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he sketched on dry land. He squeezed desire into the hearts of mortals like a cluster of grapes, and whoever tastes it is inflamed in his innards, and nourishes a flame and his soul is set ablaze. And he forges the eyes into whole craters of fire, and has opened up rivers of flame along the eyelids. He hurled a dart against the neighboring air, and should any dog approach a simple maiden nearby, it borrows the fire and its flame, and so promises a swift offspring to the lover. Eros shot a sidelong glance at Loxias’ eyes, he saw the familiar sight, and was driven mad by the great beauty of a maiden. Beautiful, then, was the maiden, golden to the sight, delightful in her bloom, simple in her form. And Apollo was beautiful too. And though he was an archer, he wronged another archer, Eros, and yielded to his arrows. The Pythian saw the maiden, felt pain, pursued, hastened, as if, perhaps, to deliver oracles from his tripod most sweetly. A god pursued a human; and a human was the beloved of a god. The prophet god did not know his failure. For Eros had confounded his prophetic skill; he was ignorant of his futile race. For desire, flowing from his inwards, checked the prophetic spring, and blocked up the channels of sight. He threatened her flight even with bonds, many of which he had often forged from the fire of love. The lineage of both was unequal, and their race dissimilar. And in what the maiden was lacking in lineage, in this she excelled in speed. He surpassed the maiden in nature, but she surpassed her lover in speed. Earth saw the violence done to the maiden, and as she was escaping, fleeing, running, and hastening for her virginity, she dug a trench around her flanks, and opened her mouth wide, and having long ago unfolded her from her womb, she received her back again, just as water-roaming fish in the sea often do with their young, and she hid his beloved from the Delian. And for the maiden's virginity, as if for a treasure, Earth was dug open, for she suspected the god to be such a great thief of beauty. And as if with an iron bar, she was levered open by the maiden's unyieldingness towards Eros. But Earth in her place gave back to Apollo a plant of the same name, beautiful in appearance, majestic in flower, golden in beauty, fair of color to the sight, still breathing fear and in its movement by the winds still appearing as a phantom in the light. But it does not receive Apollo even in paint. No longer trust, seers, the laurel crown, no longer believe in the branches of the laurel; if Daphne does not receive Apollo when painted, she surely does not receive him when prophesying.

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ἐπὶ τῆς ξηρᾶς ἐσχεδίασεν. Ἐξέθλιψε καὶ κατὰ καρδίας θνητῶν ὡς βότρυν τὸν ἵμερον, καὶ γεύεταί τις τούτου καὶ πυρπολεῖται σπλάγχνα, καὶ φλόγα τρέφει καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἀνακάεται. Καὶ πυρὸς ὅλους κρατῆρας τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς καινουργεῖ, καὶ κατὰ βλεφάρων φλογὸς ἀνεστόμωσε ῥύακας. Κατὰ τοῦ γείτονος ἀέρος ἠκόντισε, κἂν κύων τις κόρῃ ἐγγὺς ἁπλῇ ξυγγένηται, τοῦ πυρὸς καὶ τὴν φλόγα δανείζεται, καὶ τόκον οὕτω ταχὺν καθυπισχνεῖται τῷ ἐραστῇ. Ἐπελόξευσε καὶ τῷ Λοξίᾳ Ἔρως τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς, ἐπεῖδε τὸ σύνηθες, καὶ κατὰ κόρης πολλῆς τὸ κάλλος ἐξέμηνε. Καλὴ μὲν οὖν ἡ κόρη, χρυσῆ τὴν θέαν, τερπνὴ τὴν ὥραν, ἁπλῆ τὴν ἰδέαν. Καλὸς καὶ ὁ Ἀπόλλων. Καὶ τοξότης ὦν οὗτος ἕτερον τοξότην ἠδίκει τὸν Ἔρωτα καὶ τοῖς αὐτοῦ ὑπέκυψε βέλεσιν. Εἶδε τὴν κόρην ὁ Πύθιος, ἤλγησεν, ἐδίωξεν, ἔσπευσε, τάχα που ὡς ἀπὸ τρίποδος θεσμοφορήσων ὡς ἥδιστα. Θεὸς ἐδίωκεν ἄνθρωπον· καὶ θεοῦ ἦν ἐρώμενος ἄνθρωπος. Οὐκ ᾔδει τὴν ἀποτυχίαν ὁ μάντις θεός. Ἔρως γὰρ αὐτῷ ξυνεθώλου τὸ μαντικόν· ἠγνόει τὸν μάταιον δρόμον. Ἵμερος γὰρ ἀπὸ τῶν σπλάγχνων ῥυεὶς τὴν μαντικὴν πηγὴν ἀνέστελλε, καὶ τὰς τοῦ βλεπεῖν φλέβας ἀνέφραττεν. Ἐπηπείλει τῇ φυγῇ καὶ δεσμούς, οὓς πολλοὺς πολλάκις ἀπὸ πυρὸς ἐχάλκευσεν ἔρωτος. Γένος ἀμφοῖν ἄνισον, καὶ δρόμος ἀνόμοιος. Καὶ οἷς ἡ κόρη τῷ γένει ἐλείπετο, τούτῳ τῷ τάχει ἐπρώτευεν. Ὁ μὲν ἐνίκα τῇ φύσει τὴν κόρην, ἡ δὲ τῷ τάχει τὸν ἐραστήν. Εἶδε τὴν βίαν τῆς κόρης ἡ Γῆ, καὶ ὡς ἐδραπέτευεν, ἔφευγεν, ἔτρεχε, καὶ τὸν περὶ παρθενίας ἠπείγετο, καὶ τὰς λαγόνας περιεβόθρευσε, καὶ πλατὺ τὸ στόμα ὑπέχαινε, καὶ πάλαι ἀπὸ γαστρὸς αὐτὴν ἀναπτύξασα παλίνορσος ὑπεδέξατο, ὡς καὶ ἰχθύες πολλάκις ὑδατοβάμονες ἐν θαλάσσῃ τὰ ἔγγονα, καὶ τῷ ∆ηλίῳ τὴν ἐρωμένην ἀπέκρυπτε. Καὶ τῇ τῆς κόρης παρθενίᾳ οἷα θησαυρῷ ἀνωρύττετο, κλέπτην τοῦ κάλλους μέγαν οὕτως ὑφορωμένη θεόν. Οἷα δὲ σιδήρῳ ἀνεμοχλεύετο τῷ τῆς κόρης ἀνενδότῳ πρὸς Ἔρωτα. Γῆ δ' ἀντ' αὐτῆς ὁμώνυμον ἀντεδίδου φυτὸν τῷ Ἀπόλλωνι, καλὸν εἰς ὄψιν, σεμνὸν εἰς ἄνθην, χρυσοῦν εἰς κάλλος, εὔχρουν εἰς θέαν, ἔτι φόβου πνέον καὶ τῇ ἐξ ἀνέμων κινήσει φέγγει ἔτι φαντασιούμενον. Τὸ δὲ οὐδ' ἐν χρώμασι τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα δέχεται. Μηκέτι θαρρεῖτε, μάντεις, τὸν δάφνινον στέφανον, μηκέτι τοῖς τῆς δάφνης κλάδοις πιστεύετε· εἰ γραφόμενον ἡ ∆άφνη οὐ δέχεται, πάντως οὐδὲ μαντευόμενον τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα.