while the boy that wears the quiver is giving kisses to his mother, he
unconsciously grazes her breast with a protruding arrow. The Goddess,
wounded, pushed away her son with her hand. The wound was inflicted more
deeply than it seemed to be, and at first had deceived {even} herself.
Charmed with the beauty of the youth, she does not now care for the
Cytherian shores, nor does she revisit Paphos, surrounded with the deep
sea, and Cnidos,[53] abounding in fish, or Amathus, rich in metals.

"She abandons even the skies; him she {ever} attends; and she who has
been always accustomed to indulge in the shade, and to improve her
beauty, by taking care of it, wanders over the tops of mountains,
through the woods, and over bushy rocks, bare to the knee and with her
robes tucked up after the manner of Diana, and she cheers on the dogs,
and hunts animals that are harmless prey, either the fleet hares, or the
stag with its lofty horns, or the hinds; she keeps afar from the fierce
boars, and avoids the ravening wolves, and the bears armed with claws,
and the lions glutted with the slaughter of the herds. Thee, too,
Adonis, she counsels to fear them, if she can aught avail by advising
thee. And she says, "Be brave against those {animals} that fly; boldness
is not safe against those that are bold. Forbear, youth, to be rash at
my hazard, and attack not the wild beasts to which nature has granted
arms, lest thy {thirst for} glory should cost me dear. Neither thy age,
nor thy beauty, nor {other} things which have made an impression on
Venus, make any impression on lions and bristly boars, and the eyes and
the tempers of wild beasts. The fierce boars carry lightning[54] in
their curving tusks; there is rage and fury unlimited in the tawny
lions; and the {whole} race is odious to me."

"Upon his asking, what is the reason, she says, 'I will tell thee, and
thou wilt be surprised at the prodigious result of a fault long since
committed. But {this} toil to which I am unaccustomed has now fatigued
me, and see! a convenient poplar invites us, by its shade, and the turf
furnishes a couch. Here I am desirous to repose myself, together with
thee;' and {forthwith} she rests herself on the ground, and presses at
once the grass and himself. And with her neck reclining on the bosom of
the youth, smiling, she thus says, and she mingles kisses in the midst
of her words:--

"Perhaps thou mayst have heard how a certain damsel excelled the
swiftest me