something in me, and there will be one point in
which I shall be pleasing to thee, and thou wilt confess my merits. Yet
remember that my affection for thee has not ended sooner than my life;
and that at the same moment I am about to be deprived of a twofold
light. And report shall not come to thee as the messenger of my death;
I myself will come, doubt it not; and I myself will be seen in person,
that thou mayst satiate thy cruel eyes with my lifeless body. But if, ye
Gods above, you take cognizance of the fortunes of mortals, be mindful
of me; beyond this, my tongue is unable to pray; and cause me to be
remembered in times far distant; and give those hours to Fame which you
have taken away from my existence."

{Thus} he said; and raising his swimming eyes and his pallid arms to the
door-posts, so often adorned by him with wreaths, when he had fastened a
noose at the end of a halter upon the door; he said,-- "Are these the
garlands that delight thee, cruel and unnatural {woman}?" And he placed
his head within it; but even then he was turned towards her; and he hung
a hapless burden, by his strangled throat. The door, struck by the
motion of his feet as they quivered, seemed to utter a sound, as {of
one} groaning much, and flying open, it discovered the deed; the
servants cried aloud, and after lifting him up in vain, they carried him
to the house of his mother (for his father was dead). She received him
into her bosom; and embracing the cold limbs of her child, after she had
uttered the words that are {natural} to wretched mothers, and had
performed the {usual} actions of wretched mothers, she was preceding[58]
the tearful funeral through the midst of the city, and was carrying his
ghastly corpse on the bier, to be committed to the flames.

By chance, her house was near the road where the mournful procession was
passing, and the sound of lamentation came to the ears of the
hardhearted Anaxarete, whom now an avenging Deity pursued. Moved,
however, she said:-- "Let us behold these sad obsequies;" and she
ascended to an upper room[59] with wide windows. And scarce had she well
seen Iphis laid out on the bier, {when} her eyes became stiffened, and a
paleness coming on, the warm blood fled from her body. And as she
endeavoured to turn her steps back again, she stood fixed {there}; and
as she endeavoured to turn away her face, this too she was unable to do;
and by degrees the stone, which already existed in her cruel breast,