“quae serpit per membra silex? qui torpor inertem marmorea me peste ligat?” vix pauca locutus, 100 quod timuit, iam totus erat; saevusque Damastor, ad depellendos iaculum cum quaereret hostes, germani rigidum misit pro rupe cadaver. Hic vero interitum fratris miratus Echion inscius, auctorem dum vult temptare nocendo, 105 te, Dea, respexit, solam quam cernere nulli bis licuit. meruit sublata audacia poenas et didicit cum morte deam. sed turbidus ira Palleneus, oculis aversa tuentibus atrox, ingreditur caecasque manus in Pallada tendit. 110 hunc mucrone ferit dea comminus; ac simul angues Gorgoneo riguere gelu corpusque per unum pars moritur ferro, partes periere videndo. Ecce autem medium spiris delapsus in aequor Porphyrion trepidam conatur rumpere Delon, 115 scilicet ad superos ut torqueat improbus axes. horruit Aegaeus; stagnantibus exilit antris longaevo cum patre Thetis desertaque mansit regia Neptuni famulis veneranda profundis. exclamant placidae Cynthi de vertice Nymphae, 120 Nymphae, quae rudibus Phoebum docuere sagittis errantes agitare feras primumque gementi Latonae struxere torum, cum lumina caeli parturiens geminis ornaret fetibus orbem. implorat Paeana suum conterrita Delos 125 auxiliumque rogat: “si te gratissima fudit * * * * * Page 289 is this ice that creeps o’er all my limbs? What is this numbness that holds me prisoner in these marble fetters?” Scarce had he uttered these few words when he was what he feared, and savage Damastor, seeking a weapon wherewith to repel the foe, hurled at them in place of a rock his brother’s stony corpse. Then Echion, marvelling, all ignorant, at his brother’s death, even as he seeks to assail the author of the deed, turned his gaze upon thee, goddess, whom alone no man may see twice. Beaten audacity well deserved its punishment and in death he learned to know the goddess. But Palleneus, mad with anger, turning his eyes aside, rushed at Minerva, striking at her with undirected sword. Nigh at hand the goddess smote him with her sword, and at the same time the snakes froze at the Gorgon’s glance, so that of one body a part was killed by a weapon and a part by a mere look.