GCSE Latin: Virgil: Orpheus et Eurydice

Latin

ipse cava solans aegrum testudine amorem
te, dulcis coniunx, te solo in litore secum,
te veniente die, te decedente canebat.
Taenarias etiam fauces, alta ostia Ditis,
et caligantem nigra formidine lucum
ingressus, manesque aduut regemque tremendum
nesciaque humanis precibus mansuescere corda.
at cantu commotae Erebi de sedibus imis
umbrae ibant tenues simulacraque luce carentum,
quam multa in follis avium se milia condunt,
vesper ubi aut hibernus agit de montibus imber,
matres atque viri defunctaque corpora vita
magnanimum heroum, pueri innuptaeque puellae,
impositique rogis iuvenes ante ora parentum,
quos circum limus niger et deformis harundo
Cocyti tardaque palus inamabilis unda
alligat et novies Styx interfusa coercet.
quin ipsae stupuere domus atque intima Leti
Tartara caeruleosque implexae crinibus angues
Eumenides, tenuitque inhians tria Cerberus ora,
atque Ixionii venta rota contitit orbis.
iamque pedem referens casus evaserat omnes
redditaque Eurydice superas veniebat ad auras
pone sequens (manque hanc dederat Proserpina legem),
cum subita incautum dementia cepit amantem,
ignoscenda quidem, scirent si ignoscere manes:
restitit, Eurydicenque suam iam luce sub ipsa
immemor heu! victusqye animi respexit. ibi omnis
effusus labor atque immitis rupta tyranni
foedera, terque fragor stagnis auditus Averni.
illa 'quis et me?' inquit 'miseram et te perdidit, Orpheu,
quis tantus furor? en iterum crudelia retro
fata vocant, conditque natantia lumina somnus.
iamque vale: feror ingenti circumdata nocte
invalidasque tibi tendens, heu non tua, palmas,'
duxut et ex oculis subito, ceu fumus in auras
commixus tenues, fugit diversa, neque illum
prensantem nequiquam umbras et multa voltem
dicere praetera vidit; nec protitor Orci
amplius obiectam passus transire paludem.
quid faceret? quo se rapta bis coniuge ferret?
quo fletu manes, quae numia voce moveret?
illa quidem Stygia nabat iam frigida cumba.
septem illum totos perhibent ex ordine menses
rupe sub aeria deserti ad Strymonis undam
flevisse et gelidis haec evolvisse sub antris
mulcentem tigres et agentem carmine quercus;
qualis populea maerens philomela sub umbra
amissos queritur fetus, quos durus arator
observans nido implumes detraxit; at illa
flex noctem, ramoque sedens miserabile carmen
integrat, et maestis late loca questibus implet.
nulla Venus, non ulli animum flexere hymenaei:
solus Hyperboreas glacies Tanaimque nivalem
arvaque Riphaeis numquam viduata prunis
lustrabat, raptam Eurydicen atque irrita Ditis
dona querens. soretae Ciconum quo munere matres
inter sacra deum nocturnique orgia Bacchi
discerptum latos iuvenem sparsere per agros.
tum quoque marmorea caput a cervice revulsum
gurgite cum medio portans Oeagrius Herbrus
volveret, Eurydicen vox ipsa et frigida lingua
a miseram Eurydicen! anima fugiente vocabat:
Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripae.

English

He (Orpheus), consoling his sorrowful love with his hollow lyre,
Would sing of you, sweet wife, you with him on the deserted shore,
You as the day was dawning, you at its dying.
He even went into the jaws of Taenarus, the high doors of Dis [=Pluto],
And the grove which was gloomy with dark terror,
And came to the sould of the dead, and the terrifying king,
And the hearts not knowing how to be softened by human prayers.
But the slender shades, stirred by the song, and the ghosts of those lacking light
Were moving from the deepest resting-places of Erebus,
As many as the thousands of birds which hide themselves in the leaves,
When the evening or the winter rain drives them from the mountains,
Mothers and husbands, and the bodies of great-hearted heroes
Who are finished with life, boys and unwed girls,
And youths put upon the pyres before their parents faces,
Whom the black slime and the ugly reeds
And the hateful marsh enclose around with its sluggish course
And the nine tributaries of the Styx [lit. the Styx nine times interflowing] confine.
Indeed, the very abodes were spellbound, as were the innermost regions of Letum
And the Furies with sea-green snakes woven in their hair,
And Cerberus opening wide his three mouths, holds still,
And the revolving wheel of Ixion has stopped in the wind.
And now Eurydice retracing her steps had escaped from all the hazards
And having been given back was coming to the airs above
Following just behind (for Perspehone had given this condition),
When a sudden madness seized the heedless lover -
Indeed it was forgivable, if the souls of the dead knew how to forgive:
He stopped, and - alas! - without thinking, on the very verge of daylight,
Defeated in his resolve, at his own Eurydice he looked back. Then all
The effort was wasted, the conditions of the cruel king were broken,
And three times the thunderclap was heard in the lakes of Avernus.
She said, "What has ruined me, wretch that I am, and you, Orpheus,
What is this madness that is so great? Look, the cruel fates call me back again,
And sleep is closing my streaming eyes.
And now farewell: surrounded by the enveloping [lit. huge] night I am borne away
While holding out my powerless hands to you, though alas I am not yours."
So she spoke, and suddenly she fled away from sight,
Just like smoke mixed with slight breezes,
And never more did she see him as he grasped the shadows
And wished to say so much; nor did the ferryman of Orcus
Allow him to cross again the marsh that lay in his way.
What should he do? Where could he take himself to, with his wife twice snatched away?
With what weeping could he move the dead spirits, which gods could he stir with his voice?
In fact she was now ice-cold, sailing in the Stygian boat.
They say that he wept for seven whole months on end
Under a towering rock near the shore of deserted Strymon
And related these things beneath the chilly caverns
Whilst taming tigers and enthralling oaks with his song;
Just as the nightingale, mourning under the poplar's shade
Laments her stolen chicks, which the rugged ploughman
Stole from the nest when he saw them unfeathered;
Yet she weeps through the night, and renews her woeful song while sitting on a branch,
And she fills places far and wide with her doleful laments.
No love of woman nor marriages could move the spirit:
Alone, Orpheus would roam over the ice-fields of the Hyperborei [='above the North Wind'],
Snowy Tanais and the fields never freed from the frosts of the Riphaei,
Pining for stolen Eurydice and the futile gifts of Pluto.
The matrons of the Cicones, spurned by this devotion,
Amidst the sacred revels of the gods and of nocturnal Bacchus
Scattered the young man ripped asunder over the broad fields.
Then also when the ancestral [lit. of Oeagrius] river Hebrus would flow,
Carrying his head torn from the marble-white neck in the midst of its waters,
The voice itself and the cold tongue, as the life-force was escaping,
Would call Eurydice, O poor Eurydice!
The banks would re-echo Eurydice throughout the river.

