 Book eight, part three of Ovid's Metamorphosis. Ere this, Althea, mother of the prince and sister of the slaughtered twain, because her son had killed the war, made haste to bear rich offerings to the temples of the gods, but when she saw her slaughtered brothers born inside procession, she began to shriek and fill the city with her wild lament. Unwilling to abide her festal robes, she dressed in sable. When she was informed her own son Meliaga was the cause, she banished grief and lamentations, thirsting for vengeance. She remembered well how, when she lay in childbirth, round her stood the three attendant sisters of his fate. There was a billet in the room, and this they took and cast upon the wasting flames, and as they spun and drew the fatal threads, they softly chanted. Unto you we give, O child newborn, only the life of this, the period of this billet, is your life. And having spoken so, they vanished in the smoke. Althea snatched the billet from the fire, and having quenched it with drawn water, hid it long and secretly in her own room, where, thus preserved, it acted as a charm to save the life of Meliaga. This the mother now brought forth, and fetched a pile of seasoned tinder ready for the torch. She lit the torches and the ready pile, and as the flames leapt up, four times prepared to cast the fatal billet in the midst, and four times hesitated to commit the dreadful deed. So long the contest veered between the feelings of a mother's breast and the fierce vengeance of a sister's rage. Now is the mother's visage pale with fear, and now the sister's sanguinary rage glows in her eyes. Her countenance contorts with cruel threats, and in bewildered ways dissolves compassionate. And even when the heat of anger had dried up her eyes, the conflict of her passion brought new tears. As when the wind has seized upon a ship and glows against a tide of equal force, the vexed vessel feels repellent powers, and with unsteady motion sways to both. So did Althea hesitate between the conflict of her passions. When her rage had cured, her fury was as fast renewed, but always the unsatisfied desire of blood, to ease the disembodied shades of her slain brothers, seemed to overcome the mother instinct, and intensity of conduct proved the utmost test of love. She took the billet in her arms, and stood before the leaping flames, and said, Alas! be this the funeral pyre of my own flesh! And as she held in her relentless hands, the destiny of him she loved, and stood before the flames, in all her wretchedness she moaned. You sad humanities attend, relentless gods of punishment. Turn, turn your dreadful vision on these baneful rites. I am avenging and committing crime. With death must death be justified, and crime be added unto crime. Let funerals upon succeeding funerals attend. Let these accumulating woes destroy a wicked race. Shall Happy Inus bask in the great fame of his victorious son, and Thestias mourn without slaughtered ones? It is better they should both lament the deed, witness the act of my affection, shades of my departed brothers, and accept my funeral offering, given at a cost beyond my strength to bear. Are wretched me? Distracted is my reason. Pity me, the yearnings of a stricken mother's heart, withholding me from duty. I, although his punishment be just, my hands refuse the office of such vengeance. What? Shall he alive, victorious, flushed with his success, inherit the broad realms of Caledon, and you, my slaughtered brothers, unavenged, dissolved in ashes, float upon the air, unpulpetating phantoms? How can I endure the thought of it? Oh! let the wretch for ever perish, and with him be lost the hopes of his sad father in the wreck of his distracted kingdom. Where are now the love and feelings of a mother? How can I forget the bitter pangs endured, while twice times five the slow moon waxed and waned? Oh! had you perished in your infancy by those first fires, and I had suffered it. Your life was in my power, and now your death is the result of wrongs which you have done. Take now a just reward for what you did. Return to me the life I gave and saved. When from the flames I snatched the fatal brand. Return that gift, or take my wretched life that I may hasten to my brother's tomb. What dreadful deed can satisfy the law, when I for love against my love am forced? For even as my brother's wounds appear in visions dreadful to denounce my son, the love so nurtured in a mother's breast breaks down the resolution. Wretched me! such vengeance for my brother's overcomes first at your birth I gave it. And again the yearning of a mother for her son. Let not my love denounce my vengeance. My soul may follow with its love the shade of him I sacrifice, and following him my shade and his and yours unite below. She spoke, and as she turned her face away she threw the fatal billet on the fire, and as the flames devoured it a strange groan was heard to issue from the burning wood, but Meliaga at a distance knows of naught to wreck his hour of victory, until he feels the flame of burning wood scorching with secret fire his forfeit life. Yet with a mighty will, disdaining pain he grieves his bloodless and ignoble death. He calls Ankeas happy for the wounds that caused his death. With sighs and groans he called his aged father's name, and then the names of brothers, sisters, and his wife. At last they say he called upon his mother's name. His torment always with the fire increased, until, as little of the wood remained, his pain diminished with the heat's decrease, and as the flames extinguished, so his life slowly ascended in the rising air. And all the mighty realm of Caledon was filled with lamentations. Young and old the common people and the nobles mourned, and all the wailing women tore their hair. His father threw his body on the ground, and as he covered his white hair and face with ashy dust bewailed his aged days. Althea, maddened in her mother's grief, has punished herself with a ruthless hand. She pierced her heart with iron. Oh, if some god had given a resounding hop, a voice and a hundredfold more mighty, and a soul enlarged with genius, I could never tell the grief of his unhappy sisters. They, regardless of all shame, beat on their breasts. Before the body was consumed with fire, embraced it, and again embracing it, rained kisses on their loved one and the beer. And when the flames had burnt his shrinking form, they strained his gathered ashes to their breasts, and prostrate on the tomb kissed his dear name, cut only in stone, and bathed it with their tears. Latona's daughter, glutted with the woes inflicted on Parthéon's house, now gave two of the weeping sisters widespread wings, but Corguet and the spouse of Hercules not so were changed. Latona stretched long wings upon their arms, transformed their mouths to beaks, and sent them winging through the loosened air. And Theseus, meantime, having done great deeds, was wending towards Tritonian Athens' towers, but Achelaus, swollen with great rains, opposed his journey and delayed his steps. Oh, famous son of Athens, come to me beneath my roof and leave my rapid floods, for they are wont to bear enormous beams and hurl up heavy stones to bar the way, mighty with roaring down the steep ravines. And I have seen the sheepfolds on my banks swept down the flood, together with the sheep, and in the current neither strength availed the ox for safety, nor swift speed the horse. When rushed the melting snows from mountain peaks, how many bodies of unwary men this flood had overwhelmed in whirling waves. Rest safely, then, until my river runs within its usual bounds, till it contains its flowing waters in its proper banks. And gladly answered Theseus, I will make good use of both your dwelling and advice. And waiting not he ended a rude hut of porous pumice and of rough stone-built. The floor was damp and soft with springy moss, and rows of shells and murex arched the roof. And now, Hyperion having measured quite two-thirds of daylight, Theseus and his friends reclined upon the couches. On his right Ixian's son was placed, and on his left the grey-haired hero Lilex, and others deemed worthy by the Arcanian god, who were so joyful in his noble guests. Without delay the barefoot nimble nymphs attending to the banquet, rich food brought, and after all were satisfied with meat and dainties delicate, the careful nymphs removed all traces of the feast, and served delicious wines in bowls embossed with gems. And after they had eaten, Theseus arose, and as he pointed with his finger, said, Declare to me what name that island wears, or is it one, or more than one, I see? To which the ready river god replied, It is not one we see, but five are there, deceptive in the distance. And that you may wonder less at what Diana did, those islands were five naïads. Long ago ten bullocks per sacrifice they slew, and when the joyous festival was given, ignoring me they bade all other gods. Indignant at the slight, I swelled with rage as great as ever when my banks are full, and so we doubled both in rage and flood, I ravished woods from woods, and fields from fields, and hurled into the sea the very soil, together with the nymphs, who then at last remembered their neglect. And soon my waves, united with the ocean streams, cut through the solid soil, and fashioned from the one, five islands you may see amid the waves, which men since then have called achinades. But yet beyond you can observe how one most beautiful of all is far withdrawn, and this which most delights me, mariners have peramella named. She was so fair that I deprived her of a precious wealth, and when Hippodamus, her father, knew, enraged he pushed her, heavy then with child, forth from a rock into the cruel sea where she must perish, but I rescued her, and as I bore her on my swimming tide I called on Neptune ruler of the deep. O trident-wielder, you who are preferred next to the God most mighty, who by lot obtained the empire of the flowing deep, to which all sacred rivers flow and end, come here, O Neptune, and with thy gracious will grant my desire. I injured her, I save, but if Hippodamus, her father, when he knew my love, had been both kind and just, if he had not been so unnatural, he would have pitied and forgiven her. O Neptune, I beseech you, grant your power may find a place of safety for this nymph, abandoned to the deep waves by her sire, or if that cannot be, let her whom I embrace to show my love, let her become a place of safety. Instantly to me the king of ocean moved his mighty head, and all the deep waves quivered in response. The nymph, afraid, still struggled in the deep, and as she swam I touched her throbbing breast, and as I felt her bosom trembling still, I thought her soft flesh was becoming hard, for even then new earth enclosed her form, and as I prayed to Neptune, earth encased her floating limbs, and on her changing form the heavy sores of that fair island grew. End of Book 8, Part 3 8. Part 4 of Ovid's Metamorphoses. