Georgics 4.548–558

548No delay; 548at once he carries out his mother's instructions; 549he comes to the shrines, raises the altars she showed him, and leads four choice bulls of outstanding form and as many heifers with necks untouched by the yoke. 552Afterwards, when the ninth Dawn had brought in her rising, he sends the offerings to Orpheus and revisits the grove. 554Here indeed they see a sudden portent, wonderful to tell: through the melted flesh of the oxen bees buzzing all through the belly and seething out of the burst ribs, and vast clouds trailing, and now streaming together at a treetop and hanging in a cluster from the pliant boughs.