X. HERMES CONVEYS TO HELIOS THE ORDER OF ZEUS; THAT HE IS TO REFRAIN FROM DRIVING HIS CHARIOT, UNTIL THE COMPLETION OF THE AMOUR OF THE KING OF GODS AND MEN WITH ALKMENE. Hermes and Helios. Hermes. Helios, you are not to drive out to-day, Zeus says, nor to-morrow, nor the day after, but to remain at home; and let that interval of time be one long kind of night. So let the Horæ1unharness your horses again, and do you put out your fires, and repose yourself for a good long time. Helios. New and strange instructions these, Hermes, you come to give me. But am I thought to blunder in any way in my course, and to drive beyond its bounds; and is it on that account he is vexed with me, and determined to make the night three times the length of one day? Hermes. Nothing of the kind, nor will it be always so: but he wants the night just now to be somewhat longer than usual, on his own account. Helios. And where is he, or whence have you been despatched with this message for me? Hermes. From Boeotia, Helios, from Amphitryon's wife, with whom he now is, making love to her.2 Helios. Then is one night not enough? Hermes. By no means, for some mighty and much 1 The Hora ("Hours "), in the Homeric theology (IX. viii. 393), are the doorkeepers of Heaven. According to Hesiod, their names are Eunomia, Dike, and Eirene, the daughters of Zeus and Themis (Oɛoy. 901). They united with the Charites, and other divinities, in adorning Pandora : ἀμφὶ δὲ τήνγε Ερ. καὶ Ημ. 74. See Lucian, Пɛρì Ovoíwv. The picture of the Hours, as described by Philostratus, formed a charming subject. 2 Upon this liaison of Zeus with Alkmena is founded one of the most entertaining of the Comedies of Plautus, the Amphitryon. In modern times, it has been imitated by Dryden and by Molière, the latter of whom seems to have had this dialogue of Lucian in mind. For an victorious divinity is to be born from this intercourse. That he should be turned out complete and perfect in one night is simply impossible. Helios. Well, may he turn him out to perfection, and good luck to him! This sort of thing, however, was not the fashion in the time of Cronos-for we are all alone by ourselves-nor did he ever sleep apart from Rhea, nor would he leave heaven and go to bed in Thebes: but day was day, and night, according to its proper measure, was proportionate in the number of its hours. And there was nothing strange or confused and interchanged; and he would never have intrigued with a mortal woman. But now, for the sake of some wretched female, everything must be turned upside down, and my horses must become unmanageable from want of work; and the route, by remaining untrodden for three successive days, almost impassable; while as for men, they must pass their time miserably in darkness. Such are the benefits they will enjoy from the amours of Zeus; and they will have to sit down and wait, until he has accomplished this fine athlete, whom you speak of, under cover of prolonged darkness. Hermes. Hold your tongue, Helios, for fear you may get some mischief from your words. Now I shall be off to Selene and Hypnus, and announce to them, too, the message of Zeus-that the former travel leisurely on her journey, and that Hypnus let not mortals go, so that they may not know that the night has been so long. XI. APHRODITE CHARGES SELENE WITH HER LOVE FOR ENDYMION, AND, AT THE SAME TIME, LAMENTS THE TYRANNY OF HER SON, EROS, OVER HERSELF. Aphrodite and Selene. Aphrodite. What is this, Selene, they say you do? That when you are over against Karia, you stop your chariot, account of the wife of the Theban prince compare Hesiod, "Aσmig 'Hρак. i. 56; Ov. Met. ix. 3; Seneca, Her. Furens; Apollod. iv. 4, 8; Diodorus, iv. 1. She is one of the heroines called up by the necromantic skill of Odysseus (08. xi.). and fix all your gaze upon your Endymion, who sleeps under the open sky like the hunter he is; and that, at times, you even come down to him from the middle of your journey." Selene. Ask your son, my dear Aphrodite, who is the cause of this conduct of mine. Aphrodite. Don't speak of him. He is an insolent rogue. Myself, in fact, his own mother, how has he treated meone while bringing me down to Ida for the sake of Anchises, the Troian; another time to the Libanus, to meet that Assyrian youth, whom he has made an object of desire even to Phersephatte, and thus has deprived me, for half the time, of my beloved. So that I have often threatened,* unless he stop such goings on, to break his bow and quiver, and to clip his wings; and before now I have whipped him with my sandal. But somehow or other, though he is frightened for the moment, and begs pardon, he very soon afterwards forgets all his promises. But, tell me, is Endymion handsome; for, in that case, the evil admits of easy consolation. Selene. To me he seems to be excessively handsome, my dear Aphrodite, and most especially when he throws his cloak down under him, upon the rock, and goes to sleep, grasping in his left hand his javelins which are just slipping from his