Met. 15.335Sīc aliās aliāsque lacūs et flūmina vīrēs
concipiunt, tempusque fuit, quō nāvit in undīs,
nunc sedet Ortygiē.So lakes and rivers take on now these powers, now those; and there was a time when Ortygia swam on the waves; now it stands fixed. Met. 15.337Timuit concursibus Argō
undārum sparsās Symplēgadas ēlīsārum,
quae nunc inmōtae perstant ventīsque resistunt.The Argo feared the Symplegades, spattered by the clash of the waves dashed against them, which now stand unmoved and resist the winds. Met. 15.340Nec, quae sulphureīs ārdet fornācibus, Aetnē
ignea semper erit, neque enim fuit ignea semper.Nor will Etna, which burns with sulphurous furnaces, always be fiery, for it was not always fiery either. Met. 15.342Nam sīve est animal tellūs et vīvit habetque
spīrāmenta locīs flammam exhālantia multīs,
spīrandī mūtāre viās, quotiēnsque movētur,
345hās fīnīre potest, illās aperīre cavernās;For if the earth is a living creature, and lives, and has breathing-holes exhaling flame in many places, it can change its passages of breath, and, whenever it moves, close these caverns and open those; Met. 15.346sīve levēs īmīs ventī cohibentur in antrīs
saxaque cum saxīs et habentem sēmina flammae
māteriam iactant, ea concipit ictibus ignem,
antra relinquentur sēdātīs frīgida ventīs;or if light winds are confined in the deepest caves and hurl rocks against rocks and matter that holds the seeds of flame, and it catches fire from the blows, the caves will be left cold when the winds are calmed; Met. 15.350sīve bitūmineae rapiunt incendia vīrēs
lūteave exiguīs ārdēscunt sulphura fūmīs:
nempe ubi terra cibōs alimentaque pinguia flammae
nōn dabit absūmptīs per longum vīribus aevum
nātūraeque suum nūtrīmen dēerit edācī,
355nōn feret illa famem dēsertaque dēseret ignīs.or if bituminous forces catch fire, or yellow sulphur blazes with slight fumes: surely when the earth no longer gives food and rich nourishment to the flame, its powers used up over long ages, and its devouring nature lacks its own nourishment, it will not endure hunger, and the fire, deserted, will desert it.
Met. 15.356Esse virōs fāma est in Hyperboreā Pallēnē,
quī soleant levibus vēlārī corpora plūmīs,
ōlim Trītōniacam noviēns subiēre palūdem.There is a story that in Hyperborean Pallene there are men who are accustomed to have their bodies covered with light feathers, once they have plunged nine times into the Tritonian marsh. Met. 15.359Haud equidem crēdō: sparsae quoque membra venēnīs
360exercēre artēs Scythidēs memorantur eāsdem.For my part I do not believe it: Scythian women too, their limbs sprinkled with drugs, are said to practise the same arts. Met. 15.361Sīqua fidēs rēbus tamen est addenda probātīs,
nōnne vidēs, quaecumque morā fluidōque calōre
corpora tābēscunt, in parva animālia vertī?But if any credence is to be given to things proven, do you not see that whatever bodies decay through time and melting heat are turned into small animals? Met. 15.364Ī quoque, dēlēctōs mactātōs obrue taurōs
365(cognita rēs ūsū) dē putrī viscere passim
flōrilegae nāscuntur apēs, quae mōre parentum
rūra colunt operīque favent in spemque labōrant;Go too, bury chosen bulls once slaughtered (the thing is known by experience): from the rotting entrails here and there are born flower-culling bees, which, after the manner of their parents, haunt the countryside, love work and labour in hope; Met. 15.368pressus humō bellātor equus crābrōnis orīgō est;a war-horse buried in the ground is the origin of the hornet; Met. 15.369concava lītoreō sī dēmās bracchia cancrō,
370cētera suppōnās terrae, dē parte sepultā
scorpius exībit caudāque minābitur uncā;if you take the hollow claws from a shore crab and put the rest under earth, from the buried part a scorpion will come forth and threaten with its hooked tail; Met. 15.372quaeque solent cānīs frondēs intexere fīlīs
agrestēs tineae (rēs observāta colōnīs)
fērālī mūtant cum pāpiliōne figūram.and the country caterpillars that are accustomed to weave leaves with white threads (a thing observed by farmers) change their shape into the funereal butterfly.
