“From Faunus and the nymph Symethis sprung
“Acis, his sire's delight, his mother's pride;
“But far to me more dear. For me the youth,
“And me alone, lov'd warmly; twice eight years
“Had o'er him pass'd; when on his tender cheek
“A doubtful down appear'd. Him I desir'd,
“As ceaseless as the Cyclops sought for me.
“Nor should you ask, if in my bosom dwelt
“For him most hate, or most for Acis love,
“Could I inform you: equal both in force.
“O, gentle Venus! with what mighty power
“Thou sway'st; lo! he, the merciless, the dread
“Of his own woods; whom hapless guest ne'er saw
“With safety; spurner of the power of Jove,
“And all the host of heaven, what love is, feels!
“Seiz'd with desire of me he flames, forgets
“His flocks, and caverns. All thy anxious care
“Thy beauty, Polyphemus! to improve,
“And all thy anxious care is now to please.
“And now with rakes thou comb'st thy rugged hair;
“Now with a scythe thou mow'st thy bushy beard:
“Thy features to behold in the clear brook,
“And calm their fire employs thee. All his love
“Of slaughter; all his fierceness; all his thirst
“Cruel of blood, him leaves; and on the coast,
“Ships safely moor, and safe again depart.
“Meantime at Etna Telemus arriv'd,
“Of Eurymus the son, whom never bird
“Deceiv'd; he to dread Polyphemus came,
“And spoke:—Thee, of the single light thou bear'st
“Mid front, Ulysses will deprive.—Loud laugh'd
“The monster, saying;—Stupidest of seers,
“How much thou err'st!—already is it gone.—
“So spurns the truth the prophet told in vain.
“Then moving on along the shore, he sinks
“The sand with heavy steps, or tir'd returns
“To his dark caves. Far stretching in the main
“A wedge-like promontory rears its ridge
“Aloft; on either side the surging waves
“Foam on it. To its loftiest height ascends
“The Cyclops fierce; his station in the midst
“Assumes; his woolly flocks his steps pursue
“Unshepherded. He when the pine immense,
“Which serv'd him for a staff, though fit to serve
“For sailyard, low beneath his feet had thrown;
“And grasp'd the pipe, an hundred 'pacted reeds
“Compos'd; the pastoral whistling all around
“The hills confess'd, and all the waters nigh.
“I, hid beneath a rock, my head reclin'd
“On my dear Acis' bosom, heard these words—,
“And still the words are noted in my breast.—

