er criminality}, and struggles hard
against her infamous passion, and says to herself, 'Whither am I being
carried away by my feelings? What am I attempting? I beseech you, O ye
Gods, and natural affection, and ye sacred ties of parents, forbid this
guilt: defend me from a crime so great! if, indeed, this be a crime. But
yet the ties of parent and child are said not to forbid this {kind of}
union; and other animals couple with no distinction. It is not
considered shameful for the heifer to mate with her sire; his own
daughter becomes the mate of the horse; the he-goat, too, consorts with
the flocks of which he is the father; and the bird conceives by him,
from whose seed she herself was conceived. Happy they, to whom these
things are allowed! The care of man has provided harsh laws, and what
Nature permits, malignant ordinances forbid. {And} yet there are said to
be nations[44] in which both the mother is united to the son, and the
daughter to the father, and natural affection is increased by a twofold
passion. Ah, wretched me! that it was not my chance to be born there,
{and that} I am injured by my lot {being cast} in this place! {but} why
do I ruminate on these things? Forbidden hopes, begone! He is deserving
to be beloved, but as a father {only}. Were I not, therefore, the
daughter of the great Cinyras, with Cinyras I might be united. Now,
because he is so much mine, he is not mine, and his very nearness {of
relationship} is my misfortune.

"'A stranger, I were more likely to succeed. I could wish to go far away
hence, and to leave my native country, so I might {but} escape this
crime. A fatal delusion detains me {thus} in love; that being present,
I may look at Cinyras, and touch him, and talk with him, and give him
kisses, if nothing more is allowed me. But canst thou hope for anything
more, impious maid? and dost thou not perceive both how many laws, and
{how many} names thou art confounding? Wilt thou be both the rival of
thy mother, and the harlot of thy father? Wilt thou be called the sister
of thy son, and the mother of thy brother? and wilt thou not dread the
Sisters that have black snakes for their hair, whom guilty minds see
threatening their eyes and their faces with their relentless torches?
But do not thou conceive criminality in thy mind, so long as thou hast
suffered none in body, and violate not the laws of all-powerful Nature
by forbidden embraces. Suppose he were to be compliant, the action
itself