Metamorphoses

And now was she hardly able to bear her womb big with the burden ripe for birth; when in the middle of the night, under the form of a vision, the daughter of Inachus, attended by a train of her votaries, either stood, or seemed to stand, before her bed. The horns of the moon were upon her forehead, with ears of corn with their bright golden colour, and the royal ornament of the diadem ; with her was the barking Anubis, and the holy Bubastis, and the particoloured Apis; he, too, who suppresses his voice, and with his finger enjoins silence. There were the sistra too, and Osiris, never enough sought for; and the foreign serpent, filled with soporiferous poison. When thus the Goddess addressed her, as though roused from her sleep, and seeing all distinctly: “O Telethusa, one of my votaries, lay aside thy grievous cares, and evade the commands of thy husband; and do not hesitate, when Lucina shall have given thee ease by delivery, to bring up the child , whatever it shall be. I am a befriending Goddess, and, when invoked, I give assistance; and thou shalt not complain that thou hast worshipped an ungrateful Divinity.”

MetamorphosesOvidHenry T. RileyEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 9

Book 9, Line 40ProseID metamorphoses-riley-en-prose-9-40