Pod Insights Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! | Greek Mythology & the Ancient Mediterranean Liv Reads Statius: The Thebaid (Part 1) About this episode Liv reads book one of Statius' Thebaid, translated by JH Mozley. Oedipus looks back on the mess that was his family. His son Polynices is refused his share of the Theban throne and travels to Argos where he meets the king and hero Tydeus. Submit to the quarterly Q&A at mythsbaby.com/questions http://mythsbaby.com/questions and get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby http://patreon.com/mythsbaby
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0:00 Liv Albert? Hey nerds, really quick note from me. I want to tell you that we now have the applications open for the next set of listener group trips. This is us going back to the original, the trips that we have held in the past that have been so much fun, so successful, and pretty affordable in terms of wandering around Greece with a bunch of nerds. So check out the details and get your applications in at mythsbaby.com/groups.
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1:40 Liv Albert? Oh, hi, hello there and welcome. This is Let's Talk About Myths, baby. And I am that host of yours, she who loves to read aloud and hasn't really had a chance to do it in quite a while now, Liv. So it's been a minute since we've had a new reading episode. I finished The Fall of Troy back in August and I just haven't had the chance to start up a new series until now. It's getting a little tricky, honestly, to find the perfect sources to read, let alone, you know, ones that have these readable and copyright-free public domain translations. So I wasn't able to give you guys options this time. Instead, I have just made the choice for you, but it is a good one. Today, we're beginning the epic poem, The Thebaid,
2:22 Liv Albert? by the Roman author Statius. Like The Fall of Troy, The Thebaid tells a story that has its roots in the oldest of Greek myths, but was written during the Roman period, in this case, by a Roman author named Statius. So obviously, there's a lot going on there in terms of Roman culture and politics being placed into this Greek mythological world. This epic, it tells a story of, as you might have guessed, Thebes. It's the Seven Against Thebes, kind of the tragic ending to the story of Oedipus, Jocasta, their children, Antigone, Ismini, Polynices, and Eteocles. And then, as far as I understand it, there's
3:05 Liv Albert? a ton of other stuff that goes on. It's gonna be particularly interesting reading this, not only because, as usual, I have not read it yet myself, but also because this is a story with, again, its roots in Greek myth, which, in a particular Greek myth, which defined so much of the broad mythology that we know today, but which was written by a good, you know, six or so centuries later in the Roman world and with the influence of Roman religion and Roman culture and Roman imperialism and everything about the wider Mediterranean at that time.
4:07 Liv Albert? This is the Thebaid of Statius, translated by J. H. Mosley, Book One.
4:16 Liv Albert? My spirit is touched by Pyrrhian fire to recount the strife of brethren in the battle of the alternate reign fought out with impious hatred, and all the guilty tale of Thebes. Where, o goddesses, would you bid me to begin? Shall I sing the origins of the dreadful race, the Sidonian rape, and the inexorable terms of Agonor's law, and Cadmus's searching over the main? Far backward runs the story. Should I tell of the anxious husbandsmen of hidden war sowing battles in the unhallowed soil, and searching to the utmost? Relate
4:58 Liv Albert? with what song Amphion bade the Tyrian mountains move to form a city's walls? Whence came Bacchus's grievous wrath against his kindred towers? What deed fierce Juno wrought, against whom unhappy Athamas caught up his bow? And why, with Pelaimon in her arms, his mother quailed not to leap into the vast Ionian sea? No, rather here and now I will suffer the sorrows and the joys of Cadmus to have gone by. Let the troubled house of Oedipus set a limit to my song, since not yet may I venture
5:38 Liv Albert? to utter the theme of the standards of Italy and the triumphs of the north, or Rhine twice brought beneath our yoke, and Ister twice subject to our law, and the Dacians hurled down from their conspiring mount. Or how in those days, or scarce approaching manhood, for forfended attack, and of thee, o glory, added to the Latian name, whom succeeding erst- To your father's latest exploits, Rome belongs to be her forever. Yes, though a closer bound confine the stars and the shining quarter of the sky that knows not of Pleiades or Boreus or rending thunderbolt tempt you,
6:22 Liv Albert? though he who curbs the fiery-footed steeds was set with his own hand upon your locks the exalted radiance of his diadem. Or Jupiter yield you an equal portion of the great heaven, abide contented with the governance of men, you lord of earth and sea, and give constellations to the sky. A time will come, when emboldened by puri and frenzy, I shall recount your deeds. Now do I pitch my harp, but to the singing of Ionian arms and the scepter fatal to both tyrants. Of their madness unchecked by death and the strife of flames in the dissension of the funeral pyre,
7:07 Liv Albert? of kings' bodies lacking burial, and cities drained by mutual slaughter, when the dark-blue waters of Dirke blushed red with lurney and gore, and Thetis stood aghast at Ismenus, once want to graze arid banks flowing down with mighty heaps of slain. Which hero first do you make my theme, oh Cleo?
