Pleased Neptune nodded his assent, and free Both soon became from frail mortality. He gave them form, and majesty divine, And bade them glide along the foamy brine. For Melicerta is Palaemon known, And Ino once, Leucothoe is grown.
The companions of Ino, lamenting the fate of their unhappy mistress, excite the displeasure of Juno, who transforms them into stones and birds.
The Theban matrons their loved queen pursued, And tracing to the rock, her footsteps view’d. Too certain of her fate, they rend the skies With piteous shrieks, and lamentable cries; All beat their breasts, and Juno all upbraid, Who still remember’d a deluded maid, Who, still revengeful for one stolen embrace, Thus wreak’d her hate on the Cadmean race. This Juno heard: “And shall such elfs,” she cried “Dispute my justice, or my power deride? You too shall feel my wrath not idly spent; A goddess never for insults was meant.”