Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.432-463
Read by Matthew Hargreaves
Juno arrives in the underworld
Est via dēclīvis, fūnestā nūbila taxō;
dūcit ad īnfernās per mūta silentia sēdēs.
Styx nebulās exhālat iners, umbraeque recentēs
dēscendunt illāc simulācraque fūncta sepulcrīs;
pallor hiemsque tenent lātē loca senta, novīque,
quā sit iter, mānēs, Stygiam quod dūcat ad urbem
īgnōrant, ubi sit nigrī fera rēgia Dītis.
mīlle capāx aditūs et apertās undique portās
urbs habet, utque fretum dē tōtā flūmina terrā,
sīc omnēs animās locus accipit ille nec ūllī
exiguus populō est turbamve accēdere sentit.
errant exsanguēs sine corpore et ossibus umbrae,
parsque forum celebrant, pars īmī tēcta tyrannī,
pars aliquās artēs, antīquae imitāmina vītae.
sustinet īre illūc caelestī sēde relictā
(tantum odiīs īraeque dabat) Sāturnia Iūnō.
quō simul intrāvit sacrōque ā corpore pressum
ingemuit līmen, tria Cerberus extulit ōra
et trēs lātrātūs semel ēdidit. illa sorōrēs
Nocte vocat genitās, grave implācābile nūmen;
carceris ante forēs clausās adamante sedēbant
dēque suīs ātrōs pectēbant crīnibus anguēs.
quam simul agnōrunt inter cālīginis umbrās,
surrēxēre deae. sēdēs Scelerāta vocātur:
vīscera praebēbat Tityos lanianda novemque
iūgeribus distentus erat; tibi, Tantale, nūllae
dēprenduntur aquae, quaeque imminet, effugit arbor;
aut petis aut urguēs reditūrum, Sīsyphe, saxum;
volvitur Ixīōn et sē sequiturque fugitque;
mōlīrīque suīs lētum patruēlibus ausae
adsiduae repetunt, quās perdant, Bēlides undās.
There is a road sloping down, shaded in deathly yew, which leads through dumb silence to the infernal regions. There the sluggish Styx exhales mists, and by that route spirits not long dead and shades discharged from their tombs make their downward way. All around is a colourless winter of neglect. Newly-arrived spirits have no idea which road takes them to the Stygian city or of the whereabouts of black Dis’s barbarous palace. The city has a thousand spacious entrances and on all sides gates lie open. As rivers flow from the whole earth to the sea, so does that place receive every spirit, never too small for the number or feel it a throng approaching. Here wander bloodless shades without flesh or bone. Some throng the forum, others the palace of the underworld ruler. Some practise crafts in imitation of their former life.
Saturnian Juno was prepared to leave her heavenly home and to go to this place (so much she granted her hatred and anger). When she got there, the threshold creaked under the weight of her sacred person, Cerberus lifted his three faces and gave three barks as one. She summoned the sisters born of the Night, divinities grim and implacable. They were sitting combing black snakes from their hair in front of prison doors that were locked with adamantine steel. As soon as the goddesses saw her through the murky shadows they stood up. This is called the place of sin: here Tityos exposed his entrails to be torn and was stretched over nine acres. You, Tantalus, cannot grasp water, and the overhanging tree is beyond you; and you, Sisyphus, either pushing or fetching the rock only for it to return. On his wheel Ixion whirls, in both flight and pursuit; and the Belides, who dared to undertake the murder of their husband cousins, are constantly fetching water only to lose it.