Soon as the secret to the king was known, He grudged the glory of the service done, And wickedly resolved to make it all his own. To hide his purpose, he invites his guest, The friend of Ceres, to a royal feast, And when sweet sleep his heavy eves had seized. The tyrant with his steel attempts his breast: Him straight a lynx’s shape the goddess gives, And home the youth her sacred dragons drives.
The Muses are unanimously pronounced victorious, and the daughters of Pierus are punished for their presumption by their transformation into magpies.