412The neighbouring nobles gather, and nearby cities begged their kings to go and offer comfort: Argos and Sparta and Pelopian Mycenae, and Calydon, not yet hated by grim Diana, and fertile Orchomenus and Corinth famed for bronze, and fierce Messene and Patrae and lowly Cleonae, and Nelean Pylos, and Troezen, not yet the realm of Pittheus, and the other cities that are shut in by the Isthmus between two seas, and those that, lying outside, look out on the Isthmus between two seas. 421Who could believe it? 421you alone held back, Athens. 422War prevented that duty, and barbarian hosts carried over the sea were terrifying the Mopsopian walls. 424Thracian Tereus had routed them with his auxiliary forces, and by his victory had a famous name.
426Pandion joined him to himself by marriage with Procne, powerful as he was in wealth and men, and tracing his descent, as it happened, from mighty Gradivus. 428Juno, patron of brides, is not present, nor Hymenaeus, nor any Grace at that bed. 430The Furies held torches snatched from a funeral, the Furies spread the couch, and an unholy owl brooded over the house and sat on the roof of the bridal chamber. 433Under this omen Procne and Tereus were joined, under this omen they became parents. 434Thrace, of course, congratulated them, and they themselves gave thanks to the gods, and ordered the day on which Pandion's daughter was given to the famous king, and the day on which Itys was born, to be called a festival.
438So deeply hidden is what is good for us. 438Now the Titan had led the seasons of the returning year through five autumns, when Procne, coaxing her husband, said, 'If I have any favour with you, either send me to visit my sister, or let my sister come here! 442you will promise your father-in-law that she will return in a short time: you will give me, as a great gift, the sight of my sister.' 444He orders the ships to be launched into the sea, and with sail and oar enters the Cecropian harbour and touches the shores of Piraeus. 447As soon as he is granted access to his father-in-law, right hand is joined to right, and talk is begun with good omen.
449He had begun to tell the reason for his coming, his wife's request, and to promise a swift return if she were sent: look, Philomela comes, rich in great finery, richer in beauty, such as we are used to hearing of Naiads and Dryads walking in the depths of the woods, if only you gave them like dress and finery. 455No differently was Tereus inflamed at the sight of the maiden than if someone should set fire beneath grey ears of corn, or burn leaves and hay stored in lofts. 458Her beauty indeed deserved it: but in his case an inborn lust also goads him, and the race in those regions is prone to love: he burns with his people's vice and his own.
461His impulse is to corrupt the care of her attendants and the loyalty of her nurse, and also to tempt the girl herself with huge gifts and spend his whole kingdom, or to seize her and defend his prize in savage war; and there is nothing that, gripped by unbridled love, he would not dare, nor can his breast contain the flames shut within it. 467And now he can hardly bear delay, and returns with eager lips to Procne's request, and pursues his own desires under cover of it. 469Love made him eloquent: and as often as he asked more than was right, he would say that Procne wished it so.
471He added tears as well, as if she had ordered those too. 472Gods above, how much blind night mortal hearts hold! 473through the very effort of his crime Tereus is thought dutiful, and wins praise from his wickedness. 475What of the fact that Philomela wants the same, and, coaxingly holding her father's shoulders in her arms, herself begs that she may go to see her sister, by her own welfare and against her own welfare? 478Tereus gazes at her and in looking handles her in advance, and seeing her kisses and her arms thrown round her father's neck, takes everything as goads and torches and fuel for his frenzy; 481and whenever she embraces her father, he would wish to be her father: nor indeed would he be any less impious.
483Their father is won over by the prayers of both. 483She rejoices and thanks her father, and, unhappy girl, thinks a success for both what will be grievous to both. 486Now little labour remained for Phoebus, and his horses were beating with their hooves the course of the downward sky: a royal feast is set on the tables, and wine in gold; 489after this they give their bodies to peaceful sleep. 490But the Odrysian king, though he has withdrawn, burns for her, and, recalling her face, her movements and her hands, imagines as he wishes what he has not yet seen, and feeds his own fires, desire driving sleep away.
494It was daylight, and Pandion, clasping the right hand of his departing son-in-law, entrusts her to him as his companion, with tears welling up: 'Dear son-in-law, since a dutiful cause has compelled me, and both have wished it, and you too, Tereus, have wished it, I give her to you, and by your faith and our kindred hearts, by the gods above, I beg you as a suppliant to protect her with a father's love and to send back to me as soon as possible (all delay will be long to me) this sweet solace of my anxious old age. 502You too, Philomela, as soon as possible (it is enough that your sister is far away), if you have any devotion, return to me.'