they offered sacrifices to him; and we are told by
Athenaeus, that they instituted games in his honour, which were
called after his name. Pausanias makes mention of his tomb, upon
which he says was engraved the figure of Apollo. His alleged change
into the flower of the same name is probably solely owing to the
similarity of their names. It is not very clear what flower it is
that was known to the ancients under the name of Hyacinthus.
Dioscorides believes it to be that called 'vaccinium' by the Romans,
which is of a purple colour, and on which can be traced, though
imperfectly, the letters +ai+ (alas!) mentioned by Ovid. The
lamentations of Apollo, on the death of Hyacinthus, formed the
subject of bitter, and, indeed, deserved raillery, for several of
the satirical writers among the ancients.

FABLE VI. [X.220-242]

Venus, incensed at the Cerastae for polluting the island of Cyprus,
which is sacred to her, with the human sacrifices which they offer
to their Gods, transforms them into bulls; and the Propoetides, as a
punishment for their dissolute conduct, are transformed into rocks.

"But if, perchance, you were to ask of Amathus,[35] abounding in metals,
whether she would wish to have produced the Propoetides; she would deny
it, as well as those whose foreheads were of old rugged with two horns,
from which they also derived the name of Cerastae. Before the doors of
these was standing an altar of Jupiter Hospes,[36] {a scene} of tragic
horrors; if any stranger had seen it stained with blood, he would have
supposed that sucking calves had been killed there, and Amathusian
sheep;[37] strangers were slain there. Genial Venus, offended at the
wicked sacrifices {there offered}, was preparing to abandon her own
cities and the Ophiusian lands.[38] 'But how,' said she, 'have these
delightful spots, how have my cities offended? What criminality is there
in them? Let the inhuman race rather suffer punishment by exile or by
death, or if there is any middle course between death and exile; and
what can that be, but the punishment of changing their shape?'

"While she is hesitating into what she shall change them, she turns her
eyes towards their horns, and is put in mind that those may be left to
them; and {then} she transforms their huge limbs into {those of} fierce
bulls.

"And yet the obscene Propoetides presumed to deny that Venus is a
Goddess; for which they are reported the first {of all