Longus

“ I am not the child you take me to be. I look like a child; but I am older than Saturn, aye, older than Time himself. I knew you well, Philetas, when you were in the flower of your youth, and when you tended your wide-spread herds in yonder marsh. I was near you, when you sat beneath those beech-trees, and piped and sang the praises of your sweetheart Amaryllis: I was close to the damsel, but you could not discern me. I gave her to you, and some brave boys, who are now excellent husbandmen and herdsmen, are the pledges of your love. At the present time I have taken charge of Daphnis and Chloe ”

“ Chloe has been carried away from you, O Nymphs, and could you endure to see it, she who has woven so many garlands for you, who has offered you so many libations of new milk, she who suspended here that pipe — which I see — as an offering? Never did wolf rob me of a single one of my goats, but now marauders have carried away my entire herd, and the shepherdess, my companion, with them. ”

“ Dorcon was the first to speak.
"I," he said, "am taller than Daphnis. I keep oxen, whilst he keeps goats; and just as an ox is more valuable than a goat, so is a herdsman, like myself, superior to a goat-herd. My skin is as white as milk, my hair as golden as ripe wheat; I am as fresh as the leaves in spring. And no wonder, for it was my own mother, not an animal, that suckled me when I was a babe. Daphnis is short and puny, with no more beard than a woman, whilst his body is as tawny as a wolf's skin. By living, too, among his goats, he has contracted a goatish smell. ”

“ Could Chloe have tasted some poison before she kissed me? If so, how is it that she survives? How sweetly the swallows twitter, whilst my pipe is mute! How gaily the kids skip and play, whilst I sink into listless repose! How beautifully the flowers shoot forth, but I am not weaving garlands! The violets and the lilies of the valley are blooming, but Daphnis droops and fades away. Dorcon will soon appear more comely than myself!"
Such were the sensations of poor Daphnis, and thus he vented his feelings; like one within whose heart the sparks of love have for the first time been kindled. ”

“ The heat of the weather increased daily as the spring was departing and the summer approaching. The new delights that this season brings returned once more. Daphnis swam in the rivers, and Chloe bathed in the springs; he piped, vying with the zephyrs that breathed through the pines, whilst she sang, emulating the nightingales with her melody: they amused themselves in chasing and catching noisy locusts and chattering grasshoppers, in gathering posies, and in shaking fruit from the trees, and eating it. ”

“ O most wicked and impious of men, to what lengths has your madness driven you! You have filled the fields, which are dear to me, with the tumult of war: you have taken as plunder the herds and flocks, which were my peculiar care. You have dragged from the altar a virgin whom Cupid had reserved to adorn a tale of love. You scorned both the Nymphs, who beheld your deeds, and me the mighty Pan. Never shall you reach Methymna with these spoils, nor shall you escape the terrors of the pipe which has thus confounded you. ”

“ Thus spake Dorcon, and Daphnis replied: "Yes, like great Jove, I was suckled by a goat, and I keep goats; and my goats are more healthful than this man's oxen will ever be. I lead my goats to pasture, but I have not their smell about me; nor does Pan smell like a goat though there be more of the goat in his nature than aught else. For sustenance I am content with milk, cheese, hard bread, and light wine, the usual food of such rustics as we are; and whilst I share it with you, Chloe, I have no thought as to what the rich man may eat. ”

“ Scarcely had she set foot on the ground, than the pipe was again heard sounding from the rock: but the sound was no longer dreadful like the blast of the war trumpet: it was sweet as the strains that shepherds play when leading their flocks to pasture. The sheep without stumbling descended the plank, which was placed as a gangway to the shore; and the goats, accustomed to steep places, skipped yet more boldly along. Upon reaching the land they all formed in a ring around Chloe, like a chorus of dancers, skipping and bleating and exhibiting every symptom of joy ”

“ While Daphnis was engaged in these rites, this is what happened to Chloe, as she sat watching her flock, weeping and complaining: "Daphnis has forgotten me. He is dreaming of marrying some wealthy maiden. Ah! Why did I make him swear by his goats instead of by the Nymphs! He has forgotten them as he has forgotten me; he has been sacrificing to the Nymphs and to Pan, and yet he has never come to see his Chloe. Perhaps he has seen some other girl whom he deems preferable to me among his mother's maids. Farewell Daphnis! May you be happy; as for myself I cannot survive it." ”

“ I have often sung the praises of the Nymphs of yonder grotto, I have often piped in honour of Pan, and I was wont to guide my herds by the music of my voice. If I have come to you here, it is to acquaint you with what I have seen and to relate to you what I have heard. I have a garden which I cultivate with my own hands, and in which I have never ceased to work since I have been too old to attend my herds. In this garden I obtain every product of nature in due season; in the spring it abounds with roses, lilies, hyacinths, and violets of the deepest bloom ”

“ When noontide drew nigh they felt more ardently in love than ever; Chloe pined and languished at the sight of Daphnis's comeliness which seemed to be without flaw or blemish, and when Daphnis beheld Chloe in her fawn-skin and with the garland of pine-leaves about her brow holding out the bowl to him, he fancied that he beheld one of the Nymphs of the grotto, and drawing near he took the garland from her head and placed it on his own. ”

“ To kiss the closer they embraced one another, and as Daphnis strained Chloe to his bosom, she fell upon her side and he with her. For a long time they remained thus locked in one another's arms, without thought of aught else, for they imagined that love had nothing further to bestow. The evening found them in the same embrace, and then, cursing the approach of night, they parted and drove their flocks homeward. They might perchance have soon become enlightened as to the mysteries of love had not a great tumult arose in the surrounding country. ”

