my father reign. Him do I offer thee for a father-in-law; only do take
pity on a suppliant, and hear his prayer, for to thee alone do I give
way. And I, who despise Jove, and the heavens, and the piercing
lightnings, dread thee, daughter of Nereus; than the lightnings is thy
wrath more dreadful to me. But I should be more patient under these
slights, if thou didst avoid all men. For why, rejecting the Cyclop,
dost thou love Acis? And why prefer Acis to my embraces? Yet, let him
please himself, and let him please thee, too, Galatea, {though} I wish
he could not; if only the opportunity is given, he shall find that I
have strength proportioned to a body so vast. I will pull out his
palpitating entrails; and I will scatter his torn limbs about the
fields, and throughout thy waves, {and} thus let him be united to thee.
For I burn: and my passion, {thus} slighted, rages with the greater
fury; and I seem to be carrying in my breast AEtna, transferred there
with {all} its flames; and yet, Galatea, thou art unmoved.'

"Having in vain uttered such complaints (for all this I saw), he rises;
and like an enraged bull, when the heifer is taken away from him, he
could not stand still, and he wandered in the wood, and the well known
forests. When the savage {monster} espied me, and Acis unsuspecting and
apprehensive of no such thing; and he exclaimed:-- 'I see you, and I
shall cause this to be the last union for your affection.' And that
voice was as loud as an enraged Cyclop ought, {for his size}, to have.
AEtna trembled at the noise; but I, struck with horror, plunged into the
adjoining sea. The hero, son of Symaethis, turned his back and fled, and
cried,-- 'Help me, Galatea, I entreat thee; help me, ye parents {of
hers}; and admit me, {now} on the point of destruction, within your
realms.' The Cyclop pursued, and hurled a fragment, torn from the
mountain; and though the extreme angle only of the rock reached him, yet
it entirely crushed Acis. But I did the only thing that was allowed by
the Fates to be done, that Acis might assume the properties of his
grandsire. The purple blood flowed from beneath the rock, and in a
little time the redness began to vanish; and at first it became the
colour of a stream muddied by a shower; and, in time, it became clear.
Then the rock, that had been thrown, opened, and through the chinks,
a reed vigorous and stately arose, and the hollow mouth of the rock
resounded with the waters gushing forth. A