 section 10 of Ovid's Herodies this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org reading by Kristen Hughes section 10 of Ovid's Herodies translated by an unknown translator first published in 1813 Ariadne to Theseus beasts of the most savage nature have proved more mild and gentle to me than you nor could I have been entrusted to more faithless hands the epistle which you now read Theseus is sent to you from that shore once your ship leaving me behind was born by the spreading sails where soft sleep and you also who barbarously watched the opportunity of my slumbers fatally betrayed me it was the season when the earth begins to be covered with shining frost and the birds lurking among the leaves complain of the decaying year when half awake and still in slumber languidly reclining I stretched my arms to grasp my Theseus no Theseus was there I suddenly pulled back my hands and then tried once more to find him I wandered with my arms over all the bed still no Theseus was there fear instantly shook off sleep I started up in a consternation and headlong through my limbs from the deserted bed forthwith my breast resounded with the repeated strokes of my hands and I tore my hair as yet disheveled from sleep the moon shone I looked round if I could discern anything besides the shore my eager eyes found not to look at but the shore I ran sometimes here sometimes there and with wild disorder on either side the deep yielding sands impeded my tender feet meanwhile the hollow rocks over all the shores resounded the name of Theseus to my incessant cries as often as I named you the place re echoed the sound the very place seemed willing to alleviate my wretched lot near the spot was a mountain whose top was thinly covered with tufted shrubs and where a steep rock undermined by the beating waves impended I mounted the ascent my passion gave me strength and thence with wide prospect I surveyed the mighty deep hence for the winds also were cruelly unkind I could observe your sails full stretched by stiff southern gales I either saw or when I thought I saw remained cold as ice and half dead with concern nor did grief long permit this indolent respite I was roused by that sensation I was roused and an allowed complaining strain called upon Theseus wither do you fly return perjured wretch change your course the ship has not her compliment thus I complained I made up in shrieks what was wanting an articulate sounds and mingled my words with repeated blows upon my breast my hands waved high in the air made signs that if you could not hear you might at least perceive me I also held out a white robe upon a long pole to admonish you of her whom you had left behind but alas I soon lost sight of you it was then I began to weep my tender cheeks had hitherto been stiffened with grief what could my eyes do better after ceasing to behold your sails then help me to bemoan my forlorn state sometimes I wandered solitary with my hair dishevelled like the raving priestess is inspired by the Theban God sometimes fixing my eyes upon the sea I silently seated myself upon some pointed rock cold and senseless as the stone whereon I sat I repair to the bed which once sheltered us both alas it will never more exhibit the once happy lovers I kiss the print left by your dear body and love to repose myself upon the spot which your dear joints have warmed I throw myself down and watering the couch with profuse tears here I cry we press thee together bring us together again hither we both came why not both also depart perfidious bed what is become of my dearer half what shall I do wither thus desolate and forsaken shall I fly the island lies uncultivated and affords no prince either of men or cattle the sea encompasses me no mariner appears no ship to bear me through the ambiguous tract and suppose a ship companions and winds were in my power what could I do my native country denies access even if in a prosperous ship I should traverse the quiet seas eolus restraining the murmuring winds still I should remain in exile I shall never more behold you o crete planned out into a hundred cities the aisle where infant Jupiter was nursed I have basely betrayed my father and his kingdom ruled by just laws names that must be ever dear to me for you have I betrayed them when anxious less the victor should be bewildered in the labyrinth I gave you a clue to guide your uncertain steps when you deceived me by false protestations and swore by the dangers from which you had escaped that while life remained we should be inseparably one we live and yet theseus I am no longer thine if indeed an unhappy woman oppressed by the treachery of a perjured man can be said to live if you barbarous man had murdered me with the club with which you slew my brother my death would have absolved you from your vow now I not only figure to myself those ills which I shall suffer but every mishap that can be fall one in my forlorn condition a thousand shapes of death wander before my eyes death itself appears less terrible than the lingering life that threatens me sometimes I fancy that ravenous wolves may rush upon me unseen and tear my bowels with their bloody teeth who knows what the island may nourish savage lions perhaps to it is infested with fierce tigers the shores are said to be fertile and seek halves how am I screened from the stroke of a piercing sword but most I dread to be led captive in cruel chains and to prosecute the toilsome task with servile hands I who boast of minos for my father who was born of the daughter of Phoebus and what is still more to me who was solemnly engaged to you if I turn my eyes toward the sea the earth or the winding shore both earth and waves threaten me with a thousand dangers heaven only remains and yet even here I fear the forms of the gods I am left to pray a food for savage beasts if men inhabit or cultivate these fields I am apt to mistrust even them already a sufferer I have learned to be slow in giving credit to strangers oh that androgyous had still lived nor the land of sea crops been condemned to expiate that wicked deed by its funerals oh that thy strong arm theses had never killed my monstrous brother half ox half man with a knotted club and that I had never given you the thread to guide your returning steps the thread often grasped by your alternate bands no wonder that victory declared for you and the prostrate monster tinged with its blood the Cretan ground a heart so steeled could not be pierced by the sharpest horn had you encountered him with your breast uncovered you were yet safe from harm there you were armed with flint and adamant there you bore theses yet harder than adamant cruel sleep why did you bind me over to a fatal sloth it had been better for me to have sunk in eternal night you also barbarous winds too readily conspired against me your vicious gales have been to me the cause of many tears oh inhuman right hand the bane of both me and my brother and faith an empty name plighted at my request sleep the winds the strongest vows combined against me and concurred in deceiving a harmless unsuspecting maid alas must I then hear breathe my last nor see the tears of a pitting mother shall none attend to close my dying eyes must I breathe out my mournful soul in foreign air and no friendly hand anoint my motionless limbs shall my unburied frame be left to pray to devouring vultures are these the proper returns for all my affectionate services when you enter the port of sea crops and welcomed by your country Mount the lofty Citadel that overlooks the town when there you relate your victory over the doubtful monster and your escape from the intricate prison branched out into a thousand windings tell also how I was abandoned in a desert land I ought not to be forgotten in the train of your exploits surely a geus was not your father ether and never gave birth to you you sprang from pointed locks or the raging sea oh if you could have viewed me from the stern of your ship the mournful figure had surely moved compassion as you cannot now observe me with your eyes only imagine me to yourself hanging over a frightful rock undermined by the waves that dash against it below consider me with my hair disheveled and carelessly spread over my disconsolate face behold my clothes heavy with tears as from a shower my body trembles like corn shaken by the north winds and the letters proceed unequaled from my faltering hand I do not urge you now by my merit since my favors were so ill bestowed nor expect any retribution as due to my kind offices but then what pretense have you for ill usage had I not contributed in the smallest degree to your safety even this is no reason why you should be the cause of my death to the wretched Ariadne stretches over the wide sea her hands faint with often beating her sorrowful breast disconsolate as I am I remind you of the few mangled tresses that yet remain I conjure you by the tears shed for your cruel departure turn your ship dear theses and bear back your inverted sails if I die ere you arrive you may yet collect my scattered bones end of Ariadne to theses section 11 of Ovid's Heroides this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Anna Simon section 11 of Ovid's Heroides translated by an unknown translator first published in 1813. Can I see two Macareas if any of these lines should appear stained and obscured by blots know that they will be occasioned by the death of the writer my right hand holds the pen I left a drawn sword and the paper lies unfolded in my lap this is a true picture of can I see right into her brother it is only in this manner it seems that I can satisfy a heart hearted father I could wish him to be a spectator of my untimely death at the blow might be given in the presence of a stern father who commanded it fears and far more cruel than his east and ministers of storms he would view without a tear the mortal wound for it is infectious to live with savage winds and therefore he contracts the temper of his people he commands the south the Zephyr and the northern blasts of Thrace and surly east he checks thy rigid wing he controls indeed the winds but alas he has no power over his own unmeasurable wrath and governs a kingdom less intractable than his own vices what a feels it that I am allied to the gods above that