Reading Room

Whisper's Muses

A classical oracle and reading room arranged in paper, ink, and line.

Search, draw, and read public-domain verse with stable line references and quiet editorial structure.

Verse

Metamorphoses

Book 15, Line 21 by Henry T. Riley (English)

“The river Lyncestis flows unlike that stream in its effect; for as soon as any one has drunk of it with immoderate throat, he reels, just as if he had been drinking unmixed wine. There is a place in Arcadia, (the ancients called it Pheneos,) suspicious for the twofold nature of its water. Stand in dread of it at night; if drunk of in the night time, it is injurious; in the daytime, it is drunk of without any ill effects. So lakes and rivers have, some, one property, and some another. There was a time when Ortygia was floating on the waves, now it is fixed. The Argo dreaded the Symplegades tossed by the assaults of the waves dashing against them; they now stand immoveable, and resist the attacks of the winds.

MetamorphosesOvidHenry T. RileyEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 15

Book 15, Line 21ProseID metamorphoses-riley-en-prose-15-21

Project Gutenberg #26073, The Metamorphoses of Ovid (Henry T. Riley), Book 15 extraction