Atalanta in Calydon by Algernon Charles Swinburne
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Algernon Charles Swinburne >> Atalanta in Calydon
ATALANTA IN CALYDON
A Tragedy
by
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE
A New Edition
Tous zontas eu dran. katthanon de pas aner Ge kai skia. to meden eis
ouden repei
EUR. _Fr. Mel._ 20 (537).
London:
Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly
Printed by Spottiswoode and Co., New-Street Square and Parliament Street
1885
TO THE MEMORY
OF
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
I NOW DEDICATE, WITH EQUAL AFFECTION, REVERENCE, AND REGRET, A POEM
INSCRIBED TO HIM WHILE YET ALIVE IN WORDS WHICH ARE NOW RETAINED
BECAUSE THEY WERE LAID BEFORE HIM; AND TO WHICH, RATHER THAN CANCEL
THEM, I HAVE ADDED SUCH OTHERS AS WERE EVOKED BY THE NEWS OF HIS DEATH:
THAT THOUGH LOSING THE PLEASURE I MAY NOT LOSE THE HONOUR OF INSCRIBING
IN FRONT OF MY WORK THE HIGHEST OF CONTEMPORARY NAMES.
oixeo de Boreethen apotropos' alla se Numphai
egagon aspasian edupnooi kath' ala,
plerousai melitos theothen stoma, me ti Poseidon
blapsei, en osin exon sen meligerun opa.
toios aoidos ephus: emeis d' eti klaiomen, oi sou
deuometh' oixomenou, kai se pothoumen aei.
eipe de Pieridon tis anastrephtheisa pros allen:
elthen, idou, panton philtatos elthe broton,
stemmata drepsamenos neothelea xersi geraiais,
kai polion daphnais amphekalupse kara, 10
edu ti Sikelikais epi pektisin, edu ti xordais,
aisomenos: pollen gar meteballe luran,
pollaki d' en bessaisi kathemenon euren Apollon,
anthesi d' estepsen, terpna d' edoke legein,
Pana t' aeimneston te Pitun Koruthon te dusedron,
en t' ephilese thean thnetos Amadruada:
pontou d' en megaroisin ekoimise Kumodameian,
ten t' Agamemnonian paid' apedoke patri,
pros d' ierous Delphous theoplekton epempsen Oresten,
teiromenon stugerais entha kai entha theais. 20
oixeo de kai aneuthe philon kai aneuthen aoides,
drepsomenos malakes anthea Persephones.
oixeo: kouk et' esei, kouk au pote soi paredoumai
azomenos, xeiron xersi thigon osiais:
nun d' au mnesamenon glukupikros upeluthen aidos,
oia tuxon oiou pros sethen oios exo:
oupote sois, geron, omma philois philon ommasi terpso,
ses, geron, apsamenos, philtate, dechiteras.
e psaphara konis, e psapharos bios esti: ti touton
meion ephemerion; ou konis alla bios. 10
alla moi eduteros ge peleis polu ton et' eonton,
epleo gar: soi men tauta thanonti phero,
paura men, all' apo keros etetuma: med' apotrephtheis,
pros de balon eti nun esuxon omma dexou.
ou gar exo, mega de ti thelon, sethen achia dounai,
thaptomenou per apon: ou gar enestin emoi:
oude melikretou parexein ganos : ei gar eneie
kai se xeroin psausai kai se pot' authis idein,
dakrusi te spondais te kara philon amphipoleuein
ophthalmous th' ierous sous ieron te demas. 20
eith' ophelon: mala gar tad' an ampauseie merimnes:
nun de prosothen aneu sematos oikton ago:
oud' epitumbidion threno melos, all' apamuntheis,
all' apaneuthen exon amphidakruta pathe.
alla su xaire thanon, kai exon geras isthi pros andron
pros te theon, enerois ei tis epesti theos.