7:36 Liv Albert? Tydeus, uncontrolled in wrath, the sudden chasm that gaped for the laurel-crowned prophet? Distraught Hippomedon, too, repelling his river foe with corpses, demands my song, and I must lament the gallant Arcadian in his wars, and sing with a yet fiercer thrill the fate of Copanius. Already had Oedipus, with avenging hand Probed deep his sinning eyes, And sunk his guilty shame in eternal night, Abiding in a long and living death. But while he hugs his darkness And the uttermost seclusion of his dwelling, And keeps his secret chamber, Which the suns raise and heaven behold not,
8:21 Liv Albert? Yet with unwearied wings The fierce daylight of the mind hovers around him, And the avenging furies Of his crimes assail his heart. Then he displays to heaven Those empty orbs, The cruel, pitiful punishment of his life, And with blood-stained hands Beats upon the hollow earth, And in dire accents utters this prayer: Gods who hold sway Over guilty souls and over Tartarus, Crowded with the damned, And you, O Styx, Whom I behold ghastly In your shadowy depths, And you, Tisiphony, So often the object of my prayer,
9:04 Liv Albert? Be favorable now, And further my unnatural wish. If in aught I have found favor, If you did cherish me In your bosom, When I fell from my mother's womb, And did heal the wounds Of my pierced feet, If I sought the lake of Chira, Where it winds between The two summits of the range, When I could have lived contented With the false polybus, And in the Phocian strait, Where three ways meet grappled With the aged king, And cleft the visage Of the trembling dotard. Searching for my true father, If by wit of the foreshadowing I Solved The riddles of the cruel sphinx,
9:46 Liv Albert? If I knew, exulting, The sweet ecstasy And fatal union of my mother's bed, And passed many an unhallowed night, And begot sons for you, As well you know, Yet soon, greedy for punishment, Did violence to myself With tearing fingers, And left my eyes Upon my wretched mother. Hear me to the end, If my prayer be worthy, And such as you would inspire My ranging heart withal.
10:17 Liv Albert? Sightless though I was, and driven from my throne, my sons, on whatever couch begotten, Attempted not to give me guidance or consolation in my grief, no haughtily, ah, the maddening sting! And raised to royalty with my long dead, They mock my blindness and abhor their father's groans. Do these two hold me accursed? And the father of gods beholds it and does not? Do you, at least, my due defender, come here, And begin a work of vengeance That will blast their seed forever? Set on your head the gore-drenched circlet That my bloody nails tore off,
10:58 Liv Albert? And, inspired by their father's curses, go you between the brethren, And with the sword sunder the binding ties of kinship. Grant me, you queen of Tartarus's abyss, Grant me to see the evil that my soul desires; Nor will the spirit of the youths be slow to follow. Come, you but worthy of yourself, You shall know them to be true sons of mine.
11:27 Liv Albert? So prayed he, and the cruel goddess Turned her grim visage to hearken. By chance she sat beside dismal Chokytus, And had loosed the snakes from her head, And suffered them to lap the sulphurous waters. Straightway faster than fire of Jove Or falling stars she leapt up from the gloomy bank, The crowd of phantoms give way before her, Fearing to meet their queen. Then, journeying through the shadows And the fields dark with trooping ghosts, She hastens to the gate of Tynarus, Whose threshold none may cross, and again return.
12:08 Liv Albert? Day felt her presence, night interposed her pitchy cloud, and startled his shining steeds. Far off towering Atlas shuddered and shifted the weight of heaven upon his trembling shoulders. Forthwith, rising aloft from Malia's vale, she hies her on the well-known way to Thebes. For on no errand is she swifter to go and to return, not kindred Tartarus itself pleases her so well. A hundred-horned snakes erect shaded her face. The thronging terror of her awful head, deep within her sunken eyes, there glows a light of iron hue.
12:50 Liv Albert? As when a tration spells make laboring Phoebe redden through the clouds, suffused with venom, her skin distends and swells with corruption. A fiery vapor issues from her evil mouth, bringing upon mankind thirst unquenchable, and sickness, and famine, and universal death. From her shoulders falls a stark and grisly robe, whose dark facidings meet upon her breast. Atropos and prosopine herself fashion her this gar banu. Then both her hands are shaken in wrath, the one gleaming with a funeral torch, the other lashing the air with a live watersnake.
13:34 Liv Albert? She halted, where the sheer heights of vast Kitharon rise to meet the sky, and sent forth from her green locks fierce, repeated hisses, a signal to the land, whereupon the whole shore of the Akian Gulf and the realm of Pelops echoed far and wide. Parnassus, also in mid-heaven, heard it, and turbulent Erotes, with the din eti rocked and staggered, and Ithmas scarce withstood the waves on either side. With her own hand his mother snatched Pelaimon from the curved back of his straying dolphin steed, and pressed him to her bosom.
14:18 Liv Albert? Then the fury, swooping headlong upon the Cadmian towers, straightway cast upon the house its wonted gloom. Troubled dismay seiz'd the brothers' hearts, and the madness of their race inspir'd them, and envy that repines in others' happiness, and hate engendering fear, and then fierce love of power, and breach of mutual covenant, and ambition that brooks not second place, the dearer joy of soul supremacy, and discord that attends on partnered rule. Even so would a farmer-fare unite under the plough yoke, two picked bullocks of the savage
14:59 Liv Albert? herd, but they indignant, for not yet has the frequent coulter bowed these arching necks to the sinewy shoulders, pull contrawise, and with strength well-matched, break harness and confound the furrows with divers' tracks. Not otherwise does furious discord enrage the proud brothers. It was agreed to change rule for exile by the ordinance of the alternate year. By a grudging law they bade their fortunes change, so that a new claimant should ever embitter the monarch's fast-expiring term. No other bond united the brethren; this was their sole stay from arms, nor destined to endure to a second reign.
