NISUS AND SCYLLA
Minos, king of Crete, made war upon Megara. Nisus was king of Megara, and Scylla was his daughter. The siege had now lasted six months and the city still held out, for it was decreed by fate that it should not be taken so long as a certain purple lock, which glittered among the hair of King Nisus, remained on his head. There was a tower on the city walls, which overlooked the plain where Minos and his army were encamped. To this tower Scylla used to repair, and look abroad over the tents of the hostile army. The siege had lasted so long that she had learned to distinguish the persons of the leaders. Minos, in particular, excited her admiration1. Arrayed in his helmet, and bearing his shield, she admired his graceful2 deportment; if he threw his javelin3 skill seemed combined with force in the discharge; if he drew his bow Apollo himself could not have done it more gracefully4. But when he laid aside his helmet, and in his purple robes bestrode his white horse with its gay caparisons, and reined5 in its foaming6 mouth, the daughter of Nisus was hardly mistress of herself; she was almost frantic8 with admiration. She envied the weapon that he grasped, the reins9 that he held. She felt as if she could, if it were possible, go to him through the hostile ranks; she felt an impulse to cast herself down from the tower into the midst of his camp, or to open the gates to him, or to do anything else, so only it might gratify Minos. As she sat in the tower, she talked thus with herself: “I know not whether to rejoice or grieve at this sad war. I grieve that Minos is our enemy; but I rejoice at any cause that brings him to my sight. Perhaps he would be willing to grant us peace, and receive me as a hostage. I would fly down, if I could, and alight in his camp, and tell him that we yield ourselves to his mercy. But then, to betray my father! No! rather would I never see Minos again. And yet no doubt it is sometimes the best thing for a city to be conquered, when the conqueror10 is clement11 and generous. Minos certainly has right on his side. I think we shall be conquered; and if that must be the end of it, why should not love unbar the gates to him, instead of leaving it to be done by war? Better spare delay and slaughter12 if we can. And O if any one should wound or kill Minos! No one surely would have the heart to do it; yet ignorantly, not knowing him, one might. I will, I will surrender myself to him, with my country as a dowry, and so put an end to the war. But how? The gates are guarded, and my father keeps the keys; he only stands in my way. O that it might please the gods to take him away! But why ask the gods to do it? Another woman, loving as I do, would remove with her own hands whatever stood in the way of her love. And can any other woman dare more than I? I would encounter fire and sword to gain my object; but here there is no need of fire and sword. I only need my father’s purple lock. More precious than gold to me, that will give me all I wish.”
While she thus reasoned night came on, and soon the whole palace was buried in sleep. She entered her father’s bedchamber and cut off the fatal lock; then passed out of the city and entered the enemy’s camp. She demanded to be led to the king, and thus addressed him: “I am Scylla, the daughter of Nisus. I surrender to you my country and my father’s house. I ask no reward but yourself; for love of you I have done it. See here the purple lock! With this I give you my father and his kingdom.” She held out her hand with the fatal spoil. Minos shrunk back and refused to touch it. “The gods destroy thee, infamous13 woman,” he exclaimed; “disgrace of our time! May neither earth nor sea yield thee a resting-place! Surely, my Crete, where Jove himself was cradled, shall not be polluted with such a monster!” Thus he said, and gave orders that equitable14 terms should be allowed to the conquered city, and that the fleet should immediately sail from the island.
Scylla was frantic. “Ungrateful man,” she exclaimed, “is it thus you leave me?—me who have given you victory,—who have sacrificed for you parent and country! I am guilty, I confess, and deserve to die, but not by your hand.” As the ships left the shore, she leaped into the water, and seizing the rudder of the one which carried Minos, she was borne along an unwelcome companion of their course. A sea-eagle soaring aloft,—it was her father who had been changed into that form,—seeing her, pounced15 down upon her, and struck her with his beak16 and claws. In terror she let go the ship and would have fallen into the water, but some pitying deity17 changed her into a bird. The sea-eagle still cherishes the old animosity; and whenever he espies18 her in his lofty flight you may see him dart19 down upon her, with beak and claws, to take vengeance20 for the ancient crime.
