In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas
Corpora; di, coeptis (nam vos mutastis et illa[s])
Adspirate meis primaque ab origine mundi
Ad mea perpetuum deducite tempora carmen!
Ante mare et terras et quod tegit omnia caelum
Unus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe,
Quem dixere chaos: rudis indigestaque moles
Nec quicquam nisi pondus iners congestaque eodem
Non bene iunctarum discordia semina rerum.
—
My mind is bent to tell of bodies changed into new forms. Ye gods, for you yourselves have wrought the changes, breathe on these my undertakings, and bring down my song in unbroken strains from the world’s very beginning even unto the present time.
Before the sea was, and the lands, and the sky that hangs over all, the face of Nature showed alike in her whole round, which state have men called chaos: a rough, unordered mass of things, nothing at all save lifeless bulk and warring seeds of ill-matched elements heaped in one.
(https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL042.3.xml)
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