbitrati plus in perfidiosa libertate commodi, quam in placida seruitute esse, cogitare coeperunt, ut domino in pelagus proiecto, bona eius inter se partirentur. qui cum cogitationem eorum sensisset, petiit, non ut dominus a seruis et innocens ab improbis, sed ut parens a filiis, ut se liceret ornare, qua saepe uicerat uestc, quoniam nemo esset alius, qui ut ipse suum questu prosequeretur euentum. quod cum inpetrasset, cithara sumpta, suam coepit deflere mortem; quo sonitu ducti delphines e toto mari pronatant ad Arionis cantum. itaque deorum inmortalium potestate inuocata, super eos se deiecit; quorum unus Ariona exceptum pertulit ad Taenarium litus. cuius memoriae causa quae ibi statua statuta est Arionis, in ea delphini simulacrum adfixum uidetur; pro qua re inter sidera ab antiquis astrologis est figuratum. serui autem, qui se putabant seruitute elapsos, tempestate Taenarum perducti, a domino conprehensi, non mediocri supplicio sunt affecti.
Others, however, say that this is the dolphin that carried Arion the citharode from the Sicilian sea to Taenarum. He, since he surpassed the rest in his art and wandered about the islands for the sake of profit, his little slaves, thinking there was more advantage in treacherous freedom than in peaceful slavery, began to plan to throw their master into the sea and divide his goods among themselves. He, when he sensed their plan, asked, not as a master from slaves and an innocent man from the wicked, but as a parent from sons, that he might be allowed to dress himself in the garment in which he had often won, since there was no one else who could accompany his own fate with lament as he himself could. When he obtained this, taking up his cithara, he began to weep over his own death; led by the sound, dolphins swam up from the whole sea to Arion's song. And so, having called on the power of the immortal gods, he threw himself down upon them; one of them took Arion up and bore him to the Taenarian shore. In memory of this, on the statue of Arion that was set up there, the likeness of a dolphin is seen fixed; for this reason it was formed among the stars by the ancient astronomers. The slaves, however, who thought they had escaped slavery, were brought to Taenarum by a storm, seized by their master, and visited with no light punishment.
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