ECHO AND NARCISSUS
Echo was a beautiful nymph, fond of the woods and hills, where she devoted21 herself to woodland sports. She was a favorite of Diana, and attended her in the chase. But Echo had one failing; she was fond of talking, and whether in chat or argument, would have the last word. One day Juno was seeking her husband, who, she had reason to fear, was amusing himself among the nymphs. Echo by her talk contrived22 to detain the goddess till the nymphs made their escape. When Juno discovered it, she passed sentence upon Echo in these words: “You shall forfeit23 the use of that tongue with which you have cheated me, except for that one purpose you are so fond of—reply. You shall still have the last word, but no power to speak first.”
This nymph saw Narcissus, a beautiful youth, as he pursued the chase upon the mountains. She loved him and followed his footsteps. O how she longed to address him in the softest accents, and win him to converse24! but it was not in her power. She waited with impatience25 for him to speak first, and had her answer ready. One day the youth, being separated from his companions, shouted aloud, “Who’s here?” Echo replied, “Here.” Narcissus looked around, but seeing no one called out, “Come.” Echo answered, “Come.” As no one came, Narcissus called again, “Why do you shun26 me?” Echo asked the same question. “Let us join one another,” said the youth. The maid answered with all her heart in the same words, and hastened to the spot, ready to throw her arms about his neck. He started back, exclaiming, “Hands off! I would rather die than you should have me!” “Have me,” said she; but it was all in vain. He left her, and she went to hide her blushes in the recesses27 of the woods. From that time forth28 she lived in caves and among mountain cliffs. Her form faded with grief, till at last all her flesh shrank away. Her bones were changed into rocks and there was nothing left of her but her voice. With that she is still ready to reply to any one who calls her, and keeps up her old habit of having the last word.
Narcissus’s cruelty in this case was not the only instance. He shunned29 all the rest of the nymphs, as he had done poor Echo. One day a maiden30 who had in vain endeavored to attract him uttered a prayer that he might some time or other feel what it was to love and meet no return of affection. The avenging31 goddess heard and granted the prayer.
There was a clear fountain, with water like silver, to which the shepherds never drove their flocks, nor the mountain goats resorted, nor any of the beasts of the forest; neither was it defaced with fallen leaves or branches; but the grass grew fresh around it, and the rocks sheltered it from the sun. Hither came one day the youth, fatigued32 with hunting, heated and thirsty. He stooped down to drink, and saw his own image in the water; he thought it was some beautiful water-spirit living in the fountain. He stood gazing with admiration at those bright eyes, those locks curled like the locks of Bacchus or Apollo, the rounded cheeks, the ivory neck, the parted lips, and the glow of health and exercise over all. He fell in love with himself. He brought his lips near to take a kiss; he plunged33 his arms in to embrace the beloved object. It fled at the touch, but returned again after a moment and renewed the fascination34. He could not tear himself away; he lost all thought of food or rest, while he hovered35 over the brink36 of the fountain gazing upon his own image. He talked with the supposed spirit: “Why, beautiful being, do you shun me? Surely my face is not one to repel37 you. The nymphs love me, and you yourself look not indifferent upon me. When I stretch forth my arms you do the same; and you smile upon me and answer my beckonings with the like.” His tears fell into the water and disturbed the image. As he saw it depart, he exclaimed, “Stay, I entreat38 you! Let me at least gaze upon you, if I may not touch you.” With this, and much more of the same kind, he cherished the flame that consumed him, so that by degrees he lost his color, his vigor39, and the beauty which formerly40 had so charmed the nymph Echo. She kept near him, however, and when he exclaimed, “Alas41! alas!” she answered him with the same words. He pined away and died; and when his shade passed the Stygian river, it leaned over the boat to catch a look of itself in the waters. The nymphs mourned for him, especially the water-nymphs; and when they smote42 their breasts Echo smote hers also. They prepared a funeral pile and would have burned the body, but it was nowhere to be found; but in its place a flower, purple within, and surrounded with white leaves, which bears the name and preserves the memory of Narcissus.
