M/M: Dangerous Beauty: Dionysus' fears over Ampelos, Nonnus, Dion. X.250-264

Trigger Warning: Violence, Rape

Verum ubi thyrsum sustulit contra rabiosam ursam
aut forti virga iaculatus esset Leanam
in occasum oculos intendit, in aera oblique cernens
Ne Zephyri spiraret iterum mortifere venatio.
Quemadmodum prius adolescentem occiderat gravis ventus
discum iaculatorem convertens Hyacinthi.
Timebat ne Saturnii venator avis amorum
inprovisus incomprehensibilis super Tmolo appareret
recentibus? potentibus unguibus in aere puerum attollens
Troium ut puerum suorum pincernam poculorum.
Formidabat etiam infelicem in amore rectorem maris
ne post Tantalidem aureorum conscensorem curruum
ne cursum aeriuagum duens alatum vehiculum
Ampelum raperet amore furiosus Neptunus. 

ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε θύρσον ἄειρε καταντία λυσσάδος ἄρκτου
ἢ βριαρῷ νάρθηκα κατηκόντιζε λεαίνης,
εἰς δύσιν ὄμμα τίταινε ἐς ἠέρα λοξὰ δοκεύων,
μὴ Ζεφύρου πνεύσειε πάλιν θανατηφόρος αὔρη, 
ὡς πάρος ἡβητῆρα κατέκτανε πικρὸς ἀήτης
δίσκον ἀκοντιστῆρα καταστρέψας Ὑακίνθου:
δείδιε, μὴ Κρονίδης ἐρασίπτερος ὄρνις Ἐρώτων
ἀπροΐδὴς ἀκίχητος ὑπὲρ Τμώλοιο φανείη
φειδομένοις ὀνύχεσσιν ἐς ἠέρα παῖδα κομίζων,
Τρώιον οἷά τε κοῦρον ἑῶν δρηστῆρα κυπέλλων:
ἔτρεμε καὶ δυσέρωτα κυβερνητῆρα θαλάσσης,
μὴ μετὰ Τανταλίδην χρυσέων ἐπιβήτορα δίφρων
εἰς δρόμον ἠερόφοιτον ἄγων πτερόεσσαν ἀπήνην

ἄμπελον ἁρπάξειεν ἐρωμανέων ἐνοσίχθων.

 

--Nonnus, Dionysiaca, X.250-264


Whenever Bacchus raised his thyrsus against a raging she-bear,
or tossed his wooden spear against a lioness, 
he kept his eyes to the west, watching the skies,
lest once again the death-bringing West-Wind Zephyr blow again,
as it had killed Hyacinthus by changing the course of a discus.
And he used to fear that Jupiter would come flying over Tmolus as a lovesick bird,
snatching his lover away with his 
gentle claws and carrying him off to heaven to be his new cupbearer,
the way he did with Trojan Ganymede.
And he was afraid that the unlucky-in-love ruler of the waves Neptune would grab up the youth in his winged chariot, 
seizing Ampelos the way he did to Pelops.  

NONNUS	MAP:
Name:  Nonnus of Panopolis Date:  4th – 5th c. CE Works:  Dionysiaca	REGION  4
BIO:	Timeline:
Nonnus was an Egyptian born Roman citizen who composed the Dionysiaca, a massive 48 volume epic about the life of the god Dionysus.	POST-CONSTANTINOPLE