sited
{therein}, and rendered the seed corrupted. The fertility of the soil,
famed over the wide world, lies in ruin, the corn dies in the early
blade, and sometimes excessive heat of the sun, sometimes excessive
showers, spoil it. Both the Constellations and the winds injure it, and
the greedy birds pick up the seed as it is sown; darnel, and thistles,
and unconquerable weeds, choke the crops of wheat.

"Then the Alpheian Nymph[62] raised her head from out of the Elean
waters, and drew back her dripping hair from her forehead to her ears,
and said, "O thou mother of the virgin sought over the whole world, and
of the crops {as well}, cease {at length} thy boundless toil, and in thy
wrath be not angered with a region that is faithful to thee. This land
does not deserve it; and against its will it gave a path for {the
commission of} the outrage. Nor am I {now} a suppliant for {my own}
country; a stranger I am come hither. Pisa is my native place, and from
Elis do I derive my birth. As a stranger do I inhabit Sicily, but this
land is more pleasing to me than any other soil. I, Arethusa, now have
this for my abode, this for my habitation; which, do thou, most kindly
{Goddess}, preserve. Why I have been removed from my {native} place, and
have been carried to Ortygia, through the waters of seas so spacious,
a seasonable time will come for my telling thee, when thou shalt be
eased of thy cares, and {wilt be} of more cheerful aspect. The pervious
earth affords me a passage, and, carried beneath its lowest caverns,
here I lift my head {again}, and behold the stars which I have not been
used {to see}. While, then, I was running under the earth, along the
Stygian stream, thy Proserpine was there beheld by my eyes.[63] {She}
indeed {was} sad, and not as yet without alarm in her countenance, but
still {she is} a queen, and the most ennobled {female} in the world of
darkness; still, too, is she the powerful spouse of the Infernal King."

"The mother, on hearing these words, stood amazed, as though she {had
been made} of stone, and for a long time was like one stupefied; and
when her intense bewilderment was dispelled by the weight of her grief,
she departed in her chariot into the aetherial air, and there, with her
countenance all clouded, she stood before Jupiter, much to his
discredit, with her hair dishevelled; and she said, "I have come,
Jupiter, as a suppliant to thee, both for my own offspring and for
thine. If thou hast no r