Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/267

262—310 Nor once her flying foot approached the ground.

Then taking wing from Athos' lofty steep,

She speeds to Lemnos o'er the rolling deep,

And seeks the cave of Death's half-brother, Sleep.

"Sweet pleasing Sleep!" Saturnia thus began,

"Who spreadest 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 immortal eyes,

While sunk in love's entrancing joys he lies.

A splendid footstool, and a throne, that shine

With gold unfading, Somnus, shall be thine;

The work of Vulcan, to indulge 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 my easy chain;

The sire of all, old Ocean, owns my reign,

And his hushed waves lie silent on the main.

But how, unbidden, shall I dare to steep

Jove's awful temples in the dew of sleep?

Long since, too venturous, at thy bold command,

On those eternal lids I laid my hand;

What time, deserting Ilion's wasted plain,

His conquering son, Alcides, ploughed the main:

When lo! the deeps arise, the tempests roar,

And drive the hero to the Coan shore:

Great Jove, awaking, shook the blessed abodes

With rising wrath, and tumbled gods on gods;

Me chief he sought, and from the realms on high

Had hurled indignant to the nether sky,

But gentle Night, to whom I fled for aid,

The friend of earth and heaven, her wings displayed;

Empowered the wrath of gods and men to tame,

Even Jove revered the venerable dame."

"Vain are thy fears," the queen of heavens replies,

And, speaking, rolls her large majestic eyes;

"Think'st thou that Troy has Jove's high favour won,

Like great Alcides, his all-conquering son?

Hear, and obey the mistress of the skies,

Nor for the deed expect a vulgar prize:

For know, thy loved-one shall be ever thine,

The youngest Grace, Pasithae the divinë."

"Swear then," he said, "by those tremendous floods

That roar through hell, and bind the invoking gods:

Let the great parent earth one hand sustain,

And stretch the other o'er the sacred main:

Call the black Titans that with Cronos dwell,

To hear and witness from the depths of hell;