3.851
The Argonautica 3.851 · From Prometheus' blood3.851From Prometheus' blood
Lines 851–857. Where the plant came from, and what it looks like.
· · ·
τόγʼ1
tóg’
It
πρωτοφυὲς2
prōtophyès
firstfirst-grown
ἀνέσχε3
anésche
sprang uprose up
when
ὠμηστέω4
ōmēstéō
the flesh-eatingraw-eating
αἰετοῦ5
aietoû
eagle
καταστάξαντος6
katastáxantos
let driphaving dripped down
ἔραζε7
éraze
to the ground
, ἔνι8
éni
in
κνημοῖς9
knēmoîs
the glensmountain shoulders
Καυκασίοισιν10
Kaukasíoisin
of the CaucasusCaucasian
, αἱματόεντʼ11
haimatóent’
the bloody
ἰχῶρα12
ichôra
ichordivine blood
μογεροῖο13
mogeroîo
of sufferingwretched
Προμηθῆος14
Promēthêos
Prometheus
. δʼ15
d’
And
ἤτοι16
ḗtoi
—
τοῦ17
toû
its
ἄνθος18
ánthos
flower
μὲν19
mèn
—
ἐξεφαάνθη20
exephaánthē
appearedcame to light
ὕπερθεν21
hýperthen
above ground
, ὅσον22
hóson
as much as
πήχυιον23
pḗchyion
a cubit higha forearm long
, ἴκελον24
íkelon
like
Κωρυκίῳ25
Kōrykíōi
Corycian
κρόκῳ26
krókōi
saffroncrocus
χροιῇ27
chroiêi
in color
, ἐπήορον28
epḗoron
raisedhovering
διδύμοισιν29
didýmoisin
on twindouble
καυλοῖσιν30
kauloîsin
stalksstems
; δʼ31
d’
but
ἡ32
hē
the
ῥίζα33
rhíza
root
ἐνὶ34
enì
in
γαίῃ35
gaíēi
the earth
ἔπλετο36
épleto
was
ἐναλιγκίη37
enalinkíē
like
νεοτμήτῳ38
neotmḗtōi
to freshly cutnewly cut
σαρκὶ39
sarkì
flesh
. It first sprang up when the flesh-eating eagle let drip to the ground, in the glens of the Caucasus, the bloody ichor of suffering Prometheus. Its flower showed above ground, a cubit high, like Corycian saffron in color, raised on twin stalks; but the root in the earth was like freshly cut flesh.
It first sprang up when the flesh-eating eagle let drip to the ground, in the glens of the Caucasus, the bloody ichor of suffering Prometheus. Its flower showed above ground, a cubit high, like Corycian saffron in color, raised on twin stalks; but the root in the earth was like freshly cut flesh.
Interpretation
It first sprang up when the flesh-eating eagle, in the glens of the Caucasus, let the bloody ichor of tormented Prometheus drip to the ground. Its flower rose a cubit above the earth on twin stalks, the color of Corycian saffron; but the root under the ground was like freshly cut flesh.
The plant grows from Prometheus' own blood. Where the eagle that fed on him dripped his ichor onto the slopes of the Caucasus, the drug sprang up: a flower a cubit high, the color of Corycian saffron, on twin stalks, and a root like freshly cut flesh.
Corycian saffron, from Mount Corycus in Cilicia, was the most prized of all (Pliny, Natural History 21.31). Mooney quotes Seneca's Medea, who gathers poisons from "the Caucasus, sprinkled with the blood of Prometheus" (Medea 708–709), and Ausonius, for whom the same blood breeds deadly aconite.
3.858
The Argonautica 3.858 · Seven baths, seven calls to Brimo3.858Seven baths, seven calls to Brimo
Lines 858–863. How she gathered the juice of the plant at night, calling on Brimo.
· · ·
Its juice, like the dark sap of an oak in the mountains, she had gathered in a Caspian shell to make her drug, after bathing seven times in ever-flowing streams, and seven times calling on Brimo, nurse of the young, Brimo who walks by night, of the underworld, queen of the dead, in the murky night, in dark robes.