Nonnus of Panopolis · Dionysiaca Διονυσιακά

Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 2.0–108: Book 2: Typhon rages through the land; the Hamadryads' fear

While Cadmos goes on piping, Zeus slips back to the cave and arms himself again under cover of a cloud. Typhoeus finds the cave empty and rages through Cilicia, devouring beasts and drinking rivers dry. Shepherds and ploughmen flee, the gods lament their lost plants, and two Hamadryads leap from their trees.

Lines 2.0–108 · 1044 words · click a number to copy its link
0δεύτερον ἀστερόφοιτον ἔχει Τυφῶνος Ἐνυὼ καὶ στεροπὴν καὶ ἄεθλα Διὸς καὶ κῶμον Ὀλύμπου.

The second has Typhon’s battle ranging through the stars, and lightning, and the struggles of - Zeus, and the triumph of Olympos.

1ὥς ὁ μὲν αὐτόθι μίμνε παρὰ σφυρὰ φορβάδος ὕλης ἀκροπόρῳ σύριγγι μετάτροπα χείλεα σύρων, Κάδμος Ἀγηνορίδης νόθος αἰπόλος· ἀπροϊδὴς δὲ Ζεὺς Κρονίδης ἀκίχητος ὑπὸ σπέος ἄψοφος ἕρπων 5χεῖρας ἑὰς ἐκόρυσσε τὸ δεύτερον ἠθάδι πυρσῷ καὶ νέφος ἔσκεπε Κάδμον ἀθηήτῳ παρὰ πέτρῃ, μὴ δόλον ἠπεροπῆα μαθὼν καὶ φῶρα κεραυνοῦ λάθριον ὑστερόμητις ἀποκτείνειε Τυφωεὺς βουκόλον ἀλλοπρόσαλλον· ὁ δὲ πλέον ἡδέι κέντρῳ 10ἤθελεν εἰσαΐειν φρενοθελγέα ῥυθμὸν ἀοιδῆς. ὡς δʼ ὅτε τις Σειρῆνος ἐπίκλοπον ὕμνον ἀκούων εἰς μόρον αὐτοκέλευστον ἀώριος εἵλκετο ναύτης, θελγόμενος μελέεσσι, καὶ οὐκέτι κῦμα χαράσσων γλαυκὸν ἀκυμάντοισιν ὕδωρ λεύκαινεν ἐρετμοῖς, 15ἀλλὰ λιγυφθόγγοιο πεσὼν ἐπὶ δίκτυα Μοίρης τέρπετο πηδαλίοιο λελασμένος, ἄστρον ἐάσας Πλειάδος ἑπταπόροιο καὶ ἄντυγα κυκλάδος Ἄρκτου· ὣς ὅ γε κερδαλέης δεδονημένος ἄσθμασι μολπῆς πηκτίδος ἡδὺ βέλεμνον ἐδέξατο πομπὸν ὀλέθρου.

so Cadmos Agenorides remained there by the ankle of the pasturing woodland, drawing his lips to - and fro along the tops of the pipes, as a pretended goatherd ; but Zeus Cronides, unespied, uncaught, crept noiseless into the cave, and armed himself with his familiar fires a second time, And a cloud covered Cadmos beside his unseen rock, lest Typhoeus might loam this crafty plan, and the scoret thief of the thunderbolts, wise too late might kill the turncoat herdsman, But all the Giant wanted was, to hear more and more of the mind-bewitch- ing melody with its delicious thrill. When a sailor hears the Siren’s perfidious song, and bewitched by the melody, he is dragged to a self-chosen fate too soon ; no longer he cleaves the waves, no longer he whitens the blue water with his ears unwetted now, but falling into the net of melodious Fate, he forgets to steer, quite happy, caring not for the seven starry Pleiades and the Bear’s circling course : so the monster, shaken by the breath of that deceitful tune, welcomed with delight the wound of the pipes which was his escort to death.

