Philomela

Tereus takes Philomela to a secluded place, assaults her and locks her away. When she threatens to tell what he has done, he cuts out her tongue. The root still quivers, but the act cannot prevent her from communicating: she weaves a patterned cloth and sends it to her sister Progne. Progne reads the message and keeps her anger silent while she plans how to answer the crime.

At the Bacchic festival, Progne reaches the house where Philomela is held and brings her out. Philomela cannot meet her sister's eyes; she gestures that Tereus attacked her by force. Progne calls for revenge. The sisters kill Itys, Progne's son, and serve him to Tereus. When he asks for the boy, Progne tells him that Itys is within him, and Philomela throws the boy's severed head at his face.

Tereus pursues the sisters with a sword. They take wings and fly apart, one turning towards the woods and another beneath the roofs of houses. Grief and revenge change Tereus into a crested bird with a long bill, which the poem names as the lapwing. The account also says that this affliction sends Pandion to the shades before his time. Philomela's voice remains absent, but the woven message has carried her testimony through the story.