Therefore again and yet again I say That with good reason the Earth has won and keeps The name of Mother, since she of herself Gave birth to humankind, and at a period Well nigh determined shed forth every beast That roams o’er the great mountains far and wide, Likewise the birds of air, many in shape. But because she must have some limit set To her time of bearing, she ceased, like a woman Worn out by lapse of years. For Time transforms The whole world’s nature, and all things must pass From one condition to another: nothing Continues like itself. All is in flux: Nature is ever changing and compelling All that exists to alter. For one thing Moulders and wastes away grown weak with age, And then another comes forth into light, Issuing from obscurity. So thus Time Changes the whole world’s nature, and the Earth Passes from one condition to another: So that what once it bore it can no longer, And now can bear what it did not before. And many monsters too did the Earth essay To produce in those days, creatures arising With marvellous face and limbs, the Hermaphrodite, A thing of neither sex, between the two, Differing from both: some things deprived of feet; Others again with no hands; others dumb Without mouths, or else blind for lack of eyes, Or bound by limbs that everywhere adhered Fast to their bodies, so that they could perform No function, nor go anywhere, nor shun Danger, nor take what their need might require. Many such monstrous prodigies did Earth Produce, in vain, since Nature banned their increase, Nor could they reach the coveted flower of age, Nor find food, nor be joined in bonds of love. For we see numerous conditions first Must meet together, before living things Can beget and perpetuate their kind. First they must have food, then a means by which The seeds of birth may stream throughout the frame From the relaxed limbs; also that the male And female may unite, they must have that Whereby each may exchange mutual joys.