Book 4

1.1. There came one from Mytilene, a fellow-slave of Lamon's, and reported that a little before the vintage the master would arrive, to learn whether the descent of the Methymnaeans had done any harm to the fields.

1.2. So now, as summer was departing and autumn drawing on, Lamon prepared his lodging for him in every way pleasant to the eye.

1.3. He cleaned out the springs, that the water might be pure; he carried the dung out of the courtyard, that its stench might not annoy; he tended the garden, that it might appear beautiful.

2.1. And the garden was a thing altogether beautiful, after the manner of a king's. It stretched to the length of a stade and lay on high ground, having a breadth of four plethra.

2.2. One might have likened it to a long plain. It had every kind of tree—apple-trees, myrtles, pears and pomegranates and the fig and olives; on one side a tall vine, which lay over the apple-trees and the pears as its grapes darkened, as though contending with them for the fruit.

2.3. So many were the cultivated trees. There were also cypresses and bays and planes and pine. Over all these, in place of the vine, lay ivy; and its cluster of berries, large and darkening, mimicked a cluster of grapes.

2.4. Within were the fruit-bearing trees, as though under guard; round about stood the unfruitful, like a wall made by hand; and these too a circuit of thin dry-stone fence enclosed.

2.5. Everything was set in order and divided, and trunk stood apart from trunk; but on high the branches fell together with one another and interwove their foliage; yet even the nature of these things seemed to be art.

2.6. There were beds of flowers too, of which the earth bore some and art made others; rose-beds and hyacinths and lilies the work of the hand; violet-beds and narcissus and pimpernel the earth bore. There was shade in summer and flowers in spring and fruit in autumn, and delight in every season.

3.1. From here the plain was in clear view, and one could see those who pastured; the sea too was in clear view, and those who sailed past were seen; so that this too became a part of the delight in the garden. Where the very centre of the garden was in length and breadth, there was a temple of Dionysus and an altar; the altar was wreathed with ivy, the temple with vine-shoots.

3.2. The temple too had within it Dionysiac paintings: Semele giving birth, Ariadne sleeping, Lycurgus bound, Pentheus torn apart; there were Indians being conquered too and Tyrrhenians being transformed; everywhere Satyrs treading the grapes, everywhere Bacchants dancing; nor was Pan neglected: he too sat piping on a rock, like one giving a common tune both to those treading and to those dancing.

4.1. Such was the garden that Lamon tended, cutting away the dry growth, lifting up the vine-shoots. He crowned the Dionysus; he led water in channels to the flowers. There was a spring which Daphnis had found for the flowers; the spring served the flowers, yet for all that it was called Daphnis's spring.

4.2. Lamon urged Daphnis too to fatten the goats as much as possible, saying that the master, coming after so long, would surely look at them as well.

4.3. And Daphnis was confident he would be praised for them; for he had made them twice as many as he had received, and a wolf had carried off not one, and they were fatter than the sheep. But wishing him to be the more eager for the marriage, he brought every care and zeal to bear, leading them out very early and bringing them back in the late afternoon.

4.4. Twice he led them to water; he sought out the best-grassed of the places; he gave heed too to new bowls and many milk-pails and larger cheese-frames. So great was his solicitude that he even anointed their horns and tended their hair.

4.5. One would have thought one was looking at a sacred flock of Pan. And Chloe too shared in every toil over them, and neglecting her flock spent the greater part of her time on them, so that Daphnis thought it was because of her that they appeared beautiful.

5.1. While they were thus engaged, a second messenger came from the town and bade them strip the vines with all speed, and said that he himself would stay until they had made the grapes into must, and then, going down so to the city, would bring the master, now that the autumn vintage was on.

5.2. So they welcomed this Eudromus (for so he was called, because it was his work to run) with every welcome, and at the same time stripped the vines, carried the grapes to the presses, bore the must to the jars, and took off on their shoots the ripest of the clusters, that those who came from the city too might have an image and a pleasure of the vintage.

6.1. And when Eudromus was now about to hurry off to the town, Daphnis gave him no few other things, and gave him too all the gifts that come from a goatfold: well-set cheeses, a late-born kid, a goat's hide white and shaggy, that he might have something to throw over himself as he ran in winter.

