And when perchance, in mingling seed with his,The female hath o'erpowered the force of maleAnd by a sudden fling hath seized it fast,Then are the offspring, more from mothers' seed,More like their mothers; as, from fathers' seed,They're like to fathers. But whom seest to bePartakers of each shape, one equal blendOf parents' features, these are generateFrom fathers' body and from mothers' blood,When mutual and harmonious heat hath dashedTogether seeds, aroused along their framesBy Venus' goads, and neither of the twainMastereth or is mastered. Happens tooThat sometimes offspring can to being comeIn likeness of their grandsires, and bring backOften the shapes of grandsires' sires, becauseTheir parents in their bodies oft retainConcealed many primal germs, commixedIn many modes, which, starting with the stock,Sire handeth down to son, himself a sire;Whence Venus by a variable chanceEngenders shapes, and diversely brings backAncestral features, voices too, and hair.A female generation rises forthFrom seed paternal, and from mother's bodyExist created males: since sex proceedsNo more from singleness of seed than facesOr bodies or limbs of ours: for every birthIs from a twofold seed; and what's createdHath, of that parent which it is more like,More than its equal share; as thou canst mark,-Whether the breed be male or female stock.