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hawkwing_lbTo Aphrodite
Like a child, Lady Dawn did not think in her heart
To ask for youth to scrape off terrible age
So while he [Tithonos] had for himself much-desired youth,
Enjoying himself with golden-throned Dawn, the early-born,
He dwelt beside the streams of Ocean at the limits of the Earth:
But when the first grey poured itself down in his hair
And out from his fair head and well-born chin,
Lady Dawn kept away from his bed,
Yet still she cherished him, having him in her halls
With grain and ambrosia, and giving him fine garments.
But when wretched age wholly weighed him down,
And he wasn’t able to set any of his limbs in motion or lift them up,
This seemed to her in her spirit the best plan:
She laid him up in an inner chamber, and shut the shining doors.
And his voice flows incessantly, but it has no strength
Of the kind which there was formerly in his supple limbs.
But I would not take you so away among the immortals
To be undying and to live for all days.
But if you were to live like this in form and body
And if you were to be called our spouse,
Then grief would not enfold my close-kept heart.
Now swiftly pitiless age, common to all, will overwhelm you,
Which is set out for mortals,
Accursed, wearisome, which all gods abhor.
But for me there will be great disgrace among the deathless gods
Endlessly forever, on your account.
Before, they [the gods] dreaded my utterances and my crafts,
With which at one time I joined together all the deathless ones with death-doomed women,
For my purpose brought them all low.
Now no longer will my mouth be able to speak of this
By name among the deathless ones, since I have been very much infatuated,
Wretched, not to be most blamed, I was led astray from my mind,
And having lain with a mortal I have planted a child beneath my girdle.
When first he should see the light of the sun
Mountain-bred deep-bosomed Nymphs will rear him,
They who dwell on this mighty and very divine mountain:
They obey neither mortals nor immortals,
Long do they live and eat immortal food,
And rush in a fair dance among the deathless ones.
With them, Seilenos and the keen-sighted Argus-slayer
Joined together in affection in the inmost part of charming caverns.
When they are being born, at the same time high-topped trees and silver firs
Put forth shoots upon the man-feeding fair flourishing earth,
In the lofty hills.
They call the steep places [which are] established sacred precincts
Of the deathless ones: and no mortal ravages them [the trees] with iron:
But when fate of death should draw near,
Fair trees dry up upon the earth,
And tree-bark dies all around, and from [them] branches fall,
And alike their life leaves the light of the sun.
They will rear my son, having him with them.
And when first much-desired youth should seize him,
They will lead him to you here, and they’ll show the child to [your] sight.
But I, in order that I might recount for you all these things in my guts,
I will come back in the fifth year, bringing my son.
And when first you should behold him with your eyes, your scion,
You’ll rejoice, seeing [him]: for he will be very like a god:
And immediately you will bring him to wind-rushing Ilion.
And if anyone among the death-doomed mortals should ask you
What mother laid up your beloved son under her girdle,
To him you, reminding yourself, are to speak as I command:
To declare him to be offspring of a Nymph – her face like a budding flower –
One of the ones who dwell here on the mountain and are clothed in forest-trees.
If you should declare and boast that, in senseless spirit, you
United in affection with well-crowned Kythereia,
Zeus, being angered, will smite you with a smouldering thunderbolt.
All is said for you: and you in your guts understand,
keep quiet and don’t name me, but do reverence for the wrath of the gods.”
And so saying, she darted speedily towards the sky.
Hail, goddess, ruler of well-built Cyprus!
Having started with you, I’ll pass on to another in song.
Like a child, Lady Dawn did not think in her heart
To ask for youth to scrape off terrible age
So while he [Tithonos] had for himself much-desired youth,
Enjoying himself with golden-throned Dawn, the early-born,
He dwelt beside the streams of Ocean at the limits of the Earth:
But when the first grey poured itself down in his hair
And out from his fair head and well-born chin,
Lady Dawn kept away from his bed,
Yet still she cherished him, having him in her halls
With grain and ambrosia, and giving him fine garments.
But when wretched age wholly weighed him down,
And he wasn’t able to set any of his limbs in motion or lift them up,
This seemed to her in her spirit the best plan:
She laid him up in an inner chamber, and shut the shining doors.
And his voice flows incessantly, but it has no strength
Of the kind which there was formerly in his supple limbs.
But I would not take you so away among the immortals
To be undying and to live for all days.
But if you were to live like this in form and body
And if you were to be called our spouse,
Then grief would not enfold my close-kept heart.
Now swiftly pitiless age, common to all, will overwhelm you,
Which is set out for mortals,
Accursed, wearisome, which all gods abhor.
But for me there will be great disgrace among the deathless gods
Endlessly forever, on your account.
Before, they [the gods] dreaded my utterances and my crafts,
With which at one time I joined together all the deathless ones with death-doomed women,
For my purpose brought them all low.
Now no longer will my mouth be able to speak of this
By name among the deathless ones, since I have been very much infatuated,
Wretched, not to be most blamed, I was led astray from my mind,
And having lain with a mortal I have planted a child beneath my girdle.
When first he should see the light of the sun
Mountain-bred deep-bosomed Nymphs will rear him,
They who dwell on this mighty and very divine mountain:
They obey neither mortals nor immortals,
Long do they live and eat immortal food,
And rush in a fair dance among the deathless ones.
With them, Seilenos and the keen-sighted Argus-slayer
Joined together in affection in the inmost part of charming caverns.
When they are being born, at the same time high-topped trees and silver firs
Put forth shoots upon the man-feeding fair flourishing earth,
In the lofty hills.
They call the steep places [which are] established sacred precincts
Of the deathless ones: and no mortal ravages them [the trees] with iron:
But when fate of death should draw near,
Fair trees dry up upon the earth,
And tree-bark dies all around, and from [them] branches fall,
And alike their life leaves the light of the sun.
They will rear my son, having him with them.
And when first much-desired youth should seize him,
They will lead him to you here, and they’ll show the child to [your] sight.
But I, in order that I might recount for you all these things in my guts,
I will come back in the fifth year, bringing my son.
And when first you should behold him with your eyes, your scion,
You’ll rejoice, seeing [him]: for he will be very like a god:
And immediately you will bring him to wind-rushing Ilion.
And if anyone among the death-doomed mortals should ask you
What mother laid up your beloved son under her girdle,
To him you, reminding yourself, are to speak as I command:
To declare him to be offspring of a Nymph – her face like a budding flower –
One of the ones who dwell here on the mountain and are clothed in forest-trees.
If you should declare and boast that, in senseless spirit, you
United in affection with well-crowned Kythereia,
Zeus, being angered, will smite you with a smouldering thunderbolt.
All is said for you: and you in your guts understand,
keep quiet and don’t name me, but do reverence for the wrath of the gods.”
And so saying, she darted speedily towards the sky.
Hail, goddess, ruler of well-built Cyprus!
Having started with you, I’ll pass on to another in song.
