her from the obdurate and rocky state to which the
other females were reduced, he made his wife, and had a son by her
named Paphos; who was said to have been the founder of the city of
Cyprus, known by his name.

FABLE VIII. [X.298-518]

Myrrha, the daughter of Cinyras and Cenchris, having conceived an
incestuous passion for her own father, and despairing of satisfying
it, attempts to hang herself. Her nurse surprises her in the act,
and prevents her death. Myrrha, after repeated entreaties and
assurances of assistance, discloses to her the cause of her despair.
The nurse, by means of a stratagem, procures her the object of her
desires, which being discovered by her father, he pursues his
daughter with the intention of killing her. Myrrha flies from her
father's dominions and being delivered of Adonis, is transformed
into a tree.

"Of him was that Cinyras sprung, who, if he had been without issue,
might have been reckoned among the happy. Of horrible events shall I
{now} sing. Daughters, be far hence; far hence be parents, {too}; or, if
my verse shall charm your minds, let credit not be given to me in this
part {of my song}, and do not believe that it happened; or, if you will
believe, believe as well in the punishment of the deed.

"Yet, if Nature allows this crime to appear to have been committed,
I congratulate the Ismarian matrons, and my own {division of the} globe.
I congratulate this land, that it is afar from those regions which
produced so great an abomination. Let the Panchaean land[42] be rich in
amomum, and let it produce cinnamon, and its zedoary,[43] and
frankincense distilling from its tree, and its other flowers, so long as
it produces the myrrh-tree, as well. The new tree was not of so much
worth {as to be a recompense for the crime to which it owed its origin}.
Cupid himself denies, Myrrha, that it was his arrows that injured thee;
and he defends his torches from that imputation; one of the three
Sisters kindled {this flame} within thee, with a Stygian firebrand and
with swelling vipers. It is a crime to hate a parent; {but} this love is
a greater degree of wickedness than hatred. On every side worthy nobles
are desiring thee {in marriage}, and throughout the whole East the
youths come to the contest for thy bed. Choose out of all these one for
thyself, Myrrha, so that, in all that number, there be not one person,
{namely, thy father}.

"She, indeed, is sensible {of h