6.2. And he was pleased and kissed Daphnis and promised to say something good about him to the master. So he went off kindly disposed, while Daphnis, in distress, pastured with Chloe. And she too was in great fear; for a young lad accustomed to look upon goats and sheep and farmers and Chloe was now for the first time to see a master, of whom before he had only heard the name.

6.3. So she was anxious for Daphnis, how he would meet the master, and her soul was troubled about the marriage, lest they were dreaming of it in vain. So their kisses were continual and their embraces as of bodies grown together; and the kisses were timid and the embraces gloomy, as of those who feared the master already present or were hiding from him. And there came to them a further trouble of this kind.

7.1. There was a certain Lampis, an arrogant cowherd. He too was wooing Chloe from Dryas, and had already given many gifts in his eagerness for the marriage.

7.2. So perceiving that, if it should be granted by the master, Daphnis would take her, he sought a device by which he might make the master bitter against them; and knowing how greatly he delighted in the garden, he resolved to spoil and disfigure it as much as he could.

7.3. Now, cutting down trees, he would have been caught because of the noise; so he set upon the flowers, to destroy them. Watching, then, for night, and climbing over the dry-stone fence, he dug some up, broke others,

7.4. and trampled others like a boar. And he went off unseen; while Lamon, going into the garden the next day, was about to lead water to them from the spring.

7.5. But seeing all the place laid waste, and a deed such as an enemy, not a robber, might do, he straightway tore his little tunic and with a great cry called upon the gods, so that Myrtale too, leaving what was in her hands, ran out, and Daphnis, leaving his goats, ran up; and seeing it, they cried out, and crying out they wept.

8.1. But they wept in terror of the master; yet even a stranger, coming upon it, would have wept; for the place was disfigured and was now nothing but muddy earth. Whatever had escaped the outrage was blooming and shining and was still beautiful, even as it lay.

8.2. And the bees pressed upon them too, humming continually and without ceasing, like mourners. So Lamon in his consternation said these things as well: "Alas for the rose-bed, how it is broken;

8.3. alas for the violet-bed, how it is trampled; alas for the hyacinths and the narcissus, which some wicked man dug up. Spring will come, but they will not bloom; summer will be, but they will not flourish; autumn, but they will crown no one.

8.4. And did not you, lord Dionysus, pity these wretched flowers, beside which you dwelt, which you looked upon, with which I crowned you so often? How shall I now show the garden to the master? What will he be like when he sees it? He will hang an old man from a single pine, like Marsyas; and perhaps Daphnis too, as though the goats had done this."

9.1. There were tears at this hotter still, and now they lamented no longer for the flowers but for their own misfortunes. Chloe lamented too, if Daphnis should be hanged, and prayed that the master might no longer come at all, and drained out wretched days, as though already seeing Daphnis scourged.

9.2. And just as night was beginning, Eudromus reported to them that the elder master would come in three days, but that his son would arrive the next day.

9.3. So there was a deliberation about what had happened, and they took Eudromus into their counsel; and he, being well disposed to Daphnis, advised that they confess what had happened first to the young master, and promised to lend his own aid, being honoured as a foster-brother; and when day came, they did so.

10.1. Astylus came on horseback, and his parasite with him, also on horseback; the one with the first down of a beard, the other—Gnathon, for so he was called—long since clean-shaven. And Lamon, falling at his feet together with Myrtale and Daphnis, begged him to take pity on an unlucky old man and to snatch from his father's anger one who had done no wrong; and at the same time he told him everything.

10.2. Astylus took pity on the supplication, and going to the garden and seeing the ruin of the flowers, said that he himself would intercede with his father and would lay the blame on the horses, as though, tied up there, they had run wild and broken some, trampled others, and dug others up when loosed.

10.3. At this Lamon and Myrtale prayed for him all good things; and Daphnis brought gifts—kids, cheeses, birds and their young, clusters on their shoots, apples on their branches. Among the gifts was fragrant wine too.

