Verse
Metamorphoses
Book 1, Line 4 by Henry T. Riley (English)
When thus he, whoever of the Gods he was, had divided the mass so separated, and reduced it, so divided, into distinct members; in the first place, that it might not be unequal on any side, he gathered it up into the form of a vast globe; then he commanded the sea to be poured around it, and to grow boisterous with the raging winds, and to surround the shores of the Earth, encompassed by it ; he added also springs, and numerous pools and lakes, and he bounded the rivers as they flowed downwards, with slanting banks. These, different in different places, are some of them swallowed up by the Earth itself; some of them reach the ocean, and, received in the expanse of waters that take a freer range, beat against shores instead of banks.
MetamorphosesOvidHenry T. RileyEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 1
Book 1, Line 4ProseID metamorphoses-riley-en-prose-1-4