“O, Galatea! brighter than the leaves
“Of snow-white lilies; fresher than the meads;
“More lofty far than towering alder trees;
“Than chrystal clearer; than the wanton kid
“More gay; than shells, by ocean's constant waves
“Smooth polish'd, smoother; dearer than the shade
“In summer's heat; than winter's sun more dear;
“More than the apple bright; and fairer far
“Than lofty planetrees; clearer than the frost;
“More beauteous than the ripen'd grape; more soft
“Than the swan's plumage; or the new-prest milk:
“And, but thou fly'st, more than the garden fine
“With water'd streamlets. Yet the same art thou,
“Wild Galatea, than the untam'd steer
“More fierce; more stubborn than the ancient oak;
“Than water more deceitful; slippery more
“Than bending willows, or the greenest vines;
“More stubborn than these rocks; than seas more rough;
“Than the prais'd peacock prouder; sharper far
“Than fire; and piercing more than thistles keen.
“More savage than a nursing bear; more deaf
“Than raging billows; than the trodden snake
“More pitiless; and, what I more than all
“Would wish thou wast not, fleeter than the deer,
“Chas'd by shrill hunters; fleeter than wing'd air,
“Or winds. If well thou knew'st me, much thou'dst grieve
“That e'er thou fled'st; thou'dst blame thy dull delay,
“And sue and labor to retain my love.
“Caverns I have, scoop'd in the living rock
“Beneath the mountain's side, where never sun
“In mid-day heat, nor winter's cold can come.
“My apples bend the branches; grapes are mine
“On the long vine-trees clustering; some like gold;
“Some of a purple teint; and these and those
“Will I preserve for thee. Thy own fair hands
“Shall gather strawberries soft, beneath the shade;
“Autumnal cornels; and the purple plumb,
“Dark with its juice, and that still nobler kind
“Like new-made wax in hue. Nor shalt thou lack
“The chesnut; nor the red arbutus' fruit:
“Be but my spouse. All trees shall thee supply.
“Mine are these flocks, and thousands more besides
“Which roam the vallies; thousands like the woods;
“And thousands shelter in the shady caves:
“Nor could I, should'st thou ask, their numbers tell.
“Poor he who counts his store. Believe not me
“When these I praise; before thine eyes behold
“How scarce their legs the swelling udder bear.
“Mine are the tender lambs, in the warm fold
“Secure; and mine are kids of equal age
“In folds apart. The whitest milk have I;
“But still for drink shall serve, and thicken'd, part
“Shall harden into cheese. Nor wilt thou find
“But cheap delights, and common vulgar gifts:
“For deer, and hares, and goats, thou shalt possess;
“Pigeons in pairs, and nests from mountains gain'd.
“Upon the hills, a shaggy bear's twin cubs
“I found; so like, no difference could be seen,
“With thee to play I found them: these, I said,
“These will I force my mistress to obey.
“O Galatea! raise thy lovely head
“Above the azure deep; come! only come;
“Nor scorn my gifts. Right well myself I know:
“I view'd me lately in the liquid stream;
“And much my image satisfy'd my view.
“Behold, how vast my bulk! Jove, in his heaven,
“(For of some Jove ye oft are wont to tell
“Who rules there) towers not in a mightier size.
“Thick bushy locks o'er my stern forehead hang,
“And like a forest down my shoulders spread.
“Nor deem my body, with hard bristles rough,
“Unseemly; most unsightly is the tree,
“Without a leaf; unsightly is the steed,
“Save on his neck the flowing mane is spread:
“Plumes clothe the feather'd race; and their own wool
“Becomes the sheep; so beards become mankind,
“And bushy bristles, o'er their limbs bespread.
“True in my forehead but one light is plac'd;
“But huge that light, and like a mighty shield
“In size. Yet does not Sol from heaven's high round
“All view? and Sol possesses lights no more.
“Remember too, my father o'er your realm
“Rules sovereign; I in him a sire-in-law
“Would give thee. Only pity me, I pray,
“And hear my suppliant vows. To thee alone
“I bend: and while I scorn your mighty Jove,
“His heaven, and piercing thunder, thee, O nymph!
“I fear: than fiercest lightnings dreading more
“Thy anger. Far more patient should I rest
“With this contempt, all didst thou thus contemn.
“But how, the Cyclops first repuls'd, dar'st thou
“This Acis love? this Acis dare prefer
“To my embraces? Yet may he himself
“Delight; nay let him Galatea please,
“If so it must be, though what most I'd spurn:
“Let but the scope be given, soon should he prove
“My strength is equal to my mighty bulk.
“Living his entrails would I tear, and spread
“His mangled members o'er the fields, and o'er
“Thy waters: let him mingle with thee so.
“For oh! I burn; more fierce my injur'd love
“Now rages: in ray breast I seem to bear
“All Etna and its fires. But all my pains
“Can nought, O Galatea! thee affect.—

“Thus with vain 'plainings (for the whole I saw)
“He rises, raging like a furious bull
“Robb'd of his heifer; paces restless round,
“And bounds along the forests and the coasts.
“When me and Acis, heedless of such fate,
“And unsuspecting, he beheld, and roar'd:—
“I see ye! but the period of your love
“Will I accomplish.—Loud his threats were heard,
“As all the Cyclops' power of voice could raise.
“All Etna trembled at the sound. In fright
“I plung'd for safety in the neighbouring waves;
“While fair Symethis' son for flight prepar'd;
“And—help me, Galatea!—he exclaim'd—
“Help me, O help! and ye, my parents, aid;
“And, perishing, receive me in your realm.—
“Close at his heels the Cyclops comes, and hurls
“A mighty fragment from a mountain rent;
“A corner only of the mighty rock
“Him reach'd: that corner Acis all o'erwhelm'd.
“But I, what fate alone would grant, perform'd,
“That Acis still his ancestorial race
“Should join: his purple gore flow'd from the rock;
“And soon the redness pal'd; it seem'd a stream
“Disturb'd by drenching showers; and soon this stream
“Was clear'd to limpid purity. The rock
“Gap'd wide, and living reeds sprung up erect,
“On either brink. Loud roars the pressing flood
“In the rock's hollow womb, and (wond'rous sight!)
“A youth, his new-form'd horns with reeds begirt,
“Sudden appear'd, 'mid waist above the waves;
“Who but in stature larger, and his skin
“Of azure teint, might Acis well be deem'd.
“Acis indeed it was, Acis transform'd
“To a clear stream which still his name retains.”

