Metamorphoses

Ovid

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

  1. In vain her hero father, Chiron, prayed
  2. the glorious God, Apollo, her to aid.
  3. He could not thwart the will of mighty Jove;
  4. and if the power were his, far from the spot,
  5. from thence afar his footsteps trod the fields
  6. of Elis and Messenia, far from thence.
  7. Now while Apollo wandered on those plains,—
  8. his shoulders covered with a shepherd's skin,
  9. his left hand holding his long shepherd's staff,
  10. his right hand busied with the seven reeds
  11. of seven sizes, brooding over the death
  12. of Hymenaeus, lost from his delight;
  13. while mournful ditties on the reeds were tuned,—
  14. his kine, forgotten, strayed away to graze
  15. over the plains of Pylos. Mercury
  16. observed them, unattended, and from thence
  17. drove them away and hid them in the forest.
  18. So deftly did he steal them, no one knew
  19. or noticed save an ancient forester,
  20. well known to all the neighbor-folk, by them
  21. called Battus. He was keeper of that wood,
  22. and that green pasture where the blooded mares
  23. of rich Neleus grazed.
  24. As Mercury
  25. distrusted him, he led him to one side
  26. and said; “Good stranger, whosoever thou art,
  27. if any one should haply question thee,
  28. if thou hast seen these kine, deny it all;
  29. and for thy good will, ere the deed is done,
  30. I give as thy reward this handsome cow.”
  31. Now when the gift was his, old Battus said,
  32. “Go hence in safety, if it be thy will;
  33. and should my tongue betray thee, let that stone
  34. make mention of the theft.” And as he spoke,
  35. he pointed to a stone.
  36. The son of Jove
  37. pretended to depart, but quickly changed
  38. his voice and features, and retraced his steps,
  39. and thus again addressed that ancient man;
  40. “Kind sir, if thou wouldst earn a fair reward,
  41. a heifer and a bull, if thou hast seen
  42. some cattle pass, I pray thee give thy help,
  43. and tell me of the theft.” So the reward
  44. was doubled; and the old man answered him,
  45. “Beyond those hills they be,” and so they were
  46. ‘Beyond those hills.’
  47. And, laughing, Mercury said,
  48. “Thou treacherous man to me dost thou betray
  49. myself? Dost thou bewray me to myself?”
  50. The god indignant turned his perjured breast
  51. into a stone which even now is called
  52. “The Spy of Pylos,” a disgraceful name,
  53. derived from days of old, but undeserved.