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Christina Vasilevsky. Metamorphoses by Publius Ovidius Neso. Translated by Brooks Moore. Book 8, Part 4 And at this point the river said no more. This wonderful event astonished all, but one was there, Ixion's haughty son, a known despiser of the living gods, who, laughing, scorned it as an idle tale. He made it just of those who heard, and said, A Foolish Fiction! Achelous, how can such a tale be true? Do you believe a god there is, in heaven so powerful, a god to give and take away a form, transform created shapes? Such impious words found no response in those who heard him speak. Amazed he could so doubt known truth, before them all arose to vindicate the gods, the hero Lelecs, wise in length of days. The glory of the living gods, he said, is not diminished, nor their power confined, and whatsoever they decree is done. And I have this to tell, for all must know the evil of such words. Upon the hills of Phrygia I have seen two sacred trees, a lime tree and an oak, so closely grown their branches interlace. A low stone wall is built around to guard them from all harm. And that you may not doubt it, I declare again, I saw the spot, for Pythias there had sent me to attend his father's court. Nearby those trees are stagnant pools and fens, where coots and cormorants delight to haunt, but it was not so always. Long ago Twas visited by mighty Jupiter, together with his nimble-witted son, who first had laid aside his rod and wings. As weary travellers over all the land they wandered, begging for their food and bed, and of a thousand houses all the doors were bolted and no word of kindness given, so wicked were the people of that land. At last, by chance, they stopped at a small house, whose humble roof was thatched with reeds and straw, and here a kind old couple greeted them. The good Dame Bacchus seemed about the age of Old Philemon, her devoted man. They had been married in their early youth, in that same cottage and had lived in it, and grown together to a good old age, contented with their lot, because they knew their poverty and felt no shame of it. They had no need of servants. The good pair were masters of their home and served themselves, their own commands they easily obeyed. Now, when the two gods, Job and Mercury, had reached this cottage, and with bending necks had entered the low door, the old men bathed them rest their wearied limbs, and set a bench on which his good wife Bacchus threw a cloth, and then with kindly buzzle she stirred up the glowing embers on the hearth, and then laid tinder, leaves, and bark, and bending down, breezed on them with her ancient breath till they kindled into flame. Then from the house she brought a store of faggots and small twigs and broken branches, and above them swung a kettle, not too large for simple folk. And all this done, she stripped some cabbage leaves which her good husband gathered for the meal. Then, with a two-pronged fork, the man let down a rusty side of bacon from a loft, and cut a little portion from the chine, which had been cherished long. He softened it in boiling water. All the while they tried with cheerful conversation to be guile, so none might notice a brief loss of time. Swung on a peg they had a beech-wood trough, which quickly with warm water-filled was used for comfortable washing. And they fixed upon a willow couch a cushion soft with springy sedge, on which they neatly spread a well-worn cloth preserved so many years. It was only used on rare and festive days, and even it was coarse and very old, not unfit to match a willow couch. Now, as the gods reclined, the good old dame, whose skirts were tucked up, moving carefully, for so she tottered with her many years, fetched a clean table for the ready meal. But one leg of the table was too short, and so she wedged it with a pot-shirt. So made firm she cleanly scoured it with fresh mint, and here is set the double-tinted fruit of chastemanerva, and the tasty dish of corner, autumn picked and pickled. These were served for relish, and the on-dive green, and radishes surrounding a large pot of curdled milk, and eggs not overdone, but gently turned and glowing embers, all served up in earthen dishes. Then sweet wine served up in clay so costly, all embossed, and cups of beech-wood smoothed with yellow wax. So now they had short respite, till the fire might yield the heated course. Again they served new wine, but mellow, and a second course, sweet nuts, dried figs and wrinkled dates and plums, and apples fragrant in wide baskets heaped, and in a wreath of grapes from purple vines concealed almost a glistening honeycomb, and all these orchard dainties were enhanced by willing service and congenial smiles. But while they served, the wine-bowl often drained, as often was replenished, though unfilled, and bakas and filamon full of fear as they observed the wine's spontaneous well, increasing when it should diminish, raised their hands in supplication, and implored indulgence for their simple home and fair. And now, persuaded by this strange event such visitors were deities unknown, this aged couple, anxious to bestow their most esteemed possession, hastily began to chase the only goose they had, the faithful guardian of their little home, which they would kill and offer to the gods. But swift of wing, at last it wearied them, and fled for refuge to the smiling gods. At once the deities forbade their zeal, and said, Our righteous punishment shall fell severe upon this wicked neighborhood, but by the might of our divinity, no evil shall befall this humble home. But you must come, and follow as we climb the summit of this mountain. Both obeyed, and leaning on their staves toiled up the steep. Not farther from the summit than the flade of one swift arrow from a hunter's bow, they paused to view their little home once more, and as they turned their eyes, they saw the fields around their own engulfed in a morass, although their own remained, and while they wept bewailing the sad fate of many friends, and wondered at the change, they saw their home, so old and little from their simple need, put on a new splendor, and as it increased it changed into a temple of the gods, where first the frame was fashioned of rude stakes, columns of marble glistened, and the thatch gleamed golden in the sun, and legends carved adorned to the doors, and all the ground shone white with marble rich, and after this was done, the son of Saturn said with a gentle voice, now tell us, good old man, and you his wife, worthy and faithful, what is your desire? Fillet-mon counseled with old Bacchus first, and then discovered to the listening gods their hearts desire. We pray you let us have the care of your new temple, and since we have passed so many years in harmony, let us depart this life together, let the same hour take us both, I would not see the tomb of my dear wife, and let me not be so destined to be buried by her hands. At once their wishes were fulfilled, so long as life was granted they were known to be the temple's trusted keepers, and when age had enervated them with many years, as they were standing by some chance before the sacred steps, and were relating all these things as they had happened, Bacchus saw Fillet-mon, her old husband, and he too saw Bacchus, as their bodies put forth leaves, and while the tops of trees grew over them, above their faces, they spoke each to each, as long as they could speak they said, farewell, farewell my own, and while they said farewell, new leaves and branches covered both at once. The people of Tyanna still point out two trees which grew there from a double trunk, two forms made into one, old truthful men who have no reason to deceive me, told me truly all that I have told you, and I have seen the vote of wreaths hung from the branches of the hallowed double tree, and one time, as I hung fresh garlands there, I said, those whom the gods care for are gods, and those who worshipped are now worshipped here. He ceased, and this miraculous event, and he who told it, had astonished them, but theseus above all. The hero asked to hear of other wonders wrought by gods. The Caledonian river god replied, and leaning on one elbow said to him, there are, O valiant hero, other things whose forms once changed as these, have so remained, but there are some who take on many shapes, as you have, Proteus, dweller of the deep, the deep whose arms embrace the earth. For some have seen you as a youth, then as a lion, a furious bore one time, a serpent next, so dreadful to the touch, and sometimes horns have made you seem a bull, or now a stone, or now a tree, or now a slipping stream, or even the foe of water next to fire. Now, Aresictheon's daughter, Mestra, had that power of Proteus. She was called the wife of the deft, Autolicus. Her father spurned the majesty of all the gods, and gave no honor to their altars. It is said he violated with an unpious axe the sacred grove of Ceres, and he cut her trees with iron. Long standing in her grove, there grew an ancient oak tree. Spread so wide, alone, it seemed a standing forest, and its trunk and branches held memorials, as fillets, tablets, garlands, witnessing how many prayers the goddess Ceres had granted. And underneath it, laughing dryads, hand in hand, encircling its enormous trunk, that thrice five elves might measure. And to such a height, it towered over all the trees around, as they were higher than the grass beneath. But Aresictheon, heathless of all things, ordered his slaves to fell the sacred oak. And as they hesitated, enraged the wretch snatch from the hand of one an axe, and said, if this should be the only oak or even where the goddess in this tree I'll level to the ground as leafy head. So boasted he, and while he swung on high his axe to strike a slanting blow, the oak beloved of Ceres uttered a deep groan and shuddered. Instantly, its dark green leaves turned pale, and all its acorns lost their green, and even its long branches drooped their arms. But when his impious hand had struck the trunk and cut its bark, red blood poured from the wound, as when a weighty sacrificial bull has fallen at the altar, streaming blood sprouts from its stricken neck, all were amazed. And one of his attendants boldly tried to stay his cruel axe, and hindered him. But Aresictheon, fixing his stern eyes upon him, said, let this then be the price of all your pious worship. So he turned the poised axe head sheer from his body, and began to chop the hard oak. From the heart of it these words were uttered. Covered by the bark of this oak tree, I long have dwelt a nymph, beloved of Ceres, and before my death it has been granted to me to prophesy that I may die contented. Punishment for this vile deed stands waiting at your side. No warning could avert his wicked arm. Much weakened by his countless blows, the tree, pulled down the remaining ropes, gave way at last, and levelled with its weight uncounted trees that grew around it. Terrified and shocked, the sister Dryads, grieving for the grove and what they lost, put on their sable robes and hastened unto Ceres, whom they prayed might rightly punish Aresictheon's crime, the lovely goddess granted their request. And by the gracious movement of her head she shook the fruitful, cultivated fields, then heavy with the harvest. And not beyond his miserable crimes, the grisly bane of famine. But because it is not in the scope of destiny that too such data should ever meet to Ceres and Gontfamen, calling forth her mountain-weld Aresic Oryad, the goddess Ceres said to her, There is an ice-bound wilderness of barren soil in Atmoskithia, desolate and bare of trees and corn, where torpid frost, white death, and palsy in Gontfamen hold their haunts. Go there now and command them