History of Monsters 187

mercury, in order to trick him, stole the cattle Phoebus was guarding while they were wandering far off and hid them in a forest. However, a certain Battus, a keeper of mares, witnessed the whole theft. To ensure he would not reveal it, Mercury gave him a beautiful heifer as a gift. Later, wanting to test Battus’s loyalty, Mercury disguised himself in a different form, approached him, and promised a great reward if he would indicate where those cattle were located. Led by greed for profit, Battus very willingly showed him. Provoked by this deceit, Mercury transformed him into a touchstone, as Ovid sings:

Departing from there, Mercury flew through the air and, among the Athenian maidens celebrating the sacred rites of Minerva, he spotted Herse, the daughter of Cecrops, who was striking in her elegant beauty. He desired her and asked her sister Aglauros to assist him in this love affair. She promised him her help once a payment of silver had been agreed upon. Minerva, however, moved to great anger by the girl’s avarice, incited Envy against her. Tortured by this, when Aglauros failed to offer help to Mercury, he transformed her into stone.

Leaving there as well, Mercury traveled to Phoenicia at his father's command to drive the herds of that region toward the shore. Meanwhile, Jupiter, assuming the form of a bull, began to wander among the other cattle. Europa, the daughter of King Agenor, climbed onto his back, and he carried her away to Crete, for Jupiter was possessed by an excessive love for her. The poet explains this metamorphosis thus:

In the third book of the *Metamorphoses*, it is explained how Agenor, having lost his daughter Europa, commanded her brother Cadmus to search for her most diligently, forbidding him from returning home unless she was found. Consulting an oracle, Cadmus received a response telling him to follow the tracks of the first cow he encountered and to found the city of Boeotia wherever she came to rest. While laying out the city in obedience to the deity, Cadmus sent his companions to draw water from a nearby spring. When they did not return, Cadmus, suspecting some evil, went there and found them all slain by a massive dragon. He then killed the beast and, at Minerva's command, sowed the creature's teeth. From these, a troop of armed men was born, who, falling into a domestic struggle among themselves, all perished except for five companions. The metamorphosis is read as follows:

In the newly built city, many descendants born to Cadmus grew up, one of whom—Actaeon, son of Aristaeus—brought him the greatest sorrow. While exhausted from hunting, he came upon a spring where Diana was bathing naked with her companions; he was immediately transformed by the goddess into a stag and then torn to pieces by his own dogs. This is expressed by the poet:

But elsewhere it is more accurately sung of Actaeon:

Juno took incredible pleasure in Actaeon’s misfortune, as she always pursued Agenor’s family with heavy hatred—not only because Jupiter had been with Europa, but also because