Venus bids them gather flowers. “Come, sisters, while yet the morning sun shines through the moist air, and while Lucifer, my harbinger of dawn, yet drives his dewy steeds and waters the flower-bright field.” So spake she and gathered the flower that testifies to her own woe.[126] Her companions ranged the various vales. You could have believed a swarm of bees was on the wing, eager to gather its sweetness from Hyblaean thyme, where the king bees lead out their wax-housed armies and the honey-bearing host, issuing from the beech-tree’s hollow bole, buzzes around its favourite flowers. The meadows are despoiled of their glory; this goddess weaves lilies with dark violets, another decks herself with pliant marjoram, a third steps forth rose-crowned, another wreathed with white privet. Thee also, Hyacinthus, [126] Traditionally said to be the anemone, which is supposed to have sprung up red from the spot where Adonis was killed by the boar. * * * * * Page 328 Narcissumque metunt, nunc inclita germina veris, praestantes olim pueros: tu natus Amyclis, hunc Helicon genuit; disci te perculit error, hunc fontis decepit amor; te fronte retusa 135 Delius, hunc fracta Cephisus harundine luget. Aestuat ante alias avido fervore legendi frugiferae spes una deae: nunc vimine texto ridentes calathos spoliis agrestibus implet; nunc sociat flores seseque ignara coronat, 140 augurium fatale tori. quin ipsa tubarum armorumque potens dextram, qua fortia turbat agmina, qua stabiles portas et moenia vellit, iam levibus laxat studiis hastamque reponit insuetisque docet galeam mitescere sertis; 145 ferratus lascivit apex horrorque recessit Martius et cristae pacato fulgure vernant. nec, quae Parthenium canibus scrutatur odorem, aspernata choros libertatemque comarum iniecta voluit tantum frenare corona. 150 Talia virgineo passim dum more geruntur, ecce repens mugire fragor, confligere turres pronaque vibratis radicibus oppida verti. causa latet; dubios agnovit sola tumultus diva Paphi mixtoque metu perterrita gaudet. 155 iamque per anfractus animarum rector opacos sub terris quaerebat iter gravibusque gementem * * * * * Page 329 they gather, thy flower inscribed with woe, and Narcissus too--once lovely boys, now the pride of flowering spring. Thou, Hyacinthus, wert born at Amyclae, Narcissus was Helicon’s child; thee the errant discus slew; him the amorous water-nymphs beguiled; for thee weeps Delos’ god with sorrow-weighted brow; for him Cephisus with his broken reeds.