She said, and loosed from her bosom the embroidered, variegated cestus; 468 where all allurements were enclosed. In it were love, and desire, converse, seductive speech, which steals away the mind even of the very prudent. This then she placed in her hands, spoke, and addressed her: “Take 469 this, now place in thy bosom this variegated belt, in which all things are contained; and I think that thou wilt not return with thy object unaccomplished, whatsoever thou desirest in thy mind.” Footnote 468: (return) I have avoided translating “cestus,” as it is very doubtful what is meant by it. It could not have been an ordinary girdle, since it was to be hidden in the bosom (ver. 219), and since its power appears to have been secret. See Heyne’s note. Footnote 469: (return) Τῆ is an old imperative from a root ΤΑ—“formed like ζῆν, according to Doric analogy.... In all cases it stands either quite absolute, that is, with the object understood, or the accusative belongs to a verb immediately following.”—Buttm. Lexil. pp. 505, sq. Thus she spake, and the large-eyed, venerable Juno smiled, and smiling, then placed it in her bosom. But Venus, the daughter of Jove, departed to the palace; and Juno, hastening, quitted the summit of Olympus, and, having passed over Pieria and fertile Emathia, she hastened over the snowy mountains of equestrian Thrace, most lofty summits, nor did she touch the ground with her feet. From Athos she descended to the foaming deep, and came to Lemnos, the city of divine Thoas, where she met Sleep, the brother of Death; to whose hand she then clung, and spoke, and addressed him: “O Sleep, 470 king of all gods and all men, 471 if ever indeed thou didst listen to my entreaty, now too be persuaded; and I will acknowledge gratitude to thee all my days. Close immediately in sleep for me the bright eyes of Jove under his eyelids, after I couch with him in love; and I will give thee, as gifts, a handsome golden throne, for ever incorruptible. And my limping son, Vulcan, adorning it, shall make it, and below thy feet he shall place a footstool, upon which thou mayest rest thy shining feet while feasting.” Footnote 470: (return) Cf. Hesiod, Theog. 214. The dying words of Gorgias of Leontium are very elegant: Ἤδε με ὁ ὕπνος ἄρχεται παρακατατίθεσθαι τῶ ἀδελφῳ.—Ælian, Var. Hist. ii. 35. Footnote 471: (return) So in the Orphic hymn: Ὕπνε, ἄναξ πάντων μακάρων θνητῶν τ’ άνθρώπων.