gurians._--Ver. 370. These were a people
situate on the eastern side of Etruria, between the rivers Var and
Macra. The Grecian writers were in the habit of styling the whole
of the north of Italy Liguria.]

EXPLANATION.

Plutarch places the tomb of Phaeton on the banks of the river Po; and
it is not improbable that his mother and sisters, grieving at his
fate, ended their lives in the neighborhood of his tomb, being
overcome with grief, which gave rise to the story that they were
changed into the poplars on its banks, which distilled amber. Some
writers say, that they were changed into larch trees, and not poplars.
Hesiod and Pindar also make mention of this tradition. Possibly,
Cycnus, being a friend of Phaeton, may have died from grief at his
loss, on which the poets graced his attachment with the story that he
was changed into a swan. Apollodorus mentions two other persons of the
name of Cycnus. One was the son of Mars, and was killed before Troy;
the other, as Hesiod tells us, was killed by Hercules. Lucian, in his
satirical vein, tells us, that inquiring on the banks of the Po for
the swans, and the poplars distilling amber, he was told that no such
things had ever been seen there; and that even the tradition of
Phaeton and his sisters was utterly unknown to the inhabitants of
those parts.

FABLE V. [II.401-465]

Jupiter, while taking a survey of the world, to extinguish the remains
of the fire, falls in love with Calisto, whom he sees in Arcadia; and,
in order to seduce that Nymph, he assumes the form of Diana. Her
sister Nymphs disclose her misfortune before the Goddess, who drives
her from her company, on account of the violation of her vow of
chastity.

But the omnipotent father surveys the vast walls of heaven, and
carefully searches, that no part, impaired by the violence of the fire,
may fall to ruin. After he has seen them to be secure and in their own
{full} strength, he examines the earth, and the works of man; yet a care
for his own Arcadia is more particularly his object. He restores, too,
the springs and the rivers, that had not yet dared to flow, he gives
grass to the earth: green leaves to the trees; and orders the injured
forests again to be green. While {thus} he often went to and fro, he
stopped short on {seeing} a virgin of Nonacris, and the fires engendered
within his bones received {fresh} heat. It was not her employment to
so