Book 3

1.1. When the Mytileneans learned of the descent of the ten ships, and certain men, coming from the fields, reported the plundering to them, they thought it intolerable to suffer this from the Methymnaeans, and resolved to take up arms against them with all speed in their turn;

1.2. and levying three thousand shields and five hundred horse, they sent out the general Hippasus by land, shrinking from the sea in the winter season.

2.1. He set out, but did not ravage the fields of the Methymnaeans, nor seize the flocks and goods of farmers and shepherds, holding these to be the deeds of a robber rather than a general; instead he led swiftly against the city itself,

2.2. as though to fall upon it while its gates were unguarded. And when he was some hundred stades off, a herald met him bringing terms of truce.

2.3. For the Methymnaeans, learning from the captives that the Mytileneans knew nothing of what had happened, but that farmers and shepherds had done these things because of the insolence of the young men, regretted that they had ventured something rasher than wiser against a neighbouring city, and were eager, by giving back all the plunder, to mingle freely again both by land and by sea.

2.4. So Hippasus sent the herald on to the Mytileneans, although he had been chosen general with full powers; and he himself, encamping some ten stades from Methymna, awaited orders from the city.

2.5. And after two days the messenger came and bade him recover the plunder and withdraw home without doing any injury; for, having the choice between war and peace, they found peace the more profitable.

3.1. So the war between the Methymnaeans and Mytileneans, having taken an unlooked-for beginning and end, was thus dissolved. But there came a winter to Daphnis and Chloe more bitter than the war; for a great snow fell suddenly and closed all the roads and shut in all the farmers.

3.2. The torrents ran down in flood, and ice froze; the trees looked like skeletons; all the ground was hidden save here and there about springs and streams.

3.3. So no one led his flock to pasture, nor went out of doors himself, but kindling a great fire about the time of cock-crow, some twisted flax, some plaited goats' hair, some contrived snares for birds.

3.4. Then there was concern for the oxen at their mangers eating chaff, for the goats and sheep in their pens eating leafage, for the pigs in their sties eating acorns and mast.

4.1. So while this enforced staying indoors held them all, the other farmers and herdsmen rejoiced to be freed from their toils for a little while, and to eat morning meals and sleep a long sleep, so that winter seemed to them sweeter than summer and autumn and even spring itself.

4.2. But Chloe and Daphnis, calling to mind the delights they had left behind—how they used to kiss, how they used to embrace, how they used to take their food together—passed sleepless and grievous nights and awaited the springtime as a rebirth from death.

4.3. They were grieved by a wallet coming into their hands from which they used to eat together, or the sight of a milk-pail from which they used to drink together, or a pipe carelessly thrown down, which had become a love-gift.

4.4. So they prayed to the Nymphs and to Pan to deliver them from these troubles too, and to show them at last, and their flocks, the sun; and while they prayed, they sought a device

4.5. by which they might see each other. Now Chloe was utterly without resource and at a loss; for she always had with her the woman who passed for her mother, teaching her to card wool and to twist spindles and making mention of marriage. But Daphnis, having leisure and being shrewder than the girl, found a contrivance of this kind for seeing Chloe.

5.1. Before the courtyard of Dryas, hard by the courtyard itself, two great myrtles and an ivy grew: the myrtles near each other, the ivy between the two, so that, spreading its tendrils to each like a vine, it made the shape of a cave with its interwoven leaves; and the cluster of berries, many and large as a cluster of grapes, hung down.

5.2. So there was a great multitude of winter birds about it, for want of food outside: many a blackbird, many a thrush, and wood-pigeons and starlings and all the other ivy-eating birds.

5.3. On the pretext of hunting these birds Daphnis set out, having filled his wallet with honeyed cakes, and carrying, to give the thing credit, birdlime and snares.

5.4. Now the distance between was no more than ten stades; but the snow, not yet melted, gave him much toil; yet to Love all things are passable—fire and water and Scythian snow.

6.1. So at a run he came to the courtyard, and shaking the snow off his legs he set up his snares and smeared the long rods with birdlime; and then he sat down, anxious about the birds and about Chloe.

6.2. But birds came in plenty and were caught in good number, so that he had endless trouble gathering them and killing them and stripping off their feathers; yet from the courtyard no one came out, neither man nor woman nor domestic fowl, but all stayed indoors close by the fire, shut in, so that Daphnis was quite at a loss, as having come under no lucky birds; and he ventured to thrust through the doors on some pretext and sought within himself what would be most plausible to say.