xaire geron, phile xaire pater, polu phertat' aoidon
on idomen, polu de phertat' aeisomenon:
xaire, kai olbon exois, oion ge thanontes exousin,
esuxian exthras kai philotetos ater. 30
sematos oixomenou soi mnemat' es usteron estai,
soi te phile mneme mnematos oixomenou:
on Xarites klaiousi theai, klaiei d' Aphrodite
kallixorois Mouson terpsamene stephanois.
ou gar apach ierous pote geras etripsen aoidous:
tende to son phainei mnema tod' aglaian.
e philos es makaressi brotos, soi d' ei tini Numphai
dora potheina nemein, ustata dor', edosan.
tas nun xalkeos upnos ebe kai anenemos aion,
kai sunthaptomenai moiran exousi mian. 40
eudeis kai su, kalon kai agakluton en xthoni koilei
upnon ephikomenos, ses aponosphi patras,
tele para chanthou Tursenikon oidma katheudeis
namatos, e d' eti se maia se gaia pothei,
all' apexeis, kai prosthe philoptolis on per apeipas:
eude: makar d' emin oud' amegartos esei.
baios epixthonion ge xronos kai moira kratesei,
tous de pot' euphrosune tous de pot' algos exei:
pollaki d' e blaptei phaos e skotos amphikaluptei
muromenous, daknei d' upnos egregorotas: 50
oud' eth' ot' en tumboisi katedrathen omma thanonton
e skotos e ti phaos dechetai eeliou:
oud' onar ennuxion kai enupnion oud' upar estai
e pote terpomenois e pot' oduromenois:
all' ena pantes aei thakon sunexousi kai edran
anti brotes abroton, kallimon anti kakes.
ATALANTA IN CALYDON.
THE PERSONS.
CHIEF HUNTSMAN.
CHORUS.
ALTHAEA.
MELEAGER
OENEUS.
ATALANTA.
TOXEUS.
PLEXIPPUS.
HERALD.
MESSENGER.
SECOND MESSENGER.
isto d' ostis oux upopteros
phrontisin daeis,
tan a paidolumas talaina THestias mesato
purdae tina pronoian,
kataithousa paidos daphoinon
dalon elik', epei molon
matrothen keladese;
summetron te diai biou
moirokranton es amar.
Aesch. Cho. 602-612
THE ARGUMENT.
Althaea, daughter of Thestius and Eurythemis, queen of Calydon, being
with child of Meleager her first-born son, dreamed that she brought
forth a brand burning; and upon his birth came the three Fates and
prophesied of him three things, namely these; that he should have great
strength of his hands, and good fortune in this life, and that he
should live no longer when the brand then in the fire were consumed:
wherefore his mother plucked it forth and kept it by her. And the
child being a man grown sailed with Jason after the fleece of gold, and
won himself great praise of all men living; and when the tribes of the
north and west made war upon Aetolia, he fought against their army and
scattered it. But Artemis, having at the first stirred up these tribes
to war against Oeneus king of Calydon, because he had offered sacrifice
to all the gods saving her alone, but her he had forgotten to honour,
was yet more wroth because of the destruction of this army, and sent
upon the land of Calydon a wild boar which slew many and wasted all
their increase, but him could none slay, and many went against him and
perished. Then were all the chief men of Greece gathered together, and
among them Atalanta daughter of Iasius the Arcadian, a virgin, for
whose sake Artemis let slay the boar, seeing she favoured the maiden
greatly; and Meleager having despatched it gave the spoil thereof to
Atalanta, as one beyond measure enamoured of her; but the brethren of
Althaea his mother, Toxeus and Plexippus, with such others as misliked
that she only should bear off the praise whereas many had borne the
labour, laid wait for her to take away her spoil; but Meleager fought
against them and slew them: whom when Althaea their sister beheld and
knew to be slain of her son, she waxed for wrath and sorrow like as one
mad, and taking the brand whereby the measure of her son's life was
meted to him, she cast it upon a fire; and with the wasting thereof his
life likewise wasted away, that being brought back to his father's
house he died in a brief space, and his mother also endured not long
after for very sorrow; and this was his end, and the end of that
hunting.
