Such is the wonder of Proserpine’s dress. The Naiads bear her company and on either side crowd around her, those who haunt thy streams, Crinisus, and Pantagia’s rocky torrent and Gela’s who gives his name to the city; those whom Camerina, the unmoved, nurtures in her shallow marshes, whose home is Arethusa’s flood or the stream of Alpheus, her foreign lover; tallest of their company is Cyane. So move they as the beauteous band of Amazons, brandishing their moon-shaped shields what time the maiden warrior Hippolyte, after laying waste the regions of the north, leads home her fair army after battle, whether they have o’erthrown the yellow-haired Getae or cloven frozen Tanais with the axe of their native Thermodon; or as the Lydian Nymphs celebrate the festivals of Bacchus--the Nymphs whose sire was Hermus along whose banks they course, splashed with his golden waters: the river-god rejoices in his cavern home and pours forth the flooding urn with generous hand. Henna, mother of blossoms, had espied the goddess’ company from her grassy summit and thus addressed * * * * * Page 324 compellat Zephyrum: “pater o gratissime veris, qui mea lascivo regnas per prata meatu semper et adsiduis inroras flatibus annum, 75 respice Nympharum coetus et celsa Tonantis germina per nostros dignantia ludere campos. nunc adsis faveasque, precor; nunc omnia fetu pubescant virgulta velis, ut fertilis Hybla invideat vincique suos non abnuat hortos. 80 quidquid turiferis spirat Panchaia silvis, quidquid odoratus longe blanditur Hydaspes, quidquid ab extremis ales longaeva colonis colligit optato repetens exordia leto,[124] in venas disperge meas et flamine largo 85 rura fove. merear divino pollice carpi et nostris cupiant ornari numina sertis.” Dixerat; ille novo madidantes nectare pennas concutit et glaebas fecundo rore maritat, quaque volat vernus sequitur rubor; omnis in herbas turget humus medioque patent convexa sereno. 91 sanguineo splendore rosas, vaccinia nigro imbuit et dulci violas ferrugine pingit. Parthica quae tantis variantur cingula gemmis regales vinctura sinus? quae vellera tantum 95 ditibus Assyrii spumis fucantur aëni? non tales volucer pandit Iunonius alas, nec sic innumeros arcu mutante colores incipiens redimitur hiems, cum tramite flexo semita discretis interviret umida nimbis. 100 Forma loci superat flores: curvata tumore parvo planities et mollibus edita clivis creverat in collem; vivo de pumice fontes [124] _leto_ Heinsius; Birt _saeclo_ (FDWB1V1). * * * * * Page 325