Pliny, Natural History, Book IX

“There is a star in the sea, and it burns up everything
      it touches. Though men who walk on land deny it,

one night a star fell from the sky and landed in the sea.
      It had the good sense to become a fish, but the wit

to keep its shape. It sleeps on the bottom of the sea
      but one day I’ll play a trick on it—I’ll turn the ocean

upside down! Then it will shine again, coral bluff,
      rusted galleon in the night sky, and I will pray to it.”