Jupiter is in the number of my kindred does it snatch from my trembling hind the destructive steel that fatal gift and weapon alas unfit for me oh Macarius I wish that the hour which joined us had come later than that of my death why brother did you ever love me otherwise than as a brother and why did I regard you more than became a sister for I also felt the powerful flame and perceived I know not what God taking possession of my glowing heart but such as I'd often heard described the color had forsaken my cheeks alinas had spread itself over all my joints and my mouth took with reluctance even the smallest food no gentle slumbers refreshed me the nights seemed tedious and lingering and I often sighed to myself though no apparent grief oppressed me I could not give any reason why I was thus disconcelled nor though in love myself that I know what it was to love my aged nurse first divinely growing mischief and wise through years first told me that it was love I blushed and full of shame fixed my eyes upon my bosom signs which accompanied with silence too clearly testified my confession and now my womb swelled with the guilty load and the growing weight pressed my sickly limbs what herbs what medicines and not my nurse procure and whether impious hands apply at the increasing load this alone we hid from thee might be entirely discharged but alas the tenacious infant too well withstood our best artifices securely screened from all hostile attacks and now this planet sister of Phoebus had nine times completed her course and the tenth moon was guiding forward her light revolving steeds when some unknown cause afflicted me with sudden pangs I was a stranger to the movements of childbearing and a man novice in this kind of discipline I suppressed not my cries what said my nurse do you thus openly proclaim your guilt and knowing the cause of my complaint she stopped my mouth with her hand what could I do in that unhappy case pain hurt my groans but shame fear and my nurse pressed me to silence I nevertheless strove to repress my groans and struggled with my cries and was forced to drink the tears that trickled from my eyes death seemed to hover round me the sinner refused her aid and even death was a grievous crime had I then expired when entering with eye hair and garments torn my bosom cherishing clothes pressed to dine thou saidst live my sister oh live my dearest sister nor rashly destroy two lives in one strengthen yourself by hope for you shall soon be wedded to your brother and become the wife of him by whom you have been made a mother though taint and almost dead yet believe it your words revived me and the guilty load sprang forward from my womb why do you rejoice at this danger over in the mithole sits aolus and from a parent's eyes our crimes must be concealed the cunning old nurse shrouds the babe with leaves white olive bows and holy fillets and while she feints sacred rites and mutters prayers the people and even my father make way for the solemnity and now she had almost reached the threshold when the infant's cry invades my father's ears by its own evidence alas betrayed instantly he seizes the child and unveils the faint solemnity the palace resounds with his raging voice as the sea quivers when brushed by the curling breeze or a tall ash when shaken by the stormy south wind so you might see my pale limbs shiver with fear and the bed shake under my trembling body aolus rushes in with violence and publishes my shame by his clamours hardly could he restrain his hands from my face i overwhelmed with conscious guilt answered only by my tears fear had bound up my frozen tongue now he commanded his little grandchild to be thrown out a prey to dogs and hungry birds and left in some solitary place the helpless babe cried out as if he understood his doom and conjured his grandfather with what voice he could imagine dear brother what anguish of soul i must then feel for you may easily guess the state of my mind by your own to hear my bowels doomed in my presence a prey to mountain wolves and the savage beasts of the woods my father left me then was i at liberty to beat my breast and wound my cheeks with my nails meantime a messenger came from my father his countenance said and his words full of cruelty aolus sends thee this sword he then gave the sword into my hand and says that the sense of iown demerits will teach thee what it means i know what it means and will boldly urge the piercing steel my father's gift shall be treasured in my breast are these the gifts with which your father graces my nuptials is this the dour with which you enrich your daughter deluded himineus remove far hence the nuptial torch and fly with hurry interpretation from this detested place let the hideous furies bring hither their internal brands that kindled up by them my funeral pile may blaze do you my sister's wed blessed with more propitious fate but warned be ever mindful of my crime what has my infant son so lately born committed what could one scarcely brought forth due to offend his grandfather if it were possible for him to have deserved so hard of fate let him be thought to have deserved it alas unhappy balls you suffer for the guilt to your mother oh my darling son to be your mother's grief and the prey of wild beasts alas doomed to be destroyed on the very day of your birth ill-fated babe the mournful pledge of our unhappy loves this was your first day of life this also must be your last i was not allowed to shed over you a mother's tears or offer upon your suppoker my shore ahead i did not hang over thy lightless frame or snatch from thy mouth the cold kisses my bowels alas are made a prey to savage beasts but i will soon follow by this wound thy infant shade not long a mother nor long shall i be called childless but thou in vain alas thy wretched sister's hope feel not to gather up the scattered members of thy son bear them to his fond mother's grave and unite them with her in the social tomb that the same urn though small contain us both live ever mindful of your canacy and shed some tears over my wound nor fear to touch the breathless body of one whom you loved fulfill these last commands of thy hapless sister and i will execute the cruel mandates of my unrelenting sire end of canacy to macarius section 12 of ovid's heroides this is a libravox recording all libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org recording by linie section 12 of ovid's heroides translated by an unknown translator first published in 1813 medea to jason well i remember that the queen of colchis i found leisure to provide for your safety when you requested the help of my art then if ever the sisters who measure out the thread of human life ought to have finished the number of my days then might medea have died honorably life ever since has been a series of fools alas why did the thessalian bark manned by a troop of resolute youths sailing quests of the golden fleece why did arogo come within sight of colchis or a grecian ban drink of the water of faxes why was i so much pleased with your golden locks your personal attractions and the dissembled eloquence of your enchanting tongue doubtless as a strange ship had arrived on our coast and landed a set of bold enterprising youths ungrateful jason should have been left to rush unfortified with spells upon the glowing nostrils of the fire-breathing bulls and there their lofty looks he should have been left to sew the serpent's teeth and feel the arms of his numerous foes that the forward cultivator might thus have fallen by his own harvest perjured wretch how much perfidy had been prevented by your fall how many heart-piercing griefs might i have escaped it is some relief to upgrade ungrateful with the favors which they have received this i can still enjoy and it is indeed the only pleasure you have now left me commanded by your uncle to sail to colchis with the unproved ship you entered the happy kingdom of my native land there medea held the same place which your new bride holds here my father in wealth and dominion came not short of hers he rules over corinth place between two seas my father commands all that part of snow with syphia which runs along the left side of yoke sign c it is gave a kind and noble reception to the palasvian youths and placed them on richly embroidered couches it was then i first saw you and understood who you were that was the dreadful day of ruin to my quiet and peace of mind how did i gaze how did i imbibe the fatal poison and burn with fires i had not felt before like a pine torch when lighted up at the sacrifices of the gods you were beautiful and charming and my unhappy destiny pushed me on my eyes remain continually fixed upon yours baseman you too clearly perceived it for who was ever discreet enough to hide love a flame that betrays itself by its own light in the meantime the law of victory is laid down that you train to the unusual plow the unbroken necks of the fierce bulls these bulls sacred to mars were not only terrible by their horns they breathed out streams of flame their feet were guarded with brazen hooves plates of brass also covered their nostrils which were rendered black by their glowing breath you are further required to scatter over the wide fields with the voted hen seed that will suddenly bring forth a harvest of men who will attack you with their self-born darts a crop fatal to the laborer your last and greatest oil is artfully to elude the eyes of the watchful dragon eyes unacquainted with the power of sleep here eighties ended you all rise up sad the table is removed and stripped off the purple carpets where was then the kingdom you receive as a dowry with kriusa how little was your father-in-law or the daughter of mighty kree and then in your thoughts you left us thoughtful i followed your departing steps with eyes moistened in tears and my tongue in a soft accent pay do farewell when with a heart fatally wounded i had retired to my quiet bed the whole night was spent in shedding floods of tears the fierce bulls and threatening crop of armed men stood before my eyes but most i was haunted by the image of the watchful dragon on the one side was love on the other fear but fear served only to augment my love it was now morning when my darling sister entered my chamber and found me lying