6.3. "I came to get fire." "But were there no neighbours within a furlong?" "I came to ask for bread." "But your wallet is full of food." "I need wine." "Yet only yesterday and the day before you had your vintage." "A wolf was chasing me." "And where are the wolf's tracks?" "I came to hunt the birds." "Then why,

6.4. having hunted, do you not go away?" "I wish to see Chloe." But who confesses this to a girl's father and mother? Stumbling, then, at every turn, he said: "But none of all these is free from suspicion. Better, then, to keep silent; I shall see Chloe in spring, since it was not fated, as it seems, for me to see her in winter."

6.5. Having thought over such things, and silently gathering up what he had caught, he was about to go off; and, as though Love had taken pity on him, the following came to pass.

7.1. Dryas and his people were at table; the meat was being divided, the loaves were set out, the mixing-bowl was being mixed. One of the sheep-dogs, watching for a moment of neglect,

7.2. snatched a piece of meat and fled through the doors. Dryas, vexed (for it was his portion), took up a stick and gave chase along its track like a dog; and pursuing, when he came to the ivy, he saw Daphnis with his catch slung over his shoulders and resolved to make off.

7.3. So he forgot the meat and the dog at once, and with a great cry of "Welcome, my boy!" he threw his arms about him and kissed him and led him inside, taking hold of him. The two of them, on seeing each other, all but sank to the ground; but holding out to stay on their feet, they greeted and kissed each other; and this was, as it were, a prop to keep them from falling.

8.1. So Daphnis, having against hope obtained both a kiss and Chloe, sat down near the fire and unloaded the wood-pigeons and the blackbirds from his shoulders onto the table, and told how, fretting at staying indoors, he had set out to hunt, and how he had caught some of them with snares and some with birdlime as they hankered after the myrtle-berries and the ivy.

8.2. They praised his energy and bade him eat of what the dog had left, and bade Chloe too pour him drink. And she, rejoicing, held it out to the others and to Daphnis after the others; for she pretended to be angry, because, having come, he had meant to run off without seeing her. Yet before handing it to him she sipped of it, and so gave it. And he, though thirsty, drank slowly, affording himself by his slowness a longer pleasure.

9.1. So the table was quickly emptied of bread and meat; and sitting, they asked about Myrtale and Lamon and counted them happy in having had the good fortune of such a one to support their old age.

9.2. And he took delight in the praises, since Chloe was listening; and when they held him back, meaning to sacrifice to Dionysus the next day, he all but did reverence to them, in his pleasure, instead of to Dionysus.

9.3. So at once he brought out of his wallet many honey-cakes and the birds he had caught; and these they made ready for an evening meal. A second mixing-bowl was set up and a second fire kindled.

9.4. And night very quickly coming on, they took their fill of a second table, after which, telling tales and singing, they went off to sleep, Chloe with her mother, Dryas together with Daphnis.

9.5. So for Chloe there was no comfort except that Daphnis would be seen the next day; but Daphnis took an empty delight; for he thought it delightful even to sleep with Chloe's father, so that he even embraced him and kissed him many times, dreaming that he was doing all this to Chloe.

10.1. When day came, there was an extraordinary cold and a north wind that scorched everything. They rose and sacrificed to Dionysus a yearling ram, and kindling a great fire prepared food.

10.2. So while Nape baked bread and Dryas boiled the ram, Daphnis and Chloe, getting some leisure, went out of the courtyard to where the ivy was; and again setting up snares and smearing on birdlime, they hunted no small number of birds.

10.3. And they had too a continual enjoyment of kisses and a delightful intercourse of words. "I came for your sake, Chloe." "I know, Daphnis." "It is for your sake I destroy these poor blackbirds." "What then would you have me be to you?" "Remember me." "I do remember you, by the Nymphs, by whom I once swore in that cave, to which we will go as soon as the snow melts."

10.4. "But it is deep, Chloe, and I fear that I myself may melt before it does." "Take heart, Daphnis, the sun is hot." "Would that it were hot, Chloe, like the fire that burns my heart!" "You are joking to deceive me." "No, by the goats by which you bade me swear."

