insult me, in your cups, on account of this male Hebe of yours. Zeus. Not so: but that son of yours, Hephaestus, must needs act as butler, with his limping gait, coming straight from his forge, still covered all over with sparks, his firetongs only just laid aside: and from those fingers of his I had to receive the goblet, and drawing him to me to greet him with a salute between while, whom not even you, his mother, would kiss with any pleasure, with his face completely blackened with soot." The present arrangement is much more agreeable: for will you say that it is not so? That cup-bearer of yours certainly excellently becomes the table of the gods; while Ganymede must be sent down back to Ida-for he is clean, and rosy-fingered, and hands the goblet deftly; and, what most vexes you, gives kisses more sweet than nectar. Hera. Yes. Hephaestus is lame now, and his fingers are not fit to touch your cup, and he is covered with soot, and the sight of him turns you sick-ever since Ida produced that handsome youth with the flowing locks. Yet, formerly, you did not observe these things; neither the sparks nor the forge turned your stomach so as to prevent your drinking from his hand. Zeus. You plague yourself to no purpose, Hera, while you intensify my love for him by your jealousy. Well, if you are annoyed at receiving the goblet from a beautiful boy, let your son pour out your wine, and as for you, Ganymede, hand the cup only to myself, and at each time kiss me twice: when you offer it full, and again whenever you take it back from me.-What's this? In tears? Don't be afraid; if any one has any intention of annoying you he will have cause to lament. Cf. IX. i. 600; xviii. 410-415; Juv. Sat. xiii. 43-45. VI. IXION MAKES LOVE TO HERA. Hera and Zeus. Hera. This Ixion,' Zeus, what sort of character do you take him to be? Zeus. A good kind of man, and a boon companion: for he would not associate with us, had he been unworthy of our table. Hera. But he is unworthy of it, for he is an insolent fellow so let him not live with us any longer. Zeus. Of what insolence or injury has he been guilty, pray? For I ought to know too, I think. Hera. Insolence? and what else I blush, however, to mention it, such was his daring impertinence. Zeus. Yet that is the more reason you should tell me, in proportion to the baseness of his attempt. Surely he has not attempted any one's virtue, has he? For I understand the disgraceful conduct to be something of a kind which you would shrink from telling me. Hera. On mine, and no one else's has he made his assaults, now for a long time past. At first I was ignorant of the reason why he kept staring fixedly at me, while he would sigh and secretly drop a tear; and whenever, after drinking, I handed the beaker to Ganymede, he would ask to drink from the very same place, and would take and kiss it between while, and put it to his eyes, and again stare at These actions I now began to perceive to be amorous signs. For a long time I felt ashamed to speak to you, and thought that the fellow would cease from his mad folly. But when he dared to make his advances to me in words, I left him still in tears, and prostrate at my feet; and stopping my ears, not to hear even his insolent en me. 1 The "perfidious" king of the Lapitha (father of Peirithous), who had been pardoned by Zeus after a foul murder, and received into heaven, where it was permitted him to sit at the Olympian table. He does not appear among the eminent criminals whom Odysseus meets in Hades, nor is he mentioned by Hesiod. Pindar (IIv0. 11.) exhibits him as a terrible warning. treaties, I came away to tell you. Now do you yourself look to it, in what manner you shall punish the man. Zeus. Is this the fine return the cursed villain makes to myself-even so far as to aspire to the favours of Hera? Has he become so drunk on our nectar? But we ourselves are the cause of these outrages, and are out of all measure philanthropic, in making men our boon-companions. They have some excuse, therefore, if, while drinking on equal terms with us, and beholding celestial beauties, and of a sort they never have seen on earth, overpowered by love, they eagerly long to enjoy them. Well, Love is an intractable sort of creature, and governs not only men, but even ourselves sometimes. Hera. Of you he certainly is very much the master, and drives and leads you captive, "dragging you," as they say, "by the nose; "and you follow him wherever he may lead you, and he easily transforms you into whatever he wishes ; and, in fine, you are the mere possession and plaything of Love. And now I know well why you extend your pardon to Ixion-inasmuch as you