METAMORPHOSES BOOK VIII their lips. Even to this day the Bithynian peasant in that region points out two trees standing close to- gether, and growing from one double trunk. These things were told me by staid old men who could have had no reason to deceive. With my own eyes I saw votive wreaths hanging from the boughs, and placing fresh wreaths there myself, I said: Those whom the gods care for are gods; let those who have worshipped be worshipped." Lelex made an end: both the tale and the teller had moved them all; Theseus especially. When he would hear more of the wonderful doings of the gods, the Calydonian river god, propped upon his elbow, thus addressed him: "Some there are, bravest of heroes, whose forn has been once changed and remained in its new state. To others the power is given to assume many forms, as to thee, Proteus, dweller in the earth-embracing sea. For now men saw thee as a youth, now as a lion; now thou wast a raging boar, now a serpent whom men would fear to touch; now horns made thee a bull; often thou couldst appear as a stone, often, again, a tree; some- times, assuming the form of flowing water, thou wast a stream, and sometimes a flame, the water's enemy. <" No less power had the wife of Autolycus, Ery- sichthon's dauhter. This Erysichthon was a man w ho scorned the gods and burnt no sacrifice on their altars. He, so the story goes, once violated the sacred grove of Ceres with the axe and profaned those ancient trees with steel. There stood among these a mighty oak with strength matured by cen- turies of growth, itself a grove. Round about it hung woollen fillets, votive tablets, and wreaths of flowers, witnesses of granted prayers. Often beneath 457
