So he tried to bewilder the wits of the girl who would not be so charmed. Once it happened that he lay sound asleep on a bed of anemone leaves ; and he saw the girl in a dream decked out in bridal array. For what a man does in the day, the image of that he sees in the night ; the herdsman sleeping takes his horned cattle to pasture ; the huntsman sees nets in the vision of a dream ; men who work on the land plow the fields in sleep and sow the furrow with corn ; a man parched at midday and possessed with fiery thirst is driven by deceiving sleep to a river, to a channel of water. So Dionysos also beheld the likeness of his troubles, and let his mind go flying in mimic dreams until he was joined to her in a wedding of shadow. He awoke — and found no maiden, and wished once again to slumber : he carried away the empty largess of that short embrace, as he slept on the leaves of the anemone which perishes so soon. He reproached the dumb leaves there spread ; and sorrowfully prayed to Sleep and Love and Aphrodite of the evening, all at once, to let him see the same vision of a dream once more, longing for the deceptive phantom of an embrace. Bacchos often slept near the myrtle and never dreamt of marriage. But sweet pain he did feel ; and limb-relaxing Dionysos found his own limbs relaxed by lovestricken cares.
In company with Beroe’s father, the son of Myrrha, he showed his hunting-skill. He cast his thyrsus, and wrapt himself in the dappled skins of the newslain fawns, ever with his eye secretly on Beroe ; as he stood, the maiden covered her bright cheeks with her robe, to escape the wandering eye of Dionysos. She made him burn all the more, since the servants of love watch shamefast women more closely, and desire more strongly the covered countenance.
Once he caught sight of the unyoked girl of Adonis alone, and came near, and changed his human form and stood as a god before her. He told her his name and family, the slaughter of the Indians, how he found out for man the vine-dance and the sweet juice of wine to drink ; then in loving passion he mingled audacity with a boldness far from modesty, and his flattering voice uttered this ingratiating speech ;
“Maiden, for your love I have even renounced my home in heaven. The caves of your fathers are better than Olympos. I love your country more than the sky ; I desire not the sceptre of my Father Zeus as much as Beroe for my wife. Your beauty is above ambrosia ; indeed, heavenly nectar breathes fragrant from your dress ! Maiden, when I hear that your mother is Cypris, my only wonder is that her cestus has left you uncharmed. How is it you alone have Love for a brother, and yet know not the sting of love ? But you will say Brighteyes had nothing to do with marriage ; Athena was born without wedlock and knows nothing of wedlock. Yes, but your mother was neither Brighteyes nor Artemis. Well, girl, you have the blood of Cypris — then why do you flee from the secrets of Cypris ? Do not shame your mother’s race. If you really have in you the blood of Assyrian Adonis the charming, learn the tender rules of your sire whose blessing is upon marriage, obey the cestus girdle born with the Paphian, save yourself from the dangerous wrath of the bridal Loves ! Harsh are the Loves when there’s need, when they exact from women the penalty for love unfulfilled.
“You know how Syrinx disregarded fiery Cythera, and what price she paid for her too-great pride and love for virginity ; how she turned into a plant with reedy growth substituted for her own, when she had fled from Pan’s love, and how she still sings Pan’s desire ! And how the daughter of Ladon, that celebrated river, hated the works of marriage and the nymph became a tree with inspired whispers, she escaped the bed of Phoibos but she crowned his hair with prophetic clusters. You too should beware of a god’s horrid anger, lest hot Love should afflict you in heavy wrath. Spare not your girdle, but attend Bacchos both as comrade and bedfellow. I myself will carry the nets of your father Adonis, I will lay the bed of my sister Aphrodite.
“What worthy gifts will Earthshaker bring ? Will he choose his salt water for a bridegift, and lay sealskins breathing the filthy stink of the deep, as Poseidon’s coverlets from the sea ? Do not accept his sealskins. I will provide you with Bacchants to wait upon your bridechamber, and Satyrs for your chamberlains. Accept from me as bridegift my grape-vintage too. If you want a wild spear also as daughter of Adonis, you have my thyrsus for a lance — away with the trident’s tooth ! Flee, my dear, from the ugly noise of the neversilent sea, flee the madness of Poseidon’s dangerous love ! Seabluehair lay beside another Amymone, but after the bed the wife became a spring of that name. He slept with Scylla, and made her a cliff in the water. He pursued Asterie, and she became a desert island ; Euboia the maiden he rooted in the sea. This creature woos Amymone just to turn her too into stone after the bed ; this creature offers as gift for his wedding a drop of water, or seaweed from the brine, or a deepsea conch. And I, distressed for your beauty as I stand here, what have I for you, what gifts shall I offer ? The daughter of golden Aphrodite needs no gold. Shall I bring you heaps of treasure from Alybe ? Silverarm cares not for silver ! Shall I bring you gleaming gifts from brilliant Eridanos ? Your beauty, your blushing whiteness, puts to shame all the wealth of the Heliades ; the neck of Beroe is like the gleams of Dawn, it shines like amber, [outshines] a sparkling jewel ; your fair shape makes precious marble cheap. I would not bring you the lampstone blazing like a lamp, for light comes from your eyes. I would not give you roses, shooting up from the flowercups of a rosy cluster, for roses are in your cheeks.”
Such was his address ; and the girl pressed the fingers of her two hands into her ears to keep the words away from her hearing, lest she might hear again another speech concerned with love, and she hated the works of marriage. So she made trouble upon trouble for lovestricken Lyaios. What is more shameless than love, or when women avoid men who yearn with the heart-eating maddening urge of desire, and only make them more passionate by their modesty ? The love within them is doubled when a maiden flees from a man.
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