15:43 Liv Albert? Yet then no ceilings glitter'd with thick plates of yellow gold, no did quarried Grecian pillars bare aloft vast halls that could freely spread the serried mass of clients. No spears kept guard over a monarch's troubled slumbers, no sentinels groaned at the recurring duty of the watch; they thought not to entrust precious stones to the wine-cup, nor to soil gold with food. It was for naked power the brethren armed, a starveling realm was their cause of battle, and while they dispute which of the two shall plough scant dearcase's squalid fields, or
16:23 Liv Albert? boast himself on the Tyrian exiles lowly throne, the laws of gods and men are broken, righteousness perishes, and honour both in life and death.
16:36 Liv Albert? Alas, unhappy ones, what limits set you to your wrath? What if it were the sky's farthest bounds you dared so impiously? Whereon the sun looks when he issues from the eastern gate, and when he sinks into his Iberian haven, or the lands he touches from afar with slanting devious rays? Lands that the north wind freezes, or the moist south warms with fiery breath? No, even though the wealth of Phrygia and Tir were gathered as the prize, a land of horror and a city God accursed sufficed to rouse your hatred, and hell's madness was the price of sitting in the seat of Oedipus.
17:23 Liv Albert? And now, by the losing of the hazard, Polymikes saw his reign deferred. How proud a day for you, fierce tyrant, when alone and unchallenged in your palace you did look and behold all power yours, all other men your subjects, and never a head but bowed beneath the sway? Yet already murmurs are creeping around the Aeconian folk. The people is a silent variance with its prince, and, as is the want of a crowd, it is the claimant that they love. And one among them, whose chief thought it was to hurt by mean and venomous speech, and never to bear the yoke of rulers with submissive neck, said,
18:07 Liv Albert? "Is this the lot that the hard fates have appointed for our Argogian land, so often to change those whom we must fear, and to give uncertain allegiance to an alternate sway?"
18:22 Liv Albert? From hand to hand they tossed the destinies of peoples, and of their own accord make fortune fickle. Am I always to serve princes that take their turn of exile? Is this your will and purpose for your kindred realm, great lord of heaven and earth? Does the ancient augury still have power for Thebes, since Cadmus, bid in search in vain for the Carpathian sea, for the winsome burden of the Sidonian bull, found an exile's home in the Hyentian fields, and in the gaping of the pregnant earth bequeathed the warfare of brethren as an omen to his posterity forever?
19:05 Liv Albert? See how the tyrant, rid of his colleague, rises, erect, more fiercely threatening under cruel brows. What terror in his look, how overbearing his pride, will this man ever stoop to subject rank? But the other was gentle to our prayers, affable of speech, and more patient of the right. What wonder, he was not alone, a worthless crowd indeed are we, ready for every chance, at the bidding of every lord, whosoever he be. As the sails yield to the cold north wind on this side, and to the cloudy east wind on that, and the vessel's fate hangs wavering.
19:45 Liv Albert? Alas, for the cruel, intolerable lot of peoples, racked by doubt and fear, so now one commands and the other threatens.
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22:06 Liv Albert? But now by Jove's command, the high court and chosen council of the gods had assembled in the spacious halls of the revolving sphere in heavens in most depths. Equally removed from hence is the whole world's extent. The abodes of east and west and earth and sea outspread beneath the infinite sky. Loftily through their midst moves the king himself, making all tremble. Yet with countenance serene and takes his seat on the starry throne. Nor dare they sit, the heavenly ones, until the father himself with tranquil hand permit them. Next, a crowd of wandering demigods and rivers of one kin with the high clouds
22:51 Liv Albert? and winds their clamors hushed by fear throng the golden halls. The arching vaults of heaven are all agleam with majesty. The heights glow with the fuller radiance and a light that is not of earth blooms upon the portals. When quiet was commanded and heaven's orb fell silent. He began from his lofty throne. The sacred words of authority and power immutable and destiny waits upon his voice.
23:23 Liv Albert? Of earth's transgressions I complain, and of man's mind that no avenging powers can satiate. Am I ever to be spent in punishing the wicked? I am weary of venting my anger with the flashing brand. Long since are the busy arms of the cyclops failing, And the fires droop that serving Aeolian anvils. Yes, I had suffered the sun's steeds to run free of their false driver, And heaven to be burned with their straying wheels, And earth to be foul with the ashes that once were faithon. Yet not availed it, Nor that you, brother,
24:03 Liv Albert? Did with your strong spear send the sea flooding wide over the forbidden land. Now am I descending in punishment on two houses, Whereof I am myself progenitor. The one branches from the stem of Percy and Argos, The other flows from its source to Aeonian Thebes. In all the implanted character abides, Who knows not Cadmus's bloodshed in the array of warring furies, So often summoned from the depths of hell? The mother's unhallowed joys and frenzies ranging of the forests, And the reproaches of gods that must be veiled in silence. Scarcely would the period of day or passing night avail me
24:47 Liv Albert? To recount the impious doings of the race? No, this unnatural heir has ever ventured to climb his father's couch And defile the womb of his innocent mother. Returning, oh horror, to his own life's origin, Yet he has made atonement everlasting to the gods above, Casting forth from himself the light of day, Nor any more feeds upon the air of heaven, But his sons, a deed unspeakable, trampled on his eyes as they fell. Now, now are their prayers fulfilled, terrible old man! Deserving are you, yes, deserving in your blindness, To hope for Jove as your avenger. New strife will
25:32 Liv Albert? I send upon the guilty realm and uproot the whole stalk of the deadly race. Let the gift of Adrastus's daughter and her ill-omned nuptials furnish me with the seeds of war. This race too I am resolved to scourge with punishment, for never hath the deceit of Tantalus, nor the crime of the pitiless banquet, been forgotten in the secret counsels of my heart.
