Thus promis’d Juno; Sleep, rejoicing, heard, And answer’d thus: “Swear then the awful oath. Inviolable, by the stream of Styx, Thy one hand laid upon the fruitful earth, The other resting on the sparkling sea; That all the Gods who in the nether realms With Saturn dwell, may of our solemn bond Be witnesses, that of the Graces one, The youngest, fairest, I shall have to wife, Pasithea, whom my love hath long pursued.” He said: nor did the white-arm’d Queen refuse; She took the oath requir’d; and call’d by name On all the Titans, sub-Tartarean Gods: Then, sworn and ratified the oath, they pass’d From Lemnos, and from Imbros, veil’d in cloud, Skimming their airy way; on Lectum first, In spring-abounding Ida, nurse of beasts, The sea they left, and journey’d o’er the land, While wav’d beneath their feet the lofty woods. There Sleep, ere yet he met the eye of Jove, Remain’d; and, mounted on a lofty pine, The tallest growth of Ida, that on high Flung through the desert air its boughs to Heav’n, Amid the pine’s close branches lay ensconc’d; Like to a mountain bird of shrillest note, Whom Gods the Chalcis, men the night-hawk call. Juno meanwhile to Ida’s summit sped, To Gargarus; the Cloud-compeller saw; He saw, and sudden passion fir’d his soul, As when, their parents’ eyes eluding, first They tasted of the secret joys of love. He rose to meet her, and address’d her thus: “From high Olympus, Juno, whither bound, And how, to Ida hast thou come in haste? For horses here or chariot hast thou none.” To whom thus Juno with deceitful speech Replied: “To fertile earth’s extremest bounds I go, to visit old Oceanus, The sire of Gods, and Tethys, who of yore Receiv’d, and nurtur’d me with tend’rest care. I go to visit them, and reconcile A lengthen’d feud; for since some cause of wrath Has come between them, they from rites of love And from the marriage-bed have long abstain’d. Meanwhile at spring-abounding Ida’s foot My horses wait me, that o’er land and sea Alike my chariot bear; on thine account From high Olympus hither have I come, Lest it displease thee, if, to thee unknown, I sought the Ocean’s deeply-flowing stream.” To whom the Cloud-compeller thus replied: “Juno, thy visit yet awhile defer; And let us now in love’s delights indulge: For never yet did such a flood of love For Goddess or for mortal fill my soul; Not for Ixion’s beauteous wife, who bore Pirithous, sage in council as the Gods; Nor the neat-footed maiden Danae, Acrisius’ daughter, her who Perseus bore, Th’ observ’d of all; nor noble Phoenix’ child, Who bore me Minos, and the godlike might Of Rhadamanthus; nor for Semele, Nor for Alcmena fair, of whom was born In Thebes the mighty warrior Hercules, As Bacchus, joy of men, of Semele: No, nor for Ceres, golden-tressed Queen, Nor for Latona bright, nor for thyself, As now with fond desire for thee I burn.”