“Stay, silly bird, the illnatured task refuse; Nor be the bearer of unwelcome news. Be warn’d by my example. You discern What now I am, and what I was shall learn. My foolish honesty was all my crime: Then hear my story. Once upon a time, The two-shaped Ericthonius had his birth (Without a mother) from the teeming earth: Minerva nursed him, and the infant laid Within a chest of twining osiers made. The daughters of King Cecrops undertook To guard the chest, commanded not to look On what was hid within. I stood to see The charge obey’d, perch’d on a neighbouring tree, The sisters, Pandrosos and Herse, keep The strict command; Aglauros needs would peep, And saw the monstrous infant, in a fright, And call’d her sisters to the hideous sight. A boy’s soft shape did to the waist prevail; But the boy ended in a dragon’s tail. I told the stern Minerva all that pass’d; But for my pains discarded and disgraced. The frowning goddess drove me from her sight, And for her fav’rite chose the bird of night.