Meantime Alcyone (his fate unknown) Computes how many nights he had been gone: Observes the waning moon with hourly view, Numbers her age, and wishes for a new; Against the promised time provides with care, And hastens in the woof the robes he was to wear; And for herself employs another loom, New dress’d to meet her lord returning home, Flattering her heart with joys that never were to come: She fumed the temples with an odorous flame, And oft before the sacred altars came, To pray for him, who was an empty name. All powers implored, but far above the rest To Juno she her pious vows address’d, Her much-loved lord from perils to protect, And safe o’er seas his voyage to direct: Then pray’d, that she might still possess his heart, And no pretending rival share a part. This last petition heard of all her prayer, The rest, dispersed by winds, were lost in air.