Then friendly night arose To succour Earth, and spread Her mantle o'er the snows 230 And quenched their rosy red; But in the east upsprings Another light on them, Selêné with white wings And hueless diadem. Little could she befriend Her father's house and state, Nor her weak beams defend Hyperion from his fate. Only where'er she shines, 240 In terror looking forth, She sees the wailing pines Stoop to the bitter North: Or searching twice or thrice Along the rocky walls, She marks the columned ice Of frozen waterfalls: But still the darkened cave Grew darker as she shone, Wherein was Rhea gone 250 Her child to bear and save. [_They dance._ Then danced the Dactyls and Curêtes wild, And drowned with yells the cries of mother and child; Big-armed Damnámeneus gan prance and shout: And burly Acmon struck the echoes out: And Kermis leaped and howled: and Titias pranced And broad Cyllenus tore the air and danced: While deep within the shadowed cave at rest Lay Rhea, with her babe upon her breast. _INACHUS._ If any here there be whose impure hands 260 Among pure hands, or guilty heart among Our guiltless hearts be stained with blood or wrong, Let him depart! If there be any here in whom high Zeus Seeing impiety might turn away, Now from our sacrifice and from his sin Let him depart! _Semichorus of maidens._ I have chosen to praise Hêra the wife, and bring A hymn for the feast on marriage days 270 To the wife of the gods' king. How on her festival The gods had loving strife, Which should give of them all The fairest gift to the wife. But Earth said, Fair to see Is mine and yields to none, I have grown for her joy a sacred tree, With apples of gold thereon. Then Hêra, when she heard what Earth had given, 280 Smiled for her joy, and longed and came to see: On dovewings flying from the height of heaven, Down to the golden tree: As tired birds at even Come flying straight to house On their accustomed boughs. 'Twas where, on tortured hands Bearing the mighty pole. Devoted Atlas stands: And round his bowed head roll 290 Day-light and night, and stars unmingled dance, Nor can he raise his glance.