The Nymphs fly in all directions; Proserpine is hurried away in the chariot, imploring aid of the goddesses. Now Pallas unveils the Gorgon’s head, Diana strings her bow and hastes to help. Neither yields to her uncle’s violence; a common virginity compels them to fight and enrages them at the crime of the fierce ravisher. Pluto is like a lion when he has seized upon a heifer, the pride of the stall and the herd, and has torn with his claws the defenceless flesh and has sated his fury on all its limbs, and so stands all befouled with clotted blood and shakes his tangled mane and scorns the shepherds’ feeble rage. “Lord of the strengthless dead,” cries Pallas, * * * * * Page 334 Pallas ait “quae te stimulis facibusque profanis 215 Eumenides movere? tua cur sede relicta audes Tartareis caelum incestare quadrigis? sunt tibi deformes Dirae, sunt altera Lethes numina, sunt tristes Furiae, te coniuge dignae. fratris linque domos, alienam desere sortem; 220 nocte tua contentus abi. quid viva sepultis admisces? nostrum quid proteris advena mundum?” Talia vociferans avidos transire minaci cornipedes umbone ferit clipeique retardat obice Gorgoneisque premens adsibilat hydris 225 praetentaque operit crista; libratur in ictum fraxinus et nigros inluminat obvia currus missaque paene foret, ni Iuppiter aethere summo pacificas rubri torsisset fulminis alas confessus socerum: nimbis hymenaeus hiulcis 230 intonat et testes firmant conubia flammae. Invitae cessere deae. compescuit arcum cum gemitu talesque dedit Latonia voces: “Sis memor o longumque vale. reverentia patris obstitit auxilio, nec nos defendere contra 235 possumus: imperio vinci maiore fatemur. in te coniurat genitor populoque silenti traderis, heu! cupidas non adspectura sorores aequalemque chorum. quae te fortuna supernis abstulit et tanto damnavit sidera luctu? 240 * * * * * Page 335 “wickedest of thy brothers, what Furies have stirred thee with their goads and accursed torches? Why hast thou left thy seat and how darest thou pollute the upper world with thy hellish team? Thou hast the hideous Curses, the other deities of Hell, the dread Furies--any of them would be a worthy spouse for thee. Quit thy brother’s realm, begone from the kingdom allotted to another. Get thee hence; let thine own night suffice thee. Why mix the quick with the dead? Why treadest thou our world, an unwelcome visitant?”