Lucius Seneca - Yale Required Reading - Collected Works (Vol. 2)

All now melted in air, with a light wind emptily fleeting.

Let not a woman trust, since that first treason, a lover's

Desperate oath, none hope true lover's promise is earnest.

They, while fondly to win their amorous humour essayeth,

Fear no covetous oath, all false free promises heed not;

They if once lewd pleasure attain unruly possession,

Lo they fear not promise, of oath or perjury reck not.

Yet indeed, yet I, when floods of death were around thee,

Set thee on high, did rather a brother choose to defend not,

Ere I, in hate's last hour, false heart, fail'd thee to deliver.

Now, for a goodly reward, to the beasts they give me, the flying

Fowls; no handful of earth shall bury me, pass'd to the shadows.

What grim lioness yeaned thee, aneath what rock's desolation?

What wild sea did bear, what billows foamy regorged thee?

Seething sand, or Scylla the snare, or lonely Charybdis?

If for a life's dear joy comes back such only requital?

Hadst not a will with spousal an honour'd wife to receive me?

Awed thee a father stern, cross age's churlish avising?

Yet to your household thou, your kindred palaces olden,

Might'st have led me, to wait, joy-filled, a retainer upon thee,

Now in waters clear thy feet like ivory laving,

Clothing now thy bed with crimson's gorgeous apparel.

Yet to the brutish winds why moan I longer unheeded,

Crazy with an ill wrong? They senseless, voiceless, inhuman

Utter'd cry they hear not, in answers hollow reply not.

He rides far already, the mid sea's boundary cleaving,

Strays no mortal along these weeds stretched lonely about me.

Thus to my utmost need chance, spitefuller injury dealing,

Grudges an ear, where yet might lamentation have entry.

Jove, almighty, supreme, O would that never in early

Time on Gnossian earth great Cecrops' navies had harbour'd,

Ne'er to that unquell'd bull with a ransom of horror atoning,

Moor'd on Crete his cable a shipman's wily dishonour.

Never in youth's fair shape such ruthless stratagem hiding

He, that vile one, a guest found with us a safe habitation.

Whither flee then afar? what hope, poor lost one, upholds thee?

Mountains Idomenean? alas, broad surges of ocean

Part us, a rough rude space of flowing water, asunder.

Trust in a father's help? how trust, whom darkly deserting,

Him I turned to alone, my brother's bloody defier?

Nay, but a loyal lover, a hand pledg'd surely, shall ease me.

Surely; for o'er wide water his oars move flexibly fleeting.

Also a desert lies this region, a tenantless island,

Nowhere open way, seas splash in circle around me,

Nowhere flight, no glimmer of hope; all mournfully silent,

Loneliness all, all points me to death, death only remaining.

Yet these luminous orbs shall sink not feebly to darkness,

Yet from grief-worn limbs shall feeling wholly depart not,

Till to the gods I cry, the betrayed, for justice on evil,

Sue for life's last mercy the great federation of heaven.

Then, O sworn to requite man's evil wrathfully, Powers

Gracious, on whose grim brows, with viper tresses inorbed,

Looks red-breathing forth your bosom's feverous anger;

Now, yea now come surely, to these loud miseries harken,

All I cry, the afflicted, of inmost marrow arising,

Desolate, hot with pain, with blinding fury bewilder'd.

Yet, for of heart they spring, grief's children truly begotten,

Verily, Gods, these moans you will not idly to perish.

But with counsel of evil as he forsook me deceiving,

Death to his house, to his heart, bring also counsel of evil.

When from an anguish'd heart these words stream'd sorrowful upwards,

Words which on iron deeds did sue for deadly requital,

Bow'd with a nod of assent almighty the ruler of heaven.

With that dreadful motion aneath earth's hollow, the ruffled

Ocean shook, and stormy the stars 'gan tremble in ether.

Thereto his heart thick-sown with blindness cloudily dark'ning,

Thought not of all those words, Theseus, from memory fallen,

Words which his heedful soul had kept immovable ever.

Nor to his eager sire fair token of happy returning

Rais'd, when his eyes safe-sighted Erectheus' populous haven.

Once, so stories tell, when Pallas' city behind him

Leaving, Theseus' fleet to the winds given hopefully parted,

Clasping then his son spake Aegeus, straitly commanding.

Son, mine only delight, than life more lovely to gaze on,

Son, whom needs it faints me to launch full-tided on hazards,

Whom my winter of years hath laid so lately before me:

Since my fate unkindly, thy own fierce valour unheeding,

Needs must wrest thee away, ere yet these dimly-lit eye-balls

Feed to the full on thee, thy worshipt body beholding;

Neither in exultation of heart I send thee a-warring;

Nor to the fight shalt bear fair fortune's happier earnest;

Rather, first in cries mine heart shall lighten her anguish,

When greylocks I sully with earth, with sprinkle of ashes;

Next to the swaying mast shall a sail hang duskily swinging;

So this grief, mine own, this burning sorrow within me,

Want not a sign, dark shrouds of Iberia, sombre as iron.

Then, if haply the queen, lone ranger on haunted Itonus,

Pleas'd to defend our people, Erectheus' safe habitations,

Frown not, allow thine hand that bull all redly to slaughter,

Look that warily then deep-laid in steady remembrance,

These our words grow greenly, nor age move on to deface them;

Soon as on home's fair hills thine eyes shall signal a welcome,

See that on each straight yard down droop their funeral housings,

Whitely the tight-strung cordage a sparkling canvas aloft swing,

Which to behold straightway with joy shall cheer me, with inward

Joy, when a prosperous hour shall bring to thee happy returning.

So for a while that charge did Theseus faithfully cherish.

Last, it melted away, as a cloud which riven in ether

Breaks to the blast, high peak and spire snow-silvery leaving.

But from a rock's wall'd eyrie the father wistfully gazing,

Father whose eyes, care-dimm'd, wore hourly for ever a-weeping,

Scarcely the wind-puff'd sail from afar 'gan darken upon him,

Down the precipitous heights headlong his body he hurried,

Deeming Theseus surely by hateful destiny taken.

So to a dim death-palace, alert from victory, Theseus

Came, what bitter sorrow to Minos' daughter his evil

Perjury gave, himself with an even sorrow atoning.

She, as his onward keel still moved, still mournfully follow'd;

Passion-stricken, her heart a tumultuous image of ocean.

Also upon that couch, flush'd youthfully, breathless Iacchus

Roam'd with a Satyr-band, with Nisa-begot Sileni;

Seeking thee, Ariadna, aflame thy beauty to ravish.

Wildly behind they rushed and wildly before to the folly,

Euhoe rav'd, Euhoe with fanatic heads gyrated;

Some in womanish hands shook rods cone-wreathed above them,

Some from a mangled steer toss'd flesh yet gorily streaming;

Some girt round them in orbs, snakes gordian, intertwining;

Some with caskets deep did blazon mystical emblems,

Emblems muffled darkly, nor heard of spirit unholy.

Part with a slender palm taborines beat merrily jangling;

Now with a cymbal slim would a sharp shrill tinkle awaken;

Often a trumpeter horn blew murmurous, hoarsely resounding.

Rose on pipes barbaric a jarring music of horror.

Such, wrought rarely, the shapes this quilt did richly apparel,

Where to the couch close-clasped it hung thick veils of adorning.