Page:Metamorphoses.djvu/485

 METAMORPHOSES BOOK VIII and is not filled with his waters, but swallows up the streams that come to it from afar; and as the all- devouring fire never refuses fuel, but burns countless logs, seeks ever more as more is given it, and is more greedy by reason of the quantity: so do the lips ofimpious Erysichthon receive all those banquets, and ask for more. All food in him is but the cause of food, and ever does he become empty by eating " And now famine and his belly's deep abyss had exhausted his ancestral stores; but even then ravenous Famine remained unexhausted and his raging greed was still unappeased. At last, when all his fortunes had been swallowed up, there re- mained only his daughter, worthy of a better father. Penniless, he sold even her. The high-spirited girl refused a master, and stretching out her hands ovei the neighbouring waves, she cried: Save me from slavery, O thou who hast already stolen my virginity.' This Neptune had taken; he did not refuse her prayer; and though her master following her had seen her but now, the god changed her form, gave her the features of a man and garments proper to a fisherman. Her master, looking at this person, said: ' Ho, you who conceal the dangling hook in a little bait, you that handle the rod; so may the sea be calm, so be the fish trustful in the wave for you catching, and feel no hook until you strike: where is she, tell me, who but now stood on this shore with mean garments and disordered hair, for I saw her standing upon the shore, and her tracks go no farther' She perceived by this that the god's gift was working well, and, delighted that one asked her of herself, answered his question in these words: Whoever you are, excuse me, sir; 1 have not taken my eyes from this pool to look in any direction. I 465