20ἀλλὰ καλυπτομένου νεφέων σκιοειδέι μίτρῃ ἔμπνοος εὐκελάδοιο δόναξ σίγησε νομῆος, ἁρμονίην δʼ ἀνέκοψεν. ἀερσιπότης δὲ Τυφωεὺς οἶστρον ἑλὼν πολέμοιο κατέδραμεν εἰς μυχὸν ἄντρου, βροντὴν δʼ ἠνεμόφοιτον ἐδίζετο φοιτάδι λύσσῃ 25καὶ στεροπὴν ἀκίχητον, ἐρευνητῆρι δὲ ταρσῷ ζαφλεγὲς ἁρπαμένοιο σέλας μάστευε κεραυνοῦ, καὶ κενεὸν σπέος εὗρε. δολοφραδέας δὲ μενοινὰς ὀψὲ μαθὼν Κρονίδαο καὶ αἰόλα δήνεα Κάδμου αἰχμάζων σκοπέλοισιν ἐπεσκίρτησεν Ὀλύμπῳ. 30καὶ ποδὸς ἀγκύλον ἴχνος ἄγων ὀφιώδεϊ ταρσῷ ἰὸν ἀκοντιστῆρος ἀπέπτυεν ἀνθερεῶνος· ὑψιλόφου δὲ Γίγαντος ἐχιδναίῃσιν ἐθείραις πίδακας ὀμβρήσαντος ἐκυμαίνοντο χαράδραι· καί οἱ ἐπαΐσσοντι βαθυνομένην χθονὸς ἕδρην 35ἀκλινέος δαπέδοιο Κίλιξ ἐλελίζετο πυθμὴν ποσσὶ δρακοντείοισι, πολυσφαράγῳ δὲ κυδοιμῷ ταυρείου λοφόεντος ἀρασσομένου κενεῶνος γείτονες ὠρχήσαντο φόβῳ Παμφυλίδες ὄχθαι, καὶ χθόνιαι σήραγγες ἐβόμβεον, ἔτρεμον ἄκραι 40ἠιόνες, σείοντο μυχοί, καὶ ὀλίσθανον ἀκταὶ λυομένης ψαμάθοιο ποδῶν ἐνοσίχθονι παλμῷ.

But now the shepherd’s reed breathing melody fell silent, and a mantling shadow of cloud hid the piper as he cat off his tune. Typhoeus rushed head- in-air with the fury of battle into the cave’s recesses, and searched with hurried madness for the wind-coursing thunderbolt and the lightning unapproachable ; with inquiring foot he chased the fire-shotten gleam of the stolen thunderbolt, and found an empty cave ! Too late he learnt the craft-devising schemes of Cronides and the subtle machinations of Cadmos : “flinging the rocks about he leapt upon Olympos, While he dragged his crooked track with snaky foot, a. he spat out showers of poison from his throat ; the mountain torrents were swollen, as the monster showered fountains from the viperish bristles of his high head ; as he marched, the solid earth did sink, and the steady ground of Cilicia shook to its foundations under those dragon-feet ; the flanks of craggy Tauros crashed with a rambling din, until the he neighbouring Pamphylian hills danced with fear ; the underground cavers boomed, the rocky headlands trembled, the hidden places shook, the shore slipt away as a thrust of his earthshaking foot loosened the sands.

42οὐ νομός, οὐ τότε θῆρες ἀπήμονες· ὠμοβόροι γὰρ ἄρκτοι ἐδαιτρεύοντο Τυφαονίοιο προσώπου ἀρκτῴαις γενύεσσι, λεοντείων δὲ καρήνων 45γλαυκὰ δασυστέρνων ἐλαφύσσετο γυῖα λεόντων χάσμασιν ἰσοτύποισιν, ἐχιδνήεντι δὲ λαιμῷ ψυχρὰ πεδοτρεφέων ἐδαΐζετο νῶτα δρακόντων, ἠερίους δʼ ὄρνιθας ἐδαίνυτο γείτονι λαιμῷ ἱπταμένους ἀβάτοιο διʼ αἰθέρος, ἀγχιφανῆ δὲ 50αἰετὸν ἤσθιε μᾶλλον, ἐπεὶ Διὸς ὄρνις ἀκούει· ἤσθιε βοῦν ἀροτῆρα, καὶ οὐκ ᾤκτειρε δοκεύων

Neither pasture nor wild beasts were spared. Rawravening bears made a meal for the Jaws of Ty-’s bear-heads ; tawny bodies of chest-bristling were swallowed by the gaping jaws of his own lon-heads ; his snaky throats devoured the cold shapes of carthfed serpents ; birds of the air, flying through untrodden space, there met neighbours to gulp them down their throats—he found the eagle in his home, and that was the food he relished most, because it is called the Bird of Zeus. He ate up the plowing and had no pity when he saw the galled neck bloody from the yoke-straps,

52αἱμοβαφῆ ζυγίῳ κεχαραγμένον αὐχένα δεσμῷ. καὶ ποταμοὺς ἐκόνισσε πιὼν ἐπιδόρπιον ὕδωρ, Νηιάδων δὲ φάλαγγας ἀπεστυφέλιξεν ἐναύλων· 55καὶ βυθίη στείχουσα βατὸν ῥόον ἅλματι πεζῷ ἀβρέκτοις μελέεσσιν ἀσάμβαλος ἵστατο Νύμφη νηιὰς ὑγροκέλευθος, ἁμιλλητῆρι δὲ ταρσῷ κούρης παλλομένης παρὰ διψάδα πέζαν ἐναύλων σφίγγετο πηλώεντι πεπηγότα γούνατα δεσμῷ.

