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“O my dear mother, if you weep because
of her who was your servant, now
transformed
into a weasel,physical how can you support
the true
narration of my sister's fate;
which I must tell to you, although my tears
and sorrows hinder and forbid my
speechdespair?
“Most beautiful of all Oechalian maids,
was
Dryope, her mother's only child,
for you
must know I am the daughter of
my father's second wife. She is not now
a maid;
because, through violence of him
who rules at Delphi and at
Delos, she
was taken by Andraemon, who since
then
has been accounted happy in his wife.
“There is a lake surrounded by sweet lawns,
encircling beauties, where the upper slope
is crowned with myrtles in fair sunny
groves.
Without a thought of danger Dryope
in worship one day went to gather flowers,
(who hears, has
greater cause to be indignant)
delightful garlands, for the water-nymphsvirginal,
and, in her bosom, carried her dear son,
not yet
a year old, whom she fed for lovematronly.
Not far from that dream-lake, in
moisture grew
a lotus, beautiful in purple bloom,
the blossoms promising its
fruit was near.
“At play with her sweet infant, Dryope
plucked them as toys for him. I, too, was
there,
eagerly, also, I put forth my hand,
and was just ready to secure a
spray,
when I was startled by some drops of blood
down-falling from the
blossoms which were plucked;
and even the trembling branches shook in
dread.
“Who wills, the truth of this may learn from all
quaint people of that land, who still relate
the Story of Nymph Lotis.
She, they say,
while flying from the
lust of Priapus,
was transformed quickly from her human
shape,
into this tree,physical though she has kept her
name.
“But ignorant of all this, Dryope,
alarmed, decided she must now return;
so, having
first adored the hallowed
nymphsvirginal,
upright she stood, and would have moved away,
but both
her feet were tangled in a root.
There, as she struggled in its tightening
hold,
she could move nothing save her upper parts;
and growing from that root,
live bark began
to gather slowly upward from the ground,
spreading around her,
till it touched her loins:
in terror when she saw the clinging growth,
she
would have torn her hair out by the roots,
but, when she clutched at it, her hands
were filled
with lotus leaves grown up from her changed head.
“Alas, her little son, Amphissos, felt
his mother's bosom harden to his touch,
and
no life-stream refreshed his eager lips.
And while I saw your cruel destiny,
O
my dear sister! and could give no help,
I clung to your loved body and
around
the growing trunk and branches, hoping so
to stop their evil
growth; and I confess,
endeavored there to hide beneath the
bark.despair
“And, oh! Andraemon
and her father, then
appeared to me while they were sadly seeking
for
Dryope: so there I had to show
the lotus as it covered her, and they
gave kisses to the warm wood, and prostrate fell
upon the ground, and clung to
growing roots
of their new darling tree, transformed from
herphysical.—
Dear sister, there was nothing of yourself
remaining but
your face; and I could see
your tears drop slowly on the trembling leaves
which had so marvellously grown on you;
and while your lips remained uncovered,
all
the air surrounding, echoed your complaint:—
“If oaths of
wretched women can have force,
I swear I have not merited this fate!
Though innocent, to suffer punishment!
And if one word of my complaint is
false,
I pray I may soon wither, and my leaves
fall from me as in blight,
and let the axe
devote me, wretched to the flames. But take
this infant
from my branches to a nurse;
and let him often play beneath his tree,—
his
mother always. Let him drink his milk
beneath my shade. When he has learned to
talk
let him salute me, and in sorrow say
“In this tree-trunk my mother is
concealed.”
O, let him dread the fate that lurks in ponds,
and
let him often play beneath his tree,—
and let him be persuaded every shrub
contains the body of a goddess. — Ah!
Farewell my husband,—sister, — and
farewell
my father! If my love remain in you
remember to protect my life
from harm,
so that the pruning-knife may never clip
my branches, and
protect my foliage from
the browsing sheep.
“I cannot stoop to you;
0h, if you love
me, lift your lips to mine,
and let me kiss you, if but once again,
before this growing lotus covers me.
Lift up my darling infant to my
lips.matronly
How can I hope to say much more to
you?
The new bark now is creeping up my neck,
and creeping downward
from my covered brow!
Ah, do not close my live eyes with your hands;
there is no need of it, for growing bark
will spread and darken them before
I diedespair!’
Such were the last words her poor smothered
lips
could utter; for she was so quickly
changed;
and long thereafter the new branches kept
the warmth of her lost
body, so transformedphysical.”