Met. 15.375Sēmina līmus habet viridēs generantia rānās,
et generat truncās pedibus, mox apta natandō crūra dat, utque eadem sint longīs saltibus apta,
posterior superat partēs mēnsūra priōrēs.Mud holds seeds that generate green frogs, and generates them without feet, soon gives them legs fit for swimming, and so that the same legs may be fit for long leaps, the hinder ones exceed the front ones in length. Met. 15.379Nec catulus, partū quem reddidit ursa recentī,
380sed male vīva carō est: lambendō māter in artūs
fingit et in fōrmam, quantam capit ipsa, redūcit.Nor is the cub which a she-bear has just brought forth a cub, but barely living flesh: by licking, the mother shapes it into limbs and brings it into a form like her own. Met. 15.382Nōnne vidēs, quōs cēra tegit sexangula, fētūs
melliferārum apium sine membrīs corpora nāscī
et sērōsque pedēs sērāsque adsūmere pennās?Do you not see that the young of honey-bearing bees, which the six-sided wax covers, are born as bodies without limbs and take on feet late and wings late? Met. 15.385Iūnōnis volucrem, quae caudā sīdera portat,
armigerumque Iovis Cytherēiadasque columbās
et genus omne avium mediīs ē partibus ōvī,
nī scīret fierī, quis nāscī posse putāret?Juno's bird, which carries stars on its tail, and the armour-bearer of Jupiter, and Cytherea's doves, and the whole race of birds — who would think they could be born from the middle parts of an egg, if he did not know that it happens?
Met. 15.389Sunt quī, cum clausō putrefacta est spīna sepulcrō,
390mūtārī crēdant hūmānās angue medullās.There are those who believe that, when the spine has rotted in the closed tomb, the human marrow is changed into a snake. Met. 15.391Haec tamen ex aliīs generis prīmordia dūcunt:
ūna est, quae reparet sēque ipsa resēminet, āles.Yet these draw the beginnings of their kind from others: there is one bird that restores and re-sows itself. Met. 15.393Assyriī phoenīca vocant;The Assyrians call it the phoenix; Met. 15.393nōn frūge neque herbīs,
sed tūris lacrimīs et sūcō vīvit amōmī.it lives not on grain or herbs, but on tears of incense and the juice of amomum. Met. 15.395Haec ubi quīnque suae complēvit saecula vītae,
īlicis in rāmīs tremulaeque cacūmine palmae
unguibus et pūrō nīdum sibi cōnstruit ōre.When it has completed five centuries of its life, it builds itself a nest in the branches of an ilex or at the top of a trembling palm, with its claws and clean beak. Met. 15.398Quō simul ac casiās et nardī lēnīs aristās
quassaque cum fulvā substrāvit cinnama murrā,
400sē super impōnit fīnitque in odōribus aevum.As soon as it has strewn this with cassia and ears of smooth nard and crushed cinnamon with yellow myrrh, it lays itself on top and ends its life amid the scents.
Met. 15.401Inde ferunt, totidem quī vīvere dēbeat annōs,
corpore dē patriō parvum phoenīca renāscī.From there, they say, a little phoenix, destined to live as many years, is reborn from its father's body. Met. 15.403Cum dedit huic aetās vīrēs, onerīque ferendō est,
ponderibus nīdī rāmōs levat arboris altae
405fertque pius cūnāsque suās patriumque sepulcrum,
perque levēs aurās Hyperīonis urbe potītus
ante forēs sacrās Hyperīonis aede repōnit.When age has given it strength and it is able to bear a burden, it relieves the branches of the tall tree of the weight of the nest, and dutifully carries both its own cradle and its father's tomb, and having reached the city of Hyperion through the light air, lays it down before the sacred doors in the temple of Hyperion. Met. 15.408Sī tamen est aliquid mīrae novitātis in istīs,
alternāre vices et quae modo fēmina tergō
410passa marem est, nunc esse marem mīrēmur hyaenam;Yet if there is anything of wondrous novelty in these things, let us marvel that the hyena alternates its role, and that the one which just now as a female took a male on its back is now a male; Met. 15.411id quoque, quod ventīs animal nūtrītur et aurā,
prōtinus adsimulat, tetigit quōscumque colōrēs.that animal too which is nourished on wind and air at once imitates whatever colours it has touched.