upon my face my hair disheveled and the bed under me wet with my tears she entreats me in behalf of the organets one asks and another shall reap the fruit she craves that aid which i freely grant to the young son of izan there is a grove where a dark sun shade is formed by pitch trees and leafy oaks scarcely can the rays of the sun find admittance here had long been and still was a temple sacred to diana with a golden statue of the goddess the work of a barbarian artist perhaps as you have forgotten me so have you also the place further we came when thus you addressed me with your deluding tongue fortune has given you the disposal and command of my lot my life and death are in your hands if you're glorying the possession of power it is enough that you can destroy but to preserve me in danger will you do greater honor i implore you by my distresses which your art alone can succor by your race and the majesty of your all-seeing grandfather by the deity and sacred mysteries of the threefold goddess and whatever other gods this nation adores a viable virgin take pity on me take pity on my companions and bind me eternally to you by your good offices if you does they not to give up your heart to egregion youth but why should i flatter myself that the gods will be so favorable and indulgent sooner may my soul vanish into air than any besides medea be received partner of my bed make juno who presides over the marriage bed bear witness to this oath and the goddess in whose marble temple we are these declarations and how small a part is this of what you promised made too great an impression upon the mind of an innocent credulous maid and your right hand was joined to mine i saw more over your tears are these two capable of deceit thus was i easily betrayed by your enchanting words you yoked the brazen-footed bulls unhurt by their flaming breath and cleft the hard earth with the commended plow you sold the land with the teeth of poisonous serpents instead of seed and a harvest of soldiers sprang up armed with swords and bucklers even i who secured you by my art sat pale and trembling when i saw this sudden crop of man grasp their arms but at length the earth-born brothers mournful catastrophe turned against one another their ready armed right hands and now low the watchful serpent terrible by his sounding scales hisses and sweeps the ground with his winding breast where was then your rich dory where then your royal spouse and the isthmus which divides the circle and see if an i madia whom you now despise as a barbarian whom you deem indigent and criminal forsaken madia locked up his fiery orbs in enchanted sleep and left you the golden fleece a secure and easy prize i betrayed my father i abandoned my kingdom and country and fancied that with you even exile was some gratification my virginity became the prey of a foreign ravisher i left the best of sisters and a darling mother alas why did i not leave my brother also here conscious guilt arrests my hand and commends me to draw a veal over my crying my hand refuses to write what it dared to commit in this manner ought i to have been torn to pieces but with you who also deserve the same fate nor did i fear for what after this could make me afraid though a weak woman and now a guilty wretch to trust myself to the sea where was then the majesty of heaven where were the gods by whom we had falsely sworn why did we not undergo the just punishment you of your falsehood and i of my credulity whole that the meeting symplagodes had crushed us into one and my bones have been made to incorporate with yours or that the valor in sila had made us the prey of hungry dogs for thus odd sila to use ungrateful men or that the gulf which alternately vomits up and drinks in the waves had overwhelmed us in its circling current but fate had otherwise decreed you returned safe and victorious to the grecian states and made an offer of the rich fleece to the gods of your country why should i mention the daughters of pelleus bloody through piety and the slaughter of a father by the hens of virgins however others may blame yet you were bound to commend me for whose sake i have so often made myself guilty you had the barbarity whole words are wanting to weep all my grief you had the barbarity to forbid me the house if your father isn't compelled i left the house accompanied only by my two sons and by that affection for you which never ceases to haunt me soon the new nuptial sons reached my ears and the torches shone with the spreading flame the flute also struck off the social lines to me more mournful than the funeral trumpet i was frightened to distraction nor could yet fancy you so completely bays but a coldness spread itself over all my breast the rebels shouted and invoked hymn they redoubled their cries and as they approached the word seemed more dreadful the servants swept in the corners and each strove to hide his tears for who among them would be the messenger of so great a calamity i was also better pleased to be ignorant of whatever past but still my mind by some secret foresight forbode my misfortune when my younger boy by my command and moved by curiosity stood at the entrance of the double gate look said he mother my father jason had the procession and arrayed investments of gold urges the harnessed horses i then tore my garments and bit my breast nor was my face safe from the impression of my nails my rage urged me to rush into the midst of the crowd and tear the garlands from the well-dressed locks scarcely could i restrain myself from appearing with my hair torn taking hold of him and claiming him as mine injured father forsaken kolhians now rejoice and be satisfied with the sacrifice made to the means of the my murdered brother i am deserted by my husband after abandoning my kingdom country and home he was all to me have i then been able to tame the serpents and raging bulls and yet cannot vanquish a single man could i by magic arts repress the fire breeding bulls and not conquer the flames of love that rage in my own breast have my enchantments herbs and skill abandoned me kandayana and the rites of powerful hackety yield no relief day is odious to me the nights are full of cruel bitterness no soft slumber sooth my anxious breast i who can do nothing to myself could yet lul to rest the dragon my art is useful to everyone but myself a rival embraces those limbs which i preserved she now enjoys the fruit of my toil perhaps too while you endeavor to recommend yourself to your silly spouse and say what may be agreeable to her partial ears you unjustly ridicule my face in manners she stupidly laughs and rejoices at my defects laugh on proud fair and pride herself in your purple bed soon you shall mourn and burn with flames more fears than mine while fire sword and poisons may be had no enemy of medea shall escape her resentment yet if prayers are able to touch your obdurate heart hear me now the sent requests below my usual greatness of soul i address you with the same submission with which you have often applied to me nor delay to throw myself at your feet if i am now despicable to you yet think of your children those common pleasures of our former love shall my offspring be exposed to the rage of a cruel stepmother alas they too strongly bear your likeness and strike me with a resemblance as often as i look at them my eyes swim in tears i implore you by the gods above by the splendor of my grandfather's chariot by the love i always bore you and your two sons those dear pledges of what i once was restore me to that bed for which i have made so many sacrifices make good your promises and give me relief i ask not your aid against the bulls and earth-born heroes or to lul to rest the watchful dragon i demand you whom i have dearly purchased who yourself made a surrender of your heart to me by whom i likewise have been made a mother if you inquire for my dory remember the field that was to be plowed up before you could carry off the gloden fleece my dory is that golden ram beautiful by his rich wool which if i should demand back would you ever consent i bring for a dory your own safety and that of all the grecian youths go now perjured man and boast the ill-gotten wealth of sycophus to me you owe your life that you have a spouse a powerful father-in-law or even that you can be ungrateful but hold i will quickly be revenged yet what avails it to threaten beforehand rage drives me upon the deepest destruction i will yield to all the madness of rage however i may afterwards repent i even now repent the aid i granted to a perfidious wretch the god who rages in my breast can alone penetrate this designs i only know that my mind conceives something best and worthy of myself and of medea to jason section 13 of ovids heroides this is a libervox recording all libervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libervox.org section 13 of ovids heroides translated by an unknown translator first published in 1813 leo damia to protest allows leo damia of thessaly wishes health to her thecilian husband and ardently prays that the gods may convey this health whether she sends it it is said that you are detained at all this by contrary winds ah cruel winds where were you when he first parted from me it was then the seas ought to have opposed themselves to your oars that was the proper season for the waves to rage i would have given him many kisses many admonitions for i had an abundance of admonitions to give you were suddenly hurried from me and inviting gale called forth the sales a gale grateful to the mariners not to me a gale that exactly suited their views but not those of an unhappy lover i was torn from the embraces of my dear protest allows my faltering tongue gave you its last charge in broken words and scarcely was i able to utter the mournful adieu the north wind sprang up and stretched the swelling sales my protest allows was soon carried far from me while my husband remained in sight i found a pleasure in looking at him and incessantly pursued your eyes with mine even after i could no longer see you i still could behold your sales the sales kept my eyes long fixed upon them but when i could no more perceive either you or the flying sales and nothing appeared to my aching sight besides the sea light fled also with you a darkness