[17]
So, contrary to the known operations of nature, the
raven lays her eggs when the crops are ripe. So the she-bear shapes her cubs with
her tongue, and the fish is ignorant of love's embrace, yet brings forth young. So
the tortoise, sacred to Phoebus, delivered by the will of mother Lucina, hatches her
eggs with the warmth of her nostrils. So the bee, begotten without wedlock from the
woven cells, throbs with life and fills her camp with bold soldiery. The strength of
nature lies not in holding on one even way, but she loves to change the fashion of
her laws.
Petronius Arbiter. Petronius. Michael Heseltine. London. William Heinemann. 1913.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.