and foot from there and let her gnawing as since pierced the entrails of the sacrilegious wretch and there be hidden. Let her vanquish me and overcome the utmost power of food. Heed not misgivings of the journey's length, for you will guide my dragon-bridled car through lofty ether. And she gave to her the reins and so swiftly carried nymph Oryad in Skithia. There upon the told of stepey Caucasus it slipped their tight yoke from the dragon's harness necks. She searched for famine in that granite land and there she found her clutching at scant herbs with nails and teeth. Beneath her shaggy hair her hollow eyes glared in her ghastly face. Her lips were filthy and her throat was rough and blotched and all her entrails could be seen and closed in nothing but her shriveled skin. Her crooked loins were dry, uncurred bones was a void. Her flabby breast was flapped against her spine. Her lean, emaciated body made her joints appear so large her hobbled knees seemed large knots and her swollen ankle bones protruded. When the nymph with keen sight saw the famine monster fearing to draw near she cried aloud the mandate she had brought from fruitful series and although the time had been but brief and famine far away the nymph she had to turn her dragon's deeds and flee through yielding air on the high clouds. At Thessaly she stopped. Grim famine hastened to obey the will of Ceres though their deeds are opposite and rapidly through ether heights was born to Aresictheon's home. When she arrived at midnight Slammer was upon the wretch and that she folded him in her two wings she breathed her pestilential poison through the curse of utmost hunger in his aching veins. When all was done as Ceres had decreed she left the fertile world for bleak abodes and her accustomed caves. While this was done sweet sleep with charming pinions soothed the mind of Aresictheon. In a dreamful feast he worked his jaws in vain and ground his teeth and swallowed air as his imagined food till worried with the effort he awoke to hunger burned his entrails and compelled his raging jaws so he, demanding all the foods of sea and earth and air raged of his hunger. While the tables grown with heaps before him spread he, banqueting, sought banquets for more food and as he gorged he always wanted more. The food of cities and a nation failed to satisfy the cravings of one man. The more his stomach gets the more it needs although it swells up great rivers drawn from lands remote it never can be filled nor satisfied and as devouring fire its fuel refuses never but consumes unnumbered beams of wood and burns for more than mort his fed and from abundance gains increasing famine. So the raving jaws of Aresictheon ever craved all food in him was only cause of food and what he ate made only room for more when at last had wasted his ancestral wealth his raging hunger suffered no decline and his insatiate gluttony increased when all his wealth at last was eaten up his daughter worthy of a fate more kind along was left to him and her he sold descendant of a noble race the girl refusing to be purchased as a slave then hastened to the near shore of the sea and as she stretched her arms above the waves implored kind Neptune with her tears oh you who have deprived me of virginity deliver me from such a master's power although the master seeking her had seen her only at that moment Neptune changed her quickly from a woman to a man by giving her the features of a man and garments proper to a fisherman and there she stood he even looked at her and cried out hey there expert of the rod while you are casting forth you are definitely in a tiny bait gods willing let the sea be smooth for you and let the foolish fishes swimming up never know the danger to they snap the hook now tell me where is she who only now entattered garment and wind twisted hair was standing on the shore for I am sure I saw her standing on the shore although no footstep shows her flight by this assured the favor of the god protected her delighted to be questioned of herself she said excuse me so busy have I been at catching fish I have not had the time to move my eyes from this pool and that you may be assured I only kill the truth may Neptune, god of ocean witness it I have not seen a man here where I am standing on this shore myself accepted not a woman has stood here her master could not doubt it and deceived retraces footsteps from the sandy shore as soon as he had disappeared her form unchanged was given back to her her daughter could transform her body and escape he often sold her first to one and then another all of whom she cheated as a mare a bird a cow or as a stag she got away and so brought food dishonestly to ease his greed and so he lived until the growing strength of famine gnawing at his vitals had consumed all he could get by selling her his anguish burned him with increasing heat he gnawed his own flesh and tore his limbs and fed his body all he took from it ugh why should I dwell on the wondrous deeds of others even I oh gathered youths have such a power I can often change my body till my limit has been reached a while appearing in my real form another moment coiled up as a snake then as a monarch of the herd my strength increases in my horns my strength increases in my two horns when I had to but now my forehead as a sea has lost one horn and having ended with such words he groaned end of book 8 part 4 recording by Kristina Vasilevsky of www.105creations.com book 9 part 1 of Ovid's Metamorphoses this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer visit LibriVox.org recording by Drew Ulschel Metamorphoses by Publius Ovidius Nosso translated by Brooks Moore book 9 part 1 to him the hero who proclaimed himself a favored son of Neptune answered now declare the reason of your heavy size and how your horn was broken and at once the Caledonian river got applied binding with reeds his unadorned rough locks it is a mournful task you're required for who can wish to tell his own disgrace but truly I shall speak without disguise for my defeat if rightly understood should be my glory even to have fought in battle with a hero of such might affords me consolation Deonera you may have heard some tales of her was once the envied hope of many she was then a lovely virgin I among the rest who love this maiden entered the fair home for a great father envious and I said consider all my claims Parthen's son for I am come to plead your daughter's cause and mine so you may take make me son-in-law no sooner was it said than Hercules in such words also claimed the virgin's hand all others quickly yielded to our claims he boasted his descent from Jupiter the glorious labors and great deeds performed at his unjust stepmother's wish but as he was not then a god it seemed disgraceful if my state should yield my right so I contended with these haughty words why should this alien of a foreign land contending for your daughter match himself to me king of the waters in this realm for as I wind around across your lands I must be of your people and a part of your great state oh let it not be said because the jealous Juno had no thought my descent is not so regal this tremendous boast that you out men as son are sprung from joe falls at the touch of truth or it reveals the shame of a weak mother who so gained your doubtful glory of a descent from heaven prove your descent from Jupiter is false or else confess you are the son of shame but Hercules unable to control the flame of his great wrath scowled as I spoke he briefly answered me tells my tongue let me now overcome and fight and I may suffer your offensive words full of unvented rage he rushed on me but firm I stood ashamed to yield a foot I had so largely boasted no retreat was left so I doffed my green robe striking guard with clenched hands doubled at my breast I stood my ground he scooped up his hand fine yellow dust like shifting then he sought to strike my neck or faint at my quick moving legs and turned swift moving to attack me at all points but as a huge cliff in sea remains unmoved unshaken by the sounding waves so my grave size against his vein attacks defended me securely back we went retiring for a space then rushed again together furious and with foot to foot determined not to yield forward bending from my waist and hips I pressed my forehead against his and locked his fingers into mine so have I seen two strong bulls Russian combat for the good of some smooth heifer in the pasture while the herd trembled an uncertain weight ready to give allegiance to the one most worthy of dominion thrice in vein Hercules strove to push my breast from his but I pressed ever closer till the fourth attempt succeeding on my circling arms drew back and struck me such a buffet with his hand it twisted me about and instantly he clung with all his weight upon my back believe me I have not suppressed the truth nor shall I try to gain applause not do I seem to bear a mountain on my back straining and dripping sweat I broke his hold with great exertion I unlocked his grip he pressed upon me as I strained for breath preventing a renewal of my strength then at last my bent knee went down on the gritty earth I bit the sand so worsted in my strength I sought diversion by an artifice and changed me to a serpent I then slipped from his tight clutches my great length and coiled my body now transformed to snaggy folds hissing I darted my divided tongue but Hercules Alcides only laughed and in derision of my scheming said it was pastime of my cradle days to strangle better snakes than you and though your great length may excel all of your kind how small a part of that learned and snake would you one serpent be it grew from wounds I gave at first it had 100 heads and every time I severed one from its neck two grew there and spilled a place of one by which its strength increased this creature then out branching with strong serpents sprung from death and thriving on destruction I destroyed what do you think will then become of you disguised so in deceitful serpent form wielding a borrowed weapon not your own and after he had ridiculed me thus he gouged his fingers underneath my jaws so that my throat was tortured as if squeezed with forceps while I struggled in his grip I languished there remained to me a third form so again I changed to seem a sabbage bull and with my limbs renewed in that form fought once more he threw his arms about the left side my ponderous neck and dragging on me followed as I ran he seized on my hard horns and tugging turned and twisted me until he fastened them firm in the surface of the earth and pushed me helpless to the shifting sand beneath not yet content he laid his fierce right hand on my tough horn and broke and tore it from my mutilated head this horn now heaped with fruits delicious and sweet smelling flowers the naeds have held sacred from that hour devoted to the bounteous goddess plenty all this the river god said then a nymph a lovely nymph like a fair diana dressed whose locks were flowing down on either side came graceful to the board and brought to them of autumn's plenty in an ample horn and gave to them selected apples for second course and now as early dawn appeared and as the rising sunlight flashed on golden summits of surrounding hills the young men waited not until the stream subsiding had resumed its peaceful way but all arose reluctant and went