Metamorphoses

“Thus, after the Lycus has been swallowed up by a chasm in the earth, it burst forth far thence, and springs up afresh at another mouth. Thus the great Erasinus is at one time swallowed up, and then flowing with its stream concealed, is cast up again on the Argive plains. They say, too, that the Mysus, tired of its spring and of its former banks, now flows in another direction, as the Caicus. The Amenanus, too, at one time flows, rolling along the Sicilian sands, and at another is dry, its springs being stopped up. Formerly, the water of the Anigros was used for drinking; it now pours out water which you would decline to touch; since, (unless all credit must be denied to the poets), the Centaurs , the double-limbed mortals, there washed the wounds which the bow of the club-bearing Hercules had made. And what besides? Does not the Hypanis too, which before was sweet, rising from the Scythian mountains, become impregnated with bitter salts? Antissa, Pharos, and Phœnician Tyre, were once surrounded by waves; no one of these is now an island. The ancient inhabitants had Leucas annexed to the continent; now the sea surrounds it. Zancle, too, is said to have been united to Italy, until the sea cut off the neighbouring region, and repelled the land with its waves flowing between.

MetamorphosesOvidHenry T. RileyEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 15

Book 15, Line 17ProseID metamorphoses-riley-en-prose-15-17