Still Alcithoë and her sisters, neglecting the rites, attend to their
spinning, during the festivities, and pass the time in telling stories;
and, among others, that of Pyramus and Thisbe, by whose blood the
mulberry is turned from white to black, and that of the discovery of the
intrigues of Mars and Venus, on the information of the Sun. They also
tell how the Sun assumed the form of Eurynome, that he might enjoy her
daughter Leucothoë; how Clytie, becoming jealous of her sister, was
transformed into a sun-flower; and how Salmacis and Hermaphroditus had
become united into one body. After this, through the agency of Bacchus,
the sisters are transformed into bats, and their webs are changed into
vines. Ino rejoicing at this, Juno, in her hatred and indignation, sends
one of the Furies to her, who causes her to be struck with insanity, on
which she leaps into the sea, with her son Melicerta in her arms; but by
the intercession of Venus, they become sea Deities, and their Sidonian
attendants, who are bewailing them as dead, are changed into rocks.
Cadmus, afflicted at this fresh calamity, retires from Thebes, and flies
to Illyria, together with his wife, where they are both transformed into
serpents. Of those who despise Bacchus, Acrisius alone remains, the
grandfather of Perseus, who, having cut off the head of the Gorgon
Medusa, serpents are produced by her blood. Perseus turns Atlas into a
mountain, and having liberated Andromeda, he changes sea-weed into
coral, and afterwards marries her.