forth then a callous and his fine rustic features in his head skyed by the wound which gave the horn of plenty loss of his horn had greatly humbled him it was so cherished through his only loss that he could hide the sad disgrace with reeds and willow boughs entwined about his head oh nessus your fierce passion for the same maid utterly destroyed even you pierced through the body by a flying arrow point returning to the city of his birth the great Hercules the son of Jupiter with his new bride arrived upon the bank of swift evidence after winter rains had swollen it so far beyond its want that full of eddies it was found to be impassable they roasted their brave but anxious for his bride nessus the centaur strong limbed and well acquainted with those fords plunged in the Ford and swim with unimpeded strength for with my help she will land safely over there and so the hero with no thought of doubt trusted the damsel to the centaur's care though she was pale and trembling with her fear of the swift river and the centaur's aid this done the hero burdened as he was with quiver and the lion skin for he had tossed his club and curving bow across the river to the other bank this disrushing water must be overcome and instantly he plunged in without thought of where he might cross with most ease so he scorned to take advantage of smooth water and after he had gained the other bank while picking up his bow which there was thrown he heard his wife's voice anxious for his help he called nessus in the act then to betray his trust feign confidence you are not swift enough vile ravisher you two formed monster nesus I warn you hear me and never dare to come between me and my love if fear has no restraint your father's dreadful fate on whirling wheel should frighten you from this outrageous act for you cannot escape although you trust the fleet foot effort of a rapid horse I cannot overtake you with my feet but I can shoot and halt you with a wound his deed sustained a burning word he shot an arrow through the centaur's back so that the keen bar was exposed beyond his bleeding breast he tore it from both wounds and life blood spurting instantly mixed with the deadly poison of lernaean hydra this nesus caught and muttering I shall not die unavenged he gave his tunic soaked with blood to danaean as a gift and said now many years passed by and all the deeds and labors of the mighty hercules gave to the wide world his unequaled fame and finally appeased the hatred of his fierce stepmother all victorious returning from Ocalia he prepared to offer sacrifice when at Seneum upon an altar he had built the Jupiter but tattling rumor swollen out of truth from small beginning to a wicked lie for the love of a viola and danaean his fond wife convinced herself the wicked rumor must be true alarmed at the report of his new love at first poor wife she was dissolved in tears and then she sank in grievous misery but soon in an angry mood she rose and said why would I give up my sorrow while I drown my wretched spirit in weak tears while it is possible even before she comes invader of my lawful bed shall I be silent or complain of it must I go back to Chalidean or stay shall I depart unbidden from my house or if no other method can prevail shall I oppose my rival's first approach O shade of meleagre let me prove I am yet worthy to be called your sister and in the desperate slaughter of this rival may be taught to fear the vengeance of an injured woman's rage so torn by many moods it lasts her mind fixed on one thought she might still keep his love could certainly restore it if she sent to him the tunic soaked in Nasus' blood unknowingly she gave the fatal cause of her own woe to trusting Lycus whom she urged in gentle words to take the gift from her to her loved husband he, unsuspecting, put the tunic on all covered with Lernaean's Hydra's poison the hero then was cast in frankincense into the sacred flames and pouring wine on marble altars as his holy prayers were floating to the gods the hallowed heat striking upon his poisoned vesture caused echidna bane to melt into his flesh as long as he was able his great fortitude was strong but when it last his anguish overcame even his endurance he filled all the wild veta with his cries he overturned those hallowed altars then in frenzied haste he strove to pull the tunic from his back the poisoned garment cleaving to him ripped his skin heat shriveled from his burning flesh or tightening on him as great strength pulled the great muscles from his limbs leaving his huge bones bare even his blood audibly hissed as red hot blades when they are plunged in water so the burning bane boiled in his veins great perspiration streamed from his dissolving body as the heat consumed his entrails and his sinews cracked brittle when burnt the marrow in his bones dissolved as it absorbed venom heat there was no limit to his misery raising both hands up towards the stars of heaven he cried come Juno feast upon my death feast on me cruel one look down from your exalted seat behold my dreadful end and glut your savage heart oh if I may deserve some pity from my enemy from you I mean this hateful life of mine take from me and boil the loss of life will be a boon to me and surely is a fitting boon such as stepmothers give was it for this I slew Buceras who defiled his temples with the stranger's blood for this I took his mother's strength from fear Santaeus that I did not show a fear before the Spanish Shreppards triple form nor did I fear the monstrous triple form of Cerberus is it possible my hands once seized and broke the strong bull's horns and Ellis knows their labor and the waves of string phallus and the Parthenion wood for this the prowess of these hands secured the Amazonian gird rod of gold and did my strong arms gather all in vain the fruit when guarded by the dragon's eyes the centaurs could not foil me nor the boar that ravaged their temples was it for this the Hydra could not gain double the strength from strength as it was lost and when I saw the steeds of Thrace so fat with human blood and their vile mangers heaped with mangled bodies in a righteous rage I threw them to the ground it slaughtered them together with their master in a cave I crushed the Nemian monster with these arms and my strong nebcombe even the cruel Juno wife of Chove is weary of imposed heavy toils but I am not a dude performing them a new calamity now crushes me which not my strength nor valor nor the use of weapons can resist devouring flames have prayed upon my limbs and blasting heat now shrivels the burnt tissue of my frame but still Eurystheus is alive and well in God's just as a wild bull whose body spears are rankling while the frightened hunter flies away for safety so the hero ranged over sky pierced Ata his huge groans his awful shrieks resounding in those cliffs at times he struggles with the poisoned robe goaded to fury he has raised great trees scattered the vast mountain rocks in celestial skies so in his frenzy as he wandered there he chanced upon the trembling Lycus crouched in the close covert of the hollow rock then in a savage fury he cried out was it you Lycus brought this fatal gift shall you be called the author of my death Lycus in terror growled at his feet and begged for mercy only let me live this hero whirled him thrice and once again about his head and hurled him shot his bio catapult into the waves of the Euboea sea while he was hanging in the air his form was hardened as we know raindrops may first be frozen by the cold air and then change to snow and as it falls through whirling winds may press so twisted into round hailstones even so has ancient Lord declared Lycus through the mountain air through fear his blood was curdled in his veins no moisture left in him he was transformed into a flint rock even to this day a low crag rising from the waves is seen out of the deep Euboea sea and holds the certain outline of a human form so surely traced the wary sailor's fear to tread upon it thinking it has life but oh illustrious son of Jupiter how many the overspreading trees thick growing on the lofty mountain peak of Aeta did you level to the ground and heap into a pyre and then you bade obedient phyloctetes light a torch beneath it and then take in recompense your bow with its capacious quiver full of arrows arms that now again would see the realm of Troy and as the pyre began to kindle with the greedy flames you spread the neemian lion skin upon the top and club for pillow you lay down to sleep as placid as if with abounding cups of generous wine and crowned with garlands you were safe reclining on a banquet couch and now on every side the spreading flames were crackling fiercely as they leaped from earth upon the careless limbs of Hercules my heart's felt fear for earth's defender and their sympathy gave pleasure to Saturnian Jove he knew their thought and joyfully he said to them your sudden fear is surely my delight oh heavenly gods my heart is lifted up joy prevails upon me in the thought that I am called father and the king of this graceful race of gods your sudden fear is surely my delight oh heavenly gods my heart is lifted up in the thought that I am called father and the king of all this graceful race of gods I know my own beloved offspring is secure in your declared protection your concern made justly evidences worth whose deeds great benefits bestowed let not vain thoughts alarm you nor the rising flames of Ata for Hercules who conquered everything shall conquer equally the spreading fires which now you see that part of him celestial inherited of me immortal cannot feel the power of death it is not subject to the poison eat and therefore since his earth life is now lost him I'll translate unshackled from all dross and purified to our celestial shore I trust this action seems agreeable to all the deities surrounding me if any jealous god of heaven should grieve at the divinity of Hercules that he will know at least it was given him deservedly and with this thought he must approve the deed the gods confirmed it and though Juno seemed to be contented and to acquiesce her deep vexation was not wholly hid when Jupiter with his concluding words so plainly hinted at her jealous mind now while the gods converse the mortal part of Hercules was burnt my mulsiber and yet an outline of a spirit form unlike the well-known mortal shape derived by nature of his mother he kept traces only of his father Jove and as a serpent when it is revived from its old age casts off the faded skin and fresh with vigor glitters in new scales so when the hero had put off all dross his own celestial wonderful appeared majestic and of godlike dignity and him the glorious father of the gods in the great chariot drawn by four swith steeds took up above the wide encircling clouds and set him there amid the glittering stars end of book 9 part 1 recording by Drew Altschel book 9 part 2 of Ovid's Metamorphoses this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.com or visit LibriVox.org recording by Drew Altschel Metamorphoses by Publius Ovidius Nazo translated by Brooks Moore book 9 part 2 even Atlas felt the weight of heaven increase but King Euryceus still implacable vented his baffled hatred on the sons of the great hero then the archived mother Alcamena spent an anxious with long cares the burden of her old age could pass the weary hours of