Met. 15.252Nec speciēs sua cuique manet, rērumque novātrīx
ex aliīs aliās reddit nātūra figūrās:
nec perit in tōtō quicquam, mihi crēdite, mundō,
255sed variat faciemque novat, nāscīque vocātur
incipere esse aliud, quam quod fuit ante, morīque
dēsinere illud idem.Nor does each thing keep its own form, and nature, renewer of things, makes some shapes from others: nothing in the whole world perishes, believe me, but it varies and renews its appearance, and to begin to be something other than what it was before is called being born, and to cease to be that same thing is called dying. Met. 15.257Cum sint hūc forsitan illa,
haec trānslāta illūc, summā tamen omnia cōnstant.Though perhaps those things are moved here, and these there, yet in sum all things remain constant. Met. 15.259Nīl equidem dūrāre diū sub imāgine eādem
260crēdiderim: sīc ad ferrum vēnistis ab aurō,
saecula, sīc totiēns versa est fortūna locōrum.For my part I would believe that nothing lasts long under the same appearance: so you have come from gold to iron, ages, so has the fortune of places so often been reversed.
Met. 15.262Vīdī ego, quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellūs,
esse fretum, vīdī factās ex aequore terrās:
et procul ā pelagō conchae iacuēre marīnae,
265et vetus inventa est in montibus ancora summīs.I have seen what had once been the most solid land become sea, I have seen lands made from the sea: and far from the ocean sea-shells have lain, and an old anchor has been found on the tops of mountains. Met. 15.266Quodque fuit campus, vallem dēcursus aquārum
fēcit, et ēluviē mōns est dēductus in aequor,
ēque palūdōsā siccīs humus āret harēnīs,
quaeque sitim tulerant, stagnāta palūdibus ūment.And what was a plain, the running of waters has made a valley, and by flood a mountain has been carried down into the sea, and from marshy ground the soil grows dry with parched sand, and places that had endured thirst are wet with standing pools. Met. 15.270Hīc fontēs nātūra novōs ēmīsit, at illīc
clausit, et antīquīs tam multa tremōribus orbis
flūmina prōsiliunt aut excaecāta resīdunt.Here nature has sent forth new springs, but there she has shut them up, and so many rivers leap forth through the ancient tremors of the earth or, blinded, sink back.
Met. 15.273Sīc ubi terrēnō Lycus est ēpōtus hiātū,
exsistit procul hinc aliōque renāscitur ōre:
275Sīc modo combibitur, tēctō modo gurgite lapsus
redditur Argolicīs ingēns Erasīnus in arvīs,
et Mȳsum, capitisque suī rīpaeque priōris
paenituisse ferunt, aliā nunc īre Cāīcum;So when the Lycus has been swallowed by a chasm in the earth, it emerges far from there and is reborn from another mouth; so the great Erasinus is now drunk down, now, having glided in a hidden channel, is given back in the Argive fields; and they say the Mysus, having repented of its source and its former bank, now flows elsewhere as the Caicus; Met. 15.279nec nōn Sīcaniās volvēns Amenanus harēnās
280nunc fluit, interdum suppressīs fontibus āret.and the Amenanus too, rolling Sicilian sands, now flows, and at times dries up when its springs are stopped. Met. 15.281Ante bibēbātur, nunc, quās contingere nōlīs,
fundit Anigros aquās, postquam, nisi vātibus omnis
ēripienda fidēs, illīc lāvēre bimembrēs
vulnera, clāvigerī quae fēcerat Herculis arcus.Once it was drunk; now the Anigros pours out waters you would not wish to touch, since there (unless all faith is to be taken from poets) the creatures of double form washed the wounds that the bow of club-bearing Hercules had made.
Met. 15.285Quid?What? Met. 15.285nōn et Scythicīs Hypanis dē montibus ortus,
quī fuerat dulcis, salibus vitiātur amārīs?does not the Hypanis too, rising in the Scythian mountains, which had been sweet, become spoiled with bitter salts? Met. 15.287Flūctibus ambitae fuerant Antissa Pharosque
et Phoenissa Tyros, quārum nunc īnsula nūlla est.Antissa and Pharos and Phoenician Tyre had once been surrounded by waves; none of them is now an island. Met. 15.289Leucada continuam veterēs habuēre colōnī:
290nunc freta circueunt.The old settlers had Leucas joined to the mainland: now the sea surrounds it. Met. 15.290Zanclē quoque iūncta fuisse
dīcitur Ītaliae, dōnec cōnfīnia pontus
abstulit et mediā tellūrem reppulit undā.Zancle too is said to have been joined to Italy, until the sea took away their common border and drove back the land with water between. Met. 15.293Sī quaerās Helicēn et Būrin, Achāidas urbēs,
inveniēs sub aquīs, et adhūc ostendere nautae
295inclīnāta solent cum moenibus oppida mersīs.If you look for Helice and Buris, Achaean cities, you will find them beneath the waters, and sailors still often point out the tilted towns with their sunken walls. Met. 15.296Est prope Pittheam tumulus Troezēna, sine ūllīs
arduus arboribus, quondam plānissima campī
ārea, nunc tumulus;There is near Pittheus' Troezen a mound, steep and without any trees, once a stretch of the flattest plain, now a mound; Met. 15.298nam (rēs horrenda relātū!)