11.1. So Astylus praised these things and busied himself with hunting hares, like a rich young man given always to luxury and come to the country for the enjoyment of a strange pleasure.

11.2. But Gnathon—a man who had learned only to eat and to drink to drunkenness and to be lecherous after his drunkenness, and was nothing else than a jaw and a belly and the parts below the belly—did not idly observe Daphnis bringing the gifts; but, being by nature a lover of boys, and finding such beauty as he had not found even in the city, he resolved to set upon Daphnis, and thought he would easily persuade him, as a goatherd.

11.3. Having resolved this, he did not share in the hunt with Astylus, but going down to where Daphnis pastured, on the pretext of the goats but in truth to be a spectator of Daphnis, he praised the goats and asked to hear the goatherd's piping, and said he would quickly make him free, having power to do anything.

12.1. When he found him tractable, by night, lying in wait as Daphnis drove the goats from pasture, first running up he kissed him, then bade him offer from behind such as the she-goats offer the he-goats.

12.2. But when Daphnis was slow to understand, and said that it was right for he-goats to mount she-goats, but that no one had ever seen a he-goat mount a he-goat, nor a ram instead of the ewes a ram, nor cocks instead of the hens cocks, Gnathon made ready to use force, laying hands on him;

12.3. but Daphnis, thrusting off a drunken man who could scarcely stand, flung him to the ground, and like a puppy ran off and left him lying there, needing a man, not a boy, to lead him by the hand; and he no longer let him come near him at all, but pastured his goats now here, now there, fleeing him and watching for Chloe.

12.4. Nor did Gnathon trouble himself further, having learned that he was not only beautiful but also strong; but he watched for a chance to speak about him to Astylus, and hoped to have him as a gift from the young man, who was willing to grant him many great things.

13.1. At that time, then, he could not; for Dionysophanes was arriving together with Cleariste, and there was a great tumult of beasts of burden, slaves, men, women; but after this he composed a long and amorous speech.

13.2. Now Dionysophanes was already half-grey, but tall and handsome and able to vie with young men; and besides he was rich among few and as good as no other.

13.3. He, coming, on the first day sacrificed to the gods that preside over the country—Demeter and Dionysus and Pan and the Nymphs—and set up a common mixing-bowl for all who were present; and on the other days he inspected the works of Lamon.

13.4. And seeing the plains in furrow, the vines in shoot, and the garden in beauty (for Astylus took the blame about the flowers upon himself), he was exceedingly pleased, and praised Lamon and promised to make him free.

13.5. After this he went down to the goatfold too, to see the goats and the one who pastured them.

14.1. So Chloe fled to the wood, ashamed and afraid of so great a crowd; but Daphnis stood girt in a shaggy goatskin, with a newly-sewn wallet hung at his shoulders, holding in both hands, in the one newly-set cheeses, in the other suckling kids.

14.2. If ever Apollo, serving Laomedon as a hired man, herded cattle, such was he as Daphnis then appeared. He himself said nothing, but, filled with a blush, bowed his head down, holding out the gifts; while Lamon said, "This, master, is the goatherd of your goats.

14.3. You gave me fifty to pasture and two he-goats, but he has made you a hundred and ten he-goats. You see how sleek they are and shaggy in their hair and unbroken in their horns. He has made them musical too; at any rate, when they hear the pipe they do everything."

15.1. Cleariste, who was present at what was said, conceived a desire to put what was said to the test, and bade Daphnis pipe to the goats as he was wont, and promised that, if he piped, she would give him a tunic and a cloak and sandals.

15.2. So he, seating them as in a theatre, standing beneath the oak and bringing out the pipe from his wallet, first blew a little; and the goats stood, lifting up their heads; then he blew the pasturing tune, and the goats grazed, with their heads bent down; again he gave out a clear-toned strain,

15.3. and they all lay down together; he piped too a certain shrill tune, and they fled to the wood as though a wolf were coming; after a little he sounded the recall, and coming out of the wood they ran together near his feet.

15.4. Not even human servants would one have seen so obedient to a master's command. So all the rest marvelled, and before all Cleariste, and she swore to give the gifts to one who was both a beautiful goatherd and musical; and going up to the farmstead they busied themselves with their meal and sent to Daphnis of what they ate.