Biola in garrulous narrations of his worth his mighty labors and her own sad days Iolae by command of Hercules had been betrothed to Hylis and by him was gravate burdened with a noble child and so to Iolae Alcamena told this story of the birth of Hercules ah may the gods be merciful to you and give you swift deliverance in that hour when needful of all help you must call out for Alithea the known goddess of all frightened mothers in their travail she whom Juno's hatred overcame and made so dreadful against me for when my hour of bearing Hercules was very near and when the tenth sign of the zodiac was traversed by the son my burden then became so heavy that the one I bore so large you certainly could tell that Jove must be the father of the unborn child last no longer able to endure ah me a cold sweat seizes on me now only to think of it renews my pains seven days in agony as many nights exhausted in my dreadful misery I stretched my arms to heaven and invoked Lucina and three Nixian deities the guardians of birth Lucina came before then she had been pledged to give my life to cruel Juno while Lucina sat in the altar near the door and with her right knee crossed over her left knee with fingers interlocked she stopped the birth and in low mothered tones she chanted charms which there prevented my deliverance I fiercely struggled and insane with pain shrieked veil revilings against Jupiter I longed for death and my delirious words then should have moved the most unfeeling rocks the Theban matrons eager to help me stood near me while they asked the aid of heaven I was present of the common class my maid Galanthus with her red gold hair efficient and most willing to obey her worthy character deserved my love she felt assured Juno unjustly worked some spell of strong effect against my life and when this maid beheld Lucina perched so strangely on the altar with her fingers in woven on her knees and tightly pressed together in a gripping finger comb she guessed that jealous Juno was the cause quick witted in a ringing voice this maid cried out congratulations all is well Alcamena is delivered a fine child so safely brought forth her true prayers approved Lucina who presides at birth surprised leaped up unclenched her hands as one amazed just as her hands unfastened and her knees were parted from their stricture I could feel the bonds of stricture loosen and without more labor was delivered of my child Tiz said Galanthus laughed and ridiculed the cheated deity and as she laughed the vixen goddess caught her by the hair and dragging her upon the ground while she was struggling to arise held her and there transformed both of her arms to animal forelegs her old activity remained her hair was not changed but she did not keep her maid in form and ever since that day because she aided with deceitful lips her offspring are brought forth through the same mouth changed to a weasel she dwells now with me when she had ended the sad tale she heaved a deep sigh in remembrance of her tired beloved servant and her daughter-in-law Eole kindly answered in these words oh my dear mother if you weep because of her who was your servant now transformed into a weasel how can you support the true narration of my sister's fate which I must tell to you and forbid my speech most beautiful of all Ocalaean maids was Dryope her mother's only child we must know I am the daughter of my father's second wife she is not now a maid because through violence of him who rules at Delphi and Delos she was taken by Andremon who since then has been accounted happy in his wife there is a lake surrounded by sweet lawns and circling beauties and myrtles in a fair sunny grove without a thought of danger Dryope in worship one day went to gather flowers who hears has greater cause to be indignant delightful garlands for the water-nymphs and in her bosom carried her dear son not yet a year old whom she fed for love not far from that dream lake in moisture grew a lotus beautiful in purple bloom at play with her sweet infant Dryope plucked them as toys for him I too was there eagerly also but I put forth my hand and was ready to secure a spray when I was startled by some drops of blood downfalling from the blossoms which were plucked and even the trembling branches shook and dread who wills the truth of this may learn from all quaint people of the land the story of Nymphalotus she, they say while flying from the lust of Priapus was transformed quickly from her human shape into this tree though she has kept her name but ignorant of all this Dryope, alarmed, decided she was now returned so having first adored the hallowed nymphs upright she stood and would have moved away but both her feet were tangled in her root there as she struggled in its a tightening hold of her heart and growing from that root live bark began to gather slowly upward from the ground spreading around her till it touched her loins in terror when she saw the clinging growth she would have torn her hair out by the roots but alas when she clutched at it her hands were filled with lotus leaves grown up from her changed head alas her little son, Amethysis felt his mother's bosom hardened to his touch and refreshed his eager lips and while I saw your cruel destiny oh dear sister and could give no help I clung to your loved body and around the growing trunk and branches hoping so to stop their evil growth and I confess endeavored there to hide beneath the bark and oh and Druman and her father then appeared to me while they were sadly seeking for Dryope so there I had to show the lotus as it covered her until the warm wood and prostrate fell upon the ground and clung to the growing roots of their new darling tree transformed from her dear sister there was nothing of yourself remaining but your face and I could see your tears drop slowly on the trembling leaves which had so marvellously grown on you and while your lips remained uncovered all the air surrounding echoed your complaint if oaths of wretched women was fate though innocent to suffer punishment and if one word of my complaint is false I pray I may soon wither and my leaves fall from me as in blight and let the axe devote me wretched to the flames but take this infant from my branches to a nurse and let him often play beneath this tree his mother always let him drink his milk beneath my shade then he has learned to talk let him salute me and in sorrow say in this tree trunk my mother is concealed oh let him dread the fate that lurks in ponds let him often play beneath his tree and let him be persuaded every shrub contains the body of a goddess farewell my husband sister and farewell my father if my love remain and you remember to protect my life from harm may never clip my branches and protect my foliage from the brows in your sheep I cannot stoop to you oh if you love me lift your lips to mine and let me kiss you if but once again before this growing lotus covers me lift up my darling infant to my lips how can I hope to say much more to you the new bark now is creeping up my neck and creeping downward from my covered brow do not close my live eyes with your hands there is no need of it for growing bark will spread and darken them before I die such were the last words her poor smothered lips could utter for she was so quickly changed and long thereafter the new branches kept the warmth of her lost body so transformed and all the while that I only told this tearful in sorrow for her sister's fate Alcmenna weeping tried to comfort her but as they wept together suddenly a wonderful event astonished them for standing in the doorway they beheld the old man Iolus known to them but now transformed from age to youth he seemed almost a boy with light down on his cheeks for Juno's daughter's hebe and renewed his years to please her husband Hercules just at the time when ready to make oath she would not grant such gifts had happily prevented her for even now she said a civil strife is almost ready to break forth in thebes and Caponeas shall be invincible to all save the strong hand of Jove himself and their two hostile brothers shall engage in bloody conflict and Amphires shall see his own ghost deep in yawning earth his own son dutiful to him shall be both just and unjust the vengeance of his father's death shall slay his own mother and confounded lose both home and reason persecuted both by the grim furies and the awful ghost of his own murdered mother this until his wife deluded shall request of him the fatal golden necklace and until the sword of Fidgius drains his kinsmen blood and then at last his wife Kareroi will supplicate the mighty Jupiter in the hands of youthful manhood then shall Jupiter let he be guardian of ungathered days grant from the future of Kareroi's sons the strength of manhood in their infancy do not let their victorious father's death be uneventful for a long while Jove prevailed upon will claim beforehand all the gifts of heebie who is his known daughter-in-law and his step-daughter and with one act changed Kareroi's beardless boys when Themis prophesying future days had said these words the gods of heaven complained because they also could not grant the gift of youth to many others in this way Aurora wept because her husband had white hair and Ceres then bewailed the age of horizon gray and stricken old and Mulsibur demanded with new life his edicthonius might again appear and Venus thinking upon future days twice his years must be restored and every god preferred some favorite until vexed with the clamor Jupiter implored if you can have a god for me consider the strange blessings you desire does any one of you believe he can prevail against a settled will of fate as Iolus has returned by fate to those years spent by him so by the fates Kareroi's sons from infancy must grow to manhood with no struggle on their part or force of their ambition and you should endure your fortune with contented minds I also must give all control to fate if I had power to change the course of fate I would not let advancing age break down my own son aegis nor bend his back with weight of ear and ratamathus should retain an everlasting flower of youth together with my own son Minas who is now despised because of his great age so that his scepter has lost a dignity such words of Jupiter control the gods and then continue to complain when they saw aegis and ratamathus old and Minos also weary of his age and they remembered Minos in his prime at war against great nations till his name is mentioned with a certain cause of fear but now enfeebled by great age he feared Miletus day on son because of his exultant youth and strength derived from his great father Phoebus and although he well perceived Miletus's eye was fixed upon his throne he did not dare to drive him from his kingdom and although not forced Miletus of his own accord did fly by swift ship over to the asian shore where he built the city of his name End of Book 9 Part 2 Recording by Drew Altschul Book 9 Part 3 of Ovid's Metamorphoses This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Drew Altschul Metamorphoses by Publius Sovirius Nazo Translated by Brooks Moore Book 9 Part 3 Siannae who was known to be the daughter of the stream meander which with many a twist and turn flows wandering there Siannae said to be indeed most beautiful when known by him gave birth to two a girl called Biblius who was lovely and