Ocyrrhoe Transformed to a Mare

The god dissolves in pity at her death; He hates the bird that made her falsehood known, And hates himself for what himself had done; The feather’d shaft that sent her to the Fates, And his own hand that sent the shaft, he hates. Fain would he heal the wound and ease her pain, And tries the compass of his art in vain. Soon as he saw the lovely nymph expire, The pile made ready, and the kindling fire, With sighs and groans her obsequies he kept, And, if a god could weep, the god had wept. Her corpse he kiss’d, and heavenly incense brought, And solemnized the death himself had wrought.

But lest his offspring should her fate partake, Spite of the immortal mixture in his make, He ripp’d her womb and set the child at large, And gave him to the centaur Chiron’s charge; Then in his fury black’d the raven o’er, And bade him prate in his white plumes no more.

Ocyrrhoe, the daughter of Chiron, is transformed into a mare, for abusing her gift of prophecy.

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