o scatter the
seeds that were entrusted {to him} partly in the fallow ground, {and}
partly {in the ground} restored to cultivation after so long a time. Now
had the youth been borne on high over Europe and the lands of Asia,[79]
and he arrived at the coast of Scythia: Lyncus was the king there. He
entered the house of the king. Being asked whence he came, and the
occasion of his coming, and his name, and his country, he said, 'My
country is the famous Athens, my name is Triptolemus. I came neither in
a ship through the waves, nor on foot by land; the pervious sky made a
way for me. I bring the gifts of Ceres, which, scattered over the wide
fields, are to yield {you} the fruitful harvests, and wholesome food.'
The barbarian envies him; and that he himself may be {deemed} the author
of so great a benefit, he receives him with hospitality, and, when
overpowered with sleep, he attacks him with the sword. {But}, while
attempting to pierce his breast, Ceres made him a lynx; and again sent
the Mopsopian[80] youth to drive the sacred drawers of her chariot
through the air.

"The greatest of us[81] had {now} finished her learned song. But the
Nymphs, with unanimous voice, pronounced that the Goddesses who inhabit
Helicon had proved the conquerors. Then the others, {thus} vanquished,
began to scatter their abuse: 'Since,' said she, 'it is a trifling
matter for you to have merited punishment by this contest, you add
abuse, too, to your fault, and endurance is not permitted us: we shall
proceed to punishment, and whither our resentment calls, we shall
follow.' The Emathian sisters smiled, and despised our threatening
language; and endeavoring to speak, and to menace with their insolent
hands amid great clamor, they beheld quills growing out of their nails,
and their arms covered with feathers. And they each see the face of the
other shooting out into a hard beak, and new birds being added to the
woods. And while they strive to beat their breasts elevated by the
motion of their arms, they hang poised in the air, {as} magpies, the
scandal of the groves. Even then their original talkativeness remains in
{them} as birds, and their jarring garrulity, and their enormous love of
chattering."

[Footnote 78: _Goddess yoked._--Ver. 642. Clarke renders 'geminos
Dea fertilis angues curribus admovit,' 'the fertile Goddess
clapped two snakes to her chariot.']

[Footnote 79: _Lands of Asia._--Ver. 648. Asia Minor is here
m