the brother of Kaunas twins is an example that the love of every maiden must be within law seized with the passion for her brother she loved him descendant of Apollo not as sister loves a brother not in such a manner as the law of man permits at first she thought it surely was not wrong to kiss him passionately while her arms were thrown around her brother's neck and so deceived herself and as the habit grew her sister love degenerated with all endeavors to attract his eye and anxious to be seen most beautiful she envied every woman who appeared of rival beauty but she did not know or understand the flame hot in her heart though she was agitated when she saw the object of her swiftly growing love now she began to call him lord and now she hated to say brother and she said do call me Biblius never call me sister and yet while feeling love so desire but when dissolved in the soft arms of sleep she sees the very object of her love and blushing dreams she is embraced by him to slumber has departed for a time she lies there silent as her mind recalls the loved appearance of her lovely dream until her wavering heart in grief exclaims what is this vision of the silent night ah wretched me I cannot count it true and if he were not my own brother why is my fond heart tortured with this dream he is so handsome even to envious eyes it is not strange he has filled my fond heart so surely would be worthy of my love but it is my misfortune I am his own sister let me therefore strive awake to stand with honor but let sleep return the same dream often to me there can be no fear of any witness to a shade so cupid swift of love wing with your mother and oh my beloved Venus wonderful the joys of my experience in the transport all as if reality sustaining lifted me up to Elysian pleasure while in truth I lay dissolving to my very marrow the pleasure was so brief and night headlong sped for me envious of my coming joys if I could change my name and join to you and how good a son would you be to my father if the gods agreed then everything would be possessed by us in common but this must exclude ancestors for I should pray compared with mine yours might be quite superior but oh my love some other woman by your love will be a mother but because unfortunate my parents are the same as yours you must be nothing but a brother sorrows then my vision signified what weight have dreams do dreams have any weight the gods forbid the gods have sisters truth declares even Saturn married Ops his own blood kin Oceanus his Tethys Jove Olympian his Juno but the gods are so superior in their laws I should not measure human custom but the rights established in the actions of the gods cannot be so I must pray that I may perish and be laid out dead upon my couch so my dear brother there may kiss my lips but then he must consent and my delight would seem to him a crime tis known the sons of Aeolus embrace their sisters but why should I think of these why should I take example from such lies must I do as they did far from it should the flames be quenched until I feel no evil lore for him although the pure affection of a sister may be mine and cherished if it should have happened first that my dear brother had loved me then I might have yielded love to his desire why not now I myself must woo him since I could not have rejected him if he had first wooed me but it is possible for me to speak of it with proper words love will certainly compel and give me speech but if shame seal my lips then secret flame in a sealed letter may be safely told you might have knowledge of my wounded heart because my pale drawn face and downcast eyes so often tearful and my sighs without apparent cause have shown it and my warm embraces and my frequent kisses much too tender for a sister agitated heart and in hot passion I have tried all ways I call upon the gods to witness it that I might force myself to sanity and I have struggled wretched nights and days to overcome the cruelties of love too dreadful for a frail girl to endure for they most surely are all cupid's art I have been overborn and must confess my passion while with timid prayers I plead and save me you alone may now destroy the one who loves you best so you must choose what will be the result the one who prays is not your enemy but one most closely joined to you yet asked to knit the tie more firmly let old men be governed by propriety and talk of what is right and wrong and hold to all the nice distinctions of strict laws but love has no fixed law and those whose age is ours is heedless and compliant and we have not yet discovered what is right or wrong and all we should do is to imitate the known example of the gods we have no father's harsh rule and we have no care for reputation and no fear that keeps us from each other but there may be cause for fear and we may hide our stolen love because a sister is at liberty to talk with her dear brother we may embrace and kiss each other though in public what is wanting? pity her whose utmost love compels her to confess and let it not be written on her tomb her death was for your sake and love denied here when she dropped the tablet from her hand it was so full of fond words which were doomed to disappointment that the last line traced the edge and without thinking of delay she stamped the shameful letter and moistened it with tears her tongue failed her for moisture then hot blushing she called one of her attendants and with timid voice said coaxing my most trusted servant take these tablets to my and after a long delay she said my brother while she gave the tablets they suddenly slipped from her hands and fell although disturbed by this bad omen which the servant found an opportunity to carry off he gave the sacred love confession this her brother grandson of maander read but partly and with sudden passion through the tablets from him he could barely hold himself from clutching on the throat of her fear trembling servant as enraged he cried a cursed panda to forbidden lust be gone before the knowledge of your death and foreseen disgrace the servant fled in terror and told all her brother's actions and his fierce reply to biblis and when she had heard her love had been repulsed her startled face went pale and her whole body trembled in the grip of ice chills quickly as her mind or gained its usual strength her maddening love returned came back with equal force and while she choked with her emotion gasping she said this why did I so rashly tell him of my wounded heart and why did I so hastily commit to the tablets all I should have kept concealed I should have edged my way by feeling first obscurely hinting till I knew his mind and disposition toward me and so that my first voyage might get favorable wind I should have tested with close real of sale and knowing what the wind was safely fared but now with sales full spread I have been tossed by unexpected winds and so my ship is on the rocks and overwhelmed with all the power of ocean I have not the strength to turn back and recover what is lost surely clear omens warned me not to tell my love so soon because the tablets fell just when I would have put them in the hand of my pick servant certainly a sign my hasty hopes were destined to fall down is it not clear to the day and even my intention rather say should not the day have been postponed at once the God himself gave me unerring signs if I had not been so deranged with love I should have spoken to him face to face with my own lips have confessed it all and then my passion had been seen by him and as my face was bathed in tears I could have told him so much more than my words engraved on tablets and while I was telling him I could have thrown my arms around his neck and if rejected could have seemed almost at point of death as I embraced his feet while prostrate even might have begged for life I could have tried so many plans and they together would have won his stubborn heart perhaps my stupid servant in mistake did not approach him at a proper time and even sought an hour of other things all this has harmed my case there is no other reason he was not born of a tigress and his heart is not a flint or solid iron or of adamant and notes she lie and suckled him he shall be one to my affection and I must attempt again again nor ever see so long as I have breath if it were not too late already to undo what has been done to where whys are not begun at all it now is best to end it with success how can he help remembering what I dared although I should abandon my design in such a case because I gave up I must be to him weak fickle-minded or perhaps he may believe I tried to tempt him with a snare but come what may he will not think of me as overcome by some God who inflames and rules the heart I was so actuated by my lust if I do nothing more my innocence is gone forever I have written him and wooed him also in a way so rash and unmistakable that if I should do nothing more than this I should be held completely guilty in my brother's sight but I have hope and nothing worse to fear then back and forth she argues and so great is her uncertainty she blames herself for what she did and is determined just as surely to succeed she tries all arts but is repeatedly repulsed by him until unable to control her ways her brother in despair fled from the shame of her designs and in another land he founded a new city then they say the wretched daughter of Miletus lost control of reason she wrenched from her breast her garments and quite frantic beat her arms and publicly proclaims grown desperate she left her hated home her native land and followed the loved steps of her departed brother just as though it was crazed by Orthraeus's son of Semeli the bacchanals of Ismaras aroused howl at your orgies so her shrieks were heard by the shocked women of Bubasus where the frenzied biblis howled across the fields and so through Caria and through Lycea over the mountains cragis and beyond the town limera and with the flowing stream causantus and the ridge where dwelled Chimera serpent tailed in monstrous beast fire breathing from its lion-headed neck she hurried through the forest of that ridge and there at last worn out with your pursuit oh biblis you fell prostrate with your hair spread over the hard ground and your wand face although the young still tender-hearted imps of legales advised her fondly how to cure her love and offered comfort to her in heedless hot and even lifted her in their soft arms without an answer biblis fell from them and clutched the green herbs with her fingers while her tears continued to fall on the grass they say the weeping niads gave to her a vein of tears which always flows there from her sorrows nothing better could be done immediately as drops of pitch drip forth from the gashed pine or stickly bitumen distills out of the rich and heavy earth or as the frozen water at the approach of a soft breathing wind melts in the sun so biblis sad sentent of the sun dissolving in her own tears was there changed into a fountain which to this day in all those valleys has no name but hers and issues underneath a dark oak tree the tale of this unholy passion would perhaps have filled Crete's hundred cities then if Crete had not a wonder of its own to talk of in the change of Isis once there lived at Feistus not far from the town of Nosus a man Ligtus not well known in fact obscure of humble