And on his belly prone he press’d the ground; He glitter’d soon with many a golden scale, And his shrunk legs closed in a spiry tail; Arms yet remain’d, remaining arms he spread To his loved wife, and human tears yet shed. “Come, my Harmonia, come, thy face recline Down to my face; still touch what still is mine. O! let these hands, while hands, be gently press’d, While yet the serpent has not all possess’d.” More he had spoke, but strove to speak in vain, The forky tongue refused to tell his pain, And learn’d in hissings only to complain.

Then shriek’d Harmonia: “Stay, my Cadmus, stay, Glide not in such a monstrous shape away! Destruction, like impetuous waves, rolls on. Where are thy feet, thy legs, thy shoulders, gone? Changed is thy visage, changed is all thy frame, Cadmus is only Cadmus now in name. Ye gods, my Cadmus to himself restore, Or me like him transform; I ask no more.”