yourself had an intrigue with his wife, who presented you with that Peirithous of yours.' Zeus. What! Must you be for ever bringing up to mind those little trifles-whatever sport I have gone down to Earth and enjoyed? But do you know what I have in my mind about Ixion? By no means to punish him, nor to expel him from our table; for that would be an uncourteous act. And since he is in love, and as you say, falls to tears, and feels unendurable Hera. What are you going to utter, Zeus? For I am 1 Peirithous, reputed son of Ixion, it seems, was the son of Zeus by Dia, Ixion's wife. Seneca represents Juno as bitterly complaining of the infidelities of her lord: "Soror tonantis-hoc enim solum mihi Locumque, cœlo pulsa, pellicibus dedi. Tellus colenda est: pellices cœlum tenent." See Il. i. 535-570; iv. 5-67; xv. 15-35, for other memorable grounds. for complaint on the part of the queen of heaven. Pausanias (ix. 3), relates a pleasant story of the ingenuity of Zeus, on one occasion, in appeasing her jealousy. afraid you, too, are on the point of saying something impertinent. Zeus. Not at all. But let us form a phantom out of a cloud like your very self, and when the dinner party is broken up, and he, as is highly probable, is keeping his vigils, under the influence of his passion, let us carry it and lay it down by his side. In this way he would cease to be plagued; supposing he had had what he wanted. Hera. Get away with you. Plague take him for indulging hopes beyond his station.1 Zeus. Put up with it, however, my dear Hera, for what terrible harm could you get from the counterfeit figure, if Ixion shall have to do with a mere cloud? Hera. Yes, but I shall be supposed to be the cloud, and he will perpetrate upon me his foul purpose, through the resemblance. Zeus. Your objection is nothing to the purpose. For neither will the cloud ever be Hera, nor will you be a cloud, while Ixion will only be deceived. Hera. But all men are so vulgar-minded and without good taste, when he goes down he will, probably, talk big and recount to everybody that he has enjoyed the favours of Hera, and shared the bed of Zeus; and, maybe, he will even assert that I am in love with him; and, not knowing it was a cloud he was with, they will believe him. Zeus. Then, if he should say anything of the kind, the wretch shall be thrown into hell, be bound to a wheel, and carried round with it for ever and ever, and shall suffer everlasting torture, paying the penalty not of his love-for that, surely, is not so dreadful a crime-but of his loud boasting.2 1 Μὴ ὥραισιν ἵκοιτο τῶν ὑπὲρ αὐτὸν ἐπιθυμῶν. Cf. Lucian, Περὶ Ορχήσεως, v. Aristoph. Λυσιστράτη 1037. An old Attic form of imprecation, as to the exact meaning of which the commentators are at variance. Another reading is pac. 2 "It must be understood that Jupiter, with all his joviality, was a great master in the invention of horrible tortures and punishments; and he speaks in the true tone of a dilettante in such matters."-Wieland. VII. HEPHÆSTUS RECOUNTS TO APOLLO THE ACTIONS OF THE INFANT PRODIGY, HERMES. Apollo and Hephaestus. Hephaestus. Apollo, have you seen Maia's baby, which is just born? What a pretty thing it is, and how it smiles on every one, and already plainly shows he is going to turn out some great treasure! Apollo. That a baby, or a great treasure, who is older than Iapetus himself, as far as depends on rascality! Hephaestus. And what possible mischief could an infant just born be able to do? Apollo. Ask Poseidon, whose trident he stole, or Ares; for even from the latter he abstracted his sword from the sheath without being found out, not to speak of myself, whom he disarmed of my bow and arrows. Hephaestus. The new-born brat did this, who hardly keeps on his feet, who is still in his long clothes? Apollo. You will know well enough, Hephæstus, if only he come near you. Hephaestus. Indeed, he already has been near me. Apollo. Well, have you all your tools, and is none of them missing? Hephaestus. All of them are safe, my dear Apollo. Hephaestus. By heaven! I don't see my fire-tongs. Apollo. No, but you will probably see them among the infant's swaddling clothes. Hephaestus. Is he so light-fingered, for all the world as though he had mastered the purloining art in his mother's womb? Apollo. No wonder you ask, for you have not heard his glib and voluble prattling. He is, besides, quite ready to wait upon us. And yesterday he challenged Eros, and wrestled with him and threw him, somehow tripping up his feet. Then, while he was getting praised for it, he stole Aphrodite's cestus, as she was folding him to her breast on account of his victory; and, while he was laugh |