parentage whose income was no greater than his birth but he was held trustworthy and his life had been quite blameless when the time drew near he warned her and instructed her with words we quote there are two things which I would ask of heaven that you may be delivered with small pain and that your child may surely be a boy girls are such trouble fair strength is denied to them therefore may heaven refuse the thought if chance should cause your child to be a girl gods pardon me for having said the word we must agree to have her put to death and all the time he spoke such dreaded words their faces were completely bathed in tears not only hers but also his while he forced on her that a natural command ah Telethusa ceaselessly implored her husband to give way to fortune's cast but Ligtus held his resolution fixed and now the expected time of birth was near when in the middle of the night she seemed to see the goddess Isis standing by her bed in her spirit forms Isis had crescent horns upon her forehead and a bright garland made of golden grain and circled her fair brow it was a crown of freakal beauty and beside her stood the dog Anubis and Bubastus there the sacred dappled apus and the god of silence with pressed finger on his lips the sacred rattles were there and Osiris known the constant object of his worshipper's desire and there the Egyptian serpent whose quick sting gives long enduring sleep she seemed to see them all and even to hear the goddess say to her oh Telethusa one of my remembered worshippers forget your grief your husband's orders need not be opaid and when Lucina has delivered you save and bring up your child if either boy or girl I am the goddess who brings help to all who call upon me and you shall never complain of me that you adored thankless deity so she advised by vision where the sad mother and left her the Cretan woman joyfully arose from her sad bed and supplicating raised ecstatic hands up towards the listening stars and prayed to them her vision might come true soon when her pains gave birth the mother knew her infant was a girl the father had no knowledge of it as he was not there intending to deceive the mother said feed the dear boy all things had favored her deceit no one except the trusted nurse knew of it and the father paid his vows and named the child after its grandfather whose name was honored Isis hearing it so called the mother could not but rejoice because her child was given a name of common gender and she could use it with no more deceit she took good care to dress it as a boy and either as a boy or girl its face must always be accounted lovable and so she grew ten years and three had gone and then your father found a bride for you O Isis promised you should take to wife the golden haired Ianthe praised by all the women of Faistus for the dour of her unequaled beauty and well known the daughter of a Cretan named Telestes of equal age and equal loveliness they had received from the same teachers all instruction in their childish sentiments so unsuspected love had filled their hearts with equal longing but how different Ianthe waits in confidence and hope the ceremonial has agreed upon and its quite certain she will wed a man but Isis is in love without one hope of passions ecstasy the thought of which only increased her flame and she a girl is burnt with passion for another girl she hardly can hold back her tears and says to the end with such a monstrous love compelling me if the gods should wish to save me certainly they should have saved me but if their desire was for my ruin still they should have given some natural suffering of humanity the passion for a cow does not inflame a cow no mare has ever sought another mare the ram inflames the you and every doe follows a chosen stag so also birds are mated and in all the animal world no female ever feels love passion for another female why is it in me monstrosities are natural to creed the daughter of the son there loved the bull it was a female's love for the male but my desire is far more mad than hers in strict regard of truth for she had hope of love's fulfillment she secured the bull by changing herself to a heifer's form and in that subtlety it was the male deceived at last though all the subtleties of all the world should be collected here if Daedalus himself should fly back here upon his waxen wings what could he do what skillful art of his could change my sex a girl into a boy or could he change Ianthe what a useless thought be bold, take courage, ifus and be strong of soul this hopeless passion stultifies your heart so shake it off it's a clear fact of your birth unless your will provides deception for yourself do only what is lawful and confine strictly your love within a woman's right hope of fulfillment can beget true love and hope keeps it alive you are deprived of this hope by nature of your birth no guardian keeps you from her dear embrace no watchful jealous husband and she has no cruel father she does not deny herself to you with all that liberty do not have her for your happy wife though gods and men should labor for your wish none of my prayers has ever been denied the willing deities have granted me whatever should be my father helps me to accomplish everything I plan she and her father also always help but nature is more powerful than all and only nature works for my distress the wedding day already is at hand the longed for time has come ianthi soon will be mine only and yet not my own with water all around me I shall thirst why must you know goddess of sweet brides and why should hymen also favor us when man with woman cannot join in wedlock but both are brides and so she closed her lips the other maiden flamed with equal love and often prayed for hymen to appear but telethusa fearing that event the marriage, the chaianthi cleanly sought, procrastinated causing first delay by some pretended illness and then gave pretense of omens and a vision seen sufficient for delay until she had exhausted every avenue of excuse and only one more day remained before the fateful time it was so near at hand despairing then of finding other cause which might prevent the fated wedding day the mother took the circled fillets from her own head and her daughter's head and prayed as she embraced the altar her long hair spread out upon the flowing breeze and said oh isis goddess of peritonium the mariotic fields faros and nile of seven horns divided oh give help goddess of nations heal us of our fears I saw you goddess and your symbols once and I adored them all the clashing sounds of sister and the torches of your train the gentle note of your commands for which my daughter lives to see the sun and also I have so escape from harm all this is of your counsel and your gift oh pity both of us and give us aid tears emphasized her prayer the goddess seemed to move in truth it was the altar moved the firm doors of the temple even shook and her horns crescent flashed with gleams of light and her loud system rattled noisily although not quite free of all fear yet pleased by that good omen gladly the mother left the temple with her daughter ifis who beside her walked but with a lengthened stride her face seemed of a darker hue her strength seemed greater and her features were more stern her hair once long was unadorned and short there was more vigor in her than she showed in her girl ways for in the name of truth ifis who was a girl make offerings at the temple and rejoice without a fear they offer at the shrines and add a votive tablet on which this inscription is engraved these gifts are paid by ifis as a man which as a maid he vowed to give the merrows dawn revealed a wide world on the day agreed Venus, Juno and Hyman all have met our happy lovers at the marriage fires and ifis a new man he remained as I am the End of Book 9, Part 3 Recording by Drew Altschel Book 10, Part 1 of Ovid's Metamorphosis This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Shalifa Malchem Metamorphosis by Publius Evidius Nessau Translated by Brooks Moore Book 10, Part 1 Veiled in a Seferan mantle Froudière unmeasured after the strange wedding Hyman departed swiftly for Keconian land regardless and not listening to the voice of tuneful Orpheus Truly Hyman there was present during the festivities of Orpheus and Eurydice but gave no happy omen neither hallowed words nor joyful glances and the torch he held would only sputter filled the eyes with a smoke and cause no blaze while waving The result of that sad wedding proved more terrible than such forboding fate While Froudière's delighted nails wandered with a bride a serpent struck its venom tooth in a soft ankle and she died Froudière had mourned and filled the highs of heaven with the moans of his lament determined also the dark underworld should recognise the misery of death He dared descent by the tenarian gate down to the gloomy stakes and there passed through pale glimmering phantoms and the ghosts escaped from the bulkers until he found Persephone and Pluto master king of Shed and realms below and then began to strike his tuneful lyre to which he sang Oh, deities of this dark world beneath the earth this shadowy underworld to which all mortals must descend if it can be called lawful and if you will suffer speech of strict truth all the winding ways of falsity forbidden I come not down here because of curiosity to see the glooms of Tadres and have no thought to bind or strangle the free necks of the Medusin monster vile with snakes but I have come because my darling wife stepped on a viper that sent through her veins death poison cutting off her coming years if able I would bear it I do not deny my effort but the god of love has conquered me a god so kindly known in all the upper world we are not sure he can be known so well in this deep world but have good reason to conjecture he's not unknown here and if all to report almost forgotten that you stole your wife as not a fiction love united you the same as others by this place of fear this huge avoid and these vast and silent realms renew the life for that of Eurydice all things are due to you on earth it happens we may tarry a short while slowly or swiftly we must go to one abode and it will be our final home long and tenaciously you will possess inquestant mastery of the human race she also shall be yours to rule when full of age she shall have lived the days of her allotted years so I ask of you possession of a few days as a boon but if the fades deny to me this prayer for my true wife my constant mind must hold me always so that I cannot return do you mid-tribe in the death of two while he sang all his heart said to the sound of a sweet lyre the bloodless ghosts themselves were weeping and the anxious tantalist stopped clutching at return flow of the wave Ixon's twisting wheels stood wanderbound in Titia's liver for a while escaped the vultures and the listening belladies forgot their sieve-like bowls and even you, O Sisyphus, sit idly on your rock then fame declared that conquered by the song of Orpheus but at first and only time the heart-cheeks of the fear's amenities were wet with tears nor could the royal queen nor he who rules a lower world deny the prayer of Orpheus so they called to them Eurydice who still was held among the new arriving shades and she obeyed the call by walking to them with slow steps yet haunting from her wound so Orpheus then