When Vulcan had passed, Queen Juno, adorned with a rich, superb, and royal crown, and with vestments transparent and luminous, was seen coming in much majesty upon the twelfth car, which was not less pompous than any of the others, and drawn by two most lovely peacocks; and between the five little stories of her actions that were seen painted therein, were Lycorias, Beroe, and Deiopea, her most beautiful and most favoured Nymphs. For the first of these stories was seen the unhappy Callisto transformed by her into a bear, who was placed afterwards by compassionate Jove among the principal stars in the heavens; and in the second was seen how, having transformed herself into the likeness of Beroe, she persuaded the unsuspecting Semele to beseech Jove that he should deign in his grace to lie with her in the guise wherein he was wont to lie with his wife Juno; on which account the unhappy mortal, not being able to sustain the force of the celestial splendour, was consumed by fire, and Jove was seen to take Bacchus from her belly and place him in his own, preserving him for the full time of birth. In the third, likewise, she was seen praying AEolus that he should send his furious winds to scatter the fleet of Trojan AEneas; even as in the fourth she was seen in like manner, filled with jealousy, demanding from Jove the miserable Io transformed into a cow, and giving her, to the end that she might not be stolen from her by Jove, into the custody of the ever-vigilant Argus, who, as has been told elsewhere, was put to sleep and slain by Mercury; and in the fifth picture was seen Juno sending after most unhappy Io the pitiless gad-fly, to the end that he might keep her continually pricked and stung. At the foot of the car, then, were seen coming a good number of those phenomena that are formed in the air, among which could be seen as the first Iris, regarded by the ancients as the messenger of the Gods, and the daughter of Thaumas and Electra; all lissom and free, and dressed in vestments of red, yellow, blue, and green, signifying the rainbow, with two hawks' wings upon the head that denoted her swiftness. In her company, then, in a red habit, with the hair ruddy and dishevelled, was the Comet, figured as a young woman who had a large and shining star upon the brow; and with them came Clear Sky, in the aspect of a virgin, who was seen with the countenance of turquoise-blue, and turquoise-blue all the wide and ample dress, not without a white dove likewise upon the head, to signify the sky. After these were seen Snow and Mist, coupled together; the first dressed in tawny-coloured draperies, upon which were shown lying many trunks of trees all sprinkled with snow, and the other was seen walking, as if she had no shape, as it were in the semblance of a great white mass; having with them verdant Dew, figured in that same colour, to denote the green plants upon which she is generally seen, and having a round moon upon