The Daughters of Orion

With this and other tales, both host and guests

passed all their banquet time. And then they left,

to sleep. At daybreak they awoke and went

to visit Phoebus’ oracle; it bid

 

Latin [656–78]

 

the Trojans to seek out their “ancient mother”—

their land of origin—and other shores

that nurtured their ancestors. Anius

was there as they embarked, and he brought gifts:

a scepter for Anchises and a cloak

and quiver for Ascanius; Aeneas

received a well-wrought cup that had been sent

to Anius by Therses, his dear friend,

whose birthplace lay along Ismenus’ banks.

Therses had shipped it from Aonia—

he was the sender; and the maker was

Alcon of Hyle, who had ringed that cup

with his engravings, images that told

a lengthy story.

 

                    There one saw a city

and seven gates: their number took the place

of “Thebes”—he did not have to carve that name.

Before the city, funeral and tombs

and blazing fires and pyres, and, in despair,

women with bared breasts and disheveled hair

were signs of a disaster. There were nymphs

who wept to see the drying-up of springs.

The trees were nude, their branches stripped of leaves;

the goats were forced to gnaw on stony fields.

Inside the wall he carved Orion’s daughters:

with more than women’s courage, their blades pierce

their naked necks, whose flesh does not resist.

They die to save their people from the plague;

they’re borne through town—a mighty funeral;

the crowd surrounds the pyre when they are burned.

And that their line may not die out with them,

beyond, out of the virgins’ ashes, rise

two youths to whom the legend gives the name

Coroni; they are shown as they parade,

leading the rites that would commemorate

the ashes from which they have sprung—their mothers’.

That was the final scene, the last relief

 

Latin [678–700]

 

he carved upon the gleaming ancient bronze.

And he adorned the rim of that wine-cup

with jutting carvings—gilt leaves of acanthus.

 

The Trojans, in return, gave Anius

fine gifts of no less worth than his: the priest

received a censer, a libation bowl,

and a bright crown that gleamed with gems and gold.