“ Chloe would neglect her flock to roam in search of day-lilies, the stalks of which she twisted into traps for locusts; while Daphnis often played from morn till eve upon a pipe, which he had formed of slender reeds, perforating them between their joints, and securing them together with soft wax. The young folks now often shared their milk and wine, and made a common meal of the food which they had brought from home as provision for the day; and the sheep might sooner have been seen to disperse and browse apart, than Daphnis to separate himself from Chloe. ”

“ Those vexatious goats are fighting noisily with their horns: surely the wolves are grown more timid than foxes that they do not come and seize them! "
At this moment his soliloquy was interrupted by a grasshopper, which, in springing from a swallow that pursued it, fell into Chloe's bosom. As the swallow hovered over her and brushed her cheek with its fluttering wings, the damsel started and screamed; but, seeing the swallow still fluttering near her and Daphnis laughing at her alarm, her fear vanished and she rubbed her eyes which were yet heavy with sleep. ”

“ I am young; and, as I have been your neighbour, you know my character. A goat, moreover, suckled me, as an ewe suckled Chloe. On these grounds, alone, I think I may claim a preference to other suitors, and none of their gifts shall exceed mine. They may offer goats and sheep, or a yoke of wretched oxen, or corn that is even not fit food for fowls; but I will give you three thousand drachmas — only let no one know what I have offered — not even Lamon my father!" With these words Daphnis presented the money and threw his arms around Dryas's neck. ”

“ My violets, how they are trodden under foot! Alas! My narcissus and hyacinths, they are rooted up! Some bad and wicked man must have thus wrecked them. The spring will return, but they will not put forth their buds! The summer will come, and there will be naught to deck this spot! The autumn will arrive, but there will not even be the wherewithal for a garland! And you, my protector, Bacchus, did not you deign to pity the flowers which grew so near to your abode, and with which I have so often crowned your brows? How can I show this garden to my master? ”

“ An eagle has carried off the finest of my twenty geese, but his spoil being too heavy for him he has been unable to carry it to yonder high rock, where he has his nest, and has alighted with it in the wood, in the valley. I am afraid to go alone, so in the name of Pan and the Nymphs, Daphnis, come there with me and help me to recover my goose. I am unwilling to lose it; and besides, you may perchance kill the eagle, in which case your kids and lambs would no longer be in danger. Meanwhile Chloe can guard both flocks: your goats know her as well as they know you, for you are always together. ”

“ Then Chloe hastened to the grotto, and swore by the Nymphs that she would live and die with Daphnis. After that, in the simplicity of her heart, she required that Daphnis should bind himself by a second oath.
"Pan," said she, "by whom you swore, is a fickle lover, on whom one can place no reliance. He loved Pitys, he loved Syrinx, he never ceases from pursuing the Epimelian Nymphs, he is always pestering the Dryads with his addresses. He who breaks his own vows will but laugh if you betray your faith to me, even should you attach yourself to more damsels than there are reeds in this pipe. ”

“ If I say I want a light to kindle our fire, they will tell me that I have nearer neighbours. If I ask for something to eat, they will reply, 'Your scrip is full of victuals.' If I ask for some wine they will say, 'You but lately got in the vintage.' Suppose I assert that a wolf has been pursuing me? But where are the traces of his paws? If I say that I came to snare birds they may reply, 'Then why not return home if you have caught enough? 'Shall I confess that I came to see Chloe? Ah! Who can venture to make so bold an avowal to a father and mother? ”

“ Accordingly I sought for someone who could fully explain them to me, and having been informed of everything I composed these four books, which I dedicate as an offering to Cupid, to the Nymphs and to Pan; hoping that the tale will prove acceptable to many classes of people, inasmuch as it may serve to cure illness, console grief, refresh the memory of him who has already loved, and instruct him who as yet knows not what love is. Never was there and never will there be a man able to resist love, so long as beauty exists in the world and there are eyes to behold it. ”

“ As the spring drew nigh the snow melted, the earth displayed itself, and the grass began to grow. Then the shepherds and herdsmen again led their flocks to pasture, and Daphnis and Chloe were earlier than all others, for they themselves were guided by the mightiest of shepherds, Love. ”

“ I am, and always have been very careful of my goats, and no one in the village can say that a goat of mine ever broused in his garden, or devoured any of his sprouting vines. These sportsmen are themselves to blame, for their dogs are so badly broken that they ran about here and there barking so loudly that they alarmed my goats, and like so many wolves drove them from the slopes towards the shore. No wonder that the poor animals ate the osiers, could they find grass, or shrubs, or thyme upon the sands? ”

“ One day when Pan beheld her sporting, singing and tending her flocks, he approached her and endeavoured to entice her, promising her as an inducement that all her she-goats should bear two kids at each birth. But the maiden laughed at his suit, and replied that she could never think of taking as her lover, one who was neither man nor goat, but half of each. Then, as Pan prepared to offer violence, she fled from him, till growing weary with running, she darted among the reeds of a lake and vanished from sight. ”

“ My eldest son and my daughter died of the same disease in one day; but by the providence of the Gods, you, Daphnis, have been preserved that we might have additional support in our old age. Do not bear any ill will towards me because I exposed you; it was the Gods, not I, that willed it; nor do you, Astylus, grieve that you will now have but a part of my estate instead of the whole of it; for to a wise man no wealth is equal to the possession of a brother. ”