Maaira Khan, London
In antiquity, a propempticon was a poem written with the purpose of sending a friend off on a good voyage.
When Virgil set sail for Greece, Horace wrote a poem in honour of the occasion, but went on to discuss the impietas of mankind’s braving of the sea and other elements.
Sic te diva potens Cypri, sic fratres Helenae, lucida sidera, ventorumque regat pater obstrictis aliis praeter Iapyga, navis, quae tibi creditum debes Vergilium; finibus Atticis reddas incolumem precor et serves animae dimidium meae. illi robur et aes triplex circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci conmisit pelago ratem primus: nec timuit praecipitem Africum decertantem Aquilonibus nec tristis Hyadas nec rabiem Noti, quo non arbiter Hadriae maior, tollere seu ponere volt freta; quem mortis timuit gradum qui siccis oculis monstra natantia, qui vidit mare turbidum et infamis scopulos Acroceraunia? nequiquam deus abscidit prudens oceano dissociabili terras, si tamen inpiae non tangenda rates transiliunt vada. audax omnia perpeti gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas: audax Iapeti genus ignem fraude mala gentibus intulit; post ignem aetheria domo subductum macies et nova febrium terris incubuit cohors semotique prius tarda necessitas Leti corripuit gradum; expertus vacuum Daedalus aera pennis non homini datis; perrupit Acheronta Herculeus labor. nil mortalibus ardui est: caelum ipsum petimus stultitia neque per nostrum patimur scelus iracunda Iovem ponere fulmina.
O mighty goddess of Cypress,
O brothers of Helen, shining stars,
O father of the winds—
Restraining all those winds, but Iapyx[1],
Guide you, O ship, entrusted to bear Virgil.
Return him safely to the border of Attica, I pray;
Preserve the other half of my soul!
Only a man whose heart is armoured three times by oak and bronze
Would commit a meek raft to the ravaging waves.
Neither did he fear African winds,
Battling headlong against Aquilus[2]
Nor the melancholy Hyas, nor the frenzies of Notus,
Than whom there is no greater ruler of Hadria,
Whether he wishes to madden or calm the sea.
How may even the quickening steps of death frighten such a man
Who has witnessed the tumult of the sea and
Ths infamous cliffs of Acroceraunia?
The heavenly gods, in vain, separated
The lands with boundless oceans.
Yet impious rafts skim and leap across the stronghold.
Reckless to suffering,
The human race is drawn to forbidden sin.
Bold Prometheus brought fire and evil deceitfully to mankind;
After he led down fire from its celestial dwelling,
Starvation and disease unheard of
Descended upon the earth,
And the once slow Fate
Hastened Death’s approach.
Daedalus tried the bleak air
With wings fashioned for no man;
Hercules surpassed the labour of Acheron—
Nothing is too steep for the mortal tread.
We strive for the heavens themselves in our folly,
And for our crimes we suffer retribution;
Fiery bolts hurled by ireful Jove.
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