ed
"Obscene, receiv'd; her virgin terrors calm'd,
"And sooth'd her trembling. Haply too, he said--
"My daughter,--from her age; and haply she--
"My sire,--lest names were wanting to their crime.
"Fill'd with her father from the bed she rose,
"Bearing in her dire womb the impious fruit;
"Carrying her crime conceiv'd. Th' ensuing night
"Her incest she repeats, nor ends she here.
"But Cinyras eager at length to know,
"After such frequent converse, who him lov'd;
"At once his daughter and his sin beheld,
"By lamps brought sudden. Grief repress'd all words;
"But from the sheath he snatch'd his glittering sword.
"Quick Myrrha fled; darkness and favoring night
"Sav'd her from death. O'er wide-spread fields she roam'd;
"Through Araby palm-bearing, and the lands
"Panchaea holds. Nine times returning light
"Had fill'd the horns of Luna, still she stray'd:
"Then weary rested in Sabaea's fields;
"While scarce she bore the burden of her womb.
"Then what to ask uncertain, 'twixt the fear
"Of death and weariness of hated life;
"In words like these she utter'd forth her prayers,--
"Ye powers, if those who guilt confess are heard,
"A punishment exemplar I deserve;
"I shrink not from it. Yet the living race
"Lest I contaminate, if left to live;
"Or lest I mix prophane with shades below,
"Drive me from either realm; from life and death
"Debar me, into some new shape transform'd.--
"The penitent some god propitious heard;
"Her final prayer at least success obtain'd:
"For as she spoke rose round her legs the earth;
"The lofty tree's foundation, crooked roots
"Shot from her spreading toes; hard wood her bones
"Became; the marrow in the midst remain'd
"As pith; as sappy juice still flow'd her blood:
"Her arms large boughs were spread; her fingers chang'd
"To slender twigs; rough bark her skin became.
"The growing tree press'd hard the gravid womb;
"Invested next her breast, and o'er her neck
"Threaten'd to spread. Impatient of delay
"She shrunk below to meet th' approaching wood,
"And hid beneath the rising bark her face.
"Human sensation with her change of shape
"She lost, yet still she weeps; and from the tree
"Warm drops yet fall, and much the tears are priz'd.
"The myrrh which oozes from the bark still holds
"Its mistress' name, well known in every age.

"Meantime the misbegotten infant grew
"Within the trunk, and press'd