"Take[1] this, now place in thy bosom this variegated belt, in which all things are contained; and I think that thou wilt not return with thy object unaccomplished, whatsoever thou desirest in thy mind."
Thus she spake, and the large-eyed venerable Juno smiled, and smiling, then placed it in her bosom. But Venus, the daughter of Jove, departed to the palace; and Juno, hastening, quitted the summit of Olympus, and, having passed over Pieria and fertile Emathia, she hastened over the snowy mountains of Equestrian Thrace, most lofty summits, nor did she touch the ground with her feet. From Athos she descended to the foaming deep, and came to Lemnos, the city of divine Thoas, where she met Sleep, the brother of Death; to whose hand she then clung, and spoke, and addressed him:
"O Sleep,[2] king of all gods and all men,[3] if ever indeed thou didst listen to my entreaty, now too be persuaded; and I will acknowledge gratitude to thee all my days. Close immediately in sleep for me the bright eyes of Jove under his eyelids, after I couch with him in love; and I will give thee, as gifts, a handsome golden throne, forever incorruptible. And my limping son, Vulcan, adorning it, shall make it, and below thy feet he shall place a footstool, upon which thou mayest rest thy shining feet while feasting."
But her sweet Sleep answering, addressed: "Juno, venerable goddess, daughter of great Saturn, any other of the everlasting gods could I easily lull to sleep, and even the flowing of rapid Ocean, who is the parent of all; but I could not approach Saturnian Jove, nor lull him to sleep, unless at least, he himself command me. For once already, at least, has he terrified me by his threats, on that day when the magnanimous son of Jove (Hercules) sailed from Ilium, having sacked the city of the Trojans. Then I lulled the mind of ægis-bearing Jove, being poured gently around him,
- ↑ Τῆ is an old imperative from a root TA—"formed like ζῆν, according to Doric analogy. . . . In all cases it stands either quite absolute, that is, with the object understood, or the accusative belongs to a verb immediately following."—Buttm. Lexil. pp. 505, sq.
- ↑ Cf. Hesiod, Theog. 214. The dying words of Gorgias of Leontium are very elegant: Ἤδε με ὁ ὕπνος ἄρχεται παρακατατίθεσθαι τῷ ἀδελφῷ.—Ælian, Var. Hist. ii. 35.
- ↑ So in the Orphic hymn: Ὕπνε, ἄναξ πάντων μακάρων θνητῶν τ' ἀνθρώπων.