Met. 15.413Victa racēmiferō lyncas dedit India Bacchō:
ē quibus, ut memorant, quidquid vēsīca remīsit,
415vertitur in lapidēs et congelat āere tāctō.Conquered India gave lynxes to grape-crowned Bacchus: whatever their bladder has released, so they say, is turned into stone and hardens on touching the air. Met. 15.416Sīc et curalium quō prīmum contigit aurās
tempore, dūrēscit: mollis fuit herba sub undīs.So too coral hardens at the moment when it first touches the air: beneath the waves it was a soft plant. Met. 15.418Dēsinet ante diēs et in altō Phoebus anhēlōs
aequore tinget equōs, quam cōnsequar omnia verbīs
420in speciēs trānslāta novās: sīc tempora vertī
cernimus atque illās adsūmere rōbora gentēs,
concīdere hās.The day will end and Phoebus will dip his panting horses in the deep sea before I could pursue in words all things changed into new shapes: so we see times change, and these nations gain strength, those fall. Met. 15.422Sīc magna fuit cēnsūque virīsque
perque decem potuit tantum dare sanguinis annōs,
nunc humilis veterēs tantummodo Troia ruīnās
425et prō dīvitiīs tumulōs ostendit avōrum.So Troy was great in wealth and men, and could give so much blood for ten years; now, brought low, she shows only her old ruins and, in place of riches, the tombs of her ancestors.
Met. 15.431Nunc quoque Dardaniam fāma est cōnsurgere Rōmam,
Appennīnigenae quae proxima Thybridis undīs
mōle sub ingentī rērum fundāmina pōnit:
haec igitur fōrmam crēscendō mūtat et ōlim
435immēnsī caput orbis erit.Now too rumour says that Dardanian Rome is rising, which, close to the waters of the Apennine-born Tiber, lays the foundations of her state beneath a vast mass: she then is changing her form by growing, and one day will be the head of the boundless world. Met. 15.435Sīc dīcere vātēs
fāticināsque ferunt sortēs quantumque recordor,
dīxerat Aenēae, cum rēs Trōiāna labāret,
Priamidēs Helenus flentī dubiōque salūtis:
"Nāte dea, sī nota satis praesāgia nostrae
440mentis habēs, nōn tōta cadet tē sōspite Troia!So they say the prophets and the fate-telling oracles declare, and, as far as I remember, Helenus, son of Priam, had said to Aeneas, when the Trojan state was tottering, as he wept and despaired of his safety: "Son of the goddess, if you know well enough the forebodings of my mind, while you are safe Troy will not wholly fall! Met. 15.441Flamma tibi ferrumque dabunt iter: ībis et ūnā
Pergama rapta ferēs, dōnec Troiaeque tibique
externum patriō contingat amīcius arvum.Flame and sword will give you a path: you will go, and carry Pergamum, snatched away, with you, until a foreign field, kinder than your native one, falls to Troy and to you.
Met. 15.444Urbem etiam cernō Phrygiōs dēbēre nepōtēs,
445quanta nec est nec erit nec vīsa priōribus annīs.I see too a city owed to Phrygian descendants, as great as none is, or will be, or has been seen in earlier years. Met. 15.446Hanc aliī procerēs per saecula longa potentem,
sed dominam rērum dē sanguine nātus Iūlī
efficiet;Other leaders through long ages will make it powerful, but one born of Iulus' blood will make it mistress of the world; Met. 15.448quō cum tellūs erit ūsa, fruentur
aetheriae sēdēs, caelumque erit exitus illī."when earth has had the use of him, the heavenly seats will enjoy him, and heaven will be his end."