The Grecians, while thine aid is given to Troy? 
    To whom Jove’s daughter Venus thus replied. 
  What would majestic Juno, daughter dread
  Of Saturn, sire of Jove?  I feel a mind
  Disposed to gratify thee, if thou ask 230
  Things possible, and possible to me. 
    Then thus with wiles veiling her deep design
  Imperial Juno.  Give me those desires,
  That love-enkindling power by which thou sway’st
  Immortal hearts and mortal, all alike; 235
  For to the green earth’s utmost bounds I go,
  To visit there the parent of the Gods,
  Oceanus, and Tethys his espoused,
  Mother of all.  They kindly from the hands
  Of Rhea took, and with parental care 240
  Sustain’d and cherish’d me, what time from heaven
  The Thunderer hurled down Saturn, and beneath
  The earth fast bound him and the barren Deep. 
  Them go I now to visit, and their feuds
  Innumerable to compose; for long 245
  They have from conjugal embrace abstain’d
  Through mutual wrath, whom by persuasive speech
  Might I restore into each other’s arms,
  They would for ever love me and revere. 
    Her, foam-born Venus then, Goddess of smiles, 250
  Thus answer’d.  Thy request, who in the arms
  Of Jove reposest the omnipotent,
  Nor just it were nor seemly to refuse. 
    So saying, the cincture from her breast she loosed
  Embroider’d, various, her all-charming zone. 255
  It was an ambush of sweet snares, replete
  With love, desire, soft intercourse of hearts,
  And music of resistless whisper’d sounds
  That from the wisest steal their best resolves;
  She placed it in her hands and thus she said. 260
    Take this—­this girdle fraught with every charm. 
  Hide this within thy bosom, and return,
  Whate’er thy purpose, mistress of it all. 
    She spake; imperial Juno smiled, and still
  Smiling complacent, bosom’d safe the zone. 265
  Then Venus to her father’s court return’d,
  And Juno, starting from the Olympian height,
  O’erflew Pieria and the lovely plains
  Of broad Emathia; soaring thence she swept
  The snow-clad summits of the Thracian hills 270
  Steed-famed, nor printed, as she passed, the soil. 
  From Athos o’er the foaming billows borne
  She came to Lemnos, city and abode
  Of noble Thoas, and there meeting Sleep,
  Brother of Death, she press’d his hand, and said, 275
    Sleep, over all, both Gods and men, supreme! 
  If ever thou hast heard, hear also now
  My suit; I will be grateful evermore. 
  Seal for me fast the radiant eyes of Jove
  In the instant of his gratified desire. 280
  Thy recompense shall be a throne of gold,