Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream

...I bathed my cold breast. Not knowing what to do anymore, I kept my mind bound and intent only on terrible thoughts. And so, in the end, only Echo, that mimic of the voice, offered herself in response to my sighing words. My resounding sighs were dispersed alongside the hoarse chirping of the cicada original: "mante" of the dewy Aurora, and with the shrill crickets. Finally, in these rough and trackless woods, I believed in and desired only the help of the Piteous AriadneIn Greek mythology, Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of thread to help him find his way out of the Minotaur's labyrinth.. She, aware of the plan to kill her monstrous brother, gave the skillful and guiding thread to the deceitful TheseusThe hero who escaped the labyrinth but later abandoned Ariadne. to find his way out of the treacherous labyrinth. And I desired the same to escape this dark forest.

POLIPHILO, FEARING THE PERIL OF THE DARK WOOD, OFFERED A PRAYER TO DIESPITERAn archaic Latin name for Jupiter, meaning "Father of Light" or "Father of Days."; HE CAME FORTH ANXIOUS AND THIRSTY, AND WISHING TO REFRESH HIMSELF WITH WATER, HE HEARS A SWEET SINGING. FOLLOWING THIS, HE REJECTED THE WATERS AND FELL INTO GREATER ANXIETY.

Decorative drop cap 'O' featuring classical foliate and floral scrolling patterns within a square frame.My intellect having already begun to be obscured—so that I could no longer recognize things—and my senses being clouded as to which option I should choose, whether to seek a hateful death or to hope for salvation while wavering in this shadowy and opaque grove. Running here and there, I applied all my strength and effort to find an exit. But the further I persuasively penetrated into it, the darker it became. And having already become weak from great fear, I waited in doubt for some most cruel and attacking beast to begin devouring me. Or perhaps I feared stumbling blindly and falling into an abyssal pit or ditch, or plunging into some vast chasm in the earth. I feared ending my weary life like AmphiarausA legendary seer swallowed up by the earth during the war of the Seven against Thebes. or CurtiusMarcus Curtius, a Roman hero who sacrificed himself by leaping into a chasm that opened in the Roman Forum., swallowed by a foul-smelling original: "mephitica" terrestrial vortex, or falling from a greater height than the foolish PyreneusA king who attempted to capture the Muses; he fell to his death from a tower while trying to follow them as they flew away.. In this way, almost without hope, my mind was troubled on all sides, yet I still attempted a pathless exit, wandering without direction. Wherefore, more trembling than the shifting leaves in the wine-rich Autumn when the thieving North Winds original: "Aquili" blow—leaves lacking their green vigor and the heavy weight of their moisture—I said to myself in prayer: "O DiespiterJupiter, Greatest, Best, and Omnipotent, and Helper. If by divine favor the hu—