16.1. And he ate with Chloe and took pleasure in tasting the city's cookery, and was in good hope of winning the marriage, having persuaded the masters. But Gnathon, the more inflamed by what had happened at the goatfold, and thinking his life not worth living if he did not win Daphnis, watched Astylus walking about in the garden and, leading him up into the temple of Dionysus, kissed his feet and hands.

16.2. And when he asked why he did these things, and bade him speak, and swore to do him service, "Your Gnathon is undone, master," he said. "I who till now loved only your table, I who before used to swear that nothing was lovelier than old wine, I who said your cooks were better than the youths in Mytilene, now think Daphnis alone is beautiful.

16.3. And of costly food I taste none, though so much is prepared each day—meats, fish, honey-cakes; rather, becoming a goat, I would gladly eat grass and leaves, listening to Daphnis's pipe and being pastured by him. Do you save your Gnathon and conquer the invincible Love.

16.4. But if not, I swear to you, my god, that taking a little sword and filling my belly with food I will kill myself before Daphnis's doors; and you will no longer call me Gnathonarion, as you were always wont to do in play."

17.1. The high-spirited young man, not without experience of love's pain, could not hold out against him as he wept and again kissed his feet, but promised to ask for him from his father and to bring him to the city, for himself a slave, for the other a beloved.

17.2. And wishing to bring even him to good cheer, he asked, smiling, whether he was not ashamed to love a son of Lamon, and even eager to lie down with a lad who pastured goats; and at the same time he feigned to loathe the rank smell of the goats.

17.3. But Gnathon, as one schooled in every amorous tale at the banquets of profligates, spoke not amiss, both for himself and for Daphnis: "No lover, master, is troubled by such things; but in whatever body he finds beauty,

17.4. he is captured. For this reason a man has fallen in love even with a plant and a river and a wild beast. And yet who would not pity a lover whom he had to fear for the beloved's sake? But I love the body of a slave and the beauty of a freeman.

17.5. You see how he has hair like a hyacinth, and his eyes shine beneath his brows like a gem in a golden setting? And his face is full of blushes, and his mouth of white teeth like ivory.

17.6. Who of lovers would not pray to receive sweet kisses from there? And if I have fallen in love with a herder, I have imitated the gods. A cowherd was Anchises, and Aphrodite held him; goats were pastured by Branchus, and Apollo loved him; a shepherd was Ganymede, and Zeus carried him off.

17.7. Let us not despise a boy whom we have seen obeyed even by goats as though they loved him; rather, let us be thankful to the eagles of Zeus that they suffer such beauty to remain on earth."

18.1. Astylus laughed sweetly at this saying above all, and saying how great sophists Love makes, watched for a chance to speak to his father about Daphnis. But Eudromus, having secretly overheard all that was said, and partly loving Daphnis as a good young man, partly grieved that such beauty should become Gnathon's drunken sport, at once told everything both to him and to Lamon.

18.2. So Daphnis, stricken, resolved together with Chloe to dare flight or death, taking her as a partner; but Lamon, calling Myrtale outside the courtyard, said, "We are undone, wife. The time has come to uncover what is hidden.

18.3. The goats and all the rest are lost to me; but no, by Pan and the Nymphs, not even if I am to be left, as they say, like an ox in a stall, will I keep silent about what Daphnis's fortune is, but I will tell both that I found him exposed and reveal how he was nourished and show all that I found exposed with him. Let foul Gnathon learn, being what he is, what manner of one he loves. Only make ready for me the tokens."

19.1. So agreeing on these things, they went inside again; while Astylus, going up to his father at his leisure, asked to bring Daphnis to the city, as being both beautiful and above the country and quickly able to be taught city ways by Gnathon.

19.2. The father, rejoicing, gave him, and sending for Lamon and Myrtale he brought them the good news that from now on Daphnis would wait upon Astylus instead of upon goats and he-goats, and promised to give them two goatherds in his place.

