"My sweet," she said, "as yet I am not wise, Or stored with words aright the tale to tell, But listen: when I opened first mine eyes I stood within the niche thou knowest well, And from my hand a heavy thing there fell Carved like these flowers, nor could I see things clear, But with a strange, confusèd noise could hear. "At last mine eyes could see a woman fair, But awful as this round white moon o'erhead, So that I trembled when I saw her there, For with my life was born some touch of dread, And therewithal I heard her voice that said, 'Come down and learn to love and be alive, For thee, a well-prized gift, to-day I give.'"[138] A fuller account of Venus' address to the statue is the following: O maiden, in mine image made! O grace that shouldst endure! While temples fall, and empires fade, Immaculately pure: Exchange this endless life of art For beauty that must die, And blossom with a beating heart Into mortality! Change, golden tresses of her hair, To gold that turns to gray; Change, silent lips, forever fair, To lips that have their day! Oh, perfect arms, grow soft with life, Wax warm, ere cold ye wane; Wake, woman's heart, from peace to strife, To love, to joy, to pain![139] The maiden was called Galatea. Venus blessed the nuptials, and from the union Paphos was born, by whose name the city, sacred to Venus, is known. =106. Pyramus and Thisbe.=[140] Pyramus was the handsomest youth and Thisbe the fairest maiden in Babylonia, where Semiramis reigned. Their parents occupied adjoining houses. Propinquity brought the young people together, and acquaintance ripened into love. They would gladly have married, but their parents forbade. One thing, however, parents could not forbid (for Venus and Cupid favored the match),--that love should glow with equal ardor in the bosoms of both. They conversed by signs and glances, and the fire burned the more intensely that it was covered. In the wall between the two houses there was a crack, caused by some fault in the structure. It afforded a passage to the voice; and tender messages passed back and forth through the gap. When night came and they must say farewell, the lovers pressed their lips upon the wall, she on her side, he on his. [Illustration: FIG. 80. THISBE From the painting by Edward Burne-Jones]