ATALANTA IN CALYDON.
CHIEF HUNTSMAN.
Maiden, and mistress of the months and stars
Now folded in the flowerless fields of heaven,
Goddess whom all gods love with threefold heart,
Being treble in thy divided deity,
A light for dead men and dark hours, a foot
Swift on the hills as morning, and a hand
To all things fierce and fleet that roar and range
Mortal, with gentler shafts than snow or sleep;
Hear now and help and lift no violent hand,
But favourable and fair as thine eye's beam
Hidden and shown in heaven, for I all night
Amid the king's hounds and the hunting men
Have wrought and worshipped toward thee; nor shall man
See goodlier hounds or deadlier edge of spears,
But for the end, that lies unreached at yet
Between the hands and on the knees of gods,
O fair-faced sun killing the stars and dews
And dreams and desolation of the night!
Rise up, shine, stretch thine hand out, with thy bow
Touch the most dimmest height of trembling heaven,
And burn and break the dark about thy ways,
Shot through and through with arrows; let thine hair
Lighten as flame above that nameless shell
Which was the moon, and thine eyes fill the world
And thy lips kindle with swift beams; let earth
Laugh, and the long sea fiery from thy feet
Through all the roar and ripple of streaming springs
And foam in reddening flakes and flying flowers
Shaken from hands and blown from lips of nymphs
Whose hair or breast divides the wandering wave
With salt close tresses cleaving lock to lock,
All gold, or shuddering and unfurrowed snow;
And all the winds about thee with their wings,
And fountain-heads of all the watered world;
Each horn of Acheloues, and the green
Euenus, wedded with the straitening sea.
For in fair time thou comest; come also thou,
Twin-born with him, and virgin, Artemis,
And give our spears their spoil, the wild boar's hide.
Sent in thine anger against us for sin done
And bloodless altars without wine or fire.
Him now consume thou; for thy sacrifice
With sanguine-shining steam divides the dawn,
And one, the maiden rose of all thy maids,
Arcadian Atalanta, snowy-souled,
Fair as the snow and footed as the wind,
From Ladon and well-wooded Maenalus
Over the firm hills and the fleeting sea
Hast thou drawn hither, and many an armed king,
Heroes, the crown of men, like gods in fight.
Moreover out of all the Aetolian land,
From the full-flowered Lelantian pasturage
To what of fruitful field the son of Zeus
Won from the roaring river and labouring sea
When the wild god shrank in his horn and fled
And foamed and lessened through his wrathful fords,
Leaving clear lands that steamed with sudden sun,
These virgins with the lightening of the day
Bring thee fresh wreaths and their own sweeter hair,
Luxurious locks and flower-like mixed with flowers,
Clean offering, and chaste hymns; but me the time
Divides from these things; whom do thou not less
Help and give honour, and to mine hounds good speed,
And edge to spears, and luck to each man's hand.
CHORUS.
When the hounds of spring are on winter's traces,
The mother of months in meadow or plain
Fills the shadows and windy places
With lisp of leaves and ripple of rain;
And the brown bright nightingale amorous
Is half assuaged for Itylus,
For the Thracian ships and the foreign faces,
The tongueless vigil, and all the pain.
Come with bows bent and with emptying of quivers.
Maiden most perfect, lady of light,
With a noise of winds and many rivers,
With a clamour of waters, and with might;
Bind on thy sandals, O thou most fleet,
Over the splendour and speed of thy feet;
For the faint east quickens, the wan west shivers,
Round the feet of the day and the feet of the night.
Where shall we find her, how shall we sing to her,
Fold our hands round her knees, and cling?
O that man's heart were as fire and could spring to her,
Fire, or the strength of the streams that spring!
For the stars and the winds are unto her
As raiment, as songs of the harp-player;
For the risen stars and the fallen cling to her,
And the southwest-wind and the west-wind sing.
