On Witches and Female Soothsayers

With teeth and claws he grows,
This wolf recently added to the pack;
While he prepares to weep, he howls.
That one, like an Indian tiger,
Walks mildly through the halls.
But although by various evils
The divinity of the winged Arcadian original: "Numen archadis alitis." This refers to the god Mercury (Hermes), who was born on Mount Kyllene in Arcadia and wore winged sandals.
Pitying the besieged leader Ulysses (Odysseus).
Released him from the plague of his hostess The sorceress Circe.,
Yet already the rowers had drawn
The evil cups with their mouths;
Already as swine they had exchanged
The grain-given fodder for acorns.
And nothing remains whole,
With voice and body lost;
Only the mind, stable as always,
Groans at the monsters it endures.
O hand too light,
And herbs lacking power,
Which, though they prevail over limbs,
Are not strong enough to change hearts!
Within is the vigor of men,
Hidden and stored away by skill.
These poisons more powerfully
Drag a man away from himself;
Dire things that pass deep within,
And though not harming the body,
They rage through the wounding of the mind.

Although Boethius recites the deeds of Ulysses and his companions in a most noble style, I nevertheless hesitate as to whether they are true. And if such deeds were true, it is no wonder if that happened to those men who were pagans, venerating idols and adoring the statues of demons.