Greek and Roman Parallel Stories (22)

Through the wrath of Aphroditê, Smyrna, the daughter of Cinyras, fell in love with her father, and revealed to her nurse the all-compelling force of her love. The nurse led on her master by a trick; for she declared that a neighbouring maiden was in love with him and was too modest to approach him openly; and Cinyras consorted with her. But on one occasion, wishing to learn the identity of his mistress, he called for a light; but when he saw her, sword in hand he pursued this most wanton woman. But by the foresight of Aphroditê she was changed into the tree that bears her name.[*] So Theodorus in his Metamorphoses.

Through the wrath of Venus, Valeria Tusculanaria

fell in love with her father Valerius, and imparted her secret to her nurse. The nurse deceived her master by a trick, saying that there was someone who was too modest to consort with him openly, but that she was a maiden of the neighbourhood. The father, sodden with wine, kept calling for a light; but the nurse was quick enough to wake the daughter, who went to the country, since she was with child. Once on a time she threw herself down from a cliff, but the child still lived. Returning home, she found her pregnancy inescapable, and in due time gave birth to Aegipan, called in the Roman tongue Silvanus. But Valerius, in a fit of despair, hurled himself down from the same cliff. So Aristeides the Milesian in the third book of his Italian History.