received his wife and Pluto taught him he might now ascend from these avernium veils up to the light with his Eurydice but if he turned his eyes to look at her the gift of her delivery would be lost they picked their way in silence up a steep and gloomy path of darkness there remained but less a moor to climb till they would touch earth's surface when in fear he might again lose her and anxious for another look at her he turned his eyes so he could gaze upon her instantly she slipped away he stretched down to her his despairing arms eager to rescue her or feel her form but could hold nothing save to yielding air dying the second time she could not say a word of censure of her husband's thought but had she to complain of his great love her last word spoken was farewell which he could barely hear and with no further sound she fell from him again to Hades struck quite senseless by this double death of his dear wife he was as fixed emotion as a frightened one who saw the triple necks of Cerberus that dog whose middle neck was chained the side felt him with terror he had no escape from until petrified his stone or like gelinas changed to stone because he fastened on himself at the guilt of his wife oh and fortunately Thea too boastful of your beauty you and he united ones in love are now two stones upon the mountain Ida moist with springs Orpheus implored in vain deferment to help him cross the river sticks again but was denied a very hope of death seven days he set upon death's river bank in squalor to misery and without all food nourished by grief, anxiety and tears complaining that the gods of Erebus were pitiless at last he wandered back until he came to lofty road to Pienta Hamas beaten by the strong north wind three times the sun completed his full course to watery peaches and in all their time shunning all women Orpheus still believed his love pledge was for Rapha so he kept away from women though so many grieved because he took no notice of their love the only friendship he enjoyed was given to the young men of Dracy there was a hill which rose up to a lava plateau high and beautiful with green grass and there was not any shade for comfort on the top and there on that luxuriant grass the bard, while heaven inspired reclined and struck such harmonies on his sweet life the shade most grateful to the hill was spread round strong trees came up there the canyon oak the heliots poplar and the lofty branch deep mastery the soft linden and the beach the brittle hazel and the virgin laurel tree the ash for strong spears the smooth silver fur the flecks bent with acorns and the plain the various tinted maple and with those the lotus and green willows from their streams have a green box and slender tamrisks rich myrtles of two colors and the tine bending with green blue berries and you too the applied footed ivy came along with tenderl branching grape vines and the elm all covered with twist vines the mountain ash pitched trees and arbured trees of blushing fruit the bending palm price after victories the bare trunk pine of tufted foliage bristled upon the top a pleasant sight delightful to the mother of the gods since at his dear tocibly exchanged his human form which hardened him that tree in all of wrong the cone-shaped sign press came a tree now it was changed from a dear youth loved by the god who strings the lion bow for there was at one time a mighty stag held sacred by those nymphs who haunt the field scarthian his great antlers spread so wide they gave an ample shade to his own head those antlers shone with gold from a smooth frode necklace studded with a wealth of gems hung down to his strong shoulders beautiful a silver boss barcent with little thongs played on a sphorrid worn there from his birth and pendants from both ears of gleaming pearls adorned his hollow temples free of fear and now no longer shy frequenting homes of men he knew he offered his soft neck even to strangers for their patting hands but more than by all others he was loved by you oh superacists various youth of all the lads of seer it was you who led the pet stag to press pastridge and to the waters of the clearest spring sometimes he rode ride garlands for his horns and sometimes like a horseman on his back now here now there he guided his soft mouth with purple rains it was upon a summer day at high noon when the crab of spreading claws loving to see shore almost burned beneath the sun's hot burning rays and the pet stag was then reclining on the grassy earth and myriad of all action found relief under the cool shade of the forestries that as he lay there siperus' pierced him with a javelin and although it was quite accidental when the shocked youth saw his loved stag dying from the cruel wound he could not bear it and resolved on death what did not Phoebus say to comfort him he cautioned him to halt his grievance check consistent with the cause but still the lad lamented and his groans implored the guards that he might mourn for ever his life was exhausted by long weeping now his limbs began to take a green tint and his hair which overhung his snow-wide brow turned up into a bristling crest and he became a stiff tree with his land atop and pointed up to the starry heavens and the guard groaning with sorrow said you shall be mourned sincerely by me surely as you mourn for others and forever you shall stand in grief where others grieve such was a grove by all his drawn together and he sat around it by somewhat animals and many strange birds when he tried to the chords by touching with his thumb and was convinced of the note were all in harmony although attuned to various melody he raced his voice and sang oh my loved mother muse from jove inspire my song for all things yield to the unequaled way of jove oh I have sung so often Jupiter's great power before this day and in wilder strain I've sung the giants and victorious bulls hurled on flea-grain plains but now I need the gentler touch for I would sing of boys the favourites of gods and even of maids who had to pay the penalty of wrong the king of all the gods once burnt with love for Ganymede a fridger he found a shape more pleasing even than his own jove would not take the form of any bird except the eagles able to sustain the weight of his own thunderbolts without delay jove on fictitious eagle wings stole and flew off with that loved Jojen boy who even to this day against the will of Juno mingles Nactor and the cups of his protector mighty Jupiter you also High Synthesis would have been set in the sky the Phoebus had been given time which the grill fates denied for you but in a way you are immortal too though you have died always when warm spring drives winter out and Ares the ram succeeds to Peaches watery fish you rise and blossom on the green turf of Jupiter than he felt for others Delphi's centre of the world had no presiding guardian while the god frequented the Eurotas and the land of Sparta never fortified with walls his Adiddo and his bow no longer fill his eager mind and now without a thought of dignity he carried nets and held the docks in leash and did not hesitate to go with High Synthesis on the rough steep mountain ridges and at the end of the Eurotas of the Eurotas his love was increased now Titan was about midway betwixt the coming and banished night and stood at equal distance from those two extremes then when the youth and Phoebus were well stripped and gleaming with rich olive oil they tried a friendly contest with the discus fast Phoebus well poised sent it a while through air and left the clouds of the earth a certain evidence of strength and skill heedless of danger High Synthesis rushed for eager glory of the game resolved to get the discus but it bounded back from of the hard earth and struck full against your face oh High Synthesis deadly pale the god's face went as pallid as a boy's with care he lifted the sad huddled form the kind god tries to warn you back to life and next endeavours to attend your wound and stay your parting soul with healing herbs his skill is no advantage for the wound is past all art of cure as if someone when in a garden breaks up violets, poppies or lilies hung from golden stems then drooping they must hang their wizard heads and gaze down towards the earth beneath them so the dying boys face droops and his bent neck a burden to itself falls back upon the shoulder you are fallen in your prime defrauded of your youth oh High Synthesis moaned Apollo I can see in your said wound my own guilt you are my cause of grieve and self-reproach my own hand gave you death and merited I only can be charged with your destruction can it be called a fault to play with you? should loving you be called a fault? and oh that I might now give up my life for you or die with you but since our destinies prevent us you shall always be with me and you shall dwell upon my care filled lips the lies struck by my hand and my true songs will always celebrate you when you flower you shall arise with markings on your petals close imitation of my constant moans and there shall come another to be linked with this new flower a valiant hero shall be known by the same marks upon its petals and while Phoebus Apollo saying these words with his truth telling lips behold the blood of High Synthesis which had poured out on the ground beside him and there stained the grass was changed from blood and in its plays a flower more beautiful than Tyrion die sprang up it almost seemed a lily where it not that one was purple and the other wide but Phoebus was not satisfied with this for it was he who worked a miracle of his sad words and scribed on flower leaves and these letters A.I.A.I are inscribed on them and Sparta certainly is proud to honour High Synthesis as her son and his loved fame and years and every year they celebrate his solemn festival if you should ask a martyrs which is rich in matters how can she rejoice and take a pride in deeds of her propoities she would disclaim it and repudiate them all as well as of those of transformed men whose foreheads were deformed by two rough horns from which their name by their gates and altar and to Jo's dude if by chance a stranger not informed of their dark crimes had seen the horrid altars smeared with blood he would suppose that suckling calves and sheep of amateurs were sacrificed if they're on it was in fact the blood of slaughtered guests kind-hearted venus outraged by such deeds of sacrifice was ready to desert her cities and to snake-infested planes but how said she have their delightful lands together with my well-built city sinned what crime have they done those inhabitants should pay the penalty of their own crimes by exile or by death or it may be a middle cause between exile and death and what can that be but a punishment of a changed form and while she hesitates in various thoughts of what form they should take her eyes by chance observed their horns and that decided her such horns could well be on them after any change occurred and she transformed their big and brutal bodies to savage bulls but even after that the obscene prepoietities dare to deny divinity of venus for which thought her first to criminate their bodies through the wrath of venus and so blushing shame was lost wide blood and their bad faces grew so fast so hard it was no wonder they were turned with small change into hard and lifeless stones end of book 10 part 1