Acoetes and the Lydian Pirates:

Men into Dolphins

 

Lydian sailors hatch a scheme to kidnap a man and row away with him. Unfortunately for them, their victim turns out to be the god Bacchus in disguise. The god wraps the ship in a thick tangle of grape vines, and then ...

 

Medon first appear'd

Blackening to grow, with shooting fins; his form

Flatten'd; and in a curve was bent his spine.

Him Lycabas address'd;—what wonderous shape

Art thou receiving?—speaking, wide his jaws

Expanded; flatten'd down, his nose appear'd;

A scaly covering cloth'd his harden'd skin.

Lybis to turn the firm fixt oars attempts,

But while he tries, perceives his fingers shrink;

And hands, now hands no longer, fins he sees.

Another round the cordage strives his arms

To clasp,—but arms he has not,—down he leaps

Broad on his crooked back, and seeks the waves.

Forkt is their new-made tail; like Luna's form

Bent in the skies, ere half her orb is fill'd.

Bounding all round they leap;—now down they dash,

Besprinkling wide the foamy drops; now 'merge;

And now re-diving, plunge in playful sport:

As chorus regular they act, and move

Their forms in shapes lascivious; spouting high,

The briny waters through their nostrils wide.