IN LEGEND AND FABLE 29 



at once became a nightingale and Philomela 

 a swallow. Tereus was also changed into 

 a hawk, which chases 

 other birds. 



In this manner the 

 Greeks related theorigin 

 of the swallow and of th( 

 nightingale. In later cen- 

 turies, the Latin poets of 

 Rome (Horace, Vergil, and 

 the rest) often made reference to 

 this legend. Sometimes they 

 sang of Procne as a nightingale, as in the 

 original Greek version, but more often they 

 reversed the ending of the legend and 

 referred to her as a swallow, and 

 to Philomela as a nightin- 

 gale. Thus Horace, in 

 an Ode to Vergil in which 

 he invites the poet to pay 

 him a visit at his Sabine 

 farm, assures Vergil that pleasant weather 

 has come by saying that the "Thracian 