hung round me nor were my tottering needs longer able to support my pale frame my father-in-law if ecluse the good old acastas and my sorrowful mother hardly recovered me by sprinkling my face with cold water they were taken up in a kind good-natured office but ungrateful to me who mourned that i was not suffered to finish a wretched life with my senses my grief also returned in a just love prayed upon my chaste heart i now neglect the care of my hanging locks and refuse to adorn myself with cloth of gold i wonder wherever my madness urges me like those whom bachas is supposed to have touched with its rod let the salient matrons flock round me put on they cry leo damia the royal robes shall i shine in robes of tirion purple and my husband be engaged in a bloody war under the walls of troi shall i adorn my hair while his head is loaded with a helmet or strut in new apparel while he bears about a coat of mail i will at least be said to copy your hardships and the negligence of my dress and pass the time of this fatal war and sadness oh paris of the house of priam beautiful to the destruction of your country may you prove as cowardly an enemy as you were a perfidious guest how i could wish that you had disliked the countenance of the lacedemonian queen or that she had found less cause to admire yours and you minileos who shoo too great anxiety about one who so easily consented to be ravished from you how fatal an avenger will you prove to many avert ye gods the dire omen from me and grant that my husband may consecrate his spoils to jupiter the author of his safe return yet i am full of fears and as often as i think of the horrible war the tears drop from me like snow melted by the sun ilian and tenettos and samoyas and zanthus and ida are names which by their very sound strike me with terror a stranger would not have ventured to carry her away had he not known himself able to defend the prize doubtless he was well acquainted with his own strength he came as fame reports adorned with gold and jewels made a show in his person of the riches of frigia he was backed with ships and armed men by which wars are carried on and yet how small a part of the population of his country followed him it was by these i suspect daughter of lada and sister of the famous twins that your heart was gained these i fear may prove fatal to the greeks i have a strong dread of someone named hector paris was want to say knew how to support a war with bloody rage but where of hector whoever he is if you retain any regard for me let this name be deeply engraven in your mindful breast when you shun him remember also to shun others fancy that there are many hectares within those walls and do not fail to say within yourself as often as you prepare for battle the odemia enjoined me to take care of myself for her sake if fate has ordained that troy shall fall by the hand of the greeks it may fall without your receiving any injury let minna leis fight and rush among the thickest ranks of foe that he may recover from paris what paris unjustly ravished from him let him force his way through them and as he triumphs in a better cause triumph also by arms and recover his wife from amidst his enemies the case is different with you you must fight that you may live and return safe to your wife's tinder caresses spare otrogens this one out of so many enemies and spill not my blood by the wounds you give him he is not formed to engage cruel foes in close fight or march up with an undaunted breast to their foremost ranks he acquits himself better in the combats of love let others engage in bloody wars but let protest allows fight under the banner of cupid now i own that i would gladly have called you back my heart strongly inclined me to it but my tongue was silent from the fear of giving a bad omen when you set out for troy from your father's gate your foot gave a presage by striking against the threshold when i saw it i groaned and said quietly to myself may the gods grant that this may be a presage of my husband's safe return these circumstances i now relate to you that you may not be too forward in the field but by your caution may make all my fears vanish in empty air fortune has also doomed some one to an untimely fate who shall first of the greeks set his foot upon trojan ground unhappy she fated first to deplore her lost lord grant oh ye gods that protest allows his courage may then fail may thy ship be the last of a thousand and in the rear of all the fleet plow the foaming deep i farther admonish you that you be the last to leave the ship the shore to which you hasten is not your native soil but when you return urge the bark with sails and oars nor delay a moment to set foot upon the coast of your own country whether febus hides his beams or high in his chariot overlooks the earth both by day and by night you fill my mind with grief and anxiety yet the mournful image haunts me more at night than during the day night is grateful to those whose necks are environed by clasping arms i catch it empty dreams in a forlorn bed and must put up with false joys because the true have fled but why does your pale shadow stand before me why do i incessantly hear you uttering mournful complaints i start from my sleep and adore the nightly powers these cestalian altars cease not to smoke with sacrifices for your sake incense is offered and tears are shed over it in abundance with which the flame burns bright as of sprinkled with wine when shall i again clasp you in my longing arms and be elate with joy in your embraces when happily united with you in the same bed shall i hear you recount your noble deeds in war though i shall be pleased with the recital yet will your relation be often interrupted by our mutual kisses these always occasion and agreeable pause and discourse the tongue is rendered more prompt by such alluring delays but when i think of trey of the winds and the sea flattering hopes give way to anxious fears i am alarmed that your fleet is detained by adverse winds how can you think of sailing when the sea forbids what man returns to his own country when the winds are against him why then did you spread your sails to leave it when the sea forbids neptune himself stops up the way to his city wither hurry you so rashly let each return to his own home wither i say oh ye greeks do you hurry so rashly attend to the voice of the forbidding winds this delay is no work of blind chance it comes from the gods what do you intend by this mighty war but to regain a base adulterous return ye grecian ships well it yet may be done with honor but why do i thus call you back forbid ye gods every bad omen and may an inviting gale bear you through the quiet waves how i envy the lot of the trojan wives for if they are doomed to see the mournful funerals of their husbands the enemy is however not far off the youthful bride will with her own hand fix the helmet upon the head of her gallant spouse and buckle on his shining armor she will buckle on his armor and as she performs a task often snatch a kiss this sport of office will be grateful to both she will partly attend him in his march affectionately and join him to return and advise him to caution that he may triumph and dedicate his arms to jupiter he bearing in mind the fresh injunctions of his beloved spouse will fight with due care of himself and think of her whom he has left at home at his return she will take from him his shield and unbuckle the ponderous helmet while he reclines his weary breast upon her soft bosom unhappy we are wracked with uncertainty an anxious fear makes us apt to fancy you surrounded with a thousand dangers yet while you bear armor and are fighting in remote lands i take a pleasure in contemplating the wax which inhabits your likeness as if you were present i make use of the softest expressions and address it in words due only to my pretesel house i even embrace and caress it surely it must be so this image is more than what it seems add speech to the statue and it will be my pretesel house himself my eyes are incessantly fixed upon it i press it to my bosom as if it were indeed my husband and pour out my complaints to it vainly hoping for an answer i swear by yourself and your return so dear to me above all things by the nuptial torch and that glowing heart which is only yours by your beloved head which owe you propitious gods restored to me unhurt and give me to see at length venerable with gray hairs that i am ready to fly with or so ever you call me and will readily share your fate whether that should happen which alas i too much fear or the gods should graciously preserve you permit me to conclude my epistle with a small request if you have yet any love for me be sure to show it in the care you take of yourself and of leo damia to pretesel house section 14 of over its heroides this is a liberal fox recording all liberal fox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit leprevox.org recording by shuley for malchem section 14 of over its heroides translated by an unknown translator first published in 1813 hypermenestra to link use hypermenestra sends to the only survivor of so many brothers the rest have all perished by the crime of their wives i am closely confined and loaded with a weight of chains my piety is a silk horse of my punishment i am deemed guilty because my hand trembled to urge the sword to my husband's afroat had i dared to commit the bloody deed i should have been extolled it is better to be thus deemed guilty than please a father by an act of barbarity i can never repent that my hands are unstained with murder should my father torture me with the flames that i have not dared to violate or throw in my face the torches used at the nuptial rides should he pierce me with the very sword which he gave me for an inhuman purpose and destroy the wife by the death from which he saved her husband yet would all his cruelty be insufficient to make my dying lips own repentance hypermenestra is not one who will repent of her piety that danos and my bloody sisters testify penitence for their wickedness this usually follows deeds of guilt my heart sickens at the remembrance of that bloody night and the sudden trembling enervates the joint of my right hand that hand which has sought strong enough to engage the murder of a husband