‘Oh! whither, Arethusa, dost thou run?’ Naked I flew, nor could I stay to hide My limbs; my robe was on the other side: Alpheus follow’d fast; the inflaming sight Quicken’d his speed, and made his labour light: He sees me ready for his eager arms, And with a greedy glance devours my charms. As trembling doves from pressing danger fly, When the fierce hawk comes sousing from the sky, And as fierce hawks the trembling doves pursue, From him I fled, and after me he few. First by Orchomenus I took my flight, And soon had Psophis and Cyllene in sight; Behind me then high Maenalus I lost, And craggy Erimanthus, scaled with frost; Elis was next: thus far the ground I trod, With nimble feet, before the distanced god: But here I lagg’d, unable to sustain The labour longer, and my flight maintain; While he, more strong, more patient of the toil, And fired with hopes of beauty’s speedy spoil, Gain’d my lost ground, and, by redoubled pace, Now left between us but a narrow space. Unwearied I till now o’er hills and plains,

O’er rocks and rivers, ran, and felt no pains; The sun behind me and the god I kept; But when I fastest should have run, I stepp’d. Before my feet his shadow now appear’d; As what I saw, or rather what I fear’d: Yet there I could not be deceived by fear, Who felt his breath pant on my braided hair, And heard his sounding tread, and knew him to be near. Tired and despairing, ‘O celestial maid, I’m caught,’ I cried, ‘without thy heavenly aid; Help me, Diana, help a nymph forlorn, Devoted to the woods, who long has worn Thy livery, and long thy quiver borne.’ The goddess heard; my pious prayer prevail’d; In muffling clouds my virgin head was veil’d. The am’rous god, deluded of his hopes, Searches the gloom, and through the darkness gropes: Twice where Diana did her servant hide He came, and twice, ‘O Arethusa!’ cried. How shaken was my soul, how sunk my heart! The terror seized on every trembling part. Thus when the wolf about the mountain prowls For prey, the lambkin hears his horrid howls: The tim’rous hare, the pack approaching nigh

Thus hearkens to the hounds, and trembles at the cry; Nor dares she stir, for fear her scented breath Direct the dogs, and guide the threaten’d death. Alpheus in the cloud no traces found To mark my way, yet stays to guard the ground. The god so near, a chilly sweat possess’d My fainting limbs, at every pore express’d; My strength distill’d in drops, my hair in dew; My form was changed, and all my substance new: Each motion was a stream, and my whole frame Turn’d to a fount, which still preserves my name. Resolved I should not his embrace escape, Again the god resumes his fluid shape; To mix his streams with mine he fondly tries, But still Diana his attempt denies: She cleaves the ground; through caverns dark I run A different current, while he keeps his own; To dear Ortygia she conducts my way, And here I first review the welcome day.”

Here Arethusa stopp’d; then Ceres takes Her golden car, and yokes her fiery snakes; With a rein, along mid-heaven she flies, O’er earth and seas, and cuts the yielding skies: She halls at Athens, dropping like a star, And to Triptolemus resigns her car. Parent of seed, she gave him fruitful grain, And bade him teach to till and plough the plain; The seed to sow, as well in fallow fields, As where the soil manured a richer harvest yields.