it of the Gods. Hence, in time, it became
circulated, that his daughters, otherwise his works, were changed into
magpies, thereby meaning that they were full of idle narratives,
tiresome and unmeaning. It is not improbable that the story of
Typhoeus, who forces the Gods to conceal themselves in Egypt, under the
forms of various animals, was a poem which Pierus composed on the war
of the Gods with the Giants.

FABLE III. [V.341-384]

One of the Muses repeats to Minerva the song of Calliope, in answer to
the Pierides; in which she describes the defeat of the Giant Typhoeus,
and Pluto viewing the mountains of Sicily, where Venus persuades her
son Cupid to pierce his heart with one of his arrows.

"Ceres was the first to turn up the clods with the crooked plough; she
first gave corn and wholesome food to the earth; she first gave laws;
everything is the gift of Ceres. She is to be sung by me; I only wish
that I could utter verses worthy of the Goddess, {for} doubtless she is
a Goddess worthy of my song. The vast island of Trinacria[40] is heaped
up on the limbs of the Giant, and keeps down Typhoeus, that dared to hope
for the abodes of Heaven, placed beneath its heavy mass. He, indeed,
struggles, and attempts often to rise, but his right hand is placed
beneath the Ausonian Pelorus,[41] his left under thee, Pachynus;[42] his
legs are pressed down by Lilyboeum;[43] AEtna bears down his head; under
it Typhoeus, on his back, casts forth sand, and vomits flame from his
raging mouth; often does he struggle to throw off the load of earth, and
to roll away cities and huge mountains from his body. Then does the
earth tremble, and the King of the shades himself is in dread, lest it
may open, and the ground be parted with a wide chasm, and, the day being
let in, may affright the trembling ghosts.

"Fearing this ruin, the Ruler had gone out from his dark abode; and,
carried in his chariot by black horses, he cautiously surveyed the
foundations of the Sicilian land. After it was sufficiently ascertained
that no place was insecure, and fear was laid aside, Erycina,[44]
sitting down upon her mountain, saw him wandering; and, embracing her
winged son, she said, Cupid, my son, my arms, my hands, and my might,
take up those darts by which thou conquerest all, and direct the swift
arrows against the breast of the God, to whom fell the last lot of the
triple kingdom.[45] Thou subduest the Gods above, and Jupiter himsel