BOOK V.

A tumult arising during the celebration of the nuptials, Phineus claims

Andromeda, who has been betrothed to him; and together with Prœtus, he

and Polydectes are turned into stone. Pallas, who has aided Perseus, now

leaves him, and goes to Helicon, to see the fountain of Hippocrene. The

Muses tell her the story of Pyreneus and the Pierides, who were

transformed into magpies after they had repeated various songs on the

subjects of the transformation of the Deities into various forms of

animals; the rape of Proserpine, the wanderings of Ceres, the change of

Cyane into a fountain, of a boy into a lizard, of Ascalaphus into an

owl, of the Sirens into birds in part, of Arethusa into a spring, of

Lyncus into a lynx, and of the invention of agriculture by Triptolemus.