For winter's rains and ruins are over,
And all the season of snows, and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins.
The full streams feed on flower of rushes,
Ripe grasses trammel a travelling foot,
The faint fresh flame of the young year flushes
From leaf to flower and flower to fruit,
And fruit and leaf are as gold and fire,
And the oat is heard above the lyre,
And the hoofed heel of a satyr crushes
The chestnut-husk at the chestnut-root.
And Pan by noon and Bacchus by night,
Fleeter of foot than the fleet-foot kid,
Follows with dancing and fills with delight
The Maenad and the Bassarid;
And soft as lips that laugh and hide
The laughing leaves of the trees divide,
And screen from seeing and leave in sight
The god pursuing, the maiden hid.
The ivy falls with the Bacchanal's hair
Over her eyebrows hiding her eyes;
The wild vine slipping down leaves bare
Her bright breast shortening into sighs;
The wild vine slips with the weight of its leaves.
But the berried ivy catches and cleaves
To the limbs that glitter, the feet that scare
The wolf that follows, the fawn that flies.
ALTHAEA.
What do ye singing? what is this ye sing?
CHORUS.
Flowers bring we, and pure lips that please the gods,
And raiment meet for service: lest the day
Turn sharp with all its honey in our lips.
ALTHAEA.
Night, a black hound, follows the white fawn day,
Swifter than dreams the white flown feet of sleep;
Will ye pray back the night with any prayers?
And though the spring put back a little while
Winter, and snows that plague all men for sin,
And the iron time of cursing, yet I know
Spring shall be ruined with the rain, and storm
Eat up like fire the ashen autumn days.
I marvel what men do with prayers awake
Who dream and die with dreaming; any god,
Yea the least god of all things called divine,
Is more than sleep and waking; yet we say,
Perchance by praying a man shall match his god.
For if sleep have no mercy, and man's dreams
Bite to the blood and burn into the bone,
What shall this man do waking? By the gods,
He shall not pray to dream sweet things to-night,
Having dreamt once more bitter things than death.
CHORUS.
Queen, but what is it that hath burnt thine heart?
For thy speech flickers like a brown-out flame.
ALTHAEA.
Look, ye say well, and know not what ye say,
For all my sleep is turned into a fire,
And all my dreams to stuff that kindles it.
CHORUS.
Yet one doth well being patient of the gods.
ALTHAEA.
Yea, lest they smite us with some four-foot plague.
CHORUS.
But when time spreads find out some herb for it.
ALTHAEA.
And with their healing herbs infect our blood.
CHORUS.
What ails thee to be jealous of their ways?
ALTHAEA.
What if they give us poisonous drinks for wine?
CHORUS.
They have their will; much talking mends it not.
ALTHAEA.
And gall for milk, and cursing for a prayer?
CHORUS.
Have they not given life, and the end of life?
ALTHAEA.
Lo, where they heal, they help not; thus they do,
They mock us with a little piteousness,
And we say prayers, and weep; but at the last,
Sparing awhile, they smite and spare no whit.
CHORUS.
Small praise man gets dispraising the high gods:
What have they done that thou dishonourest them?
ALTHAEA.
First Artemis for all this harried land
I praise not; and for wasting of the boar
That mars with tooth and tusk and fiery feet
Green pasturage and the grace of standing corn
And meadow and marsh with springs and unblown leaves,
Flocks and swift herds and all that bite sweet grass,
I praise her not, what things are these to praise?
CHORUS.
But when the king did sacrifice, and gave
Each god fair dues of wheat and blood and wine,
Her not with bloodshed nor burnt-offering
Revered he, nor with salt or cloven cake;
Wherefore being wroth she plagued the land, but now
Takes off from us fate and her heavy things.
Which deed of these twain were not good to praise?
For a just deed looks always either way
With blameless eyes, and mercy is no fault.
ALTHAEA.
