THE MINOTAUR DAEDALUS AND ICARUS Planned to confine him

176
THE MINOTAUR
VJlI. 158-86
Planned to confine him shut away within
Blind walls of intricate complexity.
The structure was designed by Daedalus,
That famous architect. Appearances
Were all contused; he led the eye astra y
Bya mazy multitude of winding ways,
Just as Maeander plays among the meads
Of Phrygia and in its pu zzling flow
Glides back and forth and meets itself and sees
Its waters on their way and winds along,
Facing sometimes its source, sometimes the sea.
So Daedalus in countless corridors
Built baffiement, and hardly could himself
Make his wa y out"o puzzling was the maze .
Within this labyrinth Minos shut fast
The beast, half bull, half man, and fed bim twice
On Attic blood, lot-chosen each nine years,
Until the third choice mastered him."" The door,
So dillicult , which nonc of those before
Could find again, by Ariadne's aid
Was found , the thread that traced the way rewound.
Then Theseus, seizing Minos' daughter, spread
His sa ils for Naxos, where, upon the shore,
That cruel prince abandoned her and she,
Abandoned, in her grief and allger found
Comfort in Bacchus' arms. He took her crown
And set it in the heavells to win her there
A star's eternal glory ; and the crown
Flew through the soft light air and, as it flew,
Its gems were tumed to gleaming fires, and still
Shaped as a crown their place in heaven they take
Between the Kneeler* alld hiIJl who grasps the Snake.
DAEDALUS AND ICARUS
Hating the isle of Crete and the long years
Of exile;" Daedalus was pining for
His native land, but seas on every side
Imprisoned him. 'Though land and sea' , he thought,
'The king may bar to me, at least the sky
VIII. 187-217
DAEDALUS AND ICARUS
Is open; through the sky I'll set my course.
Minos may own all else; he does not own
The air.' So then to unimagined arts
He set his mind and altered nature's laws.
Row upon row of feathers he arranged,
The smalles t first, then larger ones, to 10rm
A growing graded shape, as rustic pipes
Rise in a gradual slope of lengthening reeds;
Then bound the middle and the base with wax
And flaxen threads, and bent them , so arranged,
Into a gentle curve to imitate
Wings of a real bird. His boy stood by,
Young Icarus, who, blithely unaware
He plays with his own peril, tries to catch
Feathers that float upon the wandering breeze,
Or softens with his thumb the yellow wax,
And by his laughing mischief interrupts
His father's wondrous work. Then, when the last
Sure tOllch was given, the craftsman poised himself
On his twin wings and hovered in t.he air.
Next he prepa red his son. 'Take ca re', he said,
'To fl y a middle co urse, les t if yo u sink
Too low the wa ves lTI ay weight your fea thers; if
Too high , t he heat ma y burn theill. Fly hal f-way
Between the two. And do no t watch the stars,
The Great Bear or the Wagoner or Orion ,
With his drawn sword, to steer by. Set your course
Where 1shall lead.' lie fixed the strange new wings
On his son's shoulders and in structed him
How he should fly; and, as he worked and warned,
The old man's cheeks were wet, the fa ther's hands
Trembled. He kissed his son (the last kisses
H e'd ever give) and rising on his wings
He fl ew ahead, anxious for his son's sake,
Just like a bird that from its lofty nest
launches a tender fledgeling in the air.
Calling his son to follow, schooling him
In that fatal apprenticeship, he flapped
His wings and watched the boy flapping behind.
An angler fishing with his quivering rod,
177
178
DAEDALUS AND ICARUS
VIll.218-49
A lonely shepherd propped upon his crook,
A ploughman leaning on his plough , looked up
And gazed in awe, and thought they must be gods
That they could fly. Delos and Paros lay
Behiud them now; Salllos, grea t Juno' s isle,
Was Oll the left, Lebinthos on the right
And honey-rich Calymne, when the boy
Began to enjoy his thrilling flight and left
His guide to roam the ranges of the heavens,
And soared too high. The scorching sun so close
Softened the fragrant wax that bound his wings;
The wax melted; his waving arms were bare;
Uufledged, they had 110 purchase on the air!
Aud calling to his father as he fell,
The boy was swallowed in the blue sea's swell,
The blue sea'''' that for ever bears his name.
His wretched father, now no father, cried
'Oh, Icarus, where arc you ? Icarus,
Where shall I look, where find yOll?' On the waves
He saw the feathers. Then he cursed his skill.
And buried his boy's body in a grave,
And still that island* keeps the name he gave.
PERDIX
Now while he laid his poor dear son to rest
A chattering partridge ill a muddy ditch
Watched hilll and clapped its wiugs and crowed for joy­
A bird unique and never seen before,
A new creation and a long reproach
To Daedalus. His sister, never guessing
The fate in store, had given her boy to him
For training, twelve years old and quick to learn.
This lad observed the backbone of a fish
And copied it; he cut a row of teeth
In a slim blade of iron and a saw
Was his invention . He too was the first
To fasten with a joint two metal arms
So that, keeping a constant space apart,
While one stood still the other traced a circle.
VlIl. 250-80
PERDIX
In jealous rage his master hurled him dowll
Headlong from Pallas' sacred citadel,*
Feigning a fall; but .Pallas, who sustains
Talent, upheld him, changed him to a bird
And clothed the lad with feathers as he fell.
Even so his talent's darting cp.lickuess passed
To wings and feet; he kept his former name. «.
But this bird never lifts itself aloft,
Nor builds its nest on boughs or high tree-tops,
But flits along the ground and lays its eggs
In hedgerows, dreading heights for they recall
The memory of that old fearful fall.
MEL EAGE R AND THE CAL YDONIA N BOAR
Now Etna's land gave weary Daedalus
Weicome, and Cocalus* who took up arms
On his behalf was kindly. Athens now
Had ceased-all praise to Theseus-to expend
Her tearful tribute. Shrines were garlanded,
And Pallas, Jove and all the gods were hymned
With offerings in their hOllour, victims' blood
And heaps of incense. Flying fame had spread
The name of Theseus through the towns of Greece,
And in their perils rich Achaea's realms
Implored his aid.* His aid even Calydon,
Who owned her Meleager, in distress
Begged and besought- the calise of her distress
A boar, Diana's boar, her instrument
Of enmity and vengeance. For the king,
Oeueus,"" it's said, when plenty blessed the year,
To Ceres gave the first-fruits of the corn,
To Bacchus pOllred his wine, to golden-haired
Pallas her oil from her own holy tree.
The prized oblations, given first to gods
Of farm and field, reached all the gods of heaven.
Only Diana's altars* (so men say)
\Yfere left uncensed, lInserviced and ignored .
The gods feel anger too. 'This shall not pass
Unpunished. No!' she cried, 'I may be seen
179
420
NOTES TO PAGES 168 - 75
VII
when an irresistible force mee ts an immovable object? Answer:
The referee awards a draw.
804 when the SI/11'S first i>ea111s /Co lollred the hilltops: precisely and
ominously when he got into trouble before, and when disaster
was to strike (below, II. 835- 7)' Ama (see next note) is Aurora
abbreviated.
810 zephyr: in the Latin aura 'h reeze·. a feminine noun which can
also be heard as a girl's name, Aum. This resists translation.
Experience shows that the modern reader's ear accepts 'Zephyr'
(though Latin Zephyrus is lI1asculine) as a possible girl's name.
BOOK VIII
SCYLLA AND MIN OS. The story of Scylla combines more
t han one element. The traditional theme of the traitress within
the gates had been adumbrated in Medea and, more explicitly,
in Arne (vii . 465 n.). The maiu emphasis is on the motif of
forbidden /u nnatural/thwarted passion, prominent in the Tereus­
Procne and Medea episodes and to be further developed in the
following books. Scylla's two deliberative soliloquies again recall
Medea , and dominate the episode. The narrative element is rela­
tively unimportant; it is the heroine's state of mind that interests
the poet.