fingers, while his right arm, bent double upwards 1 Ovid, De Arte Amandi, iii. 83, defends the fair fame of the Goddess, or rather, maintains that she had no reason to be ashamed of her weak ness: "Latmius Endymion non est tibi, Luna, rubori." Pausanias informs us that, according to a common belief, she bore to her paramour fifty daughters (v. 1). In the 'IoTopía 'Anons (“True His tory") Endymion figures as the sovereign ruler of the Moon. 2 For Hera's ironical allusion to this escapade on a memorable occasion, see . A. xx. 3 A form of the usual name of Persephone. Cf. Soph. Antigone, 894. The Assyrian, or rather Syrian, youth is Adonis. Before his death from the wild boar's avenging tusk, the Goddess of Love had eight months' enjoyment of her human favourite each year; after his death, he was granted to her tears by the sovereigns of the lower world for only half the year. See Ov. Metam. x. 9, 10; Theok. 'Adwviášovoai ; and the charming Idyll of Bion. See following Dialogue, and the Eidútov of Moschus on the Fugitive Eros, and the Anakreontic Odes. round his head, sets off his face in a circular frame; while, his limbs relaxed in sleep, he breathes forth that ambrosial and divine breath of his. Then, I confess it, descending noiselessly and advancing on tiptoe, that he may not awake and be alarmed- -You know the rest. Why should I tell you the sequel? However, I am dying for love of him. XII. APHRODITE UPBRAIDS EROS FOR HIS MISCHIEVOUS CONDUCT IN THE PAST, AND CAUTIONS HIM FOR THE FUture. EROS DEFENDS HIMSELF. Aphrodite and Eros. Aphrodite. Eros, my child, just consider your conduct. I don't mean on Earth, what deeds you induce men to do against themselves or one against the other, but even in Heaven-you who show up mighty Zeus himself in a variety of shapes, converting him into whatever you please, at the moment, and drag Selene down from heaven, and force Helios, forgetting all about his charioteering, sometimes to loiter on his way with his Klymene: while in regard to your wanton conduct to me, you act with entire freedom. Nay, most audacious boy, you have induced even Rhea herself, who long ago was an old woman, and the mother of such a number of Gods, to fall in love with boys,' and to indulge a passion for the Phrygian youth. And now she has lost her senses by your work, and harnessed lions and taken to her the Korybantes, who are like mad people themselves; and they tramp up and down about Ida, she making dismal lamentations for Attes. While as for the Korybantes, one gashes his arm 2 with a knife, another letting down his hair rushes like a madman 1 Παιδεραστεῖν. The Phrygian youth is Attis, Attes, or Atys. The Korybantes were the priests of Rhea or Kybele, in Phrygia, who worshipped with rites of the grossest and most frantic kind. See Catullus, De Atyde, for a description of one of her emasculated votaries, and Ov. Fasti, iv. 181-246. 2 IInxuv. Lit. "fore-arm." Some of the translators, following Erasmus, have interpreted it as penem, by "a ridiculous error.' See Hemst. Cf. Seneca, De Vita Beatâ, xxvii. through the mountains, one blows on the horn, another beats an accompaniment on the drum, or raises a horrible din on the cymbal, and, in fine, all Ida is in tumult and phrenzy. I fear, therefore, everything: I, who brought you into the world to be such a plague, am dreadfully afraid that Rhea, in one of her mad fits, or, indeed, rather, still in her senses, may order her Korybantes to seize you and tear you in pieces, or cast you to her lions. Such is my dread, when I see you running such risks. Eros. Never fear, mother, for I have been a long time on the best of terms, even with the lions themselves; and frequently I mount on their backs and laying hold of their manes, I drive them as if they had reins, and they fawn on me, and taking my hand in their mouths, after licking it all over, give it back to me. Why, as for Rhea herself, when could she have leisure to do any harm to me, wholly taken up as she is with Attes? And, besides, what wrong do I do in pointing out beautiful objects such as they are? And as for you others, do you not yourselves long after beautiful things? Then don't accuse me of these offences. And do you yourself, mother, really wish no longer to love Ares, or him you? Aphrodite. What a dreadful boy you are, and how you tyrannize over all! Well, you will recall my words some time or other. XIII. ASKLEPIUS AND HERAKLES QUARREL ON A QUESTION OF Zeus, Asklepius, and Herakles. Zeus. Do, Asklepius and Herakles, stop your wrangling, just for all the world as if you were a couple of mortals; for this sort of behaviour is unseemly, and quite strange to the banquets of the Gods. Herakles. But, Zeus, would you have that quack drugdealer there 1 take his place at table above me? 2 1 1 Τουτονί. Lengthened epideictic Attic form of Τοῦτον: the final vowel having the force of the French ci, as in celui-ci. Heraklês points his finger contemptuously at the rival pretender. 2 Προκατακλίνεσθαί. According to Greek custom, literally, to |