759The son of Laius had solved by his wit the riddling songs not understood by those before him, and the dark prophetess lay hurled headlong, forgetful of her own enigmas. 763At once a second plague is sent against Aonian Thebes, and many country folk feared the beast, for the destruction of their flocks and of themselves. 765We young men of the neighbourhood came and surrounded the broad fields with a ring of nets. 767She, swift, leapt over the nets with a light bound and passed over the top cords of the snares we had set. 769The leash is drawn off the dogs: she escapes them as they follow, and, no slower than a swift bird, mocks them.
771I myself am asked by general consent for my Laelaps (that is the name of the gift). 772For long he had been struggling himself to throw off his bonds, and strains his neck against what held him back. 774Hardly had he been let go, and already we could not tell where he was. 775The hot dust held the traces of his feet; he himself had been snatched from our eyes. 776No swifter than he is a spear, or bullets flung from a whirled sling, or a light arrow leaving a Gortynian bow. 779The top of a hill in the middle overlooks the fields beneath: I climb up there and take in the spectacle of a strange race, in which the beast seemed now to be caught, now to slip away from the very wound.
782Nor does she, cunning, flee in a straight line and into the open, but deceives the jaws of her pursuer and turns back in a circle, so that her enemy's rush may lose its force. 785He presses close and follows, matching her, and, seeming to hold her, does not hold her, and snaps vainly at the air. 787I was turning to the help of my javelin. 787While my right hand is balancing it, while I try to fit my fingers to the thongs, I turned my eyes aside. 789And when I had brought them back again to the same place, in the middle of the plain (a wonder!) I see two marble statues: you would think the one was fleeing, the other trying to catch.
792Clearly some god willed that both should be unconquered in the contest of the race, if any god was with them.' 794So far he spoke, and fell silent. 794'What fault is there in the javelin itself?' 795says Phocus. 795He told the faults of the javelin thus: 'Joys, Phocus, are the beginning of my grief: those I shall tell first. 797It is a delight, O son of Aeacus, to remember that blessed time when, in those first years, as was right, I was happy in my wife, and she was happy in her husband. 800Mutual care and wedded love held the two of us; 801she would not have preferred the bed of Jupiter to my love, nor was there any woman who could capture me, not if Venus herself were to come: equal flames burned in our hearts.
804When the sun was just striking the hilltops with its first rays, I used to go hunting in the woods with youthful zest. 806Neither servants nor horses nor keen-scented hounds used to go with me, nor knotted nets to follow: I was safe with my javelin. 808But when my right hand had had its fill of slaughtering beasts, I would go back to the cool and the shade and the breeze that came out of the chill valleys. 811I would seek the gentle breeze in the midday heat, I would wait for the breeze; it was rest from my labour. 813"Aura," (for I remember it) "come," I used to sing, "and help me, and enter my breast, most welcome one, and be willing, as you do, to relieve the heat with which I burn."
816Perhaps I added (so my fate was dragging me) more endearments, and was accustomed to say, "You are my great delight, you restore and cherish me, you make me love woods and lonely places; 819this breath of yours is always sought by my mouth." 821Someone or other lent a deceived ear to these ambiguous words, and thinks that the name "Aura", so often called, is a nymph's: he believes that I love a nymph. 824At once the rash informer of the imagined crime goes to Procris and reports in whispering tones what he had heard. 826Love is a credulous thing: suddenly collapsing with grief, so I am told, she fell; 827and recovering after a long time, she called herself wretched, of unjust fate, and complained of my broken faith; 829and, roused by an empty charge, she fears what is nothing, fears a name without a body, and grieves, unhappy woman, as if over a real rival.
832Yet often she doubts and hopes, most wretched, that she is mistaken, and refuses belief to the report, and, unless she sees it herself, will not condemn her husband's offences. 835The next light of Aurora had driven off the night: I go out and make for the woods, and, victorious, I said among the grass, "Aura, come and cure my weariness." 838And suddenly I seemed to have heard some groans or other amid my words; "Come," nonetheless, "best one!" 839I was saying; and as falling leaves made a slight rustle again, I thought it was a beast and sent my flying weapon. 842It was Procris; 842and, holding the wound in the middle of her breast, she cries out, "Ah me!"
843When the voice of my faithful wife was recognised, headlong and frantic I ran towards the voice. 845I find her half-dead, staining her scattered garments with blood, and (wretched me!) pulling her own gift out of the wound, and I lift her body, dearer to me than my own, in gentle arms, and, tearing the garment from her breast, bind up the cruel wound and try to stop the blood, and I beg her not to leave me guilty by her death. 851She, lacking strength and now dying, forced herself to say these few words: "By the bond of our bed and by the gods above and my own gods I beg you as a suppliant, by whatever good I have deserved from you, and by the love that remains even now, as I perish, the cause of my death, do not let Aura marry into our chamber."
857She spoke, and then at last I both realised and told her that it was a mistake over a name. 858But what good did telling her do? 859She sinks, and her little strength flees with her blood. 860And while she can look at anything, she looks at me, and breathes out her unhappy soul upon me and on my lips; 862but she seems to die untroubled, with a happier face.' 863Weeping, the hero was telling these things to weeping listeners: and look, Aeacus enters with his two sons and a new body of soldiers, which Cephalus receives with their brave arms.