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 METAMORPIHOSES BOOK III the gods, took sides with Jove. Saturnia, they say, grieved more deeply than she should and tan the issue warranted, and condemned the arbitrator to perpetual blindness. But the Almighty Father (for no god may undo what another god has done) in return for his loss of sight gave Tiresias the power to know the future, lightening the penalty by the honour. He, famed far and near through all the Boeotian towns, gave answers that none could censure to those who sought his aid. The first to make trial of his truth and assured utterances was the nymph, Liriope, whom once the river-god, Cephisus, embraced in his winding stream and ravished, while imprisoned in his waters. WVhen her time came the beauteous nymph brought forth a child, whom a nymph might love even as a child, and named him Narcissus When asked whether this child would live to reach well-ripened age, the seer replied: "If he ne'erknow himself."Long did the saying of the prophet seem but empty words. But what befell proved its truth- the event, the manner of his death, the strangeness of his infatuation. For Narcissus had reached his sixteenth year and might seem either boy or man. Many youths and many maidens sought his love; but in that slender form was pride so cold that no youth, no maiden touched his heart. Once as he was driving the frightened deer into his nets, a certain nymph of strange speech beheld him, resoundng Echo, who could neither hold her peace when others spoke, nor yet begia to speak till others had addressed her. Up to this time Echo had form and was not a voice alone; and yet, though talkative, she had no other use of speech than now-only the power out of many words to repeat the last she heard. Juno had made her thus; for often when she might have 149