That she, my loved-one, shall be ever mine,
The youngest Grace, Pasithaë the divine."
The queen assents, and from the infernal bowers
Invokes the sable subtartarean powers,
And those who rule the inviolable floods,
Whom mortals name the dread Titanian gods.
Then, swift as wind, o'er Lemnos' smoky isle,
They wing their way, and Imbrus' sea-beat soil,
Through air, unseen, involved in darkness glide,
And light on Lectos, on the point of Ide,
Mother of savages, whose echoing hills
Are heard resounding with a hundred rills;
Fair Ida trembles underneath the god;
Hushed are her mountains, and her forests nod.
There, on a fir, whose spiry branches rise
To join its summit to the neighbouring skies,
Dark in embowering shade, concealed from sight,
Sat Sleep, in likeness of the bird of night—
Chalcis his name with those of heavenly birth,
But called Cymindis by the race of earth.
To Ida's top successful Juno flies;
Great Jove surveys her with desiring eyes:
The god, whose lightning sets the heavens on fire,
Through all his bosom feels the fierce desire;
Fierce as when first by stealth he seized her charms,
Mixed with her soul, and melted in her arms.
Fixed on her eyes he fed his eager look,
Then pressed her hand, and then with transport spoke:
"Why comes my goddess from the ethereal sky,
And not her steeds and flaming chariot nigh?"
Then she—"I haste to those remote abodes,
Where the great parents of the deathless gods,
The reverend Ocean and great Tethys[1] reign,
On the last limits of the land and main.
I visit these, to whose indulgent cares
I owe the nursing of my tender years.
For strife, I hear, has made that union cease,
Which held so long this ancient pair in peace.
The steeds, prepared my chariot to convey
O'er earth and seas, and through the aërial way,
Wait under Ide; of thy superior power
To ask consent, I leave the Olympian bower;
Nor seek, unknown to thee, the sacred cells
Deep under seas, where hoary Ocean dwells."
"For that," said Jove, "suffice another day;
But eager love denies the least delay.
Let softer cares the present hour employ,
And be these moments sacred all to joy.
- ↑ Belonging to the elder race of gods.
