“Mother, be patient and submit, although In sadness, lest these eyes behold thee yet Beaten with stripes, and though I hold thee dear And grieve for thee, I cannot bring thee help; For hard it is to strive with Jupiter. Already once, when I took part with thee, He seized me by the foot and flung me o’er The battlements of heaven. All day I fell, And with the setting sun I struck the earth In Lemnos. Little life was left in me, What time the Sintians took me from the ground.”

He spake, and Juno, the white-shouldered, smiled, And smiling took the cup her son had brought; And next he poured to all the other gods Sweet nectar from the jar, beginning first With those at the right hand. As they beheld Lame Vulcan laboring o’er the palace-floor, An inextinguishable laughter broke From all the blessed gods. So feasted they All day till sunset. From that equal feast None stood aloof, nor from the pleasant sound Of harp, which Phoebus touched, nor from the voice Of Muses singing sweetly in their turn.