Yea, but a curse she hath sent above all these
To hurt us where she healed us; and hath lit
Fire where the old fire went out, and where the wind
Slackened, hath blown on us with deadlier air.
CHORUS.
What storm is this that tightens all our sail?
ALTHAEA.
Love, a thwart sea-wind full of rain and foam.
CHORUS.
Whence blown, and born under what stormier star?
ALTHAEA.
Southward across Euenus from the sea.
CHORUS.
Thy speech turns toward Arcadia like blown wind.
ALTHAEA.
Sharp as the north sets when the snows are out.
CHORUS.
Nay, for this maiden hath no touch of love.
ALTHAEA.
I would she had sought in some cold gulf of sea
Love, or in dens where strange beasts lurk, or fire,
Or snows on the extreme hills, or iron land
Where no spring is; I would she had sought therein
And found, or ever love had found her here.
CHORUS.
She is holier than all holy days or things,
The sprinkled water or fume of perfect fire;
Chaste, dedicated to pure prayers, and filled
With higher thoughts than heaven; a maiden clean,
Pure iron, fashioned for a sword, and man
She loves not; what should one such do with love?
ALTHAEA.
Look you, I speak not as one light of wit,
But as a queen speaks, being heart-vexed; for oft
I hear my brothers wrangling in mid hall,
And am not moved; and my son chiding them,
And these things nowise move me, but I know
Foolish and wise men must be to the end,
And feed myself with patience; but this most,
This moves me, that for wise men as for fools
Love is one thing, an evil thing, and turns
Choice words and wisdom into fire and air.
And in the end shall no joy come, but grief,
Sharp words and soul's division and fresh tears
Flower-wise upon the old root of tears brought forth,
Fruit-wise upon the old flower of tears sprung up,
Pitiful sighs, and much regrafted pain.
These things are in my presage, and myself
Am part of them and know not; but in dreams
The gods are heavy on me, and all the fates
Shed fire across my eyelids mixed with night,
And burn me blind, and disilluminate
My sense of seeing, and my perspicuous soul
Darken with vision; seeing I see not, hear
And hearing am not holpen, but mine eyes
Stain many tender broideries in the bed
Drawn up about my face that I may weep
And the king wake not; and my brows and lips
Tremble and sob in sleeping, like swift flames
That tremble, or water when it sobs with heat
Kindled from under; and my tears fill my breast
And speck the fair dyed pillows round the king
With barren showers and salter than the sea,
Such dreams divide me dreaming; for long since
I dreamed that out of this my womb had sprung
Fire and a firebrand; this was ere my son,
Meleager, a goodly flower in fields of fight,
Felt the light touch him coming forth, and waited
Childlike; but yet he was not; and in time
I bare him, and my heart was great; for yet
So royally was never strong man born,
Nor queen so nobly bore as noble a thing
As this my son was: such a birth God sent
And such a grace to bear it. Then came in
Three weaving women, and span each a thread,
Saying This for strength and That for luck, and one
Saying Till the brand upon the hearth burn down,
So long shall this man see good days and live.
And I with gathered raiment from the bed
Sprang, and drew forth the brand, and cast on it
Water, and trod the flame bare-foot, and crushed
With naked hand spark beaten out of spark
And blew against and quenched it; for I said,
These are the most high Fates that dwell with us,
And we find favour a little in their sight,
A little, and more we miss of, and much time
Foils us; howbeit they have pitied me, O son,
And thee most piteous, thee a tenderer thing
Than any flower of fleshly seed alive.
Wherefore I kissed and hid him with my hands,
And covered under arms and hair, and wept,
And feared to touch him with my tears, and laughed;
So light a thing was this man, grown so great
Men cast their heads back, seeing against the sun
Blaze the armed man carven on his shield, and hear
The laughter of little bells along the brace
Ring, as birds singing or flutes blown, and watch,
High up, the cloven shadow of either plume
Divide the bright light of the brass, and make
His helmet as a windy and wintering moon
Seen through blown cloud and plume-like drift, when ships
Drive, and men strive with all the sea, and oars
Break, and the beaks dip under, drinking death;
Yet was he then but a span long, and moaned
With inarticulate mouth inseparate words,
And with blind lips and fingers wrung my breast
Hard, and thrust out with foolish hands and feet,
Murmuring; but those grey women with bound hair
Who fright the gods frighted not him; he laughed
Seeing them, and pushed out hands to feel and haul
Distaff and thread, intangible; but they
Passed, and I hid the brand, and in my heart
Laughed likewise, having all my will of heaven.