11.1. When Chloe had answered Daphnis with such things, like an echo, and Nape's people called them, they ran in, bringing a catch far more plentiful than the day before; and offering first-fruits to Dionysus from the mixing-bowl, they ate, their heads crowned with ivy.

11.2. And when the time came, with cries of Iacchus and Euoe they escorted Daphnis on his way, having filled his wallet with meat and bread. They gave him the wood-pigeons and the thrushes to carry to Lamon and Myrtale, saying they would catch others for themselves, so long as winter lasted and the ivy did not fail.

11.3. So he went off, having kissed them before Chloe, that her kiss might remain pure. And he came by many other paths on other pretexts, so that the winter was not for them altogether without love.

12.1. And now, when spring was beginning, and the snow was melting and the earth was laid bare and the grass was springing up, the other herdsmen led their flocks to pasture, and before the rest Chloe and Daphnis, since they served a greater shepherd.

12.2. So at once there was a running to the Nymphs and the cave, then to Pan and the pine, then to the oak, beneath which they sat and pastured their flocks and kissed each other. They sought out flowers too, wishing to crown the gods; and these the west wind was just then nourishing and the sun was warming forth; yet there were found violets and narcissus and pimpernel and all the first growths of spring.

12.3. So Chloe and Daphnis, from some of the goats and some of the sheep, crowned the statues and poured a libation of new milk over them.

12.4. They offered first-fruits of the pipe too, as though challenging the nightingales to music; and these answered softly in the thickets and little by little perfected their song of Itys, as though calling to mind the song after a long silence.

13.1. A flock bleated here and there; the lambs gambolled here and there, and bending beneath their mothers drew at the teat; the rams chased the ewes that had not yet borne, and setting them down mounted them, one this one, another that.

13.2. There were chasings of the he-goats too, and more amorous leaps onto the she-goats, and they fought over the she-goats; and each had his own and guarded them lest some other should secretly defile them.

13.3. Such sights would have roused even old men to the works of Aphrodite; but these, being young and in their full vigour and having long now been seeking after love, were kindled at what they heard and melted at what they saw, and themselves sought something more than a kiss and an embrace, and most of all Daphnis.

13.4. Having come, then, to a kind of ripeness through his staying indoors and his leisure in the winter, he was eager for kisses and feverish for embraces and in every act more curious and bolder.

14.1. So he asked Chloe to grant him all that he wished, and to lie down naked beside him naked for a longer while than they had been wont before; for this alone was lacking to the lessons of Philetas, that there might come about the one remedy that ends love.

14.2. And when she asked what more there was than a kiss and an embrace and the very lying down, and what he had resolved to do, lying naked beside her naked, "This," he said, "which the rams do to the ewes and the he-goats to the she-goats.

14.3. You see how, after that act, the ewes no longer flee them, nor do they weary themselves pursuing, but, as though having enjoyed a common pleasure, they graze together. The thing is, it seems, something sweet, and overcomes the bitterness of love." "But do you not see,

14.4. Daphnis, the she-goats and the he-goats, and the rams and the ewes, how those act standing and these are acted upon standing, the one leaping up and the other bearing them on their backs? Yet you ask me to lie down with you, and that naked? And these, when I am stripped, how much

14.5. shaggier they are than I?" Daphnis was persuaded, and lying down beside her he lay a long while, and knowing nothing of how to do the things for which he was feverish, he raised her up and clung to her from behind, imitating the he-goats. But being far more at a loss, he sat down and wept that he was even more unlearned than the rams in the works of love.

15.1. Now there was a neighbour of his, a farmer of his own land, Chromis by name, already past his prime in body. He had a little wife brought in from the town, young and comely and finer than country ways;

15.2. her name was Lycaenion. This Lycaenion, seeing Daphnis driving his goats past every day, in the morning to pasture, at night from pasture, conceived a desire to win him as a lover by enticing him with gifts.

15.3. And so once, waylaying him alone, she gave him a pipe as a gift and honey in the comb and a deerskin wallet; but she shrank from saying anything, divining his love for Chloe;

15.4. for she saw clearly that he was devoted to the girl. Before this, indeed, she had gathered it from nods and laughter; but then, pretending in the morning to Chromis that she was going off to a neighbour woman in labour, she followed close behind them, and hiding herself in a thicket so as not to be seen, she heard all that they said and saw all that they did; nor did even Daphnis's weeping escape her.

15.5. So, grieving along with the wretched pair, and thinking that a twofold opportunity had come—one for their deliverance, the other for her own desire—she devised something of this kind.

