Homer ILIAD : Rhapsody 14

Page 13

But him the venerable Juno, meditating guiles, addressed; "I go to visit the limits of the fertile earth, and Oceanus, the parent of the gods, and mother Tethys, who nurtured and trained me with care in their palaces. Them I go to see, and will take away their bitter quarrels. For already they abstain a long while from the couch and embrace of each other; since anger has invaded their minds. But my steeds, which will bear me over dry and wet, stand near the base of Ida with many rills. Now, however, on thy account have I come hither from Olympus, lest perchance thou shouldst afterwards be angry with me, were I to depart in secret to the abode of deep-flowing Oceanus?"

But her cloud-collecting Jove answering, addressed: "Juno, thither thou canst go even by-and-by, but come [now], let us, reclining, be delighted with love; for never at any time did the love of a goddess or a woman, poured around the heart within my breast, so subdue me: neither when I loved the wife of Ixion, who bore Pirithous, a counsellor equal to the gods; nor when [I loved] fair-ankled Danae, the daughter of Acrisius, who bore Perseus, most illustrious of all men; nor when with that of the celebrated daughter of Phoenix,[476] who bore to me Minos and godlike Rhadamanthus:[477] nor yet when [I loved] Semele, nor Alcmena in Thebes, who brought forth my valiant son Hercules: but Semele bore [me] Bacchus, a joy to mortals: nor when [I loved] Ceres, the fair-haired queen: nor when glorious Latona nor thyself; as I now love thee, and sweet desire seizes me."

[Footnote 476: But Europa is generally considered to be the daughter of Agenor. See Grote, vol. i. p. 350.]

[Footnote 477: On the career of Rhadamanthus, who is "after death promoted to an abode of undisturbed bliss in the Elysian plain at the extremity of the earth," see Grote, vol. i. p. 300.]

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