Prevod
Philyra’s heroic son wept and begged in vain for your aid, O god of Delphi. For you could neither revoke mighty Jove’s decrees, nor, even had you been able, were you there: you were dwelling in Elis and the fields of Messenia. That was the time when a shepherd’s hide clothed you, and a woodland staff weighed on your left hand, while the other held a pipe of seven unequal reeds.
And while love occupied your thoughts and your pipe soothed you, your cattle, left unguarded, are said to have strayed into the fields of Pylos. The son of Maia, Atlas’s daughter, saw them, drove them off, and cunningly hid them in the woods. No one had noticed the theft except an old man well known in that countryside; all the neighbours called him Battus. He watched over wealthy Neleus’s woodland pastures, his grassy meadows, and his herds of fine mares.
Fearing this man, the thief drew him aside with a coaxing hand and said, “Whoever you are, my friend, if anyone should happen to ask after these cattle, say you have not seen them; and lest your service go unrewarded, take this sleek cow as payment”— and gave it to him. Having accepted it, the old man replied: “Go without fear: that stone will tell of your theft before I do,” and pointed to a stone. Jove’s son pretended to leave, then soon returned, changing his voice as well as his appearance.
“Countryman,” he said, “if you have seen any cattle passing this way, help me: break the silence that conceals a theft. You shall have a cow together with her bull.” But once the reward was doubled, the old man said, “They will be under those hills”—and under those hills they were. Atlas’s grandson laughed. “Traitor, would you betray me to myself? Betray me to myself?” he said, and turned that perjured heart to hard flint, which even now is called the informer, and the ancient disgrace still clings to the stone, which did nothing to deserve it.
Izvirnik
Source ID: ovid_metamorphoses_story_015 Citation: Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.676-2.707 Original language: Latin Source: PerseusDL canonical-latinLit Source URL: https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-latinLit/blob/master/data/phi0959/phi006/phi0959.phi006.perseus-lat2.xml Segmentation certainty: medium 676: Flebat opemque tuam frustra Philyreius heros, 677: Delphice, poscebat. Nam nec rescindere magni 678: iussa Iovis poteras, nec, si rescindere posses, 679: tunc aderas: Elin Messeniaque arva colebas.
680: Illud erat tempus, quo te pastoria pellis 681: texit onusque fuit baculum silvestre sinistrae, 682: alterius dispar septenis fistula cannis. 683: Dumque amor est curae, dum te tua fistula mulcet, 684: incustoditae Pylios memorantur in agros 685: processisse boves. Videt has Atlantide Maia 686: natus et arte sua silvis occultat abactas. 687: Senserat hoc furtum nemo nisi notus in illo 688: rure senex; Battum vicinia tota vocabant.
689: Divitis hic saltus herbosaque pascua Nelei 690: nobiliumque greges custos servabat equarum. 691: Hunc timuit blandaque manu seduxit et illi 692: “quisquis es, hospes” ait, “si forte armenta requiret 693: haec aliquis, vidisse nega; neu gratia facto 694: nulla rependatur, nitidam cape praemia vaccam” — 695: et dedit. Accepta voces has reddidit hospes: 696: “Tutus eas: lapis iste prius tua furta loquetur”, 697: et lapidem ostendit. Simulat Iove natus abire, 698: mox redit, et versa pariter cum voce figura 699: “rustice, vidisti siquas hoc limite” dixit 700: “ire boves, fer opem furtoque silentia deme:
701: iuncta suo pariter dabitur ubi femina tauro.” 702: At senior, postquam est merces geminata, “sub illis 703: montibus” inquit “erunt”: et erant sub montibus illis. 704: Risit Atlantiades et “me mihi, perfide, prodis? 705: me mihi prodis?” ait, periuraque pectora vertit 706: in durum silicem, qui nunc quoque dicitur index, 707: inque nihil merito vetus est infamia saxo.
