O fair, O gracious damsel, even now art thou a wedded wife; but we will go forth right early to the course we ran, and to the grassy meadows, to gather sweet-breathing coronals of flowers, thinking often upon thee, Helen, even as youngling lambs that miss the teats of the mother-ewe. For thee first will we twine a wreath of lotus flowers that lowly grow, and hang it on a shadowy plane tree, for thee first will we take soft oil from the silver phial, and drop it beneath a shadowy plane tree, and letters will we grave on the bark, in Dorian wise, so that the wayfarer may read: WORSHIP ME, I AM THE TREE OF HELEN. Good night, thou bride, good night, thou groom that hast won a mighty sire! May Leto, Leto, the nurse of noble offspring, give you the blessing of children; and may Cypris, divine Cypris, grant you equal love, to cherish each the other; and may Zeus, even Zeus the son of Cronos, give you wealth imperishable, to be handed down from generation to generation of the princes. Sleep ye, breathing love and desire each into the other’s breast, but forget not to wake in the dawning, and at dawn we too will come, when the earliest cock shrills from his perch, and raises his feathered neck. _Hymen_, _O Hymenae_, _rejoice thou in this bridal_. IDYL XIX _This little piece is but doubtfully ascribed to Theocritus_. _The motif is that of a well-known Anacreontic Ode_. _The idyl has been translated by Ronsard_. * * * * * THE thievish Love,—a cruel bee once stung him, as he was rifling honey from the hives, and pricked his finger-tips all; then he was in pain, and blew upon his hand, and leaped, and stamped the ground. And then he showed his hurt to Aphrodite, and made much complaint, how that the bee is a tiny creature, and yet what wounds it deals! And his mother laughed out, and said, ‘Art thou not even such a creature as the bees, for tiny art thou, but what wounds thou dealest!’ IDYL XX _A herdsman_, _who had been contemptuously rejected by Eunica_, _a girl of the town_, _protests that he is beautiful_, _and that Eunica is prouder than Cybele_, _Selene_, _and Aphrodite_, _all of whom loved mortal herdsmen_. _For grammatical and other reasons_, _some critics consider this idyl apocryphal_. * * * * *