19.3. At this Lamon, when all had now gathered together and were rejoicing that they would have a beautiful fellow-slave, asked leave to speak and began to say: "Hear, master, a true word from an old man; and I swear by Pan and the Nymphs that I will tell no lie.

19.4. I am not Daphnis's father, nor did Myrtale ever have the good fortune to be a mother. Other parents exposed this child, perhaps having enough of older children; and I found him exposed and nourished by a goat of mine, which, when it died, I buried in the garden, loving it because it had done a mother's work.

19.5. I found too tokens exposed with him, in agreement, master, and I keep them; for they are signs of a greater fortune than befits us. To be Astylus's slave I do not disdain him—a beautiful servant of a noble and good master; but I cannot suffer him to become Gnathon's drunken sport, who is eager to carry him off to Mytilene for the works of women."

20.1. Lamon, having said this, fell silent and shed many tears; and when Gnathon grew bold and threatened blows, Dionysophanes, struck by what had been said, bade Gnathon be silent, drawing his brow into a sharp bow against him, and questioned Lamon again, and charged him to tell the truth and not to invent things like fables in order to keep his son.

20.2. But as he was steadfast and swore by all the gods and offered himself to be tortured, if he lied in anything, Dionysophanes, with Cleariste sitting beside him, tested what had been said. "Why would Lamon lie, who was to receive two goatherds in place of one? And how could a rustic invent these things? For was it not at once incredible that from such an old man and a mean mother so beautiful a son should be born?"

21.1. It seemed best not to conjecture further, but now to examine the tokens, whether they were of a brilliant and more illustrious fortune. Myrtale went off to bring everything kept in an old wallet;

21.2. and when they were brought, Dionysophanes looked at them first, and seeing the little sea-purple cloak, the brooch of beaten gold, the dagger with the ivory hilt, with a great cry of "O lord Zeus!" he called his wife to look.

21.3. And she, when she saw them, also cried out loudly: "Dear Fates! Are not these what we exposed with our own child? Did we not send Sophrosyne off to carry them to these very fields? They are no others, but these very things. Dear husband, the child is ours; your son is Daphnis, and he has been pasturing his father's goats."

22.1. While she was still speaking, and Dionysophanes was kissing the tokens and weeping for excess of joy, Astylus, understanding that he was his brother, threw off his cloak and ran down through the garden, wishing to be the first to kiss Daphnis.

22.2. But Daphnis, seeing him running with many others and crying "Daphnis," and thinking that he ran wishing to seize him, threw down his wallet and his pipe and made for the sea, to cast himself from the great rock.

22.3. And perhaps—strangest of things—Daphnis would have perished in the very moment of being found, had not Astylus, understanding, cried out again: "Stop, Daphnis, fear nothing; I am your brother, and those who were till now your masters are your parents.

22.4. Just now Lamon told us about the goat and showed us the tokens; turn and look how they come on, bright and laughing. But kiss me first; I swear by the Nymphs that I do not lie."

23.1. Scarcely after the oath did he stop and wait for Astylus as he ran, and kissed him when he came up. And while he kissed him, the rest of the throng flowed in—men-servants, maid-servants, the father himself, the mother with him. These all embraced him, kissed him, rejoicing, weeping.

23.2. But he showed kindness to his father and mother before the others, and as though he had long known them clasped them to his breast and would not leave their embraces; so quickly does nature win belief. He forgot Chloe too for a little while; and coming to the farmstead he took costly clothing, and sitting beside his own father heard him speak as follows:

24.1. "I married, children, when quite young. And after a little time had passed, I had become, as I thought, a happy father; for there was born to me first a son and second a daughter and third Astylus. I thought my family enough, and when this child was born after all the rest I exposed him, laying with him these things not as tokens but as burial-gifts.

24.2. But Fortune had other counsels. For my elder son and my daughter perished of the same sickness on a single day; but you were saved to me by the providence of the gods, that we might have more to lead us by the hand.

24.3. Do not, then, ever bear me ill-will for the exposure—for not willingly did I so resolve—and do not you be grieved, Astylus, at receiving a part instead of the whole estate—for to the right-minded there is no possession better than a brother—but love one another, and for wealth's sake vie even with kings.

