Kitap 1
Man is more temp'rate in his lust than they;
And more than woman can his passion sway.
Biblis, we know, did first her love declare,
And had recourse to death in her despair.
320
Her brother she, her father Myrrha sought;Myrrha's love of her father Cinyras is not a fable. At least Pliny relates this adventure as a memorable story, and says Cinyras lived two hundred and ten years, and that his daughter took her mother's place, while she was busied about the sacrifices to Ceres. But that her father discovering her insolence, ran after her a long time with a sword in his hand. The fable adds, she got away by favour of the night, and fled to the Sabeans, where she was changed into a tree, which bears her name. See the 10th book of the Metamorphoses.
And lov'd; but lov'd not as a daughter ought.
Now from a tree she stills her od'rous tears;
Which yet the name of her who shed 'em bear.
In Ida's shady vale a bull appeared,Pasiphae, daughter of the sun, and wife to Minos king of Crete, is fabled to be enamoured of a bull: and Daedalus, the famous mechanic, assisted her to enjoy her detestable desires, by making a machine like a cow; within which she was caressed by her gallant. From this intrigue the Minotaur was born, half man and half bull, who was enclosed in a labyrinth, and by the assistance of Ariadne killed by Theseus.
325
White as the snow, the fairest of the herd;
A beauty spot of black there only rose,
Betwixt his equal horns and ample brows;
The love and wish of all the Cretan cows.
The queen beheld him as his head he rear'd;
330
And envied ev'ry leap he gave the herd.
A secret fire she nourished in her breast;
And hated ev'ry heifer he caress'd.
A story known, and known for true, I tell;
Nor Crete, though lying, can the truth conceal.
335
She cut him grass (so much can love command)
