"She sought her chamber; Vulcan, her own son, That chamber built. He framed the solid doors, And to the posts fast closed them with a key Mysterious, which, herself except, in heav'n None understood. Entering, she secured The splendid portal. First, she laved all o'er Her beauteous body with ambrosial lymph, Then, polish'd it with richest oil divine Of boundless fragrance; oil that, in the courts Eternal only shaken, through the skies Breathed odours, and through all the distant earth. Her whole fair body with those sweets bedew'd, She pass'd the comb through her ambrosial hair, And braided her bright locks, streaming profuse From her immortal brows; with golden studs She made her gorgeous mantle fast before, Ethereal texture, labour of the hands Of Pallas, beautified with various art, And braced it with a zone fringed all round An hundred fold; her pendents triple-gemm'd Luminous, graceful, in her ears she hung, And cov'ring all her glories with a veil, Sun-bright, new-woven, bound to her fair feet Her sandals elegant. Thus, full attired In all her ornaments, she issued forth, And beck'ning Venus from the other pow'rs Of Heav'n apart, the Goddess thus bespake: 'Daughter, beloved! Shall I obtain my suit? Or wilt thou thwart me, angry that I aid The Grecians, while thine aid is given to Troy?' "To whom Jove's daughter, Venus, thus replied. 'What would majestic Juno, daughter dread Of Saturn, sire of Jove? I feel a mind Disposed to gratify thee, if thou ask Things possible, and possible to me.' "Then thus, with wiles veiling her deep design, Imperial Juno. 'Give me those desires, That love-enkindling power by which thou sway'st Immortal hearts, and mortal, all alike. For to the green Earth's utmost bounds I go, To visit there the parent of the Gods, Oceanus, and Tethys his espoused, Mother of all. They kindly from the hands Of Rhea took, and with parental care Sustain'd and cherish'd me, what time from heav'n The Thund'rer howl'd down Saturn, and beneath The earth fast bound him and the barren Deep. Them, go I now to visit, and their feuds Innumerable to compose; for long They have from conjugal embrace abstain'd Through mutual wrath; whom by persuasive speech Might I restore into each other's arms, They would for ever love me and revere.