24.4. For I will leave you much land, and many skilled servants, gold, silver, and all the other possessions of the prosperous. Only this estate I give to Daphnis as his special portion, and Lamon and Myrtale and the goats which he himself pastured."

25.1. While he was still speaking, Daphnis sprang up and said, "You have reminded me well of these things, father. I will go to lead the goats off to drink, who now perhaps thirst, waiting for my pipe; while I sit here."

25.2. They all laughed sweetly that, having become a master, he still wished to be a goatherd; and another was sent to tend them, while they, sacrificing to Zeus the Saviour, got up a banquet. To this banquet Gnathon alone did not come, but in fear remained in the temple of Dionysus both day and night, like a suppliant.

25.3. And when a swift report came to all that Dionysophanes had found a son, and that Daphnis the goatherd had been found master of the fields, at dawn they ran together one from one place, another from another, rejoicing with the young man and bringing gifts to his father; among whom was Dryas first, who reared Chloe.

26.1. And Dionysophanes kept them all, to be partakers, after the joy, of the festival too. There had been prepared much wine, much flour, marsh-birds, suckling pigs, varied honey-cakes; and many victims too were sacrificed to the gods of the country.

26.2. Then Daphnis, gathering together all his shepherd's belongings, distributed them as offerings to the gods. To Dionysus he dedicated the wallet and the hide, to Pan the pipe and the cross-flute, to the Nymphs the crook and the milk-pails which he himself had made.

26.3. But so much more delightful is the accustomed than prosperity newly come, that he wept over each of these as he parted from it; nor did he dedicate the milk-pails before he had milked, nor the hide before he had put it on, nor the pipe before he had piped;

26.4. but he kissed them all and addressed the goats and called the he-goats by name. Of the spring too he drank, because he had often drunk of it with Chloe. But he did not yet confess his love, watching for the right moment.

27.1. While Daphnis was at the sacrifices, these things befell Chloe. She sat weeping, saying, as was likely: "Daphnis has forgotten me. He dreams of a rich marriage.

27.2. Why did I bid him swear by the goats instead of by the Nymphs? He has left these, as he has left Chloe too. Not even while sacrificing to the Nymphs and to Pan did he long to see Chloe. Perhaps he has found among his mother's maidservants those better than I. Farewell; but I will not live."

28.1. As she was saying and thinking such things, Lampis the cowherd, coming with a band of farm-hands, seized her, thinking that Daphnis would no longer marry her and that Dryas would now favour him. So she was carried off, crying out piteously; and one who saw it told Nape, and she Dryas, and Dryas Daphnis.

28.2. And he, out of his mind, neither dared to speak to his father, nor, being unable to endure, going into the garden he lamented, saying, "O bitter discovery!

28.3. How much better it was for me to pasture! How much more blessed I was, being a slave! Then I looked upon Chloe, then . . . ; but now Lampis has carried her off and gone, and when night comes he will sleep with her. While I drink and live softly, and in vain have sworn by Pan and the goats and the Nymphs."

29.1. As Daphnis said these things, Gnathon, hidden in the garden, heard him; and thinking the time had come for a reconciliation with him, he took some of Astylus's young men and went in pursuit of Dryas.

29.2. And bidding him lead the way to Lampis's farmstead, he ran at full speed; and overtaking him just as he was bringing Chloe in, he took her from him and thrashed the farm-hands with blows.

29.3. He was eager too to bind Lampis and lead him off as a captive from some war, had he not got off first by running away. And having accomplished so great a deed, he returned as night was beginning.

29.4. And he found Dionysophanes sleeping, but Daphnis awake and still weeping in the garden. He brought Chloe to him, and giving her up told him everything; and he begged him, bearing no further ill-will, to keep him as a slave not without use, and not to drive him from a table, after which he would die of hunger.

29.5. And Daphnis, seeing and holding Chloe in his arms, was reconciled to him as a benefactor, and made his excuses to her for his neglect.

30.1. As they deliberated, it seemed best to conceal the marriage and to keep Chloe secretly, confessing their love to his mother alone; but Dryas would not consent, and demanded that it be told to the father, and undertook himself to persuade him.