25:59 Liv Albert? So spoke the almighty sire, but wounded by his words and nursing sudden wrath in a heart of flame, Juno thus makes answer: "It is I then, just of the gods, I whom you bid to engage in war; for you know how I ever give aid of men and might to the cyclopean towers, and the far-famed scepter of great Pheronius, although there you did ruthlessly cast on sleep and slay the guardian of the pharian heifer. Yes, and do enter barred turrets in a shower of gold. Concealed armors, I pardon you. That city I hate where you go undisguised,
26:41 Liv Albert? where you did sound the thunders that proclaim our high union, and wield the lightnings that are mine. Let thieves atone her crimes. Why do you choose Argos as her foe? No, if such discord has seized our holy marriage-chamber, go! Raise Sparta to the ground. Bring war's destruction on Samos and old Mycenae. Why anywhere is the altar of your spouse made warm by sacrificial blood, or fragrant with heaps of eastern incense? Sweeter is the smoke that rises from the votive shrines of Marioticoptos, or from the wailing crowds and brazen gongs of River Nile.
27:25 Liv Albert? But if it is evil deed of former men that mankind now does expiate, and this resolve has come so late to minister to your wrath, to cast back your gaze through days of old, at what far stage of time does it suffice to drive away earth's madness and purge the backward-reaching ages?
27:50 Liv Albert? Choose straightway that spot for your beginning, where Alpheus followed afar, the track of his Sicanian love glides by the sea with wandering wave. Here on accursed ground the Arcadians set you a shrine, yet it shames you not. Here is Enochaius's chariot of war, and the steeds more fitly stalled beneath Gedikhymas. Nay, even yet the severed heads and mangled corpses of the suitors lie stark and unburied. Yet have you here the welcome honors of a temple, yes, and guilty Ida, please you, and Crete that tells falsely of your death? Why did you grudge me then to abide in my Tentalian land?
28:35 Liv Albert? Turn hence the tumult of war and have compassion on your own blood. Many a wide and wicked realm have you, that can better suffer the crimes of offending sons.
28:49 Liv Albert? Juno had finished her mingled entreaty and reproach, but he made reply not in hard words, though cruel was its purport. In truth I deemed not that you would bear with favoring mind at all, that I might devise, albeit justly against your Argos, nor does it escape me that, did occasion grant, Bacchus and Dion would dare to make long pleading on Thebes's behalf. But reverence for my authority forbids, for by those awful waters, my brother's stygian stream, I swear, an oath abiding and irrevocable, that naught will make me waver from my word.
29:30 Liv Albert? Wherefore, my Calenian, in winged speed outstrip the winds that bear you, and gliding through the limpid air down to the dusky realms, tell this message to your uncle: Let old Laius betake himself to the world above, Laius, whom his sons blow bereft of life, and whom by the law of Erebus profound the further bank of Lethae has not received. Let him bear my commands to his ha- grateful grandson, his brother to whom exile has brought confidence and his argive friendship boastful pride. Let him in despite of kin keep far from his walls, as already
30:12 Liv Albert? he does well desire, and deny him the alternate honour of the crown. So will angry deeds be begotten, and the rest will I lead on in order due. Obedient to his father's word, the grandson of Atlas, straightway fastens on his ankles the winged sandals, and with wide hat veils his locks and tempers the brilliance of the stars. Then he took in his right hand the wand wherewith he was wont to dispel or call again sweet slumber, wherewith to enter the gates of gloomy Tartarus, or summon back dead souls to life. Then down he leapt and shuddered as the frail air received him. Delaying not,
30:55 Liv Albert? he wings his speedy flight through the void on high, and draws a mighty curve upon the clouds. Meanwhile the son of Oedipus, long time a wandering outlaw from his father's lands, traverses by stealth the waste places of Ionia. Already he broods on the lost realm that was his due, and cries that the long year stands motionless in its tardy constellations. One thought recurring night and day holds him, could he ever but behold his kinsmen degraded from the throne, and himself master of Thebes and all its power? A lifetime would be bargain
31:36 Liv Albert? for that day. Now he complains that his exile is but time consumed in idleness. But soon the gust of princely pride swells high, and he fancies his brother already cast down, and himself seated proudly in his place. Fretful hope keeps his mind busy, and in far-reaching prayers he tastes all his heart's desire. Then he resolves to journey undismade to the Inachian cities, and danian lands into Mycenae, dark with the sun's withdrawal.
32:10 Liv Albert? Whether it were the fury piloting his steps, or the chance direction of the road, or the summoning of resistless fate, he leaves the Oggigian-like glades that resound with frenzied howlings, and the hills that drink deep of bacchic gore; then passes the region where Long Kytheron settles gently to the plain and stoops his weary height to the sea. Thereafter, with dizzy climb along a rocky path, he puts behind him Skirons infamous cliffs, and Skilla's country, where the purple monarch ruled, and kindly Corinth, and in the midmost plain hears two shores resound.
32:53 Liv Albert? But now, through the wide domains which Phoebus, his day's work ended, had left bare, rose the Titanian queen, borne upward through a silent world, and with her dewy chariot cooled and rarified the air. Now birds and beasts are hushed, and sleep steals over the greedy cares of men, and stoops and beckons from the sky, shrouding a toilsome life once more in sweet oblivion. Yet no reddening clouds gave promise of the light's return, nor, as the shadows lessened, did the twilight gleam with long shafts of sun reflecting radiance.
