METAMORPHOSES BOOK V bound in an ivy wreath, tried the plaintive chords with her thumb, and then, with sweeping chords, she sang this song: " Ceres was the first to turn the glebe with the hooked plowshare; she first gave corn and kindly sustenance to the world; she first gave laws. Ail things are the gift of Ceres; she must be the subject of my song. Would that I could worthily sing of her; surely the goddess is worthy of my song «<'The huge island of Sicily had been heaped upoin the body of the giant, and with its vast weight was resting on Typhoeus, who had dared to aspire to thoe heights of heaven. He struggles indeed, and strives often to rise again; but his right hand is held down by Ausonian l'elorus and his left by you, Pachynus. Lilybaeum rests on his legs, and Aetna's weight is on his head. Flung on his back beneath this mountain, the fierce Typhoeus spouts forth ashes and vomits flames from his mouth. Often he puts forth al his strength to push off the weight of carth and to roll the cities and great mountains from his body: then the earth quakes, and even the king of the silent land is afraid lest the crust of the earth split open in wide seams and lest the light of day be let in and affright the trembling shades. Fearing this disaster, the king ot the lower world had left his gloomy realm and, drawn in his chariot with its sable steeds, was tra- versing the land of Sicily, carefully examining its foundations. After he had examined all to his satisfaction, and found that no points were giving way, he put aside his fears. Then Venus Erycina saw him wandering to and fro, as she was seated on her sacred mountain, and embracing her winged son, she exclaimed: O son, both arms and hands to me, and source of all my power, take now those shafts, Cupid, with which you conquer all, and shoot 263
