Metamorphoses

Ovid

Ovid. Metamorphoses. More, Brookes, translator. Boston: Cornhill Publishing Co., 1922.

  1. Such words the bright god Mercury would say;
  2. but now perceiving Argus' eyes were dimmed
  3. in languorous doze, he hushed his voice and touched
  4. the drooping eyelids with his magic wand,
  5. compelling slumber. Then without delay
  6. he struck the sleeper with his crescent sword,
  7. where neck and head unite, and hurled his head,
  8. blood dripping, down the rocks and rugged cliff.
  9. Low lies Argus: dark is the light of all
  10. his hundred eyes, his many orbed lights
  11. extinguished in the universal gloom
  12. that night surrounds; but Saturn's daughter spread
  13. their glister on the feathers of her bird,
  14. emblazoning its tail with starry gems.
  15. Juno made haste, inflamed with towering rage,
  16. to vent her wrath on Io; and she raised
  17. in thought and vision of the Grecian girl
  18. a dreadful Fury. Stings invisible,
  19. and pitiless, she planted in her breast,
  20. and drove her wandering throughout the globe.
  21. The utmost limit of her laboured way,
  22. O Nile, thou didst remain. Which, having reached,
  23. and placed her tired knees on that river's edge,
  24. she laid her there, and as she raised her neck
  25. looked upward to the stars, and groaned and wept
  26. and mournfully bellowed: trying thus to plead,
  27. by all the means she had, that Jupiter
  28. might end her miseries. Repentant Jove
  29. embraced his consort, and entreated her
  30. to end the punishment: “Fear not,” he said,
  31. “For she shall trouble thee no more.” He spoke,
  32. and called on bitter Styx to hear his oath.
  33. And now imperial Juno, pacified,
  34. permitted Io to resume her form,—
  35. at once the hair fell from her snowy sides;
  36. the horns absorbed, her dilate orbs decreased;
  37. the opening of her jaws contracted; hands
  38. appeared and shoulders; and each transformed hoof
  39. became five nails. And every mark or form
  40. that gave the semblance of a heifer changed,
  41. except her fair white skin; and the glad Nymph
  42. was raised erect and stood upon her feet.
  43. But long the very thought of speech, that she
  44. might bellow as a heifer, filled her mind
  45. with terror, till the words so long forgot
  46. for some sufficient cause were tried once more.