s has not vanished, and if my charms do
not deceive me.' {Thus} she said; and she formed the phantom of a
fictitious wild boar, with no substance, and commanded it to run past
the eyes of the king, and to seem to go into a forest, thick set with
trees, where the wood is most dense, and where the spot is inaccessible
to a horse. There is no delay; Picus, forthwith, unconsciously follows
the phantom of the prey; hastily too, he leaves the reeking back of his
steed, and, in pursuit of a vain hope, wanders on foot in the lofty
forest. She repeats prayers to herself, and utters magical incantations,
and adores strange Gods in strange verses, with which she is wont both
to darken the disk of the snow-white moon, and to draw the clouds that
suck up the moisture, over the head of her father. Then does the sky
become lowering at the repeating of the incantation, and the ground
exhales its vapours; and his companions wander along the darkened paths,
and his guards are separated from the king.

"'She, having now gained a {favourable} place and opportunity, says, 'O,
most beauteous {youth}! by thy eyes, which have captivated mine, and by
this graceful person, which makes me, though a Goddess, to be thy
suppliant, favour my passion, and receive the Sun, that beholds all
things, as thy father-in-law, and do not in thy cruelty despise Circe,
the daughter of Titan.' {Thus} she says. He roughly repels her and her
entreaties: and he says, 'Whoever thou art, I am not for thee; another
female holds me enthralled, and for a long space of time, I pray, may
she so hold me. I will not pollute the conjugal ties with the love of a
stranger, while the Fates shall preserve for me Canens, the daughter of
Janus.' The daughter of Titan, having often repeated her entreaties in
vain, says, 'Thou shalt not depart with impunity, nor shalt thou return
to Canens; and by experience shalt thou learn what one slighted, what
one in love, what a woman, can do; but that one in love, and slighted,
and a woman, is Circe.'

"'Then twice did she turn herself to the West, and twice to the East;
thrice did she touch the youth with her wand; three charms did she
repeat. He fled; wondering that he sped more swiftly than usual, he
beheld wings on his body; and indignant that he was added suddenly as a
strange bird to the Latian woods, he struck the wild oaks with his hard
beak, and, in his anger, inflicted wounds[35] on the long branches. His
wings took the purple colou