Metamorphoses

The Thracian pushes from him the table with a loud cry, and summons the Viperous sisters from the Stygian valley; and at one moment he desires, if he only can, by opening his breast to discharge thence the horrid repast, and the half-digested entrails. And then he weeps, and pronounces himself the wretched sepulchre of his own son; and then he follows the daughters of Pandion with his drawn sword. You would have thought the bodies of the Cecropian Nymphs were supported by wings; and they were supported by wings. The one of them makes for the woods, the other takes her place beneath the roofs of houses . Nor even as yet have the marks of murder withdrawn from her breast; and her feathers are still stained with blood. He, made swift by his grief, and his desire for revenge, is turned into a bird, upon whose head stands a crested plume ; a prolonged bill projects in place of the long spear. The name of the bird is ‘epops’ [ lapwing ]; its face appears to be armed. This affliction dispatched Pandion to the shades of Tartarus before his day, and the late period of protracted old age.

MetamorphosesOvidHenry T. RileyEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 6

Book 6, Line 32ProseID metamorphoses-riley-en-prose-6-32