582He, free of fear, said, 'My name is Acoetes, my country is Maeonia, my parents were of humble stock. 584My father did not leave me fields for hard-working bullocks to till, or woolly flocks, or any herds; 586he too was poor, and used to trick leaping fish with line and hooks and draw them in with his rod. 588His craft was his wealth. 588When he handed on his craft, he said, "Take the riches I have, successor and heir to my pursuit." 590And dying he left me nothing but the waters: this one thing I can call my inheritance. 592Soon, so as not to cling always to the same rocks, I learned in addition to steer a ship's course with a guiding right hand, and I marked with my eyes the rainy star of the Olenian She-goat, and Taygete and the Hyades and the Bear, and the homes of the winds and the harbours suited to ships.
597By chance, making for Delos, I am brought to the shores of the land of Chios and drawn to the beach by the oars on the right, and I make a light leap and land upon the wet sand. 600When the night was spent (dawn had begun first to redden), I rise and tell them to bring fresh water and show the way that leads to the spring. 603I myself look out from a high mound to see what the breeze promises me, and call my comrades and go back to the ship. 605"Here we are!" 605says Opheltes, first of my comrades, and, having found as he thinks a prize in a deserted field, he leads along the shore a boy of girlish beauty.
608The boy, heavy with wine and sleep, seems to stagger and to follow with difficulty. 609I look at his dress, his face, his step: I saw nothing there that could be thought mortal. 611I both felt it and said to my comrades: "What god is in that body I am not sure; 612but in that body there is a god. 613Whoever you are, oh, be gracious and assist our labours. 614Grant pardon to these men too." 614— "Stop praying for us," says Dictys, than whom no other was swifter at climbing to the top of the yards and sliding down again, gripping a rope. 617Libys approves this, so does fair-haired Melanthus, guardian of the prow, so does Alcimedon, and Epopeus, who with his voice gave rest and rhythm to the oars, the rouser of their spirits, so do all the rest: so blind is the greed for plunder.
621"Yet I will not allow this pine to be violated by a sacred cargo," I said: "here my share of authority is the greatest"; 623and I block the gangway. 623Lycabas, the boldest of the whole number, rages, who, driven from a Tuscan city, was paying exile as the penalty for a dreadful murder. 626While I stand firm, he smashed my throat with his young fist, and would have knocked me out and sent me into the sea, if I had not clung on, though senseless, held by a rope. 629The impious crew approves the deed. 629Then at last Bacchus (for it had been Bacchus), as if his sleep had been broken by the shouting and his senses were returning to his breast from the wine, says, "What are you doing?
632What is this shouting? 632By what means, tell me, sailors, have I come here? 633Where are you getting ready to take me?" 634"Put away fear," said Proreus, "and say what harbour you would like to reach: you will be set down on the land you seek." 635— "Turn your course to Naxos," says Liber. 637"That is my home, it will be a hospitable land for you." 638The deceivers swear by the sea and by all the gods that it will be so, and tell me to set sail on the painted ship. 640Naxos was on the right. 640As I was setting the sails to the right, "What are you doing, madman?
641What madness has you—?" 641says Opheltes. 642Each fears for himself: "Make for the left," most of them signal to me with a nod, some whisper in my ear what they want. 644I was stunned and said, "Let someone take the helm," and removed myself from the service of crime and of my craft. 646I am rebuked by all, and the whole company mutters. 647Of them Aethalion said, "So all our safety is placed in you alone, I suppose," and he comes up himself and does my work, and leaving Naxos behind makes for the opposite way. 650Then the god, mocking them, as if he had only just at last perceived the trick, looks out at the sea from the curved stern and, like one weeping, says, "These are not the shores you promised me, sailors, this is not the land I asked for.
654By what deed have I deserved punishment? 654What glory is it to you, if you young men deceive a boy, if many deceive one?" 656I had long been weeping: the impious band laughs at our tears and drives the waters with hurrying oars. 658I swear to you now by the god himself (for there is no god more present than he) that I report to you things as true as they are beyond belief: the ship stood still on the sea, just as if it were held in a dry dock. 662They, amazed, persist in the beating of the oars and let down the sails and try to run on with double power.
664Ivy hampers the oars, creeps on with curling tendrils, and adorns the sails with heavy clusters. 666He himself, his forehead wreathed with bunches of grapes, shakes a spear veiled in vine leaves. 668Around him lie tigers and phantom shapes of lynxes, and the wild bodies of spotted panthers. 670The men leapt overboard, whether madness did this or fear, and Medon first began to grow dark in body and to be bent with his spine pressed out in a curve. 673Lycabas begins to say to him, "Into what monster are you being turned?" 674and as he spoke his jaws were wide and his nostrils curved, and his hardened skin was taking on scales.
676But Libys, while he wants to turn the resisting oars, saw his hands shrink back into a small space, and that they were no longer hands, and could now be called fins. 679Another, wanting to put his arms to the twisted ropes, had no arms, and, arched with a limbless body, leapt down into the waves: the end of his tail is sickle-shaped, just as the horns of the half-moon curve. 683On all sides they leap and splash with much spray, and surface again and go back under the water once more, and play in the semblance of a dance, and toss their frisky bodies, and blow out through wide nostrils the sea they have taken in.
687Of the twenty just now (for that was how many that ship carried) I alone remained. 688As I was frightened and chilled, my body trembling and hardly myself, the god steadies me, saying, "Shake fear from your heart and make for Dia." 690Carried down to it, I joined his rites, and I attend the Bacchic rites.'