Dialogues of the Gods

Perseus Greek · Perseus Greek · 152 sections

11.1.4
Very much so, my good fellow. That’s why he’s sent her to Egypt, and told us he doesn’t want any rough seas, until she swims across, so that, when she has her baby there—she’s expecting at the moment—both mother and child may become gods.
11.2.1
The heifer a god?
11.2.2
Indeed she will be. According to Hermes, she’ll have power over those at sea and be our mistress, choosing for herself which of us to send out or to stop from blowing.
11.2.3
In that case we’d better be attentive to her, if she’s now our mistress. Then we’ll be sure of her good-will.
11.2.4
But look, she’s over now, and has swum ashore. See how she no longer walks on all fours, but has been straightened up by Hermes and changed back again into a most attractive woman.
11.2.5
How very strange, Zephyrus. No horns now, or tail or cloven hooves, but instead a lovely girl. But what’s come over Hermes, that he’s changed himself and given up his own fine face for that of a dog ?
11.2.6
Let’s not be inquisitive. He knows his business better than we do.
12.1.1
Why are you crying, Thetis?
12.1.2
Oh, Doris, I’ve just seen a lovely girl put into a box by her father along with her newborn baby. He told his sailors to take the box and, when well away from land, to drop it into the sea, so that the mother should be killed, poor thing, herself and her baby.
12.1.3
Why, sister? Please tell me, if you have any definite information.
12.1.4
I have the whole story. Because she was ever so beautiful, her father Acrisius locked her up in a brazen room to keep her away from lovers. Then—I can’t say whether it’s true but it’s what they say—Zeus turned himself into gold and came pouring through the roof at her, and she received the god in her bosom as he came showering down, and became pregnant. When her father found out, the cruel, jealous old creature flew into a temper and, thinking she’d had a lover, threw her into the box just after her baby was born.
12.2.1
And what did she do, Thetis, when they were putting her there?
12.2.2
She kept quiet about herself, submitting to her sentence, but she kept pleading for her child’s life, weeping and showing it to its grandad, for it was a lovely baby. And it, unaware of its troubles, was looking at the sea with a smile on its face. Remembering them brings tears again to my eyes.
12.2.3
You’ve made me weep, too. But are they dead now?
12.2.4
Oh, no! The box is still floating round Seriphos, and keeping them alive and safe.
12.2.5
Well, why don’t we save them by bringing them into the nets of these fishermen here from Seriphos? They’ll be sure to pull them up and save them.
12.2.6
A good idea, let’s do that. I wouldn’t like the mother to die, or the baby either. It’s so pretty.
13.1.1
I won’t mince words, Poseidon. Your behaviour’s been disgraceful—tricking my sweetheart by impersonating me, and leading the child astray. She thought I was doing it and submitted.
13.1.2
You were so proud and so slow, Enipeus. A pretty girl like that came to you every day, dying of love, and you wouldn’t look at her, but enjoyed tormenting her! She would wander about your banks, putting her feet in and washing sometimes, praying for your love, but you always turned up your nose at her.
13.2.1
Even if I did, what right had you to forestall me and steal her love, pretending to be Enipeus rather than Poseidon, and winning a simple girl like Tyro by a trick?
13.2.2
It’s too late to be jealous now, Enipeus. You despised her before. Tyro’s suffered no harm. She thought it was you.
13.2.3
Oh, no! When you left her, you said you were Poseidon, and that upset her very much. It was unfair to me, too, for you to enjoy pleasures that should be mine, making a blue wave arch above you and hide you both, and making love to the girl in my place.
13.2.4
Yes, but only because you didn’t want her, Enipeus.
14.1.1
Your monster of the deep, my dear Nereids, the one of you sent against Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus, didn’t harm the girl, as you’ve been thinking it would, but is now dead itself.
14.1.2
Who killed it, Triton? Did Cepheus set the girl there like a bait, and then attack and kill it, after lying in wait for it with a large force?
14.1.3
No. But I imagine, Iphianassa, you all know what happened to Perseus, Danae’s child, whom his mother’s father threw into the sea in a chest with his mother, and you saved out out of pity.
14.1.4
I know whom you mean. He must be a young man by now, and a very fine handsome fellow.
14.1.5
It was he who killed the monster.
14.1.6
Why, Triton? He shouldn’t have paid us in this coin for saving him.
14.2.1
I’ll tell you everything, just as it happened. He was sent against the Gorgons, to carry out a task for the king. But when he reached Libya—
14.2.2
How did he do it, Triton? By himself? Did he take others to help him? Otherwise it’s a difficult journey.
