Met. 11.1Carmine dum tālī silvās animōsque ferārum
Thrēicius vātēs et saxa sequentia dūcit,
ecce nurūs Ciconum, tēctae lymphāta ferīnīs
pectora velleribus, tumulī dē vertice cernunt
5Orphea percussīs sociantem carmina nervīs.While with such song the Thracian bard leads the woods and the spirits of wild beasts and the rocks that follow him, behold, the women of the Ciconians, their frenzied breasts covered with the skins of beasts, catch sight from the top of a hill of Orpheus, matching his songs to the struck strings. Met. 11.6Ē quibus ūna, levēs iactātō crīne per aurās,
"ēn," ait "ēn hic est nostrī contemptor!"One of them, tossing her hair through the light breezes, says: 'Look, look, here is the man who scorns us!' Met. 11.7et hastam
vātis Apollineī vōcālia mīsit in ōra,
quae foliīs praesūta notam sine vulnere fēcit;and she hurled her spear at the singing mouth of Apollo's bard; sewn over with leaves at its tip, it left a mark without a wound; Met. 11.10alterīus tēlum lapis est, quī missus in ipsō
āere concentū victus vōcisque lyraeque est
ac velutī supplex prō tam furiālibus ausīs
ante pedēs iacuit.another's weapon is a stone, which, thrown, was overcome in the very air by the harmony of voice and lyre, and lay before his feet as if a suppliant for such frenzied daring.
Met. 11.13Sed enim temerāria crēscunt
bella modusque abiit, īnsānaque regnat Erīnys.But in truth the reckless warfare grows, all restraint is gone, and mad Fury reigns. Met. 11.15Cūnctaque tēla forent cantū mollīta, sed ingēns
clamor et īnfrāctō Berecyntia tībia cornū
tympanaque et plausus et Bacchēī ululātūs
obstrepuēre sonō citharae: tum dēnique saxa
nōn exaudītī rubuērunt sanguine vātis.And all the weapons would have been softened by the song, but the huge clamour, the Berecyntian pipe with its broken horn, the drums and the clapping and the Bacchic howls drowned the sound of the cithara: then at last the stones grew red with the blood of the bard, no longer heard. Met. 11.20Ac prīmum attonitās etiamnum vōce canentis
innumerās volucrēs anguēsque agmenque ferārum
Maenadēs, Orpheī titulum, rapuēre, theātrī.And first the Maenads seized the countless birds, still spellbound by the singer's voice, and the snakes and the troop of wild beasts, the glory of Orpheus' audience. Met. 11.23Inde cruentātīs vertuntur in Orphea dextrīs
et coeunt ut avēs, sī quandō lūce vagantem
25noctis avem cernunt.Then they turn on Orpheus with bloodstained hands and flock together like birds, if ever they see the bird of night wandering in daylight.
Met. 11.25Strūctōque utrimque theātrō
ceu mātūtīnā cervus peritūrus harēnā
praeda canum est, vātemque petunt et fronde virentēs
coniciunt thyrsōs nōn haec in mūnera factōs.And as when, in the theatre built up on either side, a stag doomed to die on the morning sand is the prey of hounds, they make for the bard and hurl their thyrsi, green with leaves and not made for such a service. Met. 11.29Hae glaebās, illae dīreptōs arbore rāmōs,
30pars torquent silicēs.Some throw clods, others branches torn from a tree, some hurl flints. Met. 11.30Neu dēsint tēla furōrī,
forte bovēs pressō subigēbant vōmere terram,
nec procul hinc multō frūctum sūdōre parantēs
dūra lacertōsī fodiēbant arva colōnī.And so that weapons should not be lacking for their fury, it happened that oxen were working the earth with the pressed-down ploughshare, and not far from there brawny farmers, preparing the harvest with much sweat, were digging the hard fields. Met. 11.34Agmine quī vīsō fugiunt operisque relinquunt
35arma suī, vacuōsque iacent dispersa per agrōs
sarculaque rāstrīque gravēs longīque ligōnēs.Seeing the throng, they flee and leave behind the tools of their work, and scattered through the empty fields lie hoes and heavy rakes and long mattocks.