30.2. And when day came, having the tokens in his wallet, he went to Dionysophanes and Cleariste as they sat in the garden (Astylus too was present, and Daphnis himself), and when silence had fallen he began to speak:

30.3. "A like necessity to Lamon's bade me speak what till now was unspoken. This Chloe I neither begot nor reared; rather, others begot her, but as she lay in a cave of the Nymphs a sheep reared her.

30.4. I myself saw this, and seeing it marvelled, and marvelling reared her. Her beauty bears witness, for she resembles us in nothing; and the tokens bear witness too, for they are richer than befits a shepherd. Look at these, and seek out the girl's kinsfolk, that she may one day appear worthy of Daphnis."

31.1. This neither Dryas threw out without aim nor Dionysophanes heard heedlessly, but looking at Daphnis and seeing him turning pale and secretly weeping, he quickly detected the love; and being more afraid for his own son than for another's daughter, he tested Dryas's words with all exactness.

31.2. And when he saw the tokens too brought—the gilded sandals, the anklets, the head-band—he called Chloe to him and bade her take heart, as having a husband already, and as one who would quickly find both her father and her mother.

31.3. And Cleariste took her and adorned her henceforth as her son's wife, while Dionysophanes, raising Daphnis up, questioned him alone whether she was a virgin; and when he swore that nothing had passed beyond kisses and oaths, pleased at their sworn pact, he made them recline at the feast.

32.1. So one could learn what beauty is, when it takes on adornment. For Chloe, when dressed and with her hair braided and her face washed, appeared so much more beautiful to all that even Daphnis scarcely knew her.

32.2. One would have sworn, even without the tokens, that Dryas was not the father of such a girl. Yet he too was present and feasted along with Nape, having for fellow-banqueters on his own couch Lamon and Myrtale.

32.3. So again on the following days victims were sacrificed and mixing-bowls were set up, and Chloe too dedicated her own things, the pipe, the wallet, the hide, the milk-pails; and she mingled with wine the spring in the cave, because she had been reared beside it and had often bathed in it;

32.4. she crowned too the grave of the sheep, when Dryas showed it, and she herself piped something to her flock, and piping prayed to the goddesses to find those who had exposed her worthy of marriage with Daphnis.

33.1. And when they had had enough of the country festivals, it seemed best to go to the city and to seek out Chloe's parents and no longer to delay their marriage.

33.2. So at dawn, having packed up, they gave to Dryas another three thousand, and to Lamon the right to reap and gather the vintage of half the fields and to have the goats along with the goatherds, and four yokes of oxen and winter clothing, and his wife her freedom; and after this they drove off to Mytilene with horses and chariots and much state.

33.3. At that time, then, they escaped the notice of the citizens, coming down by night; but the next day a crowd of men and women gathered about the doors. The men rejoiced with Dionysophanes at having found a son, and the more when they saw the beauty of Daphnis; the women rejoiced with Cleariste at her bringing both a son and a bride at once.

33.4. For Chloe astonished even them, showing a beauty that could not be outdone; and the whole city was agog over the youth and the maiden; and they already called the marriage blessed, and prayed too that a family worthy of the girl's form might be found; and many of the very rich women prayed to the gods that they themselves might be believed to be the mothers of a daughter so beautiful.

34.1. And to Dionysophanes, fallen into a deep sleep after much thought, there came a dream of this kind. He thought the Nymphs were begging Love at last to grant the marriage; and that he, unstringing his little bow and laying aside his quiver, bade Dionysophanes make all the noblest of the Mytileneans his fellow-banqueters, and, when he should fill the last mixing-bowl, then show each of them the tokens, and thereafter sing the wedding-song.

34.2. Having seen and heard these things, he rose at dawn and, bidding a splendid feast be prepared of the things of the land, of the sea, and whatever is in lakes and whatever in rivers, he made all the noblest of the Mytileneans his fellow-banqueters.

34.3. And when it was now night and the mixing-bowl had been filled from which they pour libations to Hermes, a servant brought in the tokens on a silver vessel and, carrying them round to the right, showed them to all.