vīs fera ventōrum, caecīs inclūsa cavernīs,
300exspīrāre aliquā cupiēns luctātaque frūstrā
līberiōre fruī caelō, cum carcere rīma
nūlla foret tōtō nec pervia flātibus esset,
extentam tumefēcit humum, ceu spīritus ōris
tendere vēsīcam solet aut dērepta bicornī
305terga caprō;for (a thing dreadful to relate!) the fierce force of the winds, shut up in dark caverns, longing to breathe out somewhere and struggling in vain to enjoy a freer sky, since there was no crack in all its prison and it was not passable for blasts, swelled the ground and stretched it, as the breath of the mouth inflates a bladder, or the hide stripped from a two-horned goat; Met. 15.305tumor ille locī permānsit et altī
collis habet speciem longōque indūruit aevō.that swelling of the place has remained and has the look of a high hill, and has hardened over long time.
Met. 15.307Plūrima cum subeant audīta et cognita nōbīs,
pauca super referam.Though very many things heard and known to me come to mind, I shall relate a few more. Met. 15.308Quid?What? Met. 15.308nōn et lympha figūrās
datque capitque novās?does not water too both give and take on new shapes? Met. 15.309Mediō tua, corniger Ammōn,
310unda diē gelida est, ortūque obitūque calēscit.Your water, horned Ammon, is cold at midday and grows warm at sunrise and sunset. Met. 15.311Admōtīs Athamānas aquīs accendere lignum
narrātur, minimōs cum lūna recessit in orbēs.The Athamanians are said to kindle wood by applying water to it, when the moon has waned to her smallest orb. Met. 15.313Flūmen habent Ciconēs, quod pōtum saxea reddit
viscera, quod tāctīs indūcit marmora rēbus.The Cicones have a river which, when drunk, turns the inward parts to stone, which coats with marble the things it touches. Met. 15.315Crathis et huic Sybaris, nostrīs conterminus ōrīs
ēlectrō similēs faciunt aurōque capillōs.The Crathis, and the Sybaris that borders it, near our shores, make hair like amber and gold. Met. 15.317Quodque magis mīrum est, sunt quī nōn corpora tantum,
vērum animōs etiam valeant mūtāre liquōrēs.And what is more marvellous, there are waters that can change not only bodies but also minds.
Met. 15.319Cui nōn audīta est obscēnae Salmacis undae
320Aethiopēsque lacūs?Who has not heard of Salmacis with its obscene water, and the Ethiopian lakes? Met. 15.320Quōs sīquis faucibus hausit,
aut furit, aut patitur mīrum gravitāte sopōrem.If anyone has drunk of these with his throat, he either goes mad or suffers a strange heaviness of sleep. Met. 15.322Clītoriō quīcumque sitim dē fonte levāvit,
vīna fugit gaudetque merīs abstēmius undīs,
seu vīs est in aquā calidō contrāria vīnō,
325sīve, quod indigenae memorant, Amythaone nātus,
Proetidas attonitās postquam per carmen et herbās
ēripuit furiīs, pūrgāmina mentis in illās
mīsit aquās odiumque merī permānsit in undīs.Whoever has relieved his thirst at the Clitorian spring shuns wine and, abstemious, delights in pure water, whether there is a power in the water opposed to warm wine, or because, as the natives say, the son of Amythaon, after rescuing the frenzied daughters of Proetus from madness by spells and herbs, cast the purgings of their minds into those waters, and the hatred of wine remained in the waves. Met. 15.329Huic fluit effectū dispār Lyncestius amnis;Unlike it in effect flows the Lyncestian river; Met. 15.330quem quīcumque parum moderātō gutture trāxit,
haud aliter titubat, quam sī mera vīna bibisset.whoever drinks of it with too immoderate a throat staggers just as if he had drunk unmixed wine.
Met. 15.332Est locus Arcadiae (Pheneum dīxēre priōrēs),
ambiguīs suspectus aquīs, quās nocte timētō:
nocte nocent pōtae, sine noxā lūce bibuntur.There is a place in Arcadia (the ancients called it Pheneus), suspect for its double-natured waters; fear them by night: drunk at night they harm, by day they are drunk without harm.