16.1. The next day, as though going off again to the woman in labour, she came openly to the oak where Daphnis and Chloe sat, and exactly

16.2. counterfeiting one in distress, "Save me, Daphnis," she said, "wretched as I am; for an eagle has snatched from me the finest one of my twenty geese, but, having taken up so great a burden, could not carry it aloft to its accustomed high rock there, but came down with it into this low wood.

16.3. Do you, then, by the Nymphs and by that Pan, come with me into the wood—for I am afraid alone—and save my goose for me, and do not let my number be left incomplete.

16.4. Perhaps you will even kill the eagle itself, and it will no longer snatch off many of your lambs and kids. Chloe will guard the flock meanwhile; the goats surely know her, since she always pastures with you."

17.1. Suspecting nothing of what was to come, Daphnis rose at once, and taking up his crook followed close behind Lycaenion; and she led on as far as possible from Chloe. And when they came to the thickest part, bidding him sit down near a spring, "You love Chloe, Daphnis," she said; "this I learned by night from the Nymphs.

17.2. They told me in a dream of your tears yesterday, and bade me save you by teaching you the works of love. These are not kisses and embraces and the things the rams and he-goats do; these are other leaps and sweeter than those, for there belongs to them a time of longer pleasure.

17.3. If, then, it is dear to you to be freed from your troubles and to come to the trial of the delights you seek, come, give yourself to me as a delightful pupil; and I, to gratify the Nymphs, will teach you those things."

18.1. Daphnis could not contain himself for joy, but, being a country lad and a goatherd and in love and young, he fell down before her feet and begged Lycaenion to teach him with all speed the art by which he might do to Chloe what he wished;

18.2. and as though about to be taught something truly great and heaven-sent, he promised to give her a suckling kid and soft cheeses of the first-drawn milk and the goat herself.

18.3. So Lycaenion, finding a goatherd's abundance such as she had not expected, began to instruct Daphnis in this way. She bade him sit down near her, just as he was, and kiss her such kisses as he was wont and as many, and while kissing to embrace her at the same time and lie down on the ground.

18.4. And when he had sat down and kissed and lain down, learning that he was able to act and was in full vigour, she raised him up from his lying on his side, and slipping herself beneath him, with art she led him into the way he had so long been seeking. From there on she did nothing strange; for nature herself now taught what was to be done.

19.1. When the lesson in love was ended, Daphnis, still having a shepherd's mind, was eager to run to Chloe and to do at once all he had been taught, as though afraid that by tarrying he might forget. But Lycaenion held him back and spoke as follows: "There are still these things too you must learn, Daphnis.

19.2. I, being a woman, have now suffered nothing; for long ago another man taught me these things, taking my maidenhood as his fee; but Chloe, when she wrestles this wrestling with you, will cry out and weep and bleed much blood, as though slain.

19.3. But do you not fear the blood; rather, when you have persuaded her to yield to you, lead her into this place, so that, if she cries out, no one may hear, if she weeps, no one may see, if she bleeds, she may wash in the spring; and remember that I made you a man before Chloe."

20.1. So Lycaenion, having given so much instruction, went off to another part of the wood, as though still seeking the goose; and Daphnis, taking what had been said into account, was rid of his former eagerness, and shrank from troubling Chloe with anything more than a kiss and an embrace, not wishing her either to cry out as though against an enemy, or to weep as though in pain, or to bleed as though slain;

20.2. for, being newly taught, he feared the blood and thought that blood comes only from a wound. So resolving to take his accustomed delights with her, he came out of the wood; and coming to where she sat weaving a little garland of violets, he lied that he had snatched the goose from the eagle's talons, and clinging to her kissed her, as he had Lycaenion in their delight;

20.3. for this was permitted as without danger. And she fitted the garland onto his head and kissed his hair as better than the violets. And taking out of her wallet a piece of dried-fruit cake and some loaves she gave him to eat; and as he ate she snatched from his mouth and so ate herself, like the nestling of a bird.

21.1. As they ate, and kissed more than they ate, a fishing-boat was seen sailing past. There was no wind, but a calm, and they had to row. And they rowed lustily; for they were hastening to bring fresh fish, still alive, to the city for one of the rich men.

