hought that a human being had spoken. They were
birds; and magpies that imitate everything, lamenting their fate, they
stood perched on the boughs, nine in number. As the Goddess wondered,
thus did the Goddess {Urania} commence: "Lately, too, did these being
overcome in a dispute, increase the number of the birds. Pierus, rich in
the lands of Pella,[32] begot them; the Paeonian[33] Evippe[34] was their
mother. Nine times did she invoke the powerful Lucina, being nine times
in labor. This set of foolish sisters were proud of their number, and
came hither through so many cities of Haemonia, {and} through so many of
Achaia,[35] and engaged in a contest in words such as these: "Cease
imposing upon the vulgar with your empty melody. If you have any
confidence {in your skill}, ye Thespian Goddesses, contend with us; we
will not be outdone in voice or skill; and we are as many in number.
Either, if vanquished, withdraw from the spring formed by the steed of
Medusa, and the Hyantean Aganippe,[36] or we will retire from the
Emathian plains, as far as the snowy Paeonians. Let the Nymphs decide the
contest." It was, indeed, disgraceful to engage, but to yield seemed
{even} more disgraceful. The Nymphs that are chosen swear by the rivers,
and they sit on seats made out of the natural rock. Then, without
casting lots, she who had been the first to propose the contest, sings
the wars of the Gods above, and gives the Giants honor not their due,
and detracts from the actions of the great Divinities; and {sings} how
that Typhoeus, sent forth from the lowest realms of the earth, had struck
terror into the inhabitants of Heaven; and {how} they had all turned
their backs in flight, until the land of Egypt had received them in
their weariness, and the Nile, divided into its seven mouths. She tells,
how that Typhoeus had come there, too, and the Gods above had concealed
themselves under assumed shapes; and 'Jupiter,' she says, 'becomes the
leader of the flock, whence, even at the present day, the Libyan Ammon
is figured with horns. {Apollo}, the Delian {God}, lies concealed as a
crow, the son of Semele as a he-goat, the sister of Phoebus as a cat,
{Juno}, the daughter of Saturn, as a snow-white cow, Venus as a
fish,[37] {Mercury}, the Cyllenian {God}, beneath the wings of an
Ibis.'[38]

"Thus far she had exerted her noisy mouth to {the sound of} the lyre; we
of Aonia[39] were {then} called upon; but perhaps thou hast not the
leisure, nor the