even dreads the ride of a murder that it did not commit yet will i attempt to describe the horrid scene twilight had overspread the earth it was about the close of day and night hastened on we the descendants of inacus are led to the palace of the great palascus and a father-in-law receives into his house daughters armed for the destruction of their husbands lambs adorned with gold shine through all the apartments and impious incenses offered to the unwilling gods the people invoke hymen but hymen neglects their call even the wife of joe for sukho beloved city the bridegrooms made their appearance high in wine and enlivened by the acclimations of their attendance their anointed heads were adorned with garlands of flowers they entered their bed chambers chambers doomed to be their graves and reposed to their limbs on beds fitter for their funeral piles thus they lay overcome with food wine and sleep and a dead silence reigned in unsuspecting argous i seem to hear around me the groins of dying men i indeed heard them and it was really as i feared at this the blood forsook my limbs the vital heat departed and a coolness spread itself over all my joints as a banning reed are shaken by the mind's ephires or the rough northern blasts agitate the poplar leaves alike a more violent shaking seized me yule quiet lulled to rest by the sleeper-troll that i had given the commands of a violent father had banished fear i started up and seized with the trembling hand the deadly sword why should i deceive fries i took hold of the pointed steel and thrice my feeble hand dropped the hated load i aimed at your throat blame me not if i acknowledge the truth i aimed at your throat the blade i had received of my father but fear abided opposed the bloody deed and my blameless right hand refused the hated task i tore my purple garments i tore my hair and with a faint voice uttered this mournful complaint accrual father you have hyper-minister think of executing his commands and makeling kiosk also a companion to his brothers i am a woman and a virgin mild both by nature and years these gentle hands are unfit to wield the phaser steel but take courage and while he lies defenseless imitate the bravery of your resolute sisters it is very probable that here now all their husbands are slain alas if this hand could perpetrate a cruel murder it must first be died in the blood of its owner how can they deserve death by possessing their angle realms which yet must have been given to foreign sons-in-law even if our husbands have deserved death what have you done why am i urged to crime which if committed robs me of my claim to piety what have i to do with a drawn sword why are warlike weapons put into the hands of a girl a spindle and distaff better suit these fingers these things are revolved with myself and as i complained the mournful words were accompanied with tears which gently falling from my eyes be due to your naked limbs while you sought to embrace me at half awake stretched your clasping arms your hand was almost wounded by the drawn sword and now i began to dread my father the guards and the approaching light and these my words roused you from sleep rise speedily grant enough beelers now the only survivor of so many brothers unless you are quick in escaping this is fated to be your eternal night you start up in a fright the fetters of sleep are all loosened and you behold in my hand the pointed weapon as you ask the cause fly interrupt the tie while night permits you escape favored by the darkness of the night while i remain and now morning coming on day now is numbers over his slaughtered sons one only was wanting to complete the bloody crime he storms at his disappointment in the death of a single kinsman and complains that too little blood had been shed i am torn from my father as i embrace his knees and dragged by the head prison is of this the due reward of my piety so it is the dune's resentment has ever pursued our raise since jove transformed io into a cow and the cow into a goddess but was it not sufficient punishment for the unhappy maid to loosen at her form and stripped off of beauty be no longer able to please the almighty jove she stood amazed at her new shape upon the banks of a flowing parent and beheld in this paternal mirror the unusual horns striving to complain her mouth was filled with loins and she was equally terrified at her form and voice and happy maid why this mad rage why do you wander at your own shadow why do you number your feet formed to new joints this putis rival once dreaded by the sister of almighty jove now lays her raging hunger with leaves and grass she drinks of the running stream and is astonished to behold her own shape she even trembles at the arms she wears and thinks of them aimed against herself you lately so rich just to be deemed worthy even of almighty jove now low naked and defenseless in the uncharted fields you wildly run through the sea overlands and through kindred rivers even seas lands and rivers permit your wanderings what is the cause of your flight why io do you thus traverse the spacious main it is impossible to fly from your own shadow with a daughter of inacus do you run it is the same individual who flies and who pursues you lead and at the same time follow the leader the nile which pours into the ocean through seven floodgates restored to her former shape this beloved of jove but why should i mention remote times and accounts for which i'm behold unto old age even the present years afford grout of complaint my father and uncle are at war we are driven from our kingdom and home and wonder exiles on earth's remotest verge my savage uncle singly possesses of the throne and skeptor we a destitute crowd follow this consulate a helpless old man you only how small a part remain of a whole nation of brothers i mourn both for those who perished and those who gave the fatal stroke i have not only lost a multitude of brothers but also a like number of sisters and both losses equally demand my tears you know even i am reserved to accrual punishment because i saved your life what fate is left for the guilty when i who married only praise and thus accused and must i once the hundredth of a kindred tribe suffered death for saving one of so many brothers but my dear lingus if you have any regard to the party of your sister or any remembrance of her love and the life she gave you help me in this extremity or if death should set me free before you can arrive bear privately my breathless frame to the funeral pile and sprinkle my ashes with unfaithful tears when you have faithfully performed the last obsequies engrave upon my tomb this short inscription hypermenestra an unhappy exile was as a reward for her piety unjustly doomed to that death from which he had saved her brother i wish to write more but my hand fails disabled by weight of chains and ill-boding fears deprive me of the power of reflection end of hypermenestra to lingus section 15 of ovid's heroides this is a lipovox recording all lipovox recordings are in public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit lipovox.org recording by ano simon section 15 of ovid's heroides translated by an unknown translator first published in 1813 safo du feion at the site of this letter written by an anxious hand will you not instantly know the characters to be mine or must even the name of the unhappy writer be added to prove the person by whom the few lines are sent you may perhaps wonder why i address you in alternate measures when lyric numbers so much better suit my genius but unsuccessful love complains in melancholy notes and elegy is the most proper for the expression of my will no harp conserved to paint my flowing tears i burn like a ripened field of corn when driving east winds spread the catching flames feion honors the distant fields of burning itna while flames fears as those of etna pray upon my heart i no more take pleasure in forming my numbers to the tuneful strings music and poetry are the employment of a mind at ease the dames of pyra methamna and the other cities of lesbos please no more an actuary and fercykno have lost their charms and athis have laid so grateful to my sight with hundreds of others once the objects of my guilty love faithless man you alone and grows that hard formally shared by many you are happy in a fine face and years fit for pleasure and delin's oh enchanting looks so fatal to me and my repose take the harp and bow and you will pass with all for apollo adorn your head with wreaths of ivy and you will appear beautiful as bachas yet apollo was and a mord of dafny and bachas of the cretin maid though neither of them excelled in lyric measures to me the muses dictate the sweetest lays and the name of supple resounds through all nations even great alchys the partner of my country and my harp has not more renown though he sings in loftier notes if unfriendly nature has denied me an engaging form yet the charms of my wit abundantly compensate that deficiency i'm short of stature yet i have a name that fills the whole earth and by my own merit have gained this extensive renown whatever i'm not fair was not even perseus please with andromedy an Ethiopian dame doves of various colors often unite and the white turtle matches with the shining green if no charms can gain your heart but such as equal your own no charms will be ever able to gain fame yet when you read my lays i then seemed formed to please you were never enough delighted with my voice and swore that it became me alone to speak i remember when want to sing for ah how vast a memory have lovers how you stop my tongue with kisses even these you praised i pleased in all but more particularly when united with you in the close bonds of love then you were fired by my amorous sport each motion each glance each word inflamed you till dissolving in tumultuous raptures gentle faintness surprised our weird limbs but now the sicilian maids take up all your thoughts why was i born at lesbos why am i not a native of sicily but ah sicilian nymphs beware and banish from your isle this deceitful wanderer be not deceived with the fictions of an insinuating tongue those faithless vows have all been made to suffer you too ericina who range the sicilian hills think that i am thine and pity the sorrows of your