τὸν μέν, ἐπὴν δὴ πρῶτον ἴδῃ φάος ἠελίοιο,
Νύμφαι μιν θρέψουσιν ὀρεσκῷοι βαθύκολποι,
αἳ τόδε ναιετάουσιν ὄρος μέγα τε ζάθεόν τε:
αἵ ῥ᾽ οὔτε θνητοῖς οὔτ᾽ ἀθανάτοισιν ἕπονται.
0δηρὸν μὲν ζώουσι καὶ ἄμβροτον εἶδαρ ἔδουσι
καί τε μετ᾽ ἀθανάτοισι καλὸν χορὸν ἐρρώσαντο.
τῇσι δὲ Σειληνοὶ καὶ ἐύσκοπος Ἀργειφόντης
μίσγοντ᾽ ἐν φιλότητι μυχῷ σπείων ἐροέντων.
τῇσι δ᾽ ἅμ᾽ ἢ ἐλάται ἠὲ δρύες ὑψικάρηνοι
γεινομένῃσιν ἔφυσαν ἐπὶ χθονὶ βωτιανείρῃ,
καλαί, τηλεθάουσαι, ἐν οὔρεσιν ὑψηλοῖσιν.
ἑστᾶσ᾽ ἠλίβατοι, τεμένη δέ ἑ κικλήσκουσιν
ἀθανάτων: τὰς δ᾽ οὔ τι βροτοὶ κείρουσι σιδήρῳ:
ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε κεν δὴ μοῖρα παρεστήκῃ θανάτοιο,
0ἀζάνεται μὲν πρῶτον ἐπὶ χθονὶ δένδρεα καλά,
φλοιὸς δ᾽ ἀμφιπεριφθινύθει, πίπτουσι δ᾽ ἄπ᾽ ὄζοι,
τῶν δέ θ᾽ ὁμοῦ ψυχὴ λείπει φάος ἠελίοιο.
256-272 As for the child, as soon as he sees the light of the sun, the deep-breasted mountain Nymphs who inhabit this great and holy mountain shall bring him up. They rank neither with mortals nor with immortals: long indeed do they live, eating heavenly food and treading the lovely dance among the immortals, and with them the Sileni and the sharp-eyed Slayer of Argus mate in the depths of pleasant caves; but at their birth pines or high-topped oaks spring up with them upon the fruitful earth, beautiful, flourishing trees, towering high upon the lofty mountains (and men call them holy places of the immortals, and never mortal lops them with the axe); but when the fate of death is near at hand, first those lovely trees wither where they stand, and the bark shrivels away about them, and the twigs fall down, and at last the life of the Nymph and of the tree leave the light of the sun together.