Here Galatea ceas'd, the listening choir
Dividing, all depart. The Nereïd train
Swim o'er the placid waves. Scylla returns;
Fearful to venture 'mid the boundless main,
And vestless roams along the soaking sand;
Or weary'd; finding some sequester'd pool,
Cools in the shelter'd waters her fair limbs.
Lo! Glaucus, lately of the mighty deep
An 'habitant receiv'd, his shape transform'd
Upon BϚtia's shores, cleaves through the waves;
And feels desire as he the nymph beholds.
All he can urge to stay her flight he tries;
Yet still she flies him, swifter from her fear.
She gains a mountain's summit, which the shore
O'erhung. High to the main the lofty ridge
An undivided sbrubless top presents,
Down shelving to the sea. In safety here
She stood; and, dubious monster he, or god,
Admir'd his color, and the locks which spread
Adown his shoulders, and his back below:
And that a wreathing fish's form should end
His figure from his groin. He saw her gaze;
And on a neighbouring rock his elbow lean'd,
As thus he spoke.—“No monstrous thing am I,
“Fair virgin! nor a savage of the sea;
“A watery god I am; nor on the main
“Has Proteus; Triton; or Palæmon, son
“Of Athamas, more power. Yet time has been
“When I was mortal, yet even then attach'd
“To the deep water, on the ocean I,
“Still joy'd to labor. Now the following shoal
“Of fishes in my net I dragg'd; and now,
“Plac'd on a rock, I with my flexile rod
“Guided the line. Bordering a verdant mead
“A bank there lies, the waves its circuit bound
“In part; in part the virid grass surrounds;
“A mead which ne'er the horned herd had cropp'd:
“Where ne'er the placid flock, nor hairy goats
“Had brows'd; nor bees industrious cull'd the flowers
“For sweets: no genial chaplets there were pluck'd
“To grace the head; nor had the mower's arm
“E'er spoil'd the crop. The first of mortals, I
“On the turf rested. As my nets I dry'd;
“And as my captur'd scaly prey to count,
“Upon the grass I spread,—whatever the net
“Escape prevented, and the hook had snar'd
“Through their own folly. (Like a fiction sounds
“The fact, but what avails to me to feign?)
“Soon as the grass they touch, my captiv'd prey
“Begin to move, and on their sides to turn;
“And ply their fins on earth as in the main.
“Then, while with wonder struck I pause, all fly
“The shore in heaps, and their new master quit,
“Their native waves regaining. I, surpriz'd,
“Long doubtful stand to guess the wond'rous cause.
“Whether some god, or but the grasses' juice
“Accomplish'd this. What herb—at last, I said—
“Can power like this possess?—and with my hand
“Pluck'd up, and with my teeth the herbage chew'd.
“Scarce had my throat th' untasted juice first try'd,
“When all my entrails sudden tremblings shook,
“And with a love of something yet unknown
“My breast was mov'd; nor could I longer keep
“My place.—O earth! where I shall ne'er return—
“Farewel! I cry'd,—and plung'd below the waves.
“Worthy the ocean deities me deem'd
“To join their social troop, and anxious pray'd
“To Tethys, and old Ocean, Tethys' spouse,
“To purge whate'er of mortal I retain'd.
“By them lustrated, and the potent song
“Nine times repeated, earthly taints to cleanse,
“They bade me 'neath an hundred gushing streams
“To place my bosom. No delay I seek;
“The floods from numerous fountains pour'd, the main
“O'erwhelm'd my head. Thus far what deeds were done
“My memory helps me to relate; thus far
“Alone can I remember; all the rest
“Dark to my memory seems. My sense restor'd,
“I found my body chang'd in every part;
“Nor was my mind the same. Then first I saw
“This beard of dingy green, and these long locks
“Which through the seas I sweep; these shoulders huge;
“Those azure arms and thighs in fish-like form
“Furnish'd with fins. But what avails this shape?
“What that by all the deities marine
“I dear am held? a deity myself?
“If all these honors cannot touch thy breast.”
These words he spoke, and more to speak prepar'd,
When Scylla left the god. Repuls'd, he griev'd
And sought Titanian Circé's monstrous court.

The Fourteenth Book.