poetess shall cruel fortune still pursue the same sad tenor and obstinately persist in heaping woes upon me scarcely had i completed my sixth year when the ashes of a deceased parent drank my tears my brother next despising wealth and honor burned with an ignoble flame and rashly plunged himself into shameful distresses reduced to want he traversed a blue ocean in a nimble bark and basically hunted after those riches which he had foolishly lost my many good councils he repaid with hatred such was the reward of my piety and plain dealing and as a fortune had determined to oppress me without seizing an infant daughter has been lately added to my cares yet adverse fate still pursues me and sends you the last and greatest of my woes alas how much is this tempestuous voyage of life agitated by unfriendly gales my locks no more hang curled in ringlets round my neck nor do the glowing gems adorn my joints i am clad in homely weeds no braids of gold bind the flowing tresses nor do arabian engines breathe their sweet perfumes for whom shall i adorn myself unhappy wretch whom shall i thus study to please the only object of my tenderness is gone the light darts of cubit easily wound my gentle heart and still there is some cause why safo still should love whether the sisters have so fixed my doom from the birth and formed my life to the softer ties of venus or my manners are fashioned by my studies and those arts in which i excel the muse certainly forms my mind to answer the molting notes of my tongue what wonder if my tender age yields to the gentle violence and those years that recommend to the addresses of men how was i afraid that aurora might seize you for hercephalus and she would have done it had she not been detained by her first love if synthia whose eye extends over all should chance to fix it upon you feon would be commanded to prolong his sleep venus would have borne you off in a chariot of ivory to the skies but she foresaw that you would no less charm her beloved mars oh scarcely a youth and yet not a tender boy useful age for lovers oh pride and glory of thy age come to these arms return darling of my soul to my soft embraces i ask not your love but that you will kindly receive mine i write and as i write the starting tears flow from my eyes see what a number of bloods stain this very place if you were determined to abandon me it might yet have been done in a kinder way was it too much to say farewell my lesbian maid you saw none of my tears you received no parting kisses nor did i at all apprehend what a load of grief awaited me you have left nothing with your safo but wrongs and woes nor have carried any pledge with you to renew the memory of our loves i gave you no charge nor indeed had i any other charge to give than that you would be always mindful of me i swear to you by the god of love by whom let me never be abandoned and by the sacred nine those deities whom i adore that when first told i hardly know by whom that you and all my joys had fled i had neither the power of speaking nor of weeping my eyes did not grant me the relief of tears and my tongue was deprived of all motion a deathlike coldness seized my boating heart but when impetuous grief at last found event i beat my breast and rent my scattered locks raving in all the wildness of furious despair like a pious mother who bears to the funeral pile the breathless body of her darling son my brother caraxis rejoices at the disaster and barbarously triumphs in my griefs his hated image is ever before my eyes and to approach me with a shameful cause he asks why all this sadness your daughter still lives love and shame are ever inconsistent with garments torn and my bosom bear are proclaimed to all the world my guilt you feon take up all my thoughts my care by day and the nightly object of my dreams dreams that charm more than the brightest day in these i find you though flat to remote regions but alas the joys of sleep are vain and short-lived oft you seem to wind your arms around my yielding neck oft my arms fondly encircle thine i soothe and address you in softest words and my mouth is prompt to utter the language of my heart i seem to give and take endearing kisses and yield to joys which i blush to mention while yet i must confess how much they please but when the rising sun spreads his light over all as if once more deserted i complain that sleep has fled so soon i retired to the caves and groves as if caves and groves could yield relief and fondly caught the haunts that have witnessed your dear embraces thither i run my hair loose and disheveled like those who are infatuated by some powerful sorcerers there i behold the caves beset with rugged cliffs that to me were more pleasant than the finest friggin marble i find the grove that has often afforded us a flowery bed and sheltered us from the heat by its spreading leaves but i no more find him with whom i haunted these beloved shades they now can please no more for to him they owed all their charms i view the pressed grass on which we have reposed our varied limbs where the bending turf retains the print of our double weight i kiss the earth pressed by our lovely limbs and bid you with tears the grateful herbs for thee the trees dropping their leaves seem to mourn and the tuneful birds deny their songs the fotion bird alone that is consoled mother who took so cruel of revenge on our thracian lord mourns the heart fate of ittis the nightingale mourns the fate of ittis saffo laments that she's deserted by feon all else is silent and involved in the shades of night a spring there is whose waters run clear and transparent as crystal here as many think a deity resides above a flowery lotus spreads its shading branches and seems itself a grove the bangs around are edged with eternal green here while after an infusion of tears i rested my varied limbs a nyad suddenly stood before my eyes she stood and said oh you who burn with an ill-requited flame fly to the acarnanian shore apollo from an impending rock surveys the extended ocean below which is called by the inhabitants the sea of actium and lucade hence ducalian inflamed with the hopeless love of pyra plunged himself unhurt into the main forthwith love changing possess the obstinate heart of pyra and ducalian was freed from his flame such as the law of the place haste then throw yourself from high lucadia nor dread the threatening steep she spoke and disappeared with the voice i rose amazed and my dim eyes overflowed with tears i go o nymph to prove these healing rocks fear recedes born down by powerful love my fate whatever it is will be milder than at present blow up gentlegales beneath my falling body and lay me softly on the swelling waves and thou too gentle love bear up my sinking limbs without spread wings and let not safo's death profane the guiltless lucadian flood i will then hang up my lyre to febus and under it write this inscription grateful safo consecrates her harp to febus a gift that suits both the giver and the god but why relentless youth do you drive me to distant coasts when you can so easily cure me by your return your charms are more powerful than the lucadian waves and your merit and beauty make you a febus to me can you bear oh more heart harder than the rocks and waves to be reputed the cause of my untimely death would thou rather see this breast dashed on pointed rocks than pressed to dine this breast which you feon have so often praised as the seat of love and genius but now genius is no more grief checks my thoughts and the edge of my wit is blunted by my misfortunes my wanted strength no more furnishes the flowing lines my loot is silent and the sounding notes sink under a weight of woe ylesbian virgins and dames so often celebrated by the aeolian lyre lesbians the objects of my guilty love cease to hope that i will more touch the sounding harp feon is gone and with him all my joys have vanished unhappy wretch had almost called him mine make him return no more shall you complain to the absence of your potus it is he he only that inspires or quenches the poetic flame can prayers avail nothing is your savage breast proof against all tender feelings or have the flying zeffas lost my words in air oh that the winds which bear away my words would bring back your welcome sails it is what if you are wise for yourself you ought now though late to hasten or are you already on the way and our sacrifices offered for your safety why do you tear my heart with cruel delays spread your sails the seaborne goddess will smooth the waves and prosperous gales speed your course only weigh anchor and set sail cupid himself sitting at the helm will govern the bark he with a skillful hand will unfold and gather in the sails or do you choose to fly from unhappy supple alas what have i done to be thus the object of your aversion at least inform me of this by a few cruel lines that i may plunge myself with all my miseries amidst the lucadian waves end of suffer the feon section 16 of ovid's heroides this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by graham redmond section 16 of ovid's heroides translated by an unknown translator first published in 1813 paris to helen paris the son of prime sends health to helen that health which he can himself no otherwise enjoy than as it is your gift shall i then speak or is it unnecessary to inform you of a passion that betrays itself has not my love already laid itself to open i could indeed wish it to lie concealed till the time comes when we can taste of joys unalloyed by any mixture of fear but it is in vain that i disemble for who can smother a flame that always discovers itself by its own brightness if yet you expect that my tongue should confirm what my actions have so long declared i burn this message brings you the true sense of my heart forgive this kind confession and do not peruse what remains with a severe look but with one that best becomes your heavenly form already it gives me pleasure to think that my letter is well received for this creates a hope that i may also meet with the same kind entertainment heaven grant that my hopes may be confirmed and that the queen of love who urged me to this voyage may not have promised in vain for that you may not offend through ignorance know that i came hither by a divine admonition and