Notes

Dis is Pluto, or Hades. The God of the Underworld. The Hyperborei literally means "above the north wind", so Northern Europe. The start of the poem uses groups of three, when talking of how Orpheus sings we have "te... te... te...". Also in line 5 the hexameter is made up from as many heavy syllables as possible. Perhaps this represents stepping down into the Underworld. This sounds rather ominous in comparison to the light singing tones of lines 2 and 3. There is an unusual break in line 27 as there is a change in the content of the poem.

Discussion

This is an excerpt from Virgil's Georgics; the metre is hexameter.

Observations on the effects created by the poet's use of language may relate to:
Orpheus and Eurydice: line notes

2-3 Song-like quality; te repeated in emphatic positions. Apart from secum and canebat, these could be the very words of Orpheus' song.
5 Metre: heavy syllables (spondees) throughout.
7 Assonance of s to denote futile babble of prayers.
10-17 The simile involves ideas of life and death, hiding and migration as well as comparison of number. The atmosphere becomes progressively nastier, moving through from the premature death of the young (ll.13-14) to the horrors of Styx (l.17).
22 There is a break in the story here, signalled by iamque. Metre: run of dactyls in ll.22-3 describes Eurydice's steps. Virgil assumes the story is well known.
25 Heavier metre as Orpheus' folly is described. Elision of subit(a) incautum could be construed as a gasp of horror; again at end l.28.
31 The only speech in the passage, occupying five lines, whereas we may expect the drama to be more character-led. Although Orpheu is vocative, it virtually – almost apologetically - provides the answer to Eurydice's question.
42 Metre: string of heavy syllables; Orpheus' singing and weeping are in vain.
43 A succinct but adequate summary of Eurydice's fate. As for Orpheus...
44 an opening run of heavy syllables announces that his lot is no easier.
46 Sound: 'chilly' assonance of s...
47 ...beguiling, seductive assonance of m.
57-9 It was usual for a bull to be torn to pieces in the Bacchanal rites at Thrace. latos ... per agros (l.59) picks up on the secluded location preferred for such activities.

Suggested Exam Extracts

Extract 1

ipse cava solans aegrum testudine amorem
te, dulcis coniunx, te solo in litore secum,
te veniente die, te decedente canebat.
Taenarias etiam fauces, alta ostia Ditis,
et caligantem nigra formidine lucum
ingressus, manesque aduut regemque tremendum
nesciaque humanis precibus mansuescere corda.
at cantu commotae Erebi de sedibus imis
umbrae ibant tenues simulacraque luce carentum,
quam multa in follis avium se milia condunt,
vesper ubi aut hibernus agit de montibus imber,
matres atque viri defunctaque corpora vita
magnanimum heroum, pueri innuptaeque puellae,
impositique rogis iuvenes ante ora parentum,
quos circum limus niger et deformis harundo
Cocyti tardaque palus inamabilis unda
alligat et novies Styx interfusa coercet.


Extract 2

iamque pedem referens casus evaserat omnes
redditaque Eurydice superas veniebat ad auras
pone sequens (manque hanc dederat Proserpina legem),
cum subita incautum dementia cepit amantem,
ignoscenda quidem, scirent si ignoscere manes:
restitit, Eurydicenque suam iam luce sub ipsa
immemor heu! victusqye animi respexit. ibi omnis
effusus labor atque immitis rupta tyranni
foedera, terque fragor stagnis auditus Averni.
illa 'quis et me?' inquit 'miseram et te perdidit, Orpheu,
quis tantus furor? en iterum crudelia retro
fata vocant, conditque natantia lumina somnus.
iamque vale: feror ingenti circumdata nocte
invalidasque tibi tendens, heu non tua, palmas,'


Extract 3

quid faceret? quo se rapta bis coniuge ferret?
quo fletu manes, quae numia voce moveret?
illa quidem Stygia nabat iam frigida cumba.
septem illum totos perhibent ex ordine menses
rupe sub aeria deserti ad Strymonis undam
flevisse et gelidis haec evolvisse sub antris
mulcentem tigres et agentem carmine quercus;
qualis populea maerens philomela sub umbra
amissos queritur fetus, quos durus arator
observans nido implumes detraxit; at illa
flex noctem, ramoque sedens miserabile carmen
integrat, et maestis late loca questibus implet.