ng cut off the head of the Gorgon
Medusa, serpents are produced by her blood. Perseus turns Atlas into a
mountain, and having liberated Andromeda, he changes sea-weed into
coral, and afterwards marries her.

BOOK V.

A tumult arising during the celebration of the nuptials, Phineus claims
Andromeda, who has been betrothed to him; and together with Proetus, he
and Polydectes are turned into stone. Pallas, who has aided Perseus, now
leaves him, and goes to Helicon, to see the fountain of Hippocrene. The
Muses tell her the story of Pyreneus and the Pierides, who were
transformed into magpies after they had repeated various songs on the
subjects of the transformation of the Deities into various forms of
animals; the rape of Proserpine, the wanderings of Ceres, the change of
Cyane into a fountain, of a boy into a lizard, of Ascalaphus into an
owl, of the Sirens into birds in part, of Arethusa into a spring, of
Lyncus into a lynx, and of the invention of agriculture by Triptolemus.

BOOK VI.

Influenced by the example of the Muses, Pallas determines on the
destruction of Arachne. She enters with her into a contest for the
superiority in the art of weaving. Each represents various
transformations on her web, and then Arachne is changed into a spider.
Niobe, however, is not deterred thereby from preferring her own lot to
that of Latona; on account of which, all her children are slain by
Apollo and Diana, and she is changed into a rock. On learning this,
while one person relates the transformation by Latona of the Lycian
rustics into frogs, another calls to mind how Marsyas was flayed by
Apollo. Niobe is lamented by Pelops, whose shoulder is of ivory. To
console the Thebans in their afflictions, ambassadors come from the
adjacent cities. The Athenians alone are absent, as they are attacked by
hordes of barbarians, who are routed by Tereus, who marries Progne, the
daughter of Pandion. Tereus coming a second time to Athens, takes back
with him to his kingdom Philomela, his wife's sister; and having
committed violence on her, with other enormities, he is transformed into
a hoopoe, while Philomela is changed into a nightingale, and Progne
becomes a swallow. Pandion, hearing of these wondrous events dies of
grief. Erectheus succeeds him, whose daughter, Orithyia, is ravished by
Boreas, and by him is the mother of Calais and Zethes, who are of the
number of the Argonauts on the following occasion.

BOOK VII.

Jason, by th