Mother Earth pleads with Jupiter

Mother Earth’s appeal to Jupiter

read by Emma Kirkby

Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.279-96: Mother Earth is in flames, as Apollo’s son Phaethon fails to control his father’s sun chariot

‘Sī placet hoc meruīque, quid ō tua fulmina cessant,
summe deum? liceat peritūrae vīribus ignis
igne perīre tuō clādemque auctōre levāre.
vix equidem faucēs haec ipsa in verba resolvō.
‘Tostōs ēn aspice crīnēs
inque oculīs tantum, tantum super ōra favillae.
hōsne mihi fructūs, hunc fertilitātis honōrem
officiī refers, quod aduncī vulnera arātrī
rāstrōrumque ferō tōtōque exerceor annō,
quod pecorī frondēs alimentaque mītia frūgēs
hūmānō generī, vōbīs quoque tūra ministrō?
sed tamen exitium fac mē meruisse: quid undae,
quid meruit frāter? cūr illī trādita sorte
aequora dēcrēscunt et ab aethere longius absunt?
quod sī nec frātris nec tē mea grātia tangit,
at caelī miserēre tuī. circumspice utrumque:
fūmat uterque polus. quōs sī vitiāverit ignis,
ātria vestra ruent.’

‘O leader of gods, if this is your choice and I have deserved it, why are your lightning bolts idle? If I’m to perish by the violence of fire, may it be your fire, and that you are behind it may lighten this catastrophe. I can barely open my mouth to speak these words.
‘Look, see my singed hair, all the ash in my eyes and all over my face! Is this my reward? Is this a sign of your respect for my service and fertility? Is this for the scars I carry from the mattock and hooked plough, put upon me every single year? Is this why I provide foliage for the flocks, and gentle nourishment and fruit for humanity – and incense for you too?
‘But grant I have deserved this ruin, what of the waterways? Why has your brother deserved this? Why are the oceans shrinking, which he was given by lot, and lie even further from the sky? If you’re not touched by your brother or myself, take pity on heaven, which is yours. Look around on either side: the smoke has reached both poles. If the fire damages these your domain will fall.’