764With this she stopped speaking. 764Nor does the other maiden burn less hotly, and she prays that you come quickly, Hymen. 766What she seeks, Telethusa, afraid, puts off, now delaying the time, now drawing out the delay with feigned illness, often pleading omens and visions. 768But by now she had used up every pretext for pretence, and the postponed time of the wedding was upon them, and one day remained. 770Then she pulls the band from her daughter's head and her own, and with loose hair embracing the altar she says, 'Isis, who dwell in Paraetonium and the Mareotic fields and Pharos, and the Nile divided into seven horns: bring help, I pray, and heal our fear!
776You, goddess, you I once saw, and these emblems of yours, and I recognised them all, the sound and the accompanying bronze of the sistrums, and with mindful heart I noted your commands. 779That this girl sees the light, that I am not punished, look, it is your counsel and your gift. 780Pity the two of us and help us with your aid!' 781Tears followed her words. 782The goddess seemed to have moved her altar (and she had moved it), and the doors of the temple shook, and the horns, imitating the moon, flashed, and the sounding sistrum rattled. 785Not free from care indeed, yet happy in the favourable omen, the mother leaves the temple: Iphis follows her as she goes, at her side, with a longer stride than usual, and the fairness does not remain in her face, and her strength increases, and the very look is fiercer, and the length of her unadorned hair shorter, and there is more vigour than she had as a woman.
790For you who were lately a woman are a boy. 791Bring offerings to the temples and rejoice with fearless faith! 792They bring offerings to the temples, and add an inscription too; 793the inscription had a short verse: GIFTS IPHIS VOWED AS A WOMAN HE PAID AS A BOY. The next day's light had revealed the wide world with its rays, when Venus and Juno and Hymen come together to the wedding fires, and the boy Iphis wins his Ianthe.