METAMORPHOSES BOOK VI
banished fear. Even suppose that some part of this tribe of children could be taken from me, not even so despoiled would I be reduccd to the number of two, Latona's throng, with which how far is she froı childlessness? Away with you, hasten, you have sacrificed enough, and take off those laurels from your hair." They take off the wreaths and leave the sacrifice unfinished; but, as they may, they still worship the goddess with unspoken words.
The goddess was angry, and on the top of Cynthus she thus addressed Apollo and Diana : "Lo, I, your mother, proud of your birth and willing to yield place to no goddess save Juno only, I have had my divinity called in question; and through all coming ages I shall be denied worship at the altar, unless you, my children, come to my aid. Nor is this my only cause for resentment. This daughter of Tan- talus has added insult to her injuries: she has dared to prefer her own children to you, and has called me childless-may that fall on her head!-and by her impious speech has displayed her father's unbridled tongue." To this story of her wrongs Latona would have added prayers; but here Phoebus cried: "Have done! a long complaint is but delay of punishment!” Phoebe said the same. Then, swiftly gliding through the air, they alighted on Cadmus' citadel, covered in clouds.
There was a broad and level plain near the walls, beaten by the constant tread of horses, where a host of wheels and the hard hoof had leveled the clods beneath them. There some of Amphion's seven sons mounted their strong horses, sitting firm on their backs bright with Tyrian purple, and guided them with rieh gold-mounted bridles. While one of these, Ismenus, who was his mother's first-born son,303