He made the rivers dust, as he drank the water after his meal, beating off the troops of Naiads from the river-beds: the Naiad of the deeps made her way tripping afoot as if the river were a roadway, until she stood, umbod, with dry limbs, she a nymph, ; the creature of watery ways, and as the girl struggled, thrusting one foot after another along the thirsty bed of the stream, she found her knees held fast to the bottom in a muddy prison.

60μαινομένου δὲ Γίγαντος ἰδὼν πολύμορφον ὀπωπὴν ταρβαλέος σύριγγα γέρων ἀπεσείσατο ποιμὴν νόσφι φυγών· ὁρόων δὲ πολυσπερὲς ἔθνος ἀγοστῶν αἰπόλος ἀστήρικτον ἐπέτρεπεν αὐλὸν ἀέλλαις· οὐ σπόρον ἀμφεκάλυψε πέδῳ ταλαεργὸς ἀροτρεὺς 65ῥαίνων ἀρτιχάρακτον ὀπισθοβόλῳ χθόνα καρπῷ, οὐδὲ Τυφαονίης παλάμης νωμήτορι παλμῷ αὔλακα τεμνομένην ἐνοσίχθονι τάμνε σιδήρῳ, ἀλλὰ βόας μεθέηκε, Γιγαντείῳ δὲ βελέμνῳ σχιζομένης κενεῶνες ἐγυμνώθησαν ἀρούρης. 70καὶ διερὴν φλέβα λῦσεν, ἀνοιγομένου δὲ βερέθρου χεύμασι πηγαίοισιν ἀνέβλυε νέρτερος αὐλών, ἀσκεπέος δαπέδοιο χέων ὑποκόλπιον ὕδωρ· καὶ σκόπελοι ῥίπτοντο· χαραδραίοις δὲ ῥεέθροις ἠερόθεν πίπτοντες ἐνεκρύπτοντο θαλάσσῃ, 75ὕδατα χερσώσαντες· ἀπὸ χθονίων δὲ βελέμνων αὐτοπαγῆ ῥιζοῦτο νεηγενέων σφυρὰ νήσων. δένδρεα δʼ αὐτόπρεμνα μετωχλίσθησαν ἀρούρης, καὶ δαπέδῳ πέσε καρπὸς ἀώριος, ἀρτιθαλὴς δὲ κῆπος ἀιστώθη, ῥοδόεις δʼ ἀμαθύνετο λειμών· 80καὶ Ζέφυρος δεδόνητο κυλινδομένων κυπαρίσσων αὐχμηροῖς πετάλοισι· φιλοθρήνοισι δὲ μολπαῖς αἴλινα Φοῖβος ἄειδε δαϊζομένων ὑακίνθων, πλέξας πένθιμον ὕμνον, Ἀμυκλαίων δὲ κορύμβων κοπτομένῃ πολὺ μᾶλλον ἐπέστενε γείτονι δάφνῃ· 85κεκλιμένην δʼ ὤρθωσεν ἑὴν πίτυν ἀχνύμενος Πάν· καί, Μορίης μνησθεῖσα, φερέπτολιν Ἀτθίδα νύμφην τεμνομένῃ Γλαυκῶπις ἐπεστονάχιζεν ἐλαίῃ· καὶ Παφίη δάκρυσε κονιομένης ἀνεμώνης, πυκνὰ δὲ μυρομένη καλύκων εὐώδεα χαίτην 90βόστρυχον ἁβρὸν ἔτιλλε κονιομένου ῥοδεῶνος· καὶ στάχυν ἡμιτέλεστον ὀλωλότα μύρετο Δηώ, μηκέτι κῶμον ἄγουσα θαλύσιον· Ἁδρυάδες δὲ ἥλικες ὠδύροντο λιπόσκια δένδρεα Νύμφαι.

