HEC. Shall in a bark convey me to the shores
Of Greece?
POLYM. Shall whelm you in its vast abyss
Fall’n from the shrouds.
HEC. Raised thither by what impulse?
POLYM. Up the tall mast you with swift foot shall climb.
HEC. On feathered pinions borne, or how?
POLYM. With form
Canine endued, and eyeballs glaring fire.
HEC. Whence didst thou learn that I such wondrous change
Shall undergo?
POLYM. Bacchus, the Thracian seer,
Gave this response.
HEC. To thee did he unfold
Nought of the grievous sufferings thou endur’st?
POLYM. Then could you ne’er have caught me by your wiles.
HEC. But on this change of being, after death,
Or while I yet am living, shall I enter?