Milton alludes43 to the story of Echo and Narcissus in the Lady’s song in “Comus.” She is seeking her brothers in the forest, and sings to attract their attention:
“Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv’st unseen
Within thy a?ry shell
By slow Meander’s margent green,
And in the violet-embroidered vale,
Where the love-lorn nightingale
Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well;
Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair
That likest thy Narcissus are?
O, if thou have
Hid them in some flowery cave,
Tell me but where,
Sweet queen of parly, daughter of the sphere,
So may’st thou be translated to the skies,
And give resounding45 grace to all heaven’s harmonies.”
Milton has imitated the story of Narcissus in the account which he makes Eve give of the first sight of herself reflected in the fountain:
“That day I oft remember when from sleep
I first awaked, and found myself reposed46
Under a shade on flowers, much wondering where
And what I was, whence thither47 brought, and how.
Not distant far from thence a murmuring sound
Of waters issued from a cave, and spread
Into a liquid plain, then stood unmoved
Pure as the expanse of heaven; I thither went
With unexperienced thought, and laid me down
On the green bank, to look into the clear
Smooth lake that to me seemed another sky.
As I bent48 down to look, just opposite
A shape within the watery49 gleam appeared,
Bending to look on me. I started back;
It started back; but pleased I soon returned,
Pleased it returned as soon with answering looks
Of sympathy and love. There had I fixed50
Mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire,
Had not a voice thus warned me: ‘What thou seest,
What there thou seest, fair creature, is thyself;’?” etc.
—Paradise Lost, Book IV.
No one of the fables51 of antiquity52 has been oftener alluded53 to by the poets than that of Narcissus. Here are two epigrams which treat it in different ways. The first is by Goldsmith:
“On a Beautiful Youth, struck Blind by Lightning
“Sure ’twas by Providence54 designed,
Rather in pity than in hate,
That he should be like Cupid blind,
To save him from Narcissus’ fate.”
The other is by Cowper:
“On an Ugly Fellow
“Beware, my friend, of crystal brook55
Or fountain, lest that hideous56 hook,
Thy nose, thou chance to see;
Narcissus’ fate would then be thine,
And self-detested thou would’st pine,
As self-enamoured he.”
CLYTIE
Clytie was a water-nymph and in love with Apollo, who made her no return. So she pined away, sitting all day long upon the cold ground, with her unbound tresses streaming over her shoulders. Nine days she sat and tasted neither food nor drink, her own tears and the chilly57 dew her only food. She gazed on the sun when he rose, and as he passed through his daily course to his setting; she saw no other object, her face turned constantly on him. At last, they say, her limbs rooted in the ground, her face became a flower[13] which turns on its stem so as always to face the sun throughout its daily course; for it retains to that extent the feeling of the nymph from whom it sprang.
Hood58, in his “Flowers,” thus alludes to Clytie:
“I will not have the mad Clytie,
Whose head is turned by the sun;
The tulip is a courtly quean,
Whom therefore I will shun;
The cowslip is a country wench,
The violet is a nun;—
But I will woo the dainty rose,
The queen of every one.”
The sunflower is a favorite emblem59 of constancy. Thus Moore uses it:
“The heart that has truly loved never forgets,
But as truly loves on to the close;
As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets
The same look that she turned when he rose.”
HERO AND LEANDER
Leander was a youth of Abydos, a town of the Asian side of the strait which separates Asia and Europe. On the opposite shore, in the town of Sestos, lived the maiden Hero, a priestess of Venus. Leander loved her, and used to swim the strait nightly to enjoy the company of his mistress, guided by a torch which she reared upon the tower for the purpose. But one night a tempest arose and the sea was rough; his strength failed, and he was drowned. The waves bore his body to the European shore, where Hero became aware of his death, and in her despair cast herself down from the tower into the sea and perished.
