Metamorphoses (Books I-XIV)
The Transformation of Lyncus
5:979 The youth o'er Europe and o'er Asia drives,
5:980 'Till at the court of Lyncus
he arrives.
5:981 The tyrant Scythia's barb'rous
empire sway'd;
5:982 And, when he saw Triptolemus,
he said,
5:983 How cam'st thou, stranger, to
our court, and why?
5:984 Thy country, and thy name? The
youth did thus reply:
5:985 Triptolemus my name; my country's
known
5:986 O'er all the world, Minerva's
fav'rite town,
5:987 Athens, the first of cities in
renown.
5:988 By land I neither walk'd, nor
sail'd by sea,
5:989 But hither thro' the Aether made
my way.
5:990 By me, the Goddess who the fields
befriends,
5:991 These gifts, the greatest of
all blessings, sends.
5:992 The grain she gives if in your
soil you sow,
5:993 Thence wholsom food in golden
crops shall grow.
5:994 Soon as the secret to the king was known,
5:995 He grudg'd the glory of the service
done,
5:996 And wickedly resolv'd to make
it all his own.
5:997 To hide his purpose, he invites
his guest,
5:998 The friend of Ceres, to a royal
feast,
5:999 And when sweet sleep his heavy
eyes had seiz'd,
5:1000 The tyrant with his steel attempts
his breast.
5:1001 Him strait a lynx's shape the
Goddess gives,
5:1002 And home the youth her sacred
dragons drives.
Metamorphoses (Books I-XIV)
The Transformation of Lyncus
5:979 The youth o'er Europe and o'er Asia drives,
5:980 'Till at the court of Lyncus
he arrives.
5:981 The tyrant Scythia's barb'rous
empire sway'd;
5:982 And, when he saw Triptolemus,
he said,
5:983 How cam'st thou, stranger, to
our court, and why?
5:984 Thy country, and thy name? The
youth did thus reply:
5:985 Triptolemus my name; my country's
known
5:986 O'er all the world, Minerva's
fav'rite town,
5:987 Athens, the first of cities in
renown.
5:988 By land I neither walk'd, nor
sail'd by sea,
5:989 But hither thro' the Aether made
my way.
5:990 By me, the Goddess who the fields
befriends,
5:991 These gifts, the greatest of
all blessings, sends.
5:992 The grain she gives if in your
soil you sow,
5:993 Thence wholsom food in golden
crops shall grow.
5:994 Soon as the secret to the king was known,
5:995 He grudg'd the glory of the service
done,
5:996 And wickedly resolv'd to make
it all his own.
5:997 To hide his purpose, he invites
his guest,
5:998 The friend of Ceres, to a royal
feast,
5:999 And when sweet sleep his heavy
eyes had seiz'd,
5:1000 The tyrant with his steel attempts
his breast.
5:1001 Him strait a lynx's shape the
Goddess gives,
5:1002 And home the youth her sacred
dragons drives.