tesichorus, and the people of
Argos, who preserved a tradition to the same effect.

Lucretius, Virgil, and Diodorus Siculus are in the number of those
who assert that Iphigenia actually was immolated. According to
Dictys the Cretan, and several of the ancient scholiasts, Ulysses
having left the Grecian camp without the knowledge of Agamemnon,
went to Argos, and returned with Iphigenia, under the pretext that
her father intended to marry her to Achilles. Some writers state
that Achilles was in love with Iphigenia; and that he was greatly
enraged at Ulysses for bringing her to the camp, and opposed her
sacrifice to the utmost of his power.

Ovid then proceeds to recount the adventures of the Greeks, after
their arrival at Troy. An oracle had warned the Greeks, that he who
should be the first to land on the Trojan shores, would inevitably
be slain. Protesilaues seeing that this prediction damped the courage
of his companions, led the way, and sacrificed his life for the
safety of his friends, being slain by Hector immediately on his
landing. Cygnus, signalizing himself by his bravery, attracted the
attention of Achilles, who singled him out as a worthy antagonist.
It was said that this hero was the son of Neptune; perhaps because
he was powerful by sea, and the prince of some island in the
Archipelago. He was said to be invulnerable, most probably because
his shield was arrow-proof. The story of his transformation into a
swan, has evidently no other foundation than the resemblance between
his name and that of that bird.

FABLES III. AND IV. [XII.146-535]

A truce ensuing, the Grecian chiefs having assembled at a feast,
express their surprise at the fact of Cygnus being invulnerable.
Nestor, by way of showing a still more surprising instance, relates
how the Nymph Caenis, the daughter of Elatus, having yielded to the
caresses of Neptune, was transformed by him into a man, and made
invulnerable. Caeneus being present at the wedding feast of
Pirithoues, the son of Ixion, where Eurytus was a guest, the latter,
being elevated with wine, made an attempt upon Hippodamia, the
bride; on which a quarrel arose between the Centaurs and the
Lapithae. After many on both sides had been slain, Caeneus still
remained unhurt; on which, the Centaurs having heaped up trunks of
trees upon him, he was pressed to death; Neptune then changed his
body into a bird.