When the craters in Etna once burst forth, and the lava was carried hither and thither over the land like a torrent, the deity honoured the race of the pious; for when they were hemmed in on all sides by the stream, because they were bearing their aged parents on their shoulders, and were trying to save them, the stream of fire, having come near to them, was cleft asunder, and turned aside one part of the flame in this direction, another in that, and preserved the young men unharmed, along with their parents.