Metamorphoses

Ovid

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

  1. Chiron, the Centaur, taught his pupil; proud
  2. that he was honoured by that God-like charge.
  3. Behold, his lovely daughter, who was born
  4. beside the margin of a rapid stream,
  5. came forward, with her yellow hair as gold
  6. adown her shoulders.—She was known by name
  7. Ocyroe. The hidden things that Fate
  8. conceals, she had the power to tell; for not
  9. content was she to learn her father's arts,
  10. but rather pondered on mysterious things.
  11. So, when the god of Frenzy warmed her breast,
  12. gazing on Aesculapius,—the child
  13. of Phoebus and Coronis, while her soul
  14. was gifted, with prophetic voice she said;
  15. “O thou who wilt bestow on all the world
  16. the blessed boon of health, increase in strength!
  17. To thee shall mortals often owe their lives:
  18. to thee is given the power to raise the dead.
  19. But when against the power of Deities
  20. thou shalt presume to dare thy mortal skill,
  21. the bolts of Jove will shatter thy great might,
  22. and health no more be thine from thence to grant.
  23. And from a god thou shalt return to dust,
  24. and once again from dust become a God;
  25. and thou shalt thus renew thy destiny.—
  26. “And thou, dear father Chiron, brought to birth
  27. with pledge of an immortal life, informed
  28. with ever-during strength, when biting flames
  29. of torment from the baneful serpent's blood
  30. are coursing in thy veins, thou shalt implore
  31. a welcome death; and thy immortal life
  32. the Gods shall suffer to the power of death.—
  33. and the three Destinies shall cut thy thread.”
  34. She would continue these prophetic words
  35. but tears unbidden trickled down her face;
  36. and, as it seemed her sighs would break her heart,
  37. she thus bewailed; “The Fates constrain my speech
  38. and I can say no more; my power has gone.
  39. Alas, my art, although of little force
  40. and doubtful worth, has brought upon my head
  41. the wrath of Heaven.
  42. “Oh wherefore did I know
  43. to cast the future? Now my human form
  44. puts on another shape, and the long grass
  45. affords me needed nourishment. I want
  46. to range the boundless plains and have become,
  47. in image of my father's kind, a mare:
  48. but gaining this, why lose my human shape?
  49. My father's form is one of twain combined.”
  50. And as she wailed the words became confused
  51. and scarcely understood; and soon her speech
  52. was only as the whinny of a mare.
  53. Down to the meadow's green her arms were stretched;
  54. her fingers joined together, and smooth hoofs
  55. made of five nails a single piece of horn.
  56. Her face and neck were lengthened, and her hair
  57. swept downward as a tail; the scattered locks
  58. that clung around her neck were made a mane,
  59. tossed over to the right. Her voice and shape
  60. were altogether changed, and since that day
  61. the change has given her a different name.