have appeared even to Priam, worthy of a tear. Yet the care
of the armed universe preserved me, rescued from the waves.

"But again was I driven from Argos, {the land} of my fathers; and genial
Venus exacted satisfaction in vengeance for her former wound: and so
great hardships did I endure on the deep ocean, so great amid arms on
shore, that many a time were they pronounced {happy} by me, whom the
storm, common {to all}, and Caphareus, swallowed up in the
threatening[41] waves; and I wished that I had been one of them. My
companions having now endured the utmost extremities, both in war and on
the ocean, lost courage, and demanded an end of their wanderings. But
Agmon, of impetuous temper, and then embittered as well by misfortunes,
said, 'What does there remain now, ye men, for your patience to refuse
to endure? What has Cytherea, (supposing her to desire it), that she can
do beyond this? For so long as greater evils are dreaded, there is room
for prayers; but where one's lot is the most wretched possible, fear is
{trampled} under foot, and the extremity {of misfortune} is free from
apprehensions. Let {Venus} herself hear it, if she likes; let her hate,
as she does {hate}, all the men under the rule of Diomedes. Yet all of
us despise her hate, and this our great power is bought by us at great
price.'

"With such expressions does the Pleuronian[42] Agmon provoke Venus
against her will, and revive her former anger. His words are approved of
by a few. We, the greater number of his friends, rebuke Agmon: and as he
is preparing to answer, his voice and the passage of his voice together
become diminished; his hair changes into feathers; his neck newly
formed, his breast and his back are covered with down; his arms assume
longer feathers; and his elbows curve out into light wings. A great part
of his foot receives toes; his mouth becomes stiff and hardened with
horn, and has its end in a point. Lycus and Idas, and Nycteus, together
with Rhetenor, and Abas, are {all} astounded at him; and while they are
astounded, they assume a similar form; and the greater portion of my
company fly off, and resound around the oars with the flapping of their
wings. Shouldst thou inquire what was the form of these birds so
suddenly made; although it was not that of swans, yet it was approaching
to that of white swans. With difficulty, for my part, do I, the
son-in-law of the Iapygian Daunus, possess these abodes and the parched
fields with a