Thieves love and worship thee - it is thy merit
To make all mortal business ebb and flow

By roguery. Now, Hermes, if you dare
By sacred Styx a mighty oath to swear

LXXXIX

"That you will never rob me, you will do A thing extremely pleasing to my heart." Then Mercury sware by the Stygian dew,

That he would never steal his bow or dart, Or lay his hands on what to him was due,

Or ever would employ his powerful art Against his Pythian fane. Then Phoebus swore There was no God or man whom he loved more.

XC

"And I will give thee as a good-will token, The beautiful wand of wealth and happi

ness;

A perfect three-leaved rod of gold unbroken,
Whose magic will thy footsteps ever bless;
And whatsoever by Jove's voice is spoken
Of earthly or divine from its recess,

It, like a loving soul, to thee will speak,—
And more than this, do thou forbear to seek.

XCI

"For, dearest child, the divinations high Which thou requirest, 'tis unlawful ever That thou or any other deity

Should understand

deavor;

and vain were the en

xc. 7 living, Rossetti.

For they are hidden in Jove's mind, and I

In trust of them have sworn that I would never Betray the counsels of Jove's inmost will

To any

66

God- the oath was terrible.

XCII

Then, golden-wanded brother, ask me not To speak the fates by Jupiter designed; But be it mine to tell their various lot

To the unnumbered tribes of humankind. Let good to these and ill to those be wrought As I dispense. But he, who comes consigned By voice and wings of perfect augury To my great shrine, shall find avail in me.

XCIII

"Him will I not deceive, but will assist; But he who comes relying on such birds As chatter vainly, who would strain and twist The purpose of the Gods with idle words, And deems their knowledge light, he shall have missed

His road whilst I among my other hoards His gifts deposit. Yet, O son of May,

I have another wondrous thing to say.

XCIV

"There are three Fates, three virgin Sisters, who,
Rejoicing in their wind-outspeeding wings,
Their heads with flour snowed over white and new,
Sit in a vale round which Parnassus flings

Its circling skirts; from these I have learned true
Vaticinations of remotest things.

My father cared not. Whilst they search out

dooms,

They sit apart and feed on honeycombs.

66

XCV

They, having eaten the fresh honey, grow Drunk with divine enthusiasm, and utter With earnest willingness the truth they know; But if deprived of that sweet food, they mutter All plausible delusions. These to you

I give; if you inquire, they will not stutter. Delight your own soul with them. Any man You would instruct may profit if he can.

XCVI

"Take these and the fierce oxen, Maia's child; O'er many a horse and toil-enduring mule, O'er jagged-jawèd lions, and the wild

White-tusked boars, o'er all, by field or pool, Of cattle which the mighty Mother mild

Nourishes in her bosom, thou shalt rule; Thou dost alone the veil from death uplift; Thou givest not-yet this is a great gift."

XCVII

Thus King Apollo loved the child of May

In truth, and Jove covered their love with

joy.

Hermes with Gods and men even from that day Mingled, and wrought the latter much annoy,

xcvi. 7 from, Harvard MS. || of, Mrs. Shelley, 1824. xcvii. 2 their love with joy, Harvard MS. || them with love and joy, Mrs. Shelley, 1824.

And little profit, going far astray

Through the dun night. Farewell, delightful Boy, never by me,

Of Jove and Maia sprung,

Nor thou, nor other songs, shall unremembered be.

HOMER'S HYMN TO VENUS

[V. 1-55, with some omissions.]

MUSE, sing the deeds of golden Aphrodite,
Who wakens with her smile the lulled delight
Of sweet desire, taming the eternal kings
Of Heaven, and men, and all the living things
That fleet along the air, or whom the sea,
Or earth, with her maternal ministry,
Nourish innumerable, thy delight

All seek

O crowned Aphrodite!

Three spirits canst thou not deceive or quell,
Minerva, child of Jove, who loves too well
Fierce war and mingling combat, and the fame
Of glorious deeds, to heed thy gentle flame.
Diana,
golden-shafted queen,
Is tamed not by thy smiles; the shadows green
Of the wild woods, the bow, the

And piercing cries amid the swift pursuit

Of beasts among waste mountains, such delight
Is hers, and men who know and do the right.
Nor Saturn's first-born daughter, Vesta chaste,
Whom Neptune and Apollo wooed the last,
Such was the will of ægis-bearing Jove;

xcvii. 5 going | wandering, Harvard MS.

Homer's Hymn to Venus. Published by Garnett, 1862, dated 1818.

But sternly she refused the ills of Love,
And by her mighty father's head she swore
An oath not unperformed, that evermore
A virgin she would live 'mid deities
Divine; her father, for such gentle ties
Renounced, gave glorious gifts; thus in his hall
She sits and feeds luxuriously. O'er all
In every fane, her honors first arise

From men

the eldest of Divinities.

These spirits she persuades not, nor deceives,
But none beside escape, so well she weaves
Her unseen toils; nor mortal men, nor gods
Who live secure in their unseen abodes.

She won the soul of him whose fierce delight
Is thunder first in glory and in might.

And, as she willed, his mighty mind deceiving, With mortal limbs his deathless limbs inweaving, Concealed him from his spouse and sister fair, Whom to wise Saturn ancient Rhea bare.

but in return,

In Venus Jove did soft desire awaken,
That, by her own enchantments overtaken,
She might, no more from human union free,
Burn for a nursling of mortality.
For once, amid the assembled Deities,
The laughter-loving Venus from her eyes
Shot forth the light of a soft starlight smile,
And boasting said, that she, secure the while,
Could bring at will to the assembled gods
The mortal tenants of earth's dark abodes,
And mortal offspring from a deathless stem