21.2. So, as sailors are wont to do for the easing of their toils, these too did the same, plying their oars. One of them, a boatswain, sang sailors' songs, and the rest, like a chorus, shouted in unison at the right moment with his voice.

21.3. Now when they did this on the open sea, the shout vanished, the voice pouring out into much air; but when, running under a headland, they drove into a crescent-shaped and hollow bay, a greater shout was heard, and the boatswains' songs fell clearly upon the land.

21.4. For a hollow valley lay beneath the plain and, receiving the sound into itself like an instrument, gave back an imitative voice of all that was uttered, separately the sound of the oars, separately the voice of the sailors; and it was a delightful thing to hear.

21.5. For as the voice from the sea came first, the voice from the land left off as much later as it had begun later.

22.1. So Daphnis, knowing what was happening, gave heed to the sea alone and took delight in the boat running past the plain swifter than a wing, and tried to save some of the songs, that they might become tunes for his pipe;

22.2. but Chloe, then for the first time experiencing what is called echo, now looked off to the sea, while the sailors gave their call, now turned to the wood,

22.3. seeking those who answered back. And when, the boat having sailed past, there was silence in the valley too, she asked Daphnis whether behind the headland there was also a sea, and another boat sailing past, and other sailors singing the same songs, and then all falling silent together.

22.4. So Daphnis laughed sweetly and kissed a sweeter kiss, and putting the garland of violets on her, began to tell her the tale of Echo, asking, if he should teach it, as a fee from her ten other kisses.

23.1. "Of the Nymphs, girl, there is a great kind, Meliae and Dryads and Marsh-Nymphs; all beautiful, all musical. And the daughter of one of these was Echo, mortal as from a mortal father, beautiful as from a beautiful mother.

23.2. She was reared by the Nymphs and taught by the Muses to pipe, to play the flute, the music of the lyre, the music of the cithara, all song, so that, having reached the flower of her maidenhood, she danced with the Nymphs and sang with the Muses; but she fled all males, both men and gods, loving her maidenhood.

23.3. Pan grows angry with the girl, grudging her her music and not obtaining her beauty, and casts madness upon the shepherds and the goatherds. And they, like dogs or wolves, tear her apart and fling over all the earth her limbs still singing their songs.

23.4. And Earth, to gratify the Nymphs, hid all the limbs. And she preserved the music, and by the will of the Muses she sends forth a voice and imitates everything, as the girl did then—gods, men, instruments, beasts; she imitates even Pan himself piping.

23.5. And he, hearing, springs up and pursues over the mountains, not desiring to win her but only to learn who is the hidden pupil." Daphnis having told this tale, Chloe kissed him not ten kisses only but very many; for Echo all but said the same things, as though bearing witness that he had lied in nothing.

24.1. As the sun grew warmer each day, spring ending and summer beginning, again there came to them fresh delights, the delights of summer.

24.2. He swam in the rivers, she bathed in the springs; he piped, vying with the pines, she sang, contending with the nightingales; they hunted chattering locusts, they caught ringing cicadas, they gathered flowers, they shook the trees, they ate the fruit; and now and then they even lay down naked together and drew over themselves a single goatskin.

24.3. And Chloe would easily have become a woman, had not the blood troubled Daphnis. Indeed, fearing that he might one day be overcome in his resolve, he would not let Chloe strip very much, so that Chloe wondered, but was ashamed to ask the cause.

25.1. In this summer too there was a crowd of suitors about Chloe, and many came from many places to Dryas asking her in marriage. And some brought a gift, and others promised great things.

25.2. So Nape, lifted up by her hopes, advised giving Chloe in marriage and not keeping so grown a girl at home any longer, who perhaps a little later, while pasturing, would lose her maidenhood and make a husband of one of the shepherds for the price of apples or roses; but rather to make her mistress of a house and themselves, taking much, to keep it for their own true-born child—for a male child had been born to them not long before;

25.3. but Dryas was now charmed by what was said (for greater gifts were named by each than befitted a girl who herded), now, considering that the maiden was beyond rustic suitors, and that, if ever she should find her true parents, she would make them greatly happy, kept putting off his answer and dragged out time from time, and in the meanwhile gained no few gifts.

25.4. So Chloe, learning of this, passed her days in much grief, and for a long time kept it from Daphnis, not wishing to grieve him; but when he pressed and urged her, asking, and was more grieved at not knowing than he was to be when he learned, she told him everything—the suitors, how many and how rich, the words that Nape spoke in her haste for the marriage, and how Dryas had not refused, but had put it off until the vintage.