35.1. So of the rest no one recognized them, but a certain Megacles, who reclined last because of his age, when he saw them, recognized them, and cried out very loudly and youthfully: "What is this I see? What has become of you, my little daughter? Are you alive, or did some shepherd, chancing on them, carry off these things alone?

35.2. I beg you, Dionysophanes, tell me: whence have you the tokens of my child? Do not begrudge me too the finding of something, after Daphnis." And when Dionysophanes bade him first tell the story of the exposure, Megacles, abating nothing of the

35.3. pitch of his voice, said: "My living was small in the former time; for what I had I spent on choruses and trierarchies. While things were thus, a little daughter was born to me. Shrinking from rearing her in poverty, I adorned her with these tokens and exposed her, knowing that many are eager to become parents even thus.

35.4. And the child was exposed in a cave of the Nymphs, entrusted to the goddesses, while wealth flowed in upon me day by day, who had no heir.

35.5. Nor did I ever again have the good fortune to become the father even of a little daughter, but the gods, as though making a mock of me, send me dreams by night, declaring that a sheep would make me a father."

36.1. Dionysophanes cried out louder than Megacles, and springing up brought in Chloe very beautifully adorned, and said: "This is the child you exposed. This maiden a sheep reared for you by the providence of the gods,

36.2. as a goat did Daphnis for me. Take the tokens and your daughter, and taking her give her to Daphnis as a bride. We exposed them both, we have found them both; both have been the care of Pan and the Nymphs and Love."

36.3. Megacles approved what was said, and sent for his wife Rhode, and held Chloe in his arms. And they chose to remain there for sleep; for Daphnis swore to no one to give up Chloe, not even to his own father.

37.1. When day came, they agreed and drove out again to the country; for Daphnis and Chloe had begged this, not bearing the sojourn in the town. And it seemed best to them too to make their wedding a pastoral one.

37.2. So coming to Lamon, they presented Dryas to Megacles and brought Nape together with Rhode and made ready splendidly for the festival. So the father gave Chloe away in the presence of the Nymphs and, among many other things, made offerings of the tokens, and made up to Dryas the sum lacking to ten thousand.

38.1. And Dionysophanes, since the weather was fine, spread couches there before the cave out of green leafage and, making all the villagers recline, feasted them sumptuously.

38.2. There were present Lamon and Myrtale, Dryas and Nape, Dorcon's kinsfolk, Philetas, the sons of Philetas, Chromis and Lycaenion; nor was Lampis absent, having been granted pardon.

38.3. So, as among such fellow-banqueters, everything was farmer-like and rustic; one sang such songs as reapers sing, another jested the jests of the wine-press; Philetas piped, Lampis played the flute, Dryas and Lamon danced, Chloe and Daphnis kissed each other.

38.4. The goats too grazed nearby, as though they too were sharing in the festival. This was not altogether pleasing to the city folk; but Daphnis even called some of them by name and gave them green leafage and, holding them by the horns, kissed them.

39.1. And in this same way, not only then but for the most part of their lives so long as they lived, they passed their days as shepherds, worshipping as gods the Nymphs and Pan and Love, and possessing very many flocks of sheep and goats, and reckoning fruit and milk the sweetest food.

39.2. Moreover, a male child being born to them, they put it under a goat, and when a second child, a little daughter, was born, they had her draw the teat of a sheep; and they called the one Philopoemen and the other Agele, and they adorned the cave and set up images and founded an altar to Love the Shepherd; and to Pan too they gave, in place of the pine, a temple, naming it the temple of Pan the Soldier.

40.1. But these things they both named and did later; for that time, when night came, they all escorted them to the bridal chamber, some piping, some playing the flute, some holding up great torches.

40.2. And when they were near the doors, they sang in a harsh and rough voice, as though breaking up the earth with mattocks, not singing a wedding-song.

40.3. And Daphnis and Chloe, lying down naked together, embraced each other and kissed, sleeping no more that night than owls; and Daphnis did something of what Lycaenion had taught him, and then for the first time Chloe learned that the things done in the wood had been but shepherds' play.