Scylla transformed to a monster by Circé through jealousy; and ultimately to a rock. Continuation of Æneas' voyage. Dido. Cercopians changed to apes. Descent of Æneas to hell. The Cumæan Sybil. Adventures of Achæmenides with Polyphemus: and of Macareus amongst the Lestrigonians. Enchantments of Circé. Story of the transformation of Picus to a woodpecker; and of the nymph Canens to air. The Latian wars. Misfortunes of Diomede. Agmon and others changed to herons. Appulus to a wild olive. The Trojan ships changed to sea-nymphs. The city Ardea to a bird. Deification of Æneas. Latin kings. Vertumnus and Pomona. Story of Iphis and Anaxareté. Wars with the Sabines. Apotheösis of Romulus; and of his wife Hersilia.

THE
Fourteenth Book
OF THE
METAMORPHOSES
OF
OVID.

Now had Eubœan Glaucus, who could cleave
The surging sea, left Etna, o'er the breasts
Of giants thrown, and left the Cyclops' fields,
Unconscious of the plough's or harrow's use;
And unindebted to the oxen yok'd.
Zanclé he left, and its opposing shore
Where Rhegium's turrets tower; and the strait sea
For shipwreck fam'd, which by incroaching shores
Press'd narrow, forms the separating bound
Betwixt Ausonia's and Sicilia's land.
Thence glides he swift along the Tyrrhene coast,
By powerful arms impell'd, and gains the dome,
And herbag'd hills of Circé Phœbus sprung:
(The dome with forms of wildest beasts full cramm'd)
Whom, soon as greeting salutations pass'd,
He thus address'd:—“O powerful goddess! grant
“Thy pity to a god; and thou alone,
“If worth that aid thou deem'st me, canst afford
“Aid to my love. For, O Titanian maid!
“To none the power of plants is better known
“Than me, who by the power of plants was chang'd.
“But lest the object of my lore, to thee
“Unknown, be hid; I Scylla late beheld
“Upon th' Italian shore: Messenia's walls
“Opposing. Shame me hinders to relate
“What promises, what prayers, what coaxing words
“I us'd: my words all heard with proud contempt.
“Do thou with magic lips thy charms repeat,
“If power in charms abides: or if in herbs
“More force is found, then use the well-try'd strength
“Of herbs of power. I wish thee not to soothe
“My heart; I wish thee not these wounds to cure;
“Still may they last, let her such flames but feel.”

Then Circé spoke, (and she a mind possess'd
Most apt to flame with love, or in her frame
The stimulus was plac'd; or Venus, irk'd
At what her sire discover'd, caus'd the heat.)
“O, better far the willing nymph pursue
“Who would in wishes meet thee; wh'o is seiz'd
“With equal love: well worthy of the maid
“Thou wast; nay shouldst have been the first besought;
“And if but hope thou wilt afford, believe
“My words, thou shalt spontaneously be lov'd.
“Fear not, but on thy beauteous form depend;
“Lo! I, a goddess! of the splendid sun
“A daughter, who with powerful spells so much
“And herbs can do, to be thy consort sue.
“Spurn her who spurns thee; her who thee desires
“Desiring meet; and both at once avenge.”
But to her tempting speeches Glaucus thus
Reply'd—“The trees shall sooner in the waves
“Spring up, and sea-weed on the mountain's top,
“Than I, while Scylla lives, my love transfer.”
The goddess swol'n with anger, since his form
To harm 'twas given her not, and love deny'd,
Turn'd on her happier rival all her rage.
Irk'd at her slighted passion, straight she grinds
Herbs infamous, to gain their horrid juice;
And mixes all with Hecatéan spells.
Then clothes her in a sable robe, and forth
Through crouds of fawning savage beasts she goes,
From her gay palace. Rhegium's coast she seeks
O'erlooking Zanclé's rocks; and on the waves
With fury boiling, steps; o'er them she walks
As on a solid shore, and skims along
The ridgy billows with unwetted feet.

A little pool, bent in a gentle curve,
With peaceful surface oft did Scylla tempt;
And often thither she herself betook
To 'scape from ocean's, and from Phœbus' heat,
When high in noon-tide fierceness short the shade
Was from the head describ'd. Before she came
The goddess poison'd all the pool; she pour'd
Her potent juice, of monster-breeding power,
Prest from pernicious roots, within the waves;
And mutter'd thrice nine times with magic lips,
In sounds scarce audible, her well-known spells.
Here Scylla came, and waded to the waist;
And straight, with barking monsters she espies
Her womb deform'd: at first, of her own limbs
Not dreaming they are part, she from them flies;
And chides them thence, and fears their savage mouths.
But what she flies she with her drags; she looks
To find her thighs, and find her legs, and feet;
But for those limbs Cerberean jaws are found.
Furious the dogs still howl; on their fierce backs
Her shorten'd groin, and swelling belly rest.