But now I know not if to left or right
The gods have drawn us hither; for again
I dreamt, and saw the black brand burst on fire
As a branch bursts in flower, and saw the flame
Fade flower-wise, and Death came and with dry lips
Blew the charred ash into my breast; and Love
Trampled the ember and crushed it with swift feet
This I have also at heart; that not for me,
Not for me only or son of mine, O girls,
The gods have wrought life, and desire of life,
Heart's love and heart's division; but for all
There shines one sun and one wind blows till night.
And when night comes the wind sinks and the sun,
And there is no light after, and no storm,
But sleep and much forgetfulness of things.
In such wise I gat knowledge of the gods
Years hence, and heard high sayings of one most wise,
Eurythemis my mother, who beheld
With eyes alive and spake with lips of these
As one on earth disfleshed and disallied
From breath or blood corruptible; such gifts
Time gave her, and an equal soul to these
And equal face to all things, thus she said.
But whatsoever intolerable or glad
The swift hours weave and unweave, I go hence
Full of mine own soul, perfect of myself,
Toward mine and me sufficient; and what chance
The gods cast lots for and shake out on us,
That shall we take, and that much bear withal.
And now, before these gather to the hunt,
I will go arm my son and bring him forth,
Lest love or some man's anger work him harm.
CHORUS.
Before the beginning of years
There came to the making of man
Time, with a gift of tears,
Grief, with a glass that ran;
Pleasure, with pain for leaven;
Summer, with flowers that fell;
Remembrance fallen from heaven,
And madness risen from hell;
Strength without hands to smite,
Love that endures for a breath,
Night, the shadow of light,
And life, the shadow of death.
And the high gods took in hand
Fire, and the falling of tears,
And a measure of sliding sand
From under the feet of the years,
And froth and drift of the sea;
And dust of the labouring earth;
And bodies of things to be
In the houses of death and of birth;
And wrought with weeping and laughter,
And fashioned with loathing and love,
With life before and after
And death beneath and above,
For a day and a night and a morrow,
That his strength might endure for a span
With travail and heavy sorrow,
The holy spirit of man.
From the winds of the north and the south
They gathered as unto strife;
They breathed upon his mouth,
They filled his body with life;
Eyesight and speech they wrought
For the veils of the soul therein,
A time for labour and thought,
A time to serve and to sin;
They gave him light in his ways,
And love, and a space for delight,
And beauty and length of days,
And night, and sleep in the night.
His speech is a burning fire;
With his lips he travaileth,
In his heart is a blind desire,
In his eyes foreknowledge of death;
He weaves, and is clothed with derision;
Sows, and he shall not reap,
His life is a watch or a vision
Between a sleep and a sleep.
MELEAGER.
O sweet new heaven and air without a star,
Fair day, be fair and welcome, as to men
With deeds to do and praise to pluck from thee,
Come forth a child, born with clear sound and light,
With laughter and swift limbs and prosperous looks;
That this great hunt with heroes for the hounds
May leave thee memorable and us well sped.
ALTHAEA.
Son, first I praise thy prayer, then bid thee speed;
But the gods hear men's hands before their lips,
And heed beyond all crying and sacrifice
Light of things done and noise of labouring men.
But thou, being armed and perfect for the deed,
Abide; for like rain-flakes in a wind they grow,
The men thy fellows, and the choice of the world,
Bound to root out the tusked plague, and leave
Thanks and safe days and peace in Calydon.