Xanthus, and Meander; Babylonian Euphrates and Ganges, Tagus with
golden sands, and Cayster where the swans resort. Nile fled away
and hid his head in the desert, and there it still remains
concealed. Where he used to discharge his waters through seven
mouths into the sea, there seven dry channels alone remained. The
earth cracked open, and through the chinks light broke into
Tartarus, and frightened the king of shadows and his queen. The
sea shrank up. Where before was water, it became a dry plain; and
the mountains that lie beneath the waves lifted up their heads and
became islands. The fishes sought the lowest depths, and the
dolphins no longer ventured as usual to sport on the surface. Even
Nereus, and his wife Doris, with the Nereids, their daughters,
sought the deepest caves for refuge. Thrice Neptune essayed to
raise his head above the surface, and thrice was driven back by
the heat. Earth, surrounded as she was by waters, yet with head
and shoulders bare, screening her face with her hand, looked up to
heaven, and with a husky voice called on Jupiter:

"O ruler of the gods, if I have deserved this treatment, and it is
your will that I perish with fire, why withhold your thunderbolts?
Let me at least fall by your hand. Is this the reward of my
fertility, of my obedient service? Is it for this that I have
supplied herbage for cattle, and fruits for men, and frankincense
for your altars? But if I am unworthy of regard, what has my
brother Ocean done to deserve such a fate? If neither of us can
excite your pity, think, I pray you, of your own heaven, and
behold how both the poles are smoking which sustain your palace,
which must fall if they be destroyed. Atlas faints, and scarce
holds up his burden. If sea, earth, and heaven perish, we fall
into ancient Chaos. Save what yet remains to us from the devouring