33:35 Liv Albert? Black night, blacker to earthward and shot by never a ray, veiled all the pole; and now the rocky prisons of Eolia are smitten and groan, and the coming storm threatens with hoarse bellowing. The winds loud clamoring meet in conflicting currents, and fling loose heaven's vault from its fastened hinges, while each strives for mastery of the sky. But Oster, most violent, thickens gloom on gloom with whirling eddies of darkness, and pours down rain which keen Boreas with his freezing breath hardens into hail. Quivering lightnings gleam, and from the colliding air bursts sudden fire.
34:24 Liv Albert? Already Nymia and the high peaks of Arcadia that border the forests of Tyneuron are drenched. Anakis flows in mighty spate, and Erasinus swelling high into icy billows. Streams that before were dusty road-tracks now defy all stay of confining bank. Lerna surges up from her deepest depths and foams with her ancient poison. Shattered are the forests, aged boughs are swept out upon the storm, and the shady summer haunts of Lycias, unbeheld before by any suns, are now stripped bare to view.
35:06 Liv Albert? Yet he, now marveling at the rocks down-hurled from the Cloven Mountains, now listening in terror to the cloud-born torrents dashing from the hills, and the raging flood whirling away home of shepherd and stall of beast, slackens not his pace, though distraught and uncertain of his way, but through the dark silences devours the lonely stretches of his road, and on every side fear and the thought of his brother assail his heart. And just as a sailor, caught in the tempest on the deep, to whom neither lazy wane nor moon with friendly beam show bearings,
35:49 Liv Albert? stands beggared of resource in mid tumult of sky and sea, and even now expects the treacherous reef submerged beneath the waves, or waits to see foaming jagged rocks fling themselves at his prow and heave it high in air. So the Cadmian hero threads the darkness of the forests with hastening step, while with huge shield he braves the lairs of fearsome beasts and forward stooping thrusts through the brushwood thickets. Terror's somber influence adds spurs to his resolve, till from above the town of Anakis, conquering the gloom with beam of light down-poured upon the shelving walls, shone forth the Lyrissian height.
36:37 Liv Albert? There, sped by every hope, he hides him fast, With Juno's temple of Prosimna, High on his left hand, And yonder the black marsh of Lerna's water, Branded by Herculean fire. And at length, the gates are opened, and he enters. Straightway he spies the royal portals. There, he flings down his limbs, Stiffened with rain and wind, And leaning against the unknown palace doors, Wooze gently slumber to his hard couch.
37:10 Liv Albert? There, King Adrastus, verging now toward old age From life's mid-course, Ruled his folk in tranquil governance, Rich in the wealth of ancestry, And on either side tracing his line to Jove. Issue lacked he of the stronger sex, But was prosperous in female offspring. Two daughters gave him pledge of love and service. To him at Phoebus at fate's bidding Told that sons-in-law drew nigh. A deadly horror to tell. Yet soon was the truth made manifest In the shapes of bristly swine and tawny lion. Not comprehends the father therein For all his ponderings, Nor you, wise Amphiarus,
37:55 Liv Albert? For your master Apollo forbids. Only the father's heart Sickens ever deep-felt anxiety.
38:05 Liv Albert? But lo, Olenian Tydeus, Leaving ancient Caledon by fate's decree, The guilty terror of a brother's blood Drives him forth, Treads beneath night's slumberous veil The same wild ways, Bewailing likewise wind and rain, And with ice sheeted back, And face and hair streaming with the storm, Comes to the selfsame shelter, Whereof the former stranger, Stretched on the cold earth had part.
38:37 Liv Albert? Thereat so chanced it that both were seiz'd with bloody rage, And suffered not a shared roof to ward off the night. For awhile they tarry with the exchange of threatening words, Then, when flung taunts had swell'd their anger to the pitch, Each uprose, set free his shoulders, and challenged to naked combat. Taller the Theban with long stride and towering limbs and in life's prime, Yet was Tideus in strength and spirit no whit the less, And though his frame was smaller, greater in valor in every part held sway. Then, closing fiercely, they deal many a blow on face and temple,
39:18 Liv Albert? Like showers of darts or ripi and hail, and with bent knee belabor hollow loins. Even as when the fifth year brings back his festival to the Pisian thunderer, And all is dust and heat and the crude sweat of men, While yonder the rival favors the crowd urge on the youthful striplings, And mothers excluded from the scene await the prizes of their sons. So these with but hate to spur them, and inflamed by no lust of praise, fall on, And the sharp nails probe far into their faces, And force their way into the yielding eyes.
39:57 Liv Albert? Perchance, so hot their anger, they had bared the sword's girt to their sides, And you had slain, o Theban youth, the victim of a foe man's arms. Far better so, and earned a brother's meed of tears, Had not the king, marveling at the night's unwonted show of clamor, And the fierce panting groans, deep heaved, bent his steps thither. Age and the burden of grave cares held him now in broken, fitful slumber. And when proceeding through the high halls with attendant train of torches, He beheld the bars undone.
40:36 Liv Albert? Upon the fronting threshold a sight terrible to tell, Faces torn and cheeks disfigured with smearing blood. Whence this fury stranger youths, he cried, For no citizen of mine would dare such violence as this, When this implacable desire to let your hate Disturb the tranquil silence of the night. Has the day so little room, or is it grievous to suffer, Even for a while sleep and peace of mind? But now come tell me, from where are you sprung? Where do you fare, and what may be your quarrel? Mean of soul you cannot be, such anger proves it, Even through bloodshed, the noble signs of proud race show clear.