14.2.3
He went through the air. Athena had given him wings on his feet. Well, when he’d reached where they lived, they must all have been asleep, and Perseus cut off Medusa’s head and flew away.
14.2.4
How could he see? They are not for the eye to behold. Anyone who sees them won’t see anything afterwards.
14.2.5
Athena held up her shield—I heard him describe it to Andromeda and later to Cepheus—and let him see the reflection of Medusa on that bright shield as though on a mirror; then, looking at the reflection, he caught her hair in his left hand, and holding his scimitar in his right, cut off her head, and flew away before her sisters woke up.
14.3.1
When he was at the Ethiopian shore here, and now flying low, he saw Andromeda lying fastened to a projecting rock—ye gods, what a beautiful sight she was!—with her hair let down, but largely uncovered from the breasts downwards. At first he pitied her fate and asked the reason for her punishment, but little by little he succumbed to love, and decided to help, since she had to be saved. So when the monster came—a fearsome sight it was too!—to gulp her down, the young man hovered above it with his scimitar unsheathed, and, striking with one hand, showed it the Gorgon with the other, and turned it into stone. At one and the same time was the monster killed, and most of it, all of it that faced Medusa, petrified. Then Perseus undid the maiden’s chains, and supported her with his hand as she tip-toed down from the slippery rock. Now he’s marrying her in Cepheus’ palace and will take her away to Argos, so that, instead of dying, she’s come by an uncommonly good marriage.
14.4.1
I, for one, am not sorry to hear it. What harm did the girl do to us, if her mother was always boasting and claiming to be more beautiful than we are?
14.4.2
Well that way as a mother she would have suffered through her daughter.
14.4.3
Let’s forget all that, Doris, if a barbarian woman’s talk has been too big. She’s paid us penalty enough by being frightened for her daughter. So let’s accept the marriage with a good grace.
15.1.1
I’ve never seen a more magnificent pageant on the sea, ever since I began to live and blow. Didn’t you see it, Notus?
15.1.2
What pageant do you mean, Zephyrus? Who were in it?
15.1.3
You missed a most delightful spectacle, the like of which you’ll never see again.
15.1.4
Well, I was at work about the Red Sea, and I blew also over the parts of India near the coast. So I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.
15.1.5
But you do know Agenor of Sidon?
15.1.6
Yes, Europa’s father. Of course I do.
15.1.7
I’ll tell you something about the girl herself.
15.1.8
Not that Zeus has long been in love with her? I’ve known that for ages.
15.1.9
Well, you may know about his love, but let me now tell you what followed.
15.2.1
Europa in her play had come down to the beach with her companions, and Zeus took the shape of a bull, and started playing with them, looking magnificent, for he was all white with nice curly horns and gentle eyes. Well, he too started skipping about on the beach, and bellowed most charmingly, so that Europa even dared to climb up on to him. Thereupon Zeus galloped off to the sea with her on his back, plunged in and began to swim; she was quite terrified, and clutched his horn with her left hand so as not to slip off, while she held her robe down against the wind with her right hand.
15.3.1
Indeed a delightful spectacle for you, my dear Zephyrus—a real love-scene! Zeus swimming along and carrying off his beloved!
15.3.2
But what followed was far more delightful, Notus. The sea became waveless at once, and draping herself in calm, made herself smooth; we all kept quiet, and followed beside them, just watching what was going on, while the Loves fluttered alongside just above the sea, occasionally just touching the water with their feet, carrying lighted torches, and singing the marriage hymn, and the Nereids, coming to the surface, rode alongside on dolphins, clapping their hands, pretty well half-naked. The Tritons and all other creatures of the sea that do not frighten the eye, were dancing round the girl. Poseidon astride his car, with Amphitrite beside him, was driving in front, delighted to lead the way for his brother as he swam. To cap all, two Tritons were carrying Aphrodite reclining on a shell, and sprinkling all manner of flowers over the bride.
15.4.1
This went on all the way from Phoenicia to Crete; but when he set foot on his island, the bull was no more to be seen, but Zeus took Europa’s hand and led her to the cave on Mount Dicte—blushing she was, and looking on the ground, for now she knew why she was being carried off. But we each assailed a different part of the sea, and stirred up the waves.
15.4.2
How lucky you are, Zephyrus to have seen all that! All I saw was griffins and elephants and black men.

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