The Argonautica

into the flame. Around it the maidens, daughters of the Sun,

the Heliades, enclosed by tall, dense poplar trees,

wail in thin, piteous tones; from their grieving eyes

they pour bright-running drops of amber down to earth.

These the sun dries out upon the sand of the beaches;

but whenever the waters of the dark lake wash over

the shores, driven by blasts of loudly roaring wind,

then all the drops roll together into Eridanus'

billowing stream. But the Celts added this further story

that these are in truth the tears of Apollo, Leto's son,

borne on the eddies, countless tears he shed of old,

when Apollo first reached the sacred Hyperborean nation,

leaving behind the radiant sky at his father's rebuke,

angered for his own son, there in gleaming Lacereia

divine Coronis bore beside the outflow of Amyrus.

And that is how the tale is told among those people.

No longing for food took hold of the heroes, nor for drink,

their minds rejected joy; instead, the Minyan heroes

suffered throughout the days, groaning beneath the crushing burden

of a foul stench, intolerable, continually breathed out

from Eridanus' streams; smoldering Phaethon still burned

and through the nights in turn they heard that keen, piercing lament

of the Heliades; shrill grief rang aloud as they wept,

their tears rode the water, glistening drops of oil.