41:21 Liv Albert? Scare had he spoken, when with mingled clamor And sidelong glance together they begin. Akaien prince, most gracious monarch, what need of words? You see yourself this face, all bloody. Their words are lost in the confused sound of bitter accents. Then Tydeus, taking first place of speech thus recounts his tale. Desiring solace, for my unhappy lot I left The wealth of Caledon, nurse of monsters, And the Akallorian fields, and lo, in your boundaries Deepest night overtakes me. Who was he to forbid me shelter from the sky?
42:04 Liv Albert? Or was it because he won his way first to this threshold? But twy form centaurs stall with each other, so it is said, And cyclops have peace together beneath Aetna. Nay, even to wild monsters, nature has given laws And their own rule of right. And for us to share a lodging on the ground? But why waste words? Either you, whosoever you are, shall to-day depart Rejoicing in my spoils, or, If rising pain dulls not my blood, You shall know me to be of mighty Aeneas's stock, And no degenerate scion of my forefather Mars. Nor lack I spirit or race, returns the other, But conscious in his heart of ruthless fate
42:48 Liv Albert? He hesitates to name his father.
42:52 Liv Albert? Then kindly addressed us, Now, come now, Cease the threatening words which night or sudden wrath or valor prompted, And pass beneath my palace roof. Now let your hands be joined to pledge your hearts, These doings have not been vain nor without the sanctions of the powers above. Perchance even these angry quarrels do but foreshadow a friendship to come, So that you may have pleasure in remembrance. Nor were the old man's words an empty presage, For they say that from their comradeship in wounds grew such loyalty As Theseus showed when he shared extremist peril
43:35 Liv Albert? With wanton Pyrrhus or Pilates, When he rescued distraught Orestes from the fury of Magira. So then, yielding their savage hearts to the king's soothing words, Even as waters that winds have made their battleground sink to rest, And yet on the drooping sails one surviving breath is long in dying, Even so submissive, they entered the palace. Here first he has leisure to let his glance pass over the hero's dress and mighty weapons. On Polynices' back he spies a lion flayed, all wrought with uncombed mane, Liked that one which, in the Tumessian glades,
44:20 Liv Albert? Amphitrion sun laid low in his boyish years, And clothed himself withal before the battle with the monster of Cleonae. Tydeus' broad shoulders, the proud spoils of Caledon, Grim with bristles and curved fangs strive to unfold. Agast and motionless stands the old king at so dire an omen, Calling to mind the divine oracles of Phoebus, And the warning uttered from the inspired cell. His countenance is fixed in frozen silence, While through his limbs ran a thrill of joy. He felt that they had come, led by heaven's clear prompting, Whom prophetic a-
45:01 Liv Albert? Hollow in riddling obscurities had foreshone to be his destined sons-in-law, under the feigned guise of beasts. Then, stretching forth his hands to the stars, "O night!" he cries, "Who castest your mantle over toiling earth and heaven, and sends the fiery stars on their divers roaming course? Gracious refresher of the mind, till the next sun shed blithe, upspringing upon faint mortality. You, kindly knight, do bring me of your bounty assurance long sought in perplexity and doubt, and do reveal the ancient purposes of fate.
45:43 Liv Albert? Aid now my work and certify the omens you have given. Ever shall this house throughout the circling periods of the year hold you high in honor and in worship. Black bulls of chosen beauty shall pay your sacrifice, oh goddess, and Vulcan's fire shall eat the lustral entrails wherever the new milk streams. Hail, ancient truth of mystic tripod, hail, secret grotto, I have found, oh fortune, that the gods are gods indeed."
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47:51 Liv Albert? So saying and joining arms with both, he goes forward to the inner chamber of his dwelling. Even yet, the fires slumbered on the gray ashes of the altars, and the poured offerings of the sacrifice were yet warm. He bids the flames again be roused and the late banquet renewed. His henchmen obey his words in emulous haste. Manifold tumult echoes throughout the palace. Some array the couches with delicate purple and rustling embroidery of gold, and pile the cushions high. Some polish smooth and place in order the tables. Others again set about to banish the darkness of gloomy night by stretching chains for gilded lanterns.
48:36 Liv Albert? These have the task of roasting on a spit's point the bloodless flesh of slain beasts, those of crushing gain on a stone and heaping the bread in baskets. Adrastus rejoices to see his house aglow with obedient service.
48:54 Liv Albert? And now he himself, raised high on the proud cushions, an ivory throne, shone resplendent. Elsewhere, the youths reclined, their wounds healed with cleansing water, and beholding each other's scarred visages bare mutual forgiveness. Then the aged king bids a casti be summoned, his daughter's nurse and trusty guardian, chosen to keep ward on maiden modesty, consecrated to lawful wedlock, and murmurs in her silent ear. She stayed, not upon his bidding, but straightway both maidens came forth from their secret bower, in countenance, marvelous to tell, like to quiver-bearing Diana and warrior Pallas,
49:38 Liv Albert? yet without their terror, they spy the new faces of the heroes and are shamed. Palar at once, and blushes made havoc of their bright cheeks, and their timorous eyes resought their reverend sire. When in the banquet's coarse hunger was quelled, the son of Iasus, as his custom was, bade his thralls bring a goblet fair wrought with figures and shining with gold, wherefrom both Danaus and elder Pheronius were wont to pour libations to the gods. Thereon was embossed work of images, all golden, a winged youth holds the snake-tressed Gorgon's severed head,
50:21 Liv Albert? and even upon the moment, so it seems, leaps up into the wandering breeze. She almost moves her heavy eyes and drooping head, and ever
50:34 Liv Albert? and even grows pale in the living gold. Here the Phrygian hunter is borne aloft on tawny wings, Gargara's range sinks downwards as he rises, and Troy grows dim beneath him. Sadly stand his comrades, in vain the hounds weary their throats with barking and pursue his shadow, or bay at the clouds. From this he pours the streaming wine, and in order due calls on all denizens of heaven. Phoebus, before the rest, Phoebus's presence all invoke with praise, garlanded with reverent myrtle, friend and thrall alike about his altar, for in his honour they make holiday,
51:18 Liv Albert? and the altars, refreshed by lavish incense, glow through wreaths of smoke.
51:26 Liv Albert? Perchance you may inquire, O youths, thus says the monarch, what means this sacrifice, and for what reason we pay Phoebus signal honour? Urged by no ignorant fear, but under stress of dire calamity, the argive folk aforetime made this offering. Land me your hearing, and I will recount the tale, when that the god had smitten the dark and sinuous coiling monster, the earth-born Pytho, who cast about Delphi his seven-fold grisly circles, and with his scales ground the ancient oaks to powder. Even while sprawling by Castalia's fountain, he gaped,
52:08 Liv Albert? with three-tongued mouth a thirst to feed his deadly venom. When having spent his shafts on numberless wounds, he left him, scarce fully stretched in death over a hundred acres of Kyrian soil. Then, seeking fresh
52:27 Liv Albert? then, seeking fresh expiation of the dead, he came to the humble dwelling of our king, Crotopus.
52:37 Liv Albert? A daughter, in the first years of tender maidenhood and wondrous fare, kept this pious home, a virgin chaste. How happy had she never kept secret tryst with the Delian, or shared a stolen love with Phoebus, for she suffered the violence of the god by Nemia's stream, and when Cynthia had twice, five times gathered her circle's visage to the full, she brought forth a child, Latona's grandson, bright as a star. Then, fearing punishment for her father would never have pardoned a forced wedlock, she chose the pathless wilds, and stealthily among the sheep pens gave her child to a mountain-wandering guardian of the flock for nurture.
53:22 Liv Albert? No cradle worthy of a birth so noble, hapless infant, did your grassy bed afford you, or your woven home of oaken twigs? Enclosed in the fiber of our beutus bark, your limbs are warm, and a hollow pipe coaxes you to gentle slumbers, while the flock shares your sleeping ground. But not even such a home did the fates permit, for, as he lay careless and drinking in the day with open mouth, fierce, ravening dogs mangled the babe and took their fill with bloody jaws. But when the tidings reached, the mother's horror struck ears, father and shame and fear were all forgot.
54:04 Liv Albert? Herself straightway she fills the house with wild lamentation, all distraught, and bearing her breast meets her father with her tale of grief. Nor is he moved, but bids her, oh, horrible, even as she desires, suffer grim death!
54:25 Liv Albert? Too late remembering your union, oh Phoebus, you do devise a solace for her miserable fate! A monster conceived beneath lowest Asheron in the Furies' unhallowed lair, a maiden's face and bosom has she from her head, and ever hissing snake rises erect, parting into her livid brow; then that foul pest gliding at night with unseen movement into the chambers, tore from the breasts that suckled them lives newly born, and with blood-stained fangs gorged and fattened on the country's grief. But Corribus, foremost in prowess of arms and high courage, brook'd it not,
55:08 Liv Albert? and with chosen youths unsurpassed in valor and ready at life's hazard to enlarge their fame, went forth, a willing champion.
55:18 Liv Albert? From dwellings newly ravaged she was going, wherein the gateway two roads meet, The corpses of two little ones hung at her sides, And still her hooked talons claw their vitals, And the iron nails are warm in their young hearts. Thronged by his band of heroes, the youth rushed to the attack, And buried his broad blade in her cruel breast, And with flashing steel probing deep the spirits lurking place, At length restored to nether jove his monstrous offspring. But what joy to go and see at close hand those eyes livid in death, The ghastly issue of her womb, And her breasts clotted with foul corruption,
56:03 Liv Albert? Whereby our young lives perished. Appalled stand the Anakian youth and their gladness, Though great now sorrow is ended, Even yet is dim and pale. With sharp stakes they mangle the dead limbs, Vain solace for their grief, And beat out the jagged grinding teeth from her jaws. They can, yet cannot glut their ire: "Hear did you flee, unfed, you birds, Wheeling round with nocturnal clamor, And ravening dogs, they say, And wolves in terror upon her, dry-mouthed." But against the unhappy youths the Delian rises up,
56:45 Liv Albert? Fierce at the doom of his slain avengeress. And seated on the shady top of twin-peaked Parnassus, With relentless bow he cruelly scatters shafts That bring pestilence, And withers beneath a misty shroud The fields and dwellings of the Cyclops. Pleasant lives droop and fail, Death with his sword cuts through the sisters' threads, And hurries the stricken city to the shades. Our leader then inquiring what the cause may be, What is this baleful fire from heaven? Why Sirius reigns throughout the whole year, The word of the same god Pan Brings command
57:28 Liv Albert? To sacrifice to the blood-stained monster Those youths that caused her death.
