_NURSE_: Humble, submissive, and confessing her fault, she heaps up votive offerings by which she shows her own fear. Cupid, the fickle god of love, will abandon her, and although beautiful in form and haughty in her resources she will enjoy but brief happiness. Juno, the queen of the gods, endured sorrows similar to thine when Jupiter, the lord of the heavens and father of the gods, changed himself into every form; now he took the wings of the swan;[37] now, the horns of the Sidonian bull;[38] now he flowed in golden showers.[39] The stars of Leda shine in the sky; Bacchus[40] resides on paternal Olympus; the god Alcides[41] is the husband of Hebe,[42] nor fears the wrath of Juno although she has been his lifelong enemy. Yet the wise compliance and suppressed rage of the proud wife conquered. Great Juno alone now retains the Thunderer securely on the heavenly couch, nor allured by mortal beauty does Jupiter leave the lofty halls. Thou, too, a second Juno on earth, sister[43] and wife of Augustus, mayst thus vanquish thy heavy sorrows. _OCTAVIA_: The cruel seas will be united with the stars; fire with water; the heavens with the gloomy under world; genial light with darkness; day with dewy night, before my spirit, always mindful of my murdered brother, will be united with the abandoned soul of my infamous husband. May the ruler of the heaven dwellers who often shakes the world with his deadly thunderbolts and terrifies our mind with sacred lightning,--may he prepare to overwhelm the head of the impious chief with flames.[44] We have seen in the sky, where Bootes[45] stiff with cold slowly draws his wagons in the eternal change of night, the glowing splendor of the comet expand its baneful light.[46] Behold, even the very atmosphere is contaminated by the ominous breath of the savage chief;[47] the stars foretell new calamities to the nations which the impious leader rules. When long ago Tellus, furious at Jove, was a mother,[48] she did not produce a monster as fierce as this infamous Nero. This curse, more dreadful than Typhon, this enemy of gods and man, has driven the celestial deities from their temples and the citizens from their fatherland; he has deprived my brother of life; he has shed the blood of his own mother; yet he sees the light, he enjoys life, and continues to draw his deadly breath.[49] Alas, Jupiter, thou noble father of the world, why dost thou vainly hurl with thine own royal hand so many times at random? Why dost thou hesitate to act against such a baneful monster? May Nero, the pretender, the true descendant of Domitius[50] pay the penalty for his crimes--Nero, the tyrant of the world which he burdens with a disgraceful yoke--Nero, who defiles the very name of Augustus with his blemished character.