rain, rain, go away...

All the rain we've had lately made me think of the flood described in Ovid's Metamorphoses:

Protinus Aeoliis Aquilonem claudit in antris
et quaecumque fugant inductas flamina nubes
emittitque Notum. madidis Notus evolat alis,
terribilem picea tectus caligine vultum;
barba gravis nimbis, canis fluit unda capillis;
fronte sedent nebulae, rorant pennaeque sinusque.
utque manu lata pendentia nubila pressit,
fit fragor: hinc densi funduntur ab aethere nimbi.

Jupiter wastes no time, but shuts up the North wind in Aeolus' caves, together with all the gusts which scatter the gathering clouds; and he lets loose the South wind. On dripping wings the South wind flies, his terrible features shrouded in pitch-black darkness; his beard is heavy with clouds, water streams from his snowy locks, mist wreathes his brow, his robes and feathers dripped with moisture. When he crushes the hanging clouds in his broad hand, there is a crash; then the thick clouds are poured down from heaven.

[Metamorphoses, I.262-269]