The following sonnet60 is by Keats:
“On a Picture of Leander
“Come hither all sweet maidens61 soberly,
Down looking aye, and with a chasten’d light
Hid in the fringes of your eyelids62 white,
And meekly63 let your fair hands joined be.
As if so gentle that ye could not see,
Untouch’d, a victim of your beauty bright,
Sinking away to his young spirit’s night,
Sinking bewilder’d ’mid the dreary64 sea.
’Tis young Leander toiling65 to his death.
Nigh swooning he doth purse his weary lips
For Hero’s cheek, and smiles against her smile.
O horrid66 dream! see how his body dips
Dead-heavy; arms and shoulders gleam awhile;
He’s gone; up bubbles all his amorous67 breath!”
The story of Leander’s swimming the Hellespont was looked upon as fabulous68, and the feat69 considered impossible, till Lord Byron proved its possibility by performing it himself. In the “Bride of Abydos” he says,
“These limbs that buoyant wave hath borne.”
The distance in the narrowest part is almost a mile, and there is a constant current setting out from the Sea of Marmora into the Archipelago. Since Byron’s time the feat has been achieved by others; but it yet remains70 a test of strength and skill in the art of swimming sufficient to give a wide and lasting71 celebrity72 to any one of our readers who may dare to make the attempt and succeed in accomplishing it.
In the beginning of the second canto73 of the same poem, Byron thus alludes to this story:
“The winds are high on Helle’s wave,
As on that night of stormiest water,
When Love, who sent, forgot to save
The young, the beautiful, the brave,
The lonely hope of Sestos’ daughter.
O, when alone along the sky
The turret-torch was blazing high,
Though rising gale44 and breaking foam7,
And shrieking74 sea-birds warned him home;
And clouds aloft and tides below,
With signs and sounds forbade to go,
He could not see, he would not hear
Or sound or sight foreboding fear.
His eye but saw that light of love,
The only star it hailed above;
His ear but rang with Hero’s song,
‘Ye waves, divide not lovers long.’
That tale is old, but love anew
May nerve young hearts to prove as true.”
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1
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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javelin
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| n.标枪，投枪 | |
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gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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reined
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| 勒缰绳使（马）停步( rein的过去式和过去分词 )； 驾驭； 严格控制； 加强管理 | |
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foaming
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| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
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foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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clement
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| adj.仁慈的；温和的 | |
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slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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equitable
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| adj.公平的；公正的 | |
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pounced
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| v.突然袭击( pounce的过去式和过去分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击） | |
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beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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espies
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| v.看到( espy的第三人称单数 ) | |
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dart
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| v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲 | |
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vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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forfeit
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| vt.丧失；n.罚金，罚款，没收物 | |
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converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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25
impatience
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shun
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| vt.避开，回避，避免 | |
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recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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shunned
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| v.避开，回避，避免( shun的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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31
avenging
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| adj.报仇的，复仇的v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的现在分词 )；为…报复 | |
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32
fatigued
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| adj. 疲乏的 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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repel
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| v.击退，抵制，拒绝，排斥 | |
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entreat
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| v.恳求，恳请 | |
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vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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alludes
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| 提及，暗指( allude的第三人称单数 ) | |
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gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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resounding
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| adj. 响亮的 | |
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reposed
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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watery
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| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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fables
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| n.寓言( fable的名词复数 )；神话，传说 | |
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antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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chilly
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| adj.凉快的，寒冷的 | |
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hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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emblem
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| n.象征，标志；徽章 | |
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sonnet
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| n.十四行诗 | |
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maidens
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| 处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球 | |
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eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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63
meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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64
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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65
toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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66
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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67
amorous
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| adj.多情的；有关爱情的 | |
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68
fabulous
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| adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的 | |
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69
feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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70
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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71
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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72
celebrity
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| n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望 | |
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73
canto
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| n.长篇诗的章 | |
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shrieking
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| v.尖叫( shriek的现在分词 ) | |
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