8 A!cathous: legendary found er of Mega ra .
15- 16 Lato1la's son . .. in the stones: this was still a tourist attraction
in the second century AD: 'When Apollo was helping rAlcathous J
build the wall, he laid his harp on a stone, and if you hit this
stone with a pebble it twangs like a struck harp.string' (Pausanias
i. 42. I).
49 she: Europa, his mother by Jupi tcr: below, II. 122 ff.
108 she cri ed: lwr speech is a tour de for ce, for which Ovid has laid
nnder cOl1tlibution the outbursts of Euripides' Medea, Catullus'
Ariadne, and Virgil's Dido. Cf. Introd. xxv. For other such
excesses in elllulation d. vii. 52 3 rI., xi. 480 If. n.
120 Syrtes: notorious quicksands off the coast of Africa. For these
invidious comparisons d . vii. 32-3 n.
121 Charybdis: but not (the other) Scylla, which might here be
confusing.
131 that adultere ss: Pasiphae, mother of the Minotaur. The story had
been told by Ovid, in flippant vein, at Ars A111atoria i. 289 if.
141 I'U follow : in other versions Minos drags Scylla behind his ship.
1- 151
NOTES TO P AG ES 175 - 9
V111
~!1
. shorn: ciris from Greek Iteiro and tOIlSO from Latin
tondea ooth='cut, shear'. No co nvin cing identification has been
proposed for this binI; Golding (strangely) chose the lark.
1 50 Shecll·er.
152-82 THE MINOTAUR.
17 1 the third choice 1I1i1stered him: the tribute consisted of seven
yout hs ami seven maidens; Theseus voluntarily includcd himself
in the third contingent, killed the Minotaur, and carried off
Ariadne, who had eq uipped him with the thread by which he
fonnd his way through the ma ze. The story of his desertion of
Ariadne and her rescue hy Bacchus had been told by Ovid at AI'S
AlIlntoria i. 52 7 ff.
182 Betweell t"e' Kn cdcr . . .: i.c. between Engo nas in , sometimes
identified as Hercules, and Ophiuclms.
18l- 250 DAEDALUS AND ICAHU S: PERDIX. An admirable ada pta·
tion of a s tory admirably told by Ovid al AI'S Amntorin ii. I I ff.
The re is a famous painting of Ihe suhject by Bruegel.
184 exile: tb e rea son emerges lat er, II. 236 If.
2~O Th e bill e 5cn: the Icarian Sea, betwccn the Cycbdes and south·
western As ia IV! inor. Cf. next note.
235 lhat island: karia , west of S;lmos. Two ailin do duty for a meta­
morphosis; but the phrase 'altered nature's laws' (n ol ilram
nOIl(lI) at 1. 189 "bove is pointed.
250 Palla s' sacred cilucld: the Athenian Acropoli s.
255 hi s (onn er nn111c': Pcrdix , Greek for partridge.
260- H4 MFLEAGER AND THE (ALYDON IAN BOAR. Theseus
now relll rn s to introduce the next lon g episode, which occcupics
the celltral portiol! of the book. Tlte story of Mcleagcr and the
Ca lydollian Boa r ranked in importance with tbat of the Argo·
11<111[5 and was a favourite ill art and literature . Ovid's prime
sou rce was Euripides' lost M dcag&r. The hUllf offers another
opportunity for an epicizing tour de force. complete with cata­
log"e of ht:roes (vi ii. 300 11.); technically it is interesti ng for
the ingelluity with which battlefield 1110lifs arc tra nsferred to the
chase. It is a so mcwhat knocbbou t alfair. distinguished by the
pxlreme incompetence of lIlost of th ose cngaged. and contrasting
strongly wit h the following tragiC sce ne ill which Althaea faces
her agon izing dilemma.
.. 1" Coenills: king of Sicily. The usua l story is that hc treacherously
lI1\11"dcred Minos: Ovid seems to refer obscurely to a different
version.
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"'t:
OVID
Metamorphoses Translated by
A. D. MEL VILLE
0/ ,,.,,,11'1'\,
With an Introduction and Notes by
E.). KENNEY
OXFORD
UNrVERSITY PRESS
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