Her, foam-born Venus then, Goddess of smiles,250
Thus answer’d. Thy request, who in the arms
Of Jove reposest the omnipotent,
Nor just it were nor seemly to refuse.
So saying, the cincture from her breast she loosed
Embroider’d, various, her all-charming zone.255
It was an ambush of sweet snares, replete
With love, desire, soft intercourse of hearts,
And music of resistless whisper’d sounds
That from the wisest steal their best resolves;
She placed it in her hands and thus she said.260
Take this—this girdle fraught with every charm.
Hide this within thy bosom, and return,
Whate’er thy purpose, mistress of it all.
She spake; imperial Juno smiled, and still
Smiling complacent, bosom’d safe the zone.265
Then Venus to her father’s court return’d,
And Juno, starting from the Olympian height,
O’erflew Pieria and the lovely plains
Of broad Emathia; soaring thence she swept
The snow-clad summits of the Thracian hills270
Steed-famed, nor printed, as she passed, the soil.
From Athos o’er the foaming billows borne
She came to Lemnos, city and abode
Of noble Thoas, and there meeting Sleep,
Brother of Death, she press’d his hand, and said,275
Sleep, over all, both Gods and men, supreme!
If ever thou hast heard, hear also now
My suit; I will be grateful evermore.
Seal for me fast the radiant eyes of Jove
In the instant of his gratified desire.280
Thy recompense shall be a throne of gold,
Bright, incorruptible; my limping son,
Vulcan, shall fashion it himself with art
Laborious, and, beneath, shall place a stool[3]
For thy fair feet, at the convivial board.285
Then answer thus the tranquil Sleep returned
Great Saturn’s daughter, awe-inspiring Queen!
All other of the everlasting Gods
I could with ease make slumber, even the streams
Of Ocean, Sire of all.[4] Not so the King290
The son of Saturn: him, unless himself
Give me command, I dare not lull to rest,
Or even approach him, taught as I have been
Already in the school of thy commands
That wisdom. I forget not yet the day295
When, Troy laid waste, that valiant son[5] of his
Sail’d homeward: then my influence I diffused
Soft o’er the sovereign intellect of Jove;
While thou, against the Hero plotting harm,
Didst rouse the billows with tempestuous blasts,300
And separating him from all his friend,
Brought’st him to populous Cos. Then Jove awoke,
And, hurling in his wrath the Gods about,
Sought chiefly me, whom far below all ken
He had from heaven cast down into the Deep,305
But Night, resistless vanquisher of all,
Both Gods and men, preserved me; for to her
I fled for refuge. So the Thunderer cool’d,
Though sore displeased, and spared me through a fear
To violate the peaceful sway of Night.[6]310
And thou wouldst now embroil me yet again!
To whom majestic Juno thus replied.
Ah, wherefore, Sleep! shouldst thou indulge a fear
So groundless? Chase it from thy mind afar.
Think’st thou the Thunderer as intent to serve315
The Trojans, and as jealous in their cause
As erst for Hercules, his genuine son?
Come then, and I will bless thee with a bride;
One of the younger Graces shall be thine,
Pasithea, day by day still thy desire.320
She spake; Sleep heard delighted, and replied.
By the inviolable Stygian flood
Swear to me; lay thy right hand on the glebe
All-teeming, lay thy other on the face
Of the flat sea, that all the Immortal Powers325
Who compass Saturn in the nether realms
May witness, that thou givest me for a bride
The younger Grace whom thou hast named, divine
Pasithea, day by day still my desire.
He said, nor beauteous Juno not complied,330
But sware, by name invoking all the powers
Titanian call’d who in the lowest gulf
Dwell under Tartarus, omitting none.
Her oath with solemn ceremonial sworn,
Together forth they went; Lemnos they left335
And Imbrus, city of Thrace, and in dark clouds
Mantled, with gliding ease swam through the air
To Ida’s mount with rilling waters vein’d,
Parent of savage beasts; at Lectos[7] first
They quitted Ocean, overpassing high340
The dry land, while beneath their feet the woods
Their spiry summits waved. There, unperceived
By Jove, Sleep mounted Ida’s loftiest pine
Of growth that pierced the sky, and hidden sat
Secure by its expanded boughs, the bird345
Shrill-voiced resembling in the mountains seen,[8]
Chalcis in heaven, on earth Cymindis named.
But Juno swift to Gargarus the top
Of Ida, soar’d, and there Jove saw his spouse.
—Saw her—and in his breast the same love felt350
Rekindled vehement, which had of old
Join’d them, when, by their parents unperceived,
They stole aside, and snatch’d their first embrace.
Soon he accosted her, and thus inquired.