Verse
Metamorphoses
Book 4, Line 16 by Henry T. Riley (English)
Thus she spoke; and the wondrous deed charms their ears. Some deny that it was possible to be done, some say that real Gods can do all things; but Bacchus is not one of them. When her sisters have become silent, Alcithoë is called upon; who running with her shuttle through the warp of the hanging web, says, “I keep silence upon the well-known amours of Daphnis, the shepherd of Ida, whom the resentment of the Nymph, his paramour, turned into a stone. Such mighty grief inflames those who are in love. Nor do I relate how once Scython, the law of nature being altered, was of both sexes first a man, then a woman. Thee too, I pass by, O Celmus, now adamant, formerly most attached to Jupiter when little; and the Curetes, sprung from a plenteous shower of rain; Crocus, too, changed, together with Smilax, into little flowers; and I will entertain your minds with a pleasing novelty .”
MetamorphosesOvidHenry T. RileyEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 4
Book 4, Line 16ProseID metamorphoses-riley-en-prose-4-16