ith her hair
disordered by the infernal murder, and throws the bloody head of Itys in
the face of his father; nor at any time has she more longed to be able
to speak, and to testify her joy by words such as are deserved.

The Thracian pushes from him the table with a loud cry, and summons the
Viperous sisters[70] from the Stygian valley; and at one moment he
desires, if he {only} can, by opening his breast to discharge thence the
horrid repast, and the half-digested entrails. And then he weeps, and
pronounces himself the wretched sepulchre of his own son; and then he
follows the daughters of Pandion with his drawn sword. You would have
thought the bodies of the Cecropian[71] Nymphs were supported by wings;
{and} they were supported by wings. The one of them makes for the woods,
the other takes her place beneath the roofs {of houses}. Nor {even} as
yet have the marks of murder withdrawn from her breast; and her feathers
are {still} stained with blood. He, made swift by his grief, and his
desire for revenge, is turned into a bird, upon whose head stands a
crested {plume}; a prolonged bill projects in place of the long spear.
The name of the bird is 'epops' [{lapwing}]; its face appears to be
armed. This affliction dispatched Pandion to the shades of Tartarus
before his day, and the late period of protracted old age.

[Footnote 63: _Now the time._--Ver. 587. This was the festival of
Bacchus, before mentioned as being celebrated every three years,
in memory of his Indian expedition.]

[Footnote 64: _Sithonian._--Ver. 588. Sithonia was a region of
Thrace, which lay between Mount Haemus and the Euxine sea. The
word, however, is often used to signify the whole of Thrace.]

[Footnote 65: _Skins of a deer._--Ver. 593. These were the
'nebrides,' or skins of fawns and deer, which the Bacchanals wore
when celebrating the orgies. The lance mentioned here was, no
doubt, the thyrsus.]

[Footnote 66: _That accursed house._--Ver. 601. Clarke translates
this line, 'As soon as Philomela perceived she had got into the
wicked rogue's house.']

[Footnote 67: _Symbols of the rites._--Ver. 603. These were the
ivy, the deer-skins, and the thyrsus.]

[Footnote 68: _Progne strikes._--Ver. 641. 'Ense ferit Progne' is
translated by Clarke, 'Progne strikes with the sword poor Itys.']

[Footnote 69: _Part of them boils._--Ver. 645-6. Clarke gives this
comical transla