190 Ulisse Aldrovandi

into Eurynome, her mother.

"While the four-legged steeds graze on celestial fodder, the God soon takes his turn; he enters the beloved chambers disguised as her mother, Eurynome."

However, because Clytie—who was also madly in love with Phoebus Apollo—was driven by a certain jealousy, she informed Orchamus, Leucothoe’s father, that his daughter had been defiled by the Sun. Moved by a towering rage, the father buried her while she was still alive. Pitying his ill-fated lover, the Sun transformed her into a frankincense tree, a metamorphosis described as follows:

"A branch of frankincense slowly rose through the soil as its roots took hold, and its tip broke through the burial mound."

The nymph Clytie herself took it hard that Leucothoe had been preferred over her in love. Even though she pursued the Sun with the greatest affection, she was overcome by such immense sorrow that she passed nine days without any food. Finally, through the kindness of the Gods, she was changed into the heliotrope herb. Mindful of its former love, this plant still follows the Sun from its rising to its setting, its head inclined toward the light.

"Though held fast by its root, it still turns toward the Sun, and even in its changed form, it preserves its love."

After this tale was finished, Alcithoe was called upon to present a fable of her own. Starting with a cheerful spirit, she said, "I will not recount how Daphnis, the son of Mercury and a shepherd of Ida, was turned to stone by his wife Thalia out of fear of a rival. Nor shall I speak of Scython, who, by a law of nature overturned, was at one time a man and at another a woman. I will also pass over the fates of Celmis, Adamas, and the Curetes, who are said to have been born from rain showers, nor will I discuss the youth Crocus and the maiden Smilax, who took the form of small flowers."

"I skip the common loves of the Idaean shepherd Daphnis, whom a nymph’s jealous rage turned to stone. Nor shall I tell how Scython, once subject to a new law of nature, was at one time a man and at another a woman. I pass over you as well, Celmis, once most faithful to the young Jupiter; and the Curetes, born from a heavy rain; and Crocus, changed with Smilax into tiny flowers."

"Instead," she said, "I will tell how Hermaphroditus, the son of Mercury and Venus, was once raised by the Naiad nymphs on Mount Ida. Leaving his home, he came to a spring in Caria, where the nymph Salmacis happened to live. Seeing him enter the spring naked, the nymph was seized by such an immoderate passion that she embraced the youth and could not be torn away from him. From then on, the two represented a single body, joined in both sexes." This is explained as follows:

"She pressed against him, her whole body draped over his. 'You may fight, you wicked boy,' she said, 'but you shall not escape. May the Gods decree that no day shall ever take him from me, nor me from him.' Her prayers reached their Gods; for their two bodies were mixed and joined together, and they took on a single appearance..."

Regarding this transformation, Ausonius wrote an elegant epigram which I believe should not be passed over in silence. It goes as follows:

"Salmacis has merged with her longed-for husband—a happy maiden, if she knows a man is within her; and you, handsome youth, mingled with a beautiful girl, are doubly happy, if two are allowed to be one."

Once these fables were told and the Theban sisters fell silent, they were suddenly terrified by the power of Bacchus and the sound of flutes. As night approached, they turned into the form of bats, as is read in these verses: