he people who inhabited it. Europa herself may have
received her name also from the fairness of her complexion: hence, the
poets, as the Scholiast on Theocritus tells us, invented a fable, that
a daughter of Juno stole her mother's paint, to give it to Europa, who
used it with so much success as to ensure, by its use, an extremely
fair and beautiful complexion.

FABLE II. [III.35-130]

The companions of Cadmus, fetching water from the fountain of Mars,
are devoured by the Dragon that guards it. Cadmus, on discovering
their destruction, slays the monster, and, by the advice of Minerva,
sows the teeth, which immediately produce a crop of armed men. They
forthwith quarrel among themselves, and kill each other, with the
exception of five who assist Cadmus in building the city of Thebes.

After the men who came from the Tyrian nation had touched this grove
with ill-fated steps, and the urn let down into the water made a splash;
the azure dragon stretched forth his head from the deep cave, and
uttered dreadful hissings. The urns dropped from their hands; and the
blood left their bodies, and a sudden trembling seized their astonished
limbs. He wreathes his scaly orbs in rolling spires, and with a spring
becomes twisted into mighty folds; and uprearing himself from below the
middle into the light air, he looks down upon all the grove, and is of
as large a size,[5] as, if you were to look on him entire, {the serpent}
which separates the two Bears.

There is no delay; he seizes the Phoenicians (whether they are resorting
to their arms or to flight, or whether fear itself is preventing either
{step}); some he kills with his sting,[6] some with his long folds, some
breathed upon[7] by the venom of his baneful poison.

The sun, now at its height, had made the shadows {but} small: the son of
Agenor wonders what has detained his companion and goes to seek his men.
His garment was a skin torn from a lion; his weapon was a lance with
shining steel, and a javelin; and a courage superior to any weapon. When
he entered the grove, and beheld the lifeless bodies, and the victorious
enemy of immense size upon them, licking the horrid wounds with
bloodstained tongue, he said, "Either I will be the avenger of your
death, bodies {of my} faithful {companions}, or {I will be} a sharer {in
it}." {Thus} he said; and with his right hand he raised a huge stone,[8]
and hurled the vast {weight} with a tremendous effort. {And}