that one not the meanest of the divine powers favors my design the prize i seek indeed is great yet what i may justly claim for venus promised you fair as you are to my bed guided by her i abandoned the sigian shore ventured upon a doubtful fate and did not decline to plow the pathless deep in the ferriclion bark she commanded a gentle breeze and stretched the canvas with auspicious gales for having sprung from the teeming deep she still retains her empire over the main may she still persevere and as she calms the sea so may she calm the tempest that rages in my breast and bring home all my vows and sighs to their desired port my flames i brought with me for i did not first find them here they were the cause of my undertaking so long a voyage for no threatening storm or mistaken course drove as hither my fleet was designed from the first for the coast of laconia nor fancy that i plow the waves in a ship laden with merchandise the gods have already blessed me with ample wealth nor came i so far to view and admire the cities of greece my own kingdom is filled with richer towns it is you that i seek whom beautiful venus promised to my embraces i wished for the enjoyment of your love even before i was acquainted with your charms long before my eyes beheld you i had formed an image of you in my mind for fame was the first messenger of your beauty nor is it so great a wonder that pierced by the swift winged arrow at such a distance i offer you my heart so the fates have ordained which that you may not strive to resist attend to a relation that carries in it nothing but truth i was yet enclosed in the womb of my mother now pregnant with the birth and almost struggling for birth she in a mysterious dream seemed to herself to be delivered of a burning torch she was frighted and related to priam the tremendous visions of the gloomy night he consulted the sacred seers the prophet foretold that the flames of the ruined Troy were portended by the threatening torch but surely fate meant the flames that now rage in my breast though exposed among shepherds yet my form and native greatness spoke the nobility of my birth in the thickest groves of ida there is a place remarkably retired and shaded with oaks and pitch trees the grass upon this spot is not touched by the bleeding sheep the goat delighting in rocks and cliffs or the laborious ox as here i stood leaning upon the tree and beholding from afar the walls lofty towers and winding bays of Troy lo suddenly the ground seemed to be shaken with the tread of feet i speak the truth yet scarcely will it be able to gain the credit due to truth the grandson of great atlas and plione born through the air on nimble wings stood before my eyes as i was permitted to see so may it be allowed me to relate what i have seen the god stood and in his sacred hand was a golden rod three goddesses to venus juno and palace gently pressed the grass with their tender feet i stood amazed and a chilling horror raised my hair in bristles when the winged messenger thus addressed me banish fear you are appointed the judge of beauty settle therefore the contests of the goddesses and name one who must claim the prize of beauty from the other two and that i might not decline the task he laid his commands upon me in the name of Jupiter and then mounted aloft through the aerial way my mind seemed to gather strength and i was conscious of an unusual boldness nor did i fear to fix my eyes upon each of them with attention they all seemed worthy of the victory and i their judge was grieved to think that all could not equally carry off the prize yet even then there was one that pleased me more in so much that it was easy to discover in her mean and air the queen of love so strong was the contention for superiority that they began to solicit my favor by bribes the wife of jove offered me a kingdom palace prudence and valour whilst i myself could not resolve to which to give the preference but venus sweetly smiling said let not gifts like these parrots where you for both are full of fears and anxieties i will give you to taste of the pleasures of love and fair leaders yet fairer daughter shall receive your fond caresses thus attractively she spoke and equally powerful by her gifts and beauty returned to heaven with victorious pace in the meantime the fates beginning to be now more propitious i am known by undoubted signs to be the son of royal priam the court is overjoyed to recover a son who had so long been lost and grateful trey adds this day also to her festivals and as i now languish for you so did the beauties of trey for me you alone reign over my heart for which many side in vain nor was i only desired by the daughters of kings and heroes i was also the darling and care of heaven-born nymphs but all these tenderess met with a return of cold disdain when the hopes of your embrace had fired my breast all the day fancy placed you before my eyes at night too when my eyes were sealed by gentle sleep you stood before me in my dreams what surprise then must your presence give whose absent image so far occupied my thoughts i was consumed with the flame though it scorched at so greater distance nor was i able to restrain my ardent hopes from seeking the desired object through the blue ocean the stately trojan pines were cut down with a frigid axe and every tree that was fittest to plow the yielding deep the steep gargery and summits were despoiled of their lofty woods and spacious ida furnished me with the finest planks stiff oaks were bent to form the doubling hold and the rising sides were knit with jointed ribs sails and sailyards were added to the lofty masts and the bending stern was adorned with painted gods on my own ship stood the goddess who promised to make me happy in your embraces accompanied by her little son cupid the fleet being thus completely prepared i longed to traverse the wide edigian sea my father and mother opposed their entreaties to my desires and with pious requests withstood my intended voyage kassandra too my sister with loose and disordered locks just as the ships were ready to set sail exclaimed whether do you hurry without thought to bring back fire and destruction alas you little think what raging flames threaten us from beyond these seas true were hurt predictions i have felt the threatened fires tyrannic love rages in my yielding breast yet i set sail and urged by propitious gales arrived ferris nymph on your native coasts there i was kindly entertained by your husband and this did not happen without the concurrence and contrivance of the gods he showed me everything that was remarkable or worth notice in lasa demon but in vain these objects solicited the attention of one who was wholly possessed with the desire of beholding your celebrated beauty i saw and stood amazed stricken to the inmost soul with your charms i felt my heart well with new cares such was venus so far as i can remember when she descended from heaven to submit to my decision if you had also come to bear the part in that contest even venus could have scarcely pretended to the prize fame indeed has so diffused the report of your beauty that no country is a stranger to your charms not even frigid year can boast of your equal nor from the rising to the setting sun is there one to rival you believe me when i tell you that your fame comes far short of the truth for even report has invidiously denied the share of prey's duty or charms i found you greatly to exceed what that had given ground to hope and that your fame in everything fell below your merit well therefore might theseus who knew all feel the power of so many charms and think you were prey worthy of so great a hero when after the manner of your country you contended in the wrestling ring and disputed with the other sex the prize of manly exercise i commend the bold theft but wonder how he ever could restore you so inestimable a prize ought always to have been retained sooner should this head have been severed from the bloody neck than anyone be suffered to tear you from my embraces would ever this right hand have permitted you to be carried off could i while ought of life remained have tamely seen you ravished from my bosom if necessity had compelled me yet i would not have left you before i had received some pledge of your love some earnest of the strength of our mutual flame i would have tasted of your virgin charms or if that bliss had been denied have ravished a thousand kisses fly then to my arms and try the firmness and constancy of paris the funeral flames alone shall extinguish the flames that rage in my breast i preferred you to a kingdom once offered by the sister and the wife of jove even prudence and valor the gifts of palace were postponed to the sweet pleasure of throwing my arms around your neck nor do i repent or charge myself with having made a foolish choice my mind continues firm in its first resolve you only to obtain whom no labor can appear great do not oh do not suffer my hopes to vanish into air i am not one whose birth will disgrace the noble line of his spouse nor is it beneath your dignity to be wedded to paris the pliades and great jove himself in noble my pedigree not to mention the long race of succeeding kings my father sways the scepter of asia a kingdom rich and fertile whose ample bounds stretch as far as the rising sun there you will behold innumerable cities houses roofed with gold and temples becoming the gods to whom they belong you will see ileyon and its walls strengthened with lofty towers all built to the harmony of apollos liar why should i mention the vast multitudes of people the country is scarcely able to sustain its inhabitants the trojan matrons will meet you in troops nor will our halls accommodate the concourse of fridgian dames how often will you say what a poor naked country is Greece and that one fridgian palace is richer than whole cities there nor mean i buy this to despise your native land for the region in which you first drew your breath must ever be to me a dear and happy country yet sparta is poor whereas you are worthy of the richest ornaments that sordid city ill suits a form so lovely your face ought to shine with rich attire and be set off with all the ornaments and luxurience of dress when you so much admire the habit of the trojans who attend