26.1. At this Daphnis was beside himself, and wept as he sat, saying that he would die if Chloe no longer pastured with him; and not he alone, but the sheep too, after such a shepherdess. Then, recovering himself, he took courage and thought he would persuade her father, and counted himself one of the suitors, and hoped to prevail far over the others.

26.2. One thing troubled him: Lamon was not rich; this alone made his hope a slender one. Yet he resolved to woo her, and Chloe agreed with him. To Lamon, then, he dared say nothing, but to Myrtale, taking courage, he revealed his love and brought forward words about the marriage; and she at night shared it with Lamon.

26.3. And when he took the proposal harshly and reproached him for offering as a match for a boy a shepherds' little daughter—for a boy who promised great fortune by his tokens, who, when he found his own people, would make them free and masters of larger fields—Myrtale, fearing because of his love that Daphnis, utterly despairing of the marriage, might dare something deadly, reported to him other reasons for the refusal.

26.4. "We are poor, my child, and need a bride who brings something rather; while they are rich and need rich bridegrooms. Go then, persuade Chloe, and let her persuade her father, to ask nothing great; for surely she too loves you and would rather sleep with a poor handsome man than a rich ape."

27.1. Myrtale, never expecting that Dryas would consent to these terms, having richer suitors, thought she had decently declined the marriage; but Daphnis could find no fault with what had been said. And falling far short of what was asked, he did what poor lovers are wont to do: he wept and again called the Nymphs to his aid.

27.2. And they stood over him as he slept by night in the same forms in which they had before; and the eldest spoke again: "Of Chloe's marriage another god takes care, but we will give you gifts that will charm Dryas.

27.3. The ship of the young men of Methymna, whose osier your goats once ate up, was that day carried far from the land by the wind; but at night, when a wind from the sea troubled the waters, it was cast up on the land against the rocks of the headland.

27.4. So it was wrecked, and much of what was in it; but a purse of three thousand drachmae was spat out by the wave and lies covered with seaweed near a dead dolphin, for which reason no wayfarer has come near, hurrying past the foul stench of its rotting.

27.5. But do you come, and coming take it up, and taking it up give it. It is enough for you now to seem not poor; later in time you shall even be rich."

28.1. Having said this, they departed with the night; and when day came, Daphnis sprang up overjoyed and drove his goats to pasture with much rushing; and kissing Chloe and doing reverence to the Nymphs, he went down to the sea, as though wishing to sprinkle himself; and he walked along the sand near the surf, seeking the three thousand.

28.2. And he was not, after all, to have much toil; for the dolphin, smelling no good, fell upon his senses, lying cast up and rotting; and using its rotting as a guide of his way, he came straight to it, and removing the seaweed found the purse full of silver.

28.3. This he took up and put into his wallet, and did not go off before he had blessed the Nymphs and the sea itself; for, goatherd though he was, he now thought the sea sweeter than the land, as helping him to his marriage with Chloe.

29.1. Having got the three thousand, he tarried no longer, but, as the richest of all men, not only of the farmers there, he went at once to Chloe and told her his dream, showed her the purse, bade her guard the flocks until he should return, and straining every nerve hurried off to Dryas. And finding him threshing some wheat on the floor with Nape, he flung out a very bold word about marriage.

29.2. "Give me Chloe to wife; I know how to pipe well and to prune a vine and to plant young trees; I know too how to plough the land and to winnow against the wind. As for pasturing a flock, Chloe is my witness; taking fifty goats I have made them double; I have reared great and beautiful he-goats too, whereas before we used to put our goats under others' males.

29.3. And besides, I am young and a neighbour you cannot blame; and a goat reared me, as a sheep did Chloe. And so much surpassing the rest, I will not be outdone in gifts either.

29.4. They will give goats and sheep and a yoke of mangy oxen and grain not enough to feed hens; but from me here are these three thousand for you. Only let no one know this, not even Lamon my own father." And at the same time he gave it and embracing them kissed them.