57:35 Liv Albert? O valor, heaven blessed, o worth that will merit a long age of fame! No base craven you to hide your devoted deed, or shun in fear a certain death. Unabashed he stood on the threshold of Kira's temple, and with these words gives fierce utterance to his sacred rage. Not sent by any nor suppliant oath in Brian do I approach your shrine; duly and consciousness of right have turned my steps this way. I am he, o Phoebus, who'd laid low your deadly scourge; I am he whom you, ruthless one, do seek out by poison cloud, in the light of day defiled, and the black corruption of
58:20 Liv Albert? a baleful heaven. But even if raging monsters be so dear to the gods above, and the destruction of men a cheaper loss to the world, and heaven be so stern and pitiless, in what have the Argive sinned? My life, my life alone most righteous of the gods, should be offered to the fates? Or is it more soothing to your heart that you see homesteads desolate, and the countryside lit up by the burning roofs of husbands' men? But why, by speaking do I delay the weapons of your might? Our mothers are waiting, and the last prayers for me are being uttered. Enough, I have deserved that you should be merciless.
59:04 Liv Albert? Bring then your quiver, and stretch your resounding bow, and send a noble soul to death. But, even while I die dispel the gathered mist that form on high hangs, pallid over Inachian Argos. Equity has regard for the deserving. Awe of slaughter took hold on Lido's fiery sun, and yielding he grants the hero the sad boon of life. The deadly clouds fly scattering from our heaven, while you, your prayer heard, depart from marveling Phoebus's door.
59:40 Liv Albert? Thenceforward do we in solemn banquet yearly renew the appointed sacrifice, and placate the shrine of Phoebus in recurring festival. Of what stock come you, whom chance has led to these our altars? Though if but now my ears did rightly catch your outcry, Aeneas of Caledon is your sire, and your lordship of Parthonia's house. But you, do you reveal who you are that comes thus to Argos, since now the hour permits of varied discourse?
1:00:16 Liv Albert? Straightway did the Ismenian hero bend his sad looks to earth, and cast an injured Tydeus a silent sidelong glance. Then after a long pause he spoke: "Not at these honors paid to heaven is it meet to ask me of my birth, or land, or ancient descent of blood; hard is it to confess the truth amid the holy rites, but if your wish is urgent to know my unhappy tale: Cadmus was the ancestor of my sires, my land Mavorian Thebes, my mother is Jocasta." Then Adrastus moved to friendly compassion, for he recognized him, said:
1:01:00 Liv Albert? "Why hide, what all have heard? This know we, nor does fame journey so distant from Mycenae. Yes, of that rain and the madness in the eyes that knew shame of their seeing even he has heard, who shivers beneath an arctic sun, and he who drinks of Ganges, or sails into the ocean darkening to the west, and they whom the shifting shoreline of the Syrtes fails. Cease to lament, or to recount the woes of your fathers; in our house also has there been many a fall from duty, but past error binds not posterity. Only do you, unlike to them, win by fortune's favor this reward, to redeem your kindred."
1:01:43 Liv Albert? And now the frosty waggoner of the Hyperborean bear droops languidly, with backward slanding pole: "Pour your wine upon the altar-hards, and chant we our prayer, again and yet again, Toledo's son, the savior of our fathers."
1:02:00 Liv Albert? Phoebus, father, whether the copses of Patar and Lysia's snowy uplands keep you busy, or you delight in to bathe your golden hair in Castalia's pure dew, or whether, as Thimbra's lord, you dwell in Troy, where they say you did willingly bear on thankless shoulders blocks of Phrygian stone, or whether Latoni and Kynthas pleases you, casting his shadow on the Aegean wave and Delos, settled sure in the deep, nor needling now your search. Yours are the arrows and the bending of bows against the savage enemy afar. To you did celestial parents grant the cheek's eternal bloom.
1:02:44 Liv Albert? You are skilled to foreknow fate's cruel handiwork and the destiny that lies beyond, and high Jove's pleasure to what people's pestilence comes or wars, what change of scepters comets bring. You make the Phrygian subject to your lyre, and for your mother's honor do stretch the earth-born Titius on the stygian sands. You, the green python and the Theban mother horror-struck, beheld triumphant with your quiver. To avenge you grim Magera holds fast the starving Phlegethus, who lies ever pressed beneath cavernous rocks and tortures him with the unholy feast,
1:03:28 Liv Albert? but mingled loathing defeats his hunger. Be you present to our succour, mindful of our hospitality, and shed on the fields of Juno the blessings of your love. Whether it is right to call you rosy titan in the fashion of the Echimenean race, or Osiris, bringer of the harvest, or Mithras that beneath the rocky Persean cave strains at the reluctant following horns.
1:04:10 Liv Albert? Oh nerds, as always, thank you so much for listening. I am pumped to have a new reading series to dive into and one that features my favorite ancient city, where so many wild and tragic shit happens. It's gonna be a wild ride. I'd love to say more, but this is the first time I've recorded an hour straight of talking in ages and my voice is going, so instead, let's talk about Myth Baby, as written and produced by me, Liv Albert. Michaela Pangwais is the Hermes to my Olympians, the producer. Select music by Luke Chaos. Listen on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Find ad-free the new Hermes Historia series and so much more by subscribing to the Oracle Edition, the Let's Talk About Myth Baby Patreon. It's new and exciting, it's thrilling. Find a link in this episode's description. And sign up for the show's newsletter, which
1:04:55 Liv Albert? I promise will exist somewhat regularly, at mythsbaby.com/newsletter. I am Liv, and I love this shit very much.
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