“The old shepherd, terrified to desery the manifold visage of this maddened monster, dropt his pipes and ran away ; the goatherd, seeing the wide. scattered host of his arms, threw his reed flying to the winds ; the hard-working plowman sprinkled not the new-scored ground with com thrown behind A him, nor covered it with earth, nor cut with earthshaking iron the land furrowed already by Typhon’s) guiding hand, but let his oxen go lowe. The earth’s hollows were bared, as the monster’s missile cleft it. He freed the liquid vein, and as the chasm opened, the lower channel bubbled up with flooding springs, pouring out the water from under the covered bosom of the ground, and rocks were thrown is] up, and falling from the air in torrential showers He were hidden in theses, making the waters dry land : and the hurtling masses of earth rooted themselves firmly as the footings of new-made lands, Trees were levered up from the earth by the roots, and the fruit fell on the ground untimely ; the fresh-flowering garden was laid waste, the rosy meadows withered ; the West Wind was beaten by the dry leaves of whirling cypresses. Phoibos sang a dirge in lamentable tones for his devastated iris, twining a sorrowful song, and lamented far more bitterly than for his clusters of Amyclean flowers, when the laurel by his side was struck. Pan in anguish uplifted his fallen net; Grayeyes, remembering Moria,” groaned over broken olive-tree, the Attic nymph who brought: her a city. The Paphian also wept when her anemone was laid in the dust, and mourned long over the fragrant tresses of flower-cups from her roscbed laid in the dust, while she tore her soft hair. Deo mourned over the half-grown com destroyed and no longer celebrated the harvest home. The Hadryad nymphs lamented the kat shade of their yearsmate trees.

94καί τις ἐυπτόρθοιο διχαζομένοιο κορύμβου 95σύγχρονος ἀκρήδεμνος Ἁμαδρυὰς ἄνθορε δάφνης, ἐκ πίτυος δὲ φυγοῦσα βατῷ ποδὶ παρθένος ἄλλη ἀγχιφανὴς ἀγόρευε μετήλυδι γείτονι Νύμφῃ·

One Hamadryad leapt unveiled from the cloven shaft of a bushy laurel, which had grown with her growth, and another maiden stepping out of her pine-tree appeared beside her neighbour the exiled nymph, and said

98Δαφναίη φυγόδεμνος Ἁμαδρυάς, εἷς δρόμος ἔστω ἀμφοτέραις, μὴ Φοῖβον ἴδῃς, μὴ Πᾶνα νοήσω. 100ὑλοτόμοι, τάδε δένδρα παρέλθετε, μὴ φυτὰ Δάφνης τέμνετε δειλαίης τετιημένα· φείδεο, τέκτων, ὁλκάδα μὴ τελέσῃς πιτυώδεα δούρατα τέμνων, μὴ ῥοθίων ψαύσειε θαλασσαίης Ἀφροδίτης. ναί, δρυτόμος, πυμάτην πόρε μοι χάριν, ἀντὶ κορύμβων 105κόπτέ με σοῖς πελέκεσσι, καὶ ἡμετέρου διὰ μαζοῦ πῆξον ἀνυμφεύτοιο σαόφρονα χαλκὸν Ἀθήνης, ὄφρα θάνω πρὸ γάμοιο καὶ Ἄιδι παρθένος ἔλθω, εἰσέτι νῆις Ἔρωτος, ἅ περ Πίτυς, οἷά τε Δάφνη.

Laurel Hamadryad, so shy of the marriage bed, let us both take one road, lest you see Phobos, lest espy Pan! Woodmen, pass by these trees! Do not fell the afflicted bush of unhappy Daphne! Shipwright, spare me I cut no timbers from my pine-tree,) to make some lugger that I may feel the billows of Aphrodite, Lady of the Sea! Yes, woodcutter, grant me this last grace : strike me with your axe instead of my clusters, and drive our unmarried Athena’s chaste bronze through my breast, that I may die before wed, and go to Hades a virgin, still a stranger to Eros, like Pitys and like Daphne !

People and places in this passage

English translation by W. H. D. Rouse (1940). Original text: W. H. D. Rouse (ed.), Nonnos, Dionysiaca, Loeb Classical Library 344, 354, 356, London: Heinemann; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1940-1942 (Greek text as digitised by Perseus).

Greek text and translation from the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Perseus Digital Library, Greek text); translation public domain (Rouse, Loeb 1940-42: US copyright not renewed; Rouse died 1950; OCR from the Internet Archive scans). Introductions, summaries and notes © GreekMythology.com.