Then the bodies of poor fellows swollen in their watery death were buried in the waters. Heaps of corpses were floating one upon another carried along by the rolling currents ; there fell the lion, there fell the boar into the roaring torrent, with open throat gulping draughts of the cascades that poured from rocks and mountains, With mingling streams, lakes and rivers, torrents of rain, waters of the sea were all combined together, and the four winds united their blasts in one, to flog the universal inundation.
Earthshaker saw from the deep the earth all flooded, while Zeus alone with stronger push made it quake under his threatening torrents: he threw away his prongs, wondering in his anger what earth now he could heave with a trident. Nereids in battalions swam over the flooding waves; Thetis travelled over the water riding on the green hip of a Triton with broad beard; Agaue on a fish’s back drove her pilot-fish in the open air, and an exile dolphin with the water swirling round his neck lifted Doris and carried her along. A whale of the deep sea leaped about the hills and sought the cave of the earth-bedded Lioness. Then Pan well soaked saw Galateia swimming under a neighbouring wave-beaten rock, and sang out :
Where are you going, Galateia Have you given up sea for hills? Perhaps you are looking for the love-song of Cyclops I pray you by the Paphian, and by your Polyphemos—you know the weight of desire, do not hide from me if you have ‘noticed my mountainranging Echo swimming by the rocks Does she course through the wet like you? Does she also sit on a dolphin of Aphrodite the sea-goddess, my own Echo navigating like Thetis unveiled ? I fear the dangerous waves of the deep may have startled her! I fear the great flood may have covered her! How cruel for her, poor thing! She has left the hills and moves restless over the waves. Echo once the maid of the rocks will show herself as the maid of the waters. Come, leave your Polyphemos, the laggard! If you like, I will lift you upon my own back and save you. The roaring flood does not overwhelm me; if I like I can mount to the starry sky on my goatish feet !
He spoke, and Galateia said in reply :
My dear Pan, carry your own Echo through the waves—she knows nothing of the sea. Don’t waste your time in asking me why I am going here this day. I have another and higher voyage which Rainy Zeus has found me. Let be the song of Cyclops, though it is sweet. I seek no more the Sicilian sea ; I am terrified at this tremendous flood, and I care nothing for Polyphemos.
With these words, she passed away from the lair of waterfaring Pan.
As the irresistible torrent swelled on and on, ’ every city, every nation was a flood ; not one corner was undrenched, not one hill was then bare—not the peak of Osa, not the top of Pelion. Under the three peaks roared the Tyrrhenian Sea; the Adriatic rocks rebounded with Sicilian waters in showers of foam from the flogging sea The sparkling rays of Phaethon in his airy course became soft and womanish in the torrents. Selene in her seventh zone over the low rim of the earth cooled her light in the mounting waves, and checked her cattle with drenched and soaking necks, The rainwater mixed with the starry battalions, and made the Milky Way whiter with foam.
The Nile, pouring his lifegiving stream through his seven mouths, went astray and met love-sick Alpheios. His wish was to creep through the fruitful soil, and delight his thirsty bride with watery kisses ; but the other had lost the familiar road of his old-time hunt, and rolled along in sorrow, until seeing Pyramos the lover moving by his side he cried out Nile, what am I to do? Arethusa is hidden ! Pyramon, why this haste? You have left your companion
Thisbe—to whom ? Happy Euphrates! He not felt the sting of love. Jealousy and fear meet together, Perhaps Cronos’s watery son slept with lovely Arethusa! I fear he may have wooed your Thisbe in his flowings! Pyramos is a consolation for Alpheios. The rain of Zeus has not stirred us so much as the arrow of the Foamborn. Follow me the lover, I will seek the tracks of Syracusan Arethusa, and do you, Pyramos, hunt for Thisbe. […] you will say the earth quakes, the sky attacks us, the son compels us, the unnavigable upper air itself swells in a foaming flood I care not for the wild deluge. See what a great miracle! The blazing earth, the flaming sea, the rivers—all have been swept clean by the downpour of Zeus, only one trifle it has not quenched, the Paphian fire of Alpheios However, if the great flood confounds me, if I suffer from fire, there is one small medicine for my pain, that tender Adonis wandering too and vexing Aphrodite.”
His tale was not yet ended, when fear conquered his voice. Then also Deucalion passed over the mounting flood, to far out of reach on a sky-traversing […] the course of his ark self-guided self-moving, without sheet and without harbour, scored the stormy waters,
Then the whole frame of the universe would Have been unframed, then all-breeding Time would have dissolved the whole structure of the unknown generations of mankind : but by the divine ordination of Zeus, Poseidon Seabluehair with earth-splitting trident split the midmost peak of the Thessalian mountain, and and cleft through it by which the water ran sparkling down. Earth shook off the stormy flood which travelled so high, and showed herself risen again: the streams were driven into the deep hollows and the cliffs were laid bare. The sun posted his thirsty rays on the wet face of earth, : and dried it; the water grew thick under the hotter beams, and the mud was dried again as before. Cities were fashioned by men with better skill and established upon stone foundations, palaces were built, and the streets of the new-founded cities were made strong for later generations of men. Nature laughed once more the air once more was paddled by the wings of birds that flew in the winds.
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