DaphneANCIENT_Parthenius
Parthenius, Erotica Pathemata, 15
Parthenius of Nicea was a Greek poet taken as captive in 1st Century BC to Rome where he instructed a rising generation of poets in principles of poetry made fashionable in the Hellenistic age. Among those taught by Parthenius were Gaius Cornelius Gallus, who intermediated the reception of his teacher's poetry at Rome, Vergil, whose praise for Gallus intertwines among veneration for Parthenius.
J.L. Lightfoot's edition with commentary of Parthenius' poetic fragments (OUP, 1999) is excellent, and her Loeb volume translates all fragments.
The translation of section 15 below is by RTM.
"The story is found in the elegies of Diodorus of Eleia and in Phylarchus.
The following story is told about Daphne, the daughter of Amyclas: She did not go ever into the city, nor did she ever spend time with the other girls; rather, she would gather her many dogs and hunt in Laconia and even into the surround lands throughout the rest of the Peloponnese. For that reason she became very beloved of Artemis, and the goddess made her shoot with a dead-eye aim.
Once, when Daphne was roaming through Eleia, Leucippos Oenomaeus' son fell in love with her. He chose not to attempt any other pass at her other than to put on woman's clothing and sidle up to her looking like a girl. He happened somehow to work into her favor, and she would not let him go away but rather hugged him and held onto him all the time. Apollo, however, began to burn with passion for the girl and was gripped by anger and rage when Leucippus was around. So he put it into the girl's mind to bathe with the other girls who went to the spring. So then, when they got there and took off their clothes and discovered that Leucippus was not wanting to get naked, they disrobbed him. When they discovered his deception and how he was deceiving them, they all started throwing their javelins at him. But he, by the intervention of the gods, became invisible. Daphne took flight, moving at great speed, when Apollo approached her. When she was about to be taken, she besought Zeus to remove her from mortals. And the story goes that she became the tree that is commonly named after her, the DAPHNE (= the laurel)."
text:
15 Ἡ ἱστορία παρὰ Διοδώρῳ τῷ Ἐλαΐτῃ ἐν ἐλεγείαις καὶ Φυλάρχῳ ἐν ιεʹ
Περὶ δὲ τῆς Ἀμύκλα θυγατρὸς τάδε λέγεται Δάφνης: αὕτη τὸ μὲν ἅπαν εἰς πόλιν οὐ κατῄει, οὐδ̓ ἀνεμίσγετο ταῖς λοιπαῖς παρθένοις: παρασκευασαμένη δὲ κύνας ἐθήρευεν ἔστιν ὅτε καὶ ἐν τῇ Λακωνικῇ καὶ ἐπιφοιτῶσα εἰς τὰ λοιπὰ τῆς Πελοποννήσου ὄρη: δἰ ἣν αἰτίαν μάλα καταθύμιος ἦν Ἀρτέμιδι, καὶ αὐτὴν εὔστοχα βάλλειν ἐποίει.
Ταύτης περὶ τὴν Ἠλιδίαν ἀλωμένης Λεύκιππος, Οἰνομάου παῖς, εἰς ἐπιθυμίαν ἦλθε, καὶ τὸ μὲν ἄλλως πως αὐτῆς πειρᾶσθαι ἀπέγνω, ἀμφιεσάμενος δὲ γυναικείας ἀμπεχόνας καὶ ὁμοιωθεὶς κόρῃ συνεθήρα αὐτῇ.
Ἔτυχε δέ πως αὐτῇ κατὰ νοῦν γενόμενος, οὐ μεθίει τε αὐτὸν ἀμφιπολεύουσά τε καὶ ἐξηρτημένη πᾶσαν ὥραν. Ἀπόλλων δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς τῆς παιδὸς πόθῳ καόμενος, ὀργῇ τε καὶ φθόνῳ εἴχετο τοῦ Λευκίππου συνόντος, καὶ ἐπὶ νοῦν αὐτῇ βάλλει σὺν ταῖς λοιπαῖς παρθένοις ἐπὶ κρήνην ἐλθούσαις λούεσθαι.
Ἔνθα δὴ ὡς ἀφικόμεναι ἀπεδιδύσκοντο καὶ ἑώρων τὸν Λεύκιππον μὴ βουλόμενον, περιέρρηξαν αὐτόν: μαθοῦσαι δὲ τὴν ἀπάτην καὶ ὡς ἐπεβούλευεν αὐταῖς, πᾶσαι μεθίεσαν εἰς αὐτὸν τὰς αἰχμάς.
Καὶ ὁ μὲν δὴ κατὰ θεῶν βούλησιν ἀφανὴς γίνεται, Ἀπόλλωνα δὲ Δάφνη ἐπ̓ αὐτὴν ἰόντα προϊδομένη, μάλα ἐρρωμένως ἔφευγεν: ὡς δὲ συνεδιώκετο, παρὰ Διὸς αἰτεῖται ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἀπαλλαγῆναι, καὶ αὐτήν φασι γενέσθαι τὸ δένδρον τὸ ἐπικληθὲν ἀπ̓ ἐκείνης δάφνην.