rather concealed the wound.  If haply, however, thou, in the hardness of thy unbelief, rejectest the testimony of heaven, and searchest rather for examples of those in this nether world who have felt his power, I affirm them to be so multitudinous that where to begin I know not.  Yet this much may I tell thee truly:  all who have confessed his sway have been men of might and valor.  Consider attentively, in the first place, that undaunted son of Alcmena, who, laying aside his arrows and the formidable skin of the huge lion, was fain to adorn his fingers with green emeralds, and to smooth and adjust his bristling and rebellions hair.  Nay, that hand which aforetime had wielded the terrific club, and slain therewith Antaeus, and dragged the hound of hell from the lower world, was now content to draw the woolen threads spun from Omphale’s distaff; and the shoulders whereon had rested the pillars of the heavens, from which he had for a time freed Atlas, were now clasped in Omphale’s arms, and afterward, to do her pleasure, covered with a diaphanous raiment of purple.  Need I relate what Paris did in obedience to the great deity? or Helen? or Clytemnestra? or AEgisthus?  These are things that are well known to all the world.  Nor do I care to speak of Achilles, or of Scylla, of Ariadne or Leander, of Dido, or of many others, of whom the same tale could be told, were there need to tell it.  Believe me when I affirm that this fire is holy, and most potent as well.  Thou hast heard that heaven and earth are subject to my son because of his lordship over gods and men.  But what shall I say of the power that he exercises over irrational animals, whether celestial or terrene?  It is through him that the turtle is fain to follow her mate; it is through him that my pigeons have learned to caress his ringdoves with fondest endearments.  And there is no creeping or living creature that has ever at any time attempted to escape from his puissance:  in the woods the timid stag, made fierce by his touch, becomes brave for sake of the coveted hind and by bellowing and fighting, they prove how strong are the witcheries of Love.  The ferocious boars are made by Love to froth at the mouth and sharpen their ivory tusks; the African lions, when Love quickens them, shake their manes in fury.  But leaving the groves and forests, I assert that even in the chilly waters the numberless divinities of the sea and of the flowing rivers are not safe from the bolts of my son.  Neither can I for a moment believe that thou art ignorant of the testimony thereof which has been rendered by Neptune, Glaucus, Alpheus, and others too numerous to mention:  not only were they unable to quench the flame with their dank waters, but they could not even moderate its fury, which, when it had made its might felt, both on the earth and in the waters, continued its onward course, and rested not until it had penetrated into the gloomy realms of Dis.  Therefore Heaven and Earth and Ocean and Hell itself