30.1. And they, seeing against hope so much silver, at once promised to give Chloe and undertook to persuade Lamon.

30.2. So Nape, staying there with Daphnis himself, drove the oxen round and worked the ears with the threshing-sledges; while Dryas, storing away the purse where the tokens were kept, was quickly carried off to Lamon and Myrtale, meaning, most strange of all,

30.3. to woo a bridegroom from them. And finding them too measuring out barley winnowed not long before, and downcast because it was very nearly less than the seed that had been sown, he consoled them about this,

30.4. agreeing that a common dearth had come everywhere, and asked Daphnis for Chloe, and said that, though others were giving much, he would take nothing from them, but rather would give them something from his own house; for they had been reared together and joined in friendship by herding, a friendship not easily to be dissolved; and they were now of an age to sleep with each other.

30.5. So he said these things and more, as having the three thousand for the prize of persuading; and Lamon, no longer able to put forward poverty (for they themselves were not disdainful) nor Daphnis's youth (for he was now a youth), even so did not declare the truth, that he was beyond such a marriage, but, keeping silence a little while, thus answered:

31.1. "You do right in honouring neighbours above strangers and in not reckoning wealth better than honest poverty. May Pan and the Nymphs love you for this.

31.2. I myself am eager for this marriage; for I should be mad if, being already old and needing more hands for the work, I did not think it a gain to take your household too as a friend;

31.3. and Chloe is much to be desired, a beautiful and ripe girl and good in everything. But, being a slave, I am master of none of my own; the master must learn these things and consent to them. Come then, let us put off the marriage to the autumn.

31.4. Those who come to us from the town say that he will arrive then. Then they shall be man and wife; for now let them love each other as brother and sister. Know only this much, Dryas: you are eager about a youth who is above us."

32.1. And he, having said this, kissed him and offered him drink, since noon was now at its height, and escorted him part of the way, showing him every kindness; while Dryas, having heard Lamon's last word not heedlessly, pondered as he walked along by himself who Daphnis might be. "He was reared by a goat, as though the gods cared for him; he is beautiful and in no way like a snub-nosed old man and a bald-pated woman; he came too into three thousand, which it is not likely a goatherd should have even of wild pears.

32.2. Did someone, then, expose him too, as Chloe? Did Lamon too find him, as I found her? Did like tokens too lie beside him to those found by me? If these things are so, O lord Pan and dear Nymphs, perhaps he, finding his own people, will find out something also of Chloe's secrets."

32.3. Such things he pondered to himself and dreamed of all the way to the threshing-floor; and coming there and finding Daphnis in suspense at what he might hear, he heartened him by greeting him as son-in-law, and promised to celebrate the marriage in the autumn, and gave him his right hand that Chloe should be no one's but Daphnis's.

33.1. So quicker than thought, drinking nothing and eating nothing, he ran down to Chloe; and finding her milking and making cheese, he brought the good news of the marriage, and from then on, no longer hiding it, kissed her as his wife and shared her toil.

33.2. He milked the milk into the pails, and set the cheeses in the wicker frames, and put the lambs and the kids to their mothers. And when these things were well in hand, they washed, ate, drank, and went about seeking ripe fruit.

33.3. And there was great abundance because of the season's plenty; many wild pears, many cultivated pears, many apples; some already fallen on the ground, some still on the trees; those on the ground more fragrant, those on the branches more bright; the ones smelt like wine, the others shone like gold.

33.4. One apple-tree had been stripped and had neither fruit nor leaf; all its branches were bare; and one apple was left on the very topmost of the topmost, a great and beautiful one, that alone surpassed all the many in fragrance; the picker was afraid to climb up, and neglected to bring it down; but perhaps too the beautiful apple was being kept for a shepherd in love.

34.1. When Daphnis saw this apple, he was eager to climb up and pick it, and paid no heed to Chloe's forbidding; and she, being disregarded, went off in anger to the flocks. But Daphnis, running up, succeeded in picking it, and brought it as a gift to Chloe, and spoke to her, angry as she was, a word like this: "Girl, this apple the fair Seasons brought forth, and a fair tree nourished it as the sun ripened it, and Fortune preserved it.

34.2. And I was not going to leave it, having eyes, that it should fall to the ground and either a grazing flock trample it or a creeping reptile poison it or time consume it as it lay, looked upon, praised. This Aphrodite received as the prize of beauty;

34.3. this I give you as the prize of victory. You have witnesses alike to yours: he was a shepherd, I a goatherd." Having said this, he placed it in her bosom; and as he came near she kissed him, so that Daphnis did not repent of having dared to climb to so great a height; for he received a kiss better even than a golden apple.