Part 43 (1/2)

Meantiold, beheld the fields below; With joy the glorious conflict she survey'd, Where her great brother gave the Grecians aid

But placed aloft, on Ida's shady height She sees her Jove, and treht

Jove to deceive, whateye?

At length she trusts her power; resolved to prove The old, yet still successful, cheat of love; Against his wisdom to oppose her charms, And lull the lord of thunders in her arht apart cares: With skill divine had Vulcan for power

Touch'd with her secret key, the doors unfold: Self-closed, behind her shut the valves of gold

Here first she bathes; and round her body pours Soft oils of fragrance, and aale convey Through heaven, through earth, and all the aerial way: Spirit divine! whose exhalation greets The sense of Gods with more than mortal sweets

Thus while she breathed of heaven, with decent pride Her artful hands the radiant tresses tied; Part on her head in shi+ning ringlets roll'd, Part o'er her shoulders waved like old

Around her next a heavenly low'd: Large clasps of gold the foldings gather'd round, A golden zone her swelling bosoem illumined with a triple star

Then o'er her head she cast a veil ht

Last her fair feet celestial sandals grace

Thus issuing radiant with majestic pace, Forth from the dome the imperial Goddess moves, And calls the(to Venus thus apart she cried) Shall human strife celestial minds divide?

Ah yet, will Venus aid Saturnia's joy, And set aside the cause of Greece and Troy?”

”Let heaven's dread empress (Cytheraea said) Speak her request, and deerantcharms, That pohich mortals and immortals warms, That love, which melts mankind in fierce desires, And burns the sons of heaven with sacred fires!

”For lo! I haste to those rereat parents, (sacred source of Gods!) Ocean and Tethys their old empire keep, On the last limits of the land and deep

In their kind arms my tender years were past; What time old Saturn, fron, Whele mass of earth and main

For strife, I hear, hasthat ancient pair in peace

What honour, and what love, shall I obtain, If I coain; Once e, And, what e!”

She said With awe divine, the queen of love Obey'd the sister and the wife of Jove; And frorant breast the zone eraced

In this was every art, and every charentle vow, the gay desire, The kind deceit, the still-reviving fire, Persuasive speech, and the hs, Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes

This on her hand the Cyprian Goddess laid: ”Take this, and with it all thy wish;” she said

With s press'd The powerful cestus to her snowy breast

Then Venus to the courts of Jove withdrew; Whilst froh Pieria thence her course she bore, O'er fair E shore, O'er He foot approach'd the ground

Then taking wing fro deep, And seeks the cave of Death's half-brother, Sleep(234)

”Sweet pleasing Sleep! (Saturnia thus began) Who spread'st thy empire o'er each God and man; If e'er obsequious to thy Juno's will, O power of slumbers! hear, and favour still

Shed thy soft dews on Jove's i joys he lies

A splendid footstool, and a throne, that shi+ne With gold unfading, Soe thy ease, When wine and feasts thy golden humours please”

”Imperial dame (the balmy power replies), Great Saturn's heir, and empress of the skies!

O'er other Gods I spread n

And his hush'd waves lie silent on the main

But how, unbidden, shall I dare to steep Jove's awful te since, too venturous, at thy bold command, On those eternal lids I laidIlion's wasted plain, His conquering son, Alcides, plough'd the main

When lo! the deeps arise, the tempests roar, And drive the hero to the Coan shore: Great Jove, awaking, shook the blest abodes With rising wrath, and tuht, and fronant to the nether sky, But gentle Night, to whos display'd; Impower'd the wrath of Gods and men to tame, Even Jove revered the venerable dame”

”Vain are thy fears (the queen of heaven replies, And, speaking, rolls her large h favour won, Like great Alcides, his all-conquering son?

Hear, and obey the ar prize; For know, thy loved-one shall be ever thine, The youngest Grace, Pasithae the divine”(235)