me what think you must be that of the fridgian ladies only therefore be kind nor do you a fair spartan disdain to receive a husband of fridgia he was a fridgia springing from our race who is now advanced to temper the nectar of the gods tithonus too was a fridgia whom the goddess that measures out the knight received to her rosy bed and kaisies also was a fridgian with whom the mother of winged loves delighted to associate on the summits of ida nor do i think that many layers whether you compare our persons or age can have the preference even in your judgment you certainly will not have a father-in-law who made the son withdraw his light and turn away his frighted steeds from the dire banquet nor is prime the son of one stained with the blood of a father-in-law or whose crime gives a name to the myrtoin waves no great grandfather of mine catches at apples in the stygian flood or set up to the chin in water is tortured with thirst but what does this avail me if one so descended possesses helen and jove himself is a father-in-law to this line yet he oh ye gods a wretch unworthy of so much happiness passes whole nights with you and shares uninterrupted your fondest caresses i can scarcely have a short glance of you at table and even then there are many things that give me pain may such feasts fall to the lot of my worst enemies as those i often meet with in your palace i repent of my entertainment at his court when i see him throw his rude arms round your snowy neck i swell and am ready to burst with envy yet why do i thus relate all when he folds his flowing robe round your tender limbs but when you give and take in my presence the melting kisses i am then forced to take the cup and hold it before my eyes as often as you close in strict embraces i cast my eyes upon the ground and the loathed food becomes more and more nauseous to my taste i often sigh to myself and have observed you repaying my size with a scornful smile oft have i assayed to conquer my flame with wine but it continued to increase and drinking i found added fuel to the fire sometimes i turned away my eyes that i might not see too much but you soon called back my wandering sight what can i do i am pierced with grief to witness all but it is still a greater grief not to gaze upon your charms i strive with all my power to hide my flame but the dissembled passion breaks through all restraints nor is it my aim to deceive my wounds are well too well known to you oh that they were only known to you how often have i turned away my face to hide the falling tears lest he should inquire the cause of my sadness how oft when warmed with wine have i told some tale of love applying every word to your dear face and under a feigned name have made a discovery of my own passion in these instances if you knew it not i was the true lover sometimes i have even feigned intoxication to excuse my greater freedoms in discourse once i remember your loose garments revealed your naked breasts and discovered them freely to my gazing eyes breasts whiter than milk or the purest snow whiter than jove when in the shape of a swan he made love to your mother whilst surprised at the sight i stood gazing for by chance the cup was in my hand the wreathed handle insensibly slipped from my fingers if you kissed your young Hermione i instantly snatched from her lips the envied bliss sometimes laid supinely along i sang love songs and my winks and nods gave secret signs of my flame i even tried with all the softness of eloquence to persuade your favorite attendance ifra and climbini to promote my addresses but their answers served only to heighten my despair and they cruelly deserted me in the midst of my entreaties oh that the gods would make you the reward of some gallant enterprise and crown the victor with the possession of your charms as hippomanese carried off at Elanta the prize of his dexterity in the chariot race as hippodamia was pressed to the bosom of a fridgian hero as brave alcides broke the horns of the god Akelois while he fought for the prize of Dianaira's charms my courage would have nobly dared the rude encounter and you would have soon found yourself the reward of my bravery now north remains but to address you in suppliant prayers and prostrate at your feet embrace your knees oh you who are the glory of your family and ornament of the brother's stars oh worthy of the bed of jove but that you sprang from himself i will either re-enter the fridgian ports carrying you as my wife or here an exile be covered with laconia on earth my breast is not lightly pierced with the pointed arrow the wound hath reached even to my bones my sister truly foretold for now i recollect that i should be wounded by a heavenly dart beware therefore Helen of despising a love ordained by the fates so may you have the god still propitious to your desires much more i have to add but that i may say all to yourself receive me into your apartment during the silent night are you ashamed or do you fear to loosen the matrimonial tie or violate the just rights of a lawful bed is it possible then Helen you should be so simple as to fancy that so lovely a face can be exempt from faults either change that face or you must be less cruel for chastity and beauty are ever at variance even jupiter and lovely venus herself indulge these stolen delights it is in consequence of these that you boast of jupiter for your father if you retain ought of your parents can the daughter of jupiter and leader be chased yet then may you be chased when i with you shall have reached trey and let a compliance with me be your only crime let us now commit a fault which marriage shall afterwards amend if venus has not deluded me by false promises even your husband if not by words yet by his actions persuades you to this and that he may not be an obstacle to the stolen joys of his guest he is absent had he no time more opportune for a visit to the Isle of Crete oh husband of wonderful sagacity he went and in going said my dear i recommend it to you that you take the same care of our idea and guest as you are wont to do of me you neglect i aver it the commands of your absent husband nor ever think about the care of your guest and can you hope fairest tinderess that one of so little discretion understands the just value of such a treasure of charms you are deceived he is far from understanding it nor if he thought the jewel valuable would he trust it in the hands of a stranger if neither my persuasions nor the ardour of my passion avail yet how can we avoid taking advantage of the inviting opportunity we should exceed even him in folly if we should neglect a conjecture so secure and tempting he has in a manner with his own hands forced to love upon you let us then make the best of the simplicity of this thoughtless man you lie in a solitary bed during the long winter nights i also lie single in a desolate bed let mutual joys join us strictly together and that night will outshine the brightest noon then will i swear by all the powers above and bind myself to you forever in your own words then if my confidence does not deceive me i will prevail that you fly with me to my kingdom if shame and fear dissuade you from the appearance of a voluntary flight i will free you from blame by taking all the crime upon myself for i will follow the example of theseus and your brothers nor are there any others that can touch you more nearly theseus carried you off and they bore away the two daughters of usipus i shall be named the fourth in this illustrious role the trojan fleet is at hand well appointed with arms and men oars and an inviting gale shall forward us with nimble speed you shall walk a mighty queen through the cities of frigia and the people will adore you as a new deity wherever you tread the finest spices shall smoke and the falling victims beat the bloody ground my brothers my sisters and mother will load you with gifts the alien matrons and all Troy following the example alas all i have yet said is nothing you shall there meet with much more than this letter mentions nor fear that this rape will draw after it a cruel war or that powerful grease will summon her strength to recover you who of the many that have been thus stolen was demanded back by arms these trust me are vain and frivolous fears the Thracians under the name of Boreas stole the daughter of Erechtheus and yet the kingdom of Thrace was not attacked by war Jason of Thessaly carried off in his flying bark the Colchian made yet Thessaly was not invaded or distressed by an army from Colchis Thesius too who stole you stole also the daughter of Minos yet Minos did not once think of arming the Cretans to recover her in these cases the fear always exceeds the danger and when that is over we begin to be ashamed of our fear but suppose if you will that a dreadful war may ensue i have strength to repel it and my darts can wound nor does the power of Asia yield to that of Greece it is a rich land abounding both in men and horses nor does many layers exceed Paris in bravery or deserve the preference for military skill while I was a mere boy I recovered the stolen herds after slaying my foes and then borrowed a new name while yet a boy I carried off the prize in various exercises from the other youths among whom were even Ileoneus and Diophobus nor think that I am only to be dreaded in close combat my arrows always hit the appointed mark can you ascribe to him these acts of early youth can you honor the son of Atius with my envid skill but were you to allow him all these will you also boast that he has such a brother as Hector this one hero is equivalent to whole armies you know not the extent of my power my strength is in a great measure hidden from you nor do you imagine what kind of man he is who solicits to be received for your husband either therefore no war will be raised to demand you back or the Grecian army must be vanquished by my superior force nor think that I shall be unwilling to draw the sword for such a wife a prize so noble is well worthy of the contest you too if all the world should arm for your sake will acquire a name famous to the remotest ages fly hence then full of hope while the gods are propitious and demand with full assurance that I make good these promises end of paris to helen recording by graham redmond