bloody drops fall from the flower, and
the boughs shake with a tremulous quivering; for, as the swains say,
now, at length, too late {in their information}, the Nymph Lotis, flying
from the lust of Priapus,[37] had transferred her changed form into this
{plant}, her name being {still} preserved.

"Of this my sister was ignorant. When, in her alarm, she is endeavouring
to retire and to depart, having adored the Nymphs, her feet are held
fast by a root. She strives hard to tear them up, but she moves nothing
except her upper parts. From below, a bark slowly grows up, and, by
degrees, it envelopes the whole of her groin. When she sees this,
endeavouring to tear her hair with her hands, she fills her hand with
leaves, {for} leaves are covering all her head. But the boy Amphissos
(for his grandfather Eurytus gave him this name) feels his mother's
breast growing hard; nor does the milky stream follow upon his sucking.
I was a spectator of thy cruel destiny, and I could give thee no help,
my sister; and {yet}, as long as I could, I delayed the growing trunk
and branches by embracing them; and, I confess it, I was desirous to be
hidden beneath the same bark. Behold! her husband Andraemon and her most
wretched father[38] appear, and inquire for Dryope: on their inquiring
for Dryope, I show them the lotus. They give kisses to the wood {still}
warm {with life}, and, extended {on the ground}, they cling to the roots
of their own tree. {And} now, dear sister, thou hadst nothing except thy
face, that was not tree. Tears drop upon the leaves made out of thy
changed body; and, while she can, and {while} her mouth gives passage to
her voice, she pours forth such complaints {as these} into the air:--

"'If any credit {is to be given} to the wretched, I swear by the Deities
that I merited not this cruel usage. I suffer punishment without a
crime. I lived in innocence; if I am speaking false, withered away, may
I lose the leaves which I bear, and, cut down with axes, may I be burnt.
Yet take this infant away from the branches of his mother, and give him
to his nurse; and often, beneath my tree, make him drink milk, and
beneath my tree let him play; and, when he shall be able to speak, make
him salute his mother, and let him in sadness say, 'Beneath this trunk
is my mother concealed.' Yet let him dread the ponds, and let him not
pluck flowers from the trees; and let him think that all shrubs are the
bodies of Goddesses. Farewell, dear husb