Met. 11.37Quae postquam rapuēre ferae cornūque minācī
dīvulsēre bovēs, ad vātis fāta recurrunt
Tendentemque manūs et in illō tempore prīmum
40inrita dīcentem nec quicquam vōce moventem
sacrilegae perimunt.When the savage women had seized these and torn apart the oxen with their threatening horns, they run back to the bard's doom, and as he stretches out his hands and, for the first time then, speaks in vain and moves nothing with his voice, the sacrilegious women kill him. Met. 11.41Perque ōs, prō Iuppiter!And through that mouth, O Jupiter! Met. 11.41illud
audītum saxīs intellēctumque ferārum
sēnsibus in ventōs anima exhālāta recessit.which was heard by the rocks and understood by the senses of wild beasts, his breath was breathed out and passed away into the winds. Met. 11.44Tē maestae volucrēs, Orpheu, tē turba ferārum,
45tē rigidī silicēs, tua carmina saepe secūtae
flēvērunt silvae, positīs tē frondibus arbor
tōnsa comās lūxit.For you, Orpheus, the grieving birds, for you the throng of beasts, for you the hard flints, for you the woods that had often followed your songs wept; for you the tree, laying aside its leaves, mourned with shorn locks.
Met. 11.47Lacrimīs quoque flūmina dīcunt
incrēvisse suīs, obstrūsaque carbasa pullō
nāidēs et dryadēs passōsque habuēre capillōs.They say the rivers too swelled with their own tears, and naiads and dryads wore linen edged with black and let their hair hang loose. Met. 11.50Membra iacent dīversa locīs.His limbs lie scattered in different places. Met. 11.50Caput, Hebre, lyramque
excipis, et (mīrum!) mediō dum lābitur amne,
flēbile nesciō quid queritur lyra, flēbile lingua
murmurat exanimis, respondent flēbile rīpae.His head and lyre, Hebrus, you receive, and (a wonder!) while it glides in midstream, the lyre laments something mournful, the lifeless tongue murmurs something mournful, mournfully the banks reply. Met. 11.54Iamque mare invectae flūmen populāre relinquunt
55et Mēthymnaeae potiuntur lītore Lesbī.And now, carried out to sea, they leave their native river and reach the shore of Methymnean Lesbos. Met. 11.56Hīc ferus expositum peregrīnīs anguis harēnīs
ōs petit et sparsōs stillantī rōre capillōs.Here a fierce snake attacks the face cast up on the foreign sands and the hair sprinkled with dripping spray. Met. 11.58Tandem Phoebus adest morsūsque īnferre parantem
arcet et in lapidem rictūs serpentis apertōs
60congelat et patulōs, ut erant, indūrat hiātūs.At last Phoebus is there, and wards off the serpent as it prepares to bite, and freezes its open jaws into stone and hardens its gaping mouth just as it was.
Met. 11.61Umbra subit terrās et quae loca vīderat ante,
cūncta recognōscit quaerēnsque per arva piōrum
invēnit Eurydicēn cupidīsque amplectitur ulnīs.The shade passes beneath the earth and recognises all the places it had seen before, and searching through the fields of the blessed finds Eurydice and clasps her in eager arms. Met. 11.64Hīc modo coniūnctīs spatiantur passibus ambō,
65nunc praecēdentem sequitur, nunc praevius anteit
Eurydicēnque suam iam tūtus respicit Orpheus.Here now they stroll side by side with joined steps, now he follows as she goes ahead, now he goes before her leading the way, and Orpheus looks back, safely now, at his Eurydice. Met. 11.67Nōn impūne tamen scelus hoc sinit esse Lyaeus,
āmissōque dolēns sacrōrum vāte suōrum
prōtinus in silvīs mātrēs Ēdōnidas omnēs,
70quae vīdēre nefās, tortā rādīce ligāvit.Yet Lyaeus does not let this crime go unpunished, and, grieving at the loss of the bard of his rites, he at once bound fast in the woods with twisted root all the Edonian mothers who had seen the outrage. Met. 11.73utque suum laqueīs, quōs callidus abdidit auceps,
crūs ubi commīsit volucris sēnsitque tenērī,and as a bird, when it has trusted its leg to the snares which the cunning fowler has hidden, and feels that it is held,