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Tag: Styx/ goddess
_________ Old Beroe’s decrepit shape she wears, Her wrinkled visage, and her hoary hairs; Old Beroe, faithful servant of Semele
hoary hairs, love it Whilst in her trembling gait she totters on, And learns to tattle in the nurse’s tone. Juno / Hera transforms herself into Old Beroe, tattl[ing], talking idly, in the nurse’s tone, impersonating herin order to seek revenge, if you’ll her husband’s progeny The Goddess, thus disguis’d in age, beguil’d With pleasing stories her false foster-child. foster-child, a child who is fostered,nurtured, by someone other than a parent, Semele , by Old Beroe, purportedly, in this instance false, Juno / Hera is not Old Beroe, but the nurse’s duplicitous, false, in both senses of the word here, double beguil’d, enchanted, amused Much did she talk of love, and when she came To mention to the nymph her lover’s name, Fetching a sigh, and holding down her head, “‘Tis well,” says she, “if all be true that’s said. I thought, meets Sleeping Beauty’s wicked stepmother, for a more contemporary coupling But trust me, child, I’m much inclin’d to fear Some counterfeit in this your Jupiter: Some counterfeit, your Jupiter is notyour [actual] Jupiter, Juno / Hera suggests Many an honest well-designing maid Has been by these pretended Gods betray’d, well-designing, without guile, withno ulterior motive pretended Gods, men who unjustifiablybeat their chest, tell tall tales, unequal to their proclaimed accomplishments But if he be indeed the thund’ring Jove, Bid him, when next he courts the rites of love, Descend triumphant from th’ etherial sky, In all the pomp of his divinity, Encompass’d round by those celestial charms, With which he fills th’ immortal Juno’s arms.”
to ask her lover, when next he courts the rites of love, to prove he is indeedappropriately Encompass’d round , accoutred,enveloped, in the pomp, incidentally, the splendour of his divinity, take on a couple of extra poetic lines, verses, indicative of that very splendour note also that Semele seems to have marital status, about bearing the child of another woman’s man, indeed that of a very, in this instance, goddess, Th’ unwary nymph, ensnar’d with what she said, ensnar’d, ensnarled, caught up in
Desir’d of Jove, when next he sought her bed, To grant a certain gift which she would chuse; Desir’d of, asked of, requested of chuse, choose “Fear not,” reply’d the God, “that I’ll refuse Whate’er you ask: may Styx confirm my voice, Chuse what you will, and you shall have your choice.” forms the boundary between Earth and Titans and been granted by him thatoaths should henceforth all be sworn upon her, and be punctiliously observed his own son Phaeton his wish upon very for both, of consequences “Then,” says the nymph, “when next you seek my arms, May you descend in those celestial charms, And fill with transport Heav’n’s immortal dame.” show me, Semele asks of her suitor, what she gets, what Juno / Hera gets, when next you seek my arms go, girl, I thought, if you’re going to be irreverent The God surpriz’d would fain have stopp’d her voice, But he had sworn, and she had made her choice. on very Styx , he’d sworn, ever so perilously stay tuned R ! chard
______ While Hermes pip’d, and sung, and told his tale, The keeper’s winking eyes began to fail, The keeper, Argus , of Io , nymphbecome heifer And drowsie slumber on the lids to creep; ‘Till all the watchman was at length asleep. all the watchman, all of Argus ‘ eyes, were closed, asleep, at length, after a time Then soon the God his voice, and song supprest; the God, Hermes , messenger of thegods, on a mission from Jove / become heifer his voice, and song supprest, Hermes stopped talking, stopped playing his song, his music And with his pow’rful rod confirm’d his rest: his powerful rod, the caduceus , with which Hermes could both waken those asleep as well lull the wakeful to slumber Without delay his crooked faulchion drew, faulchion, now spelled falchion, is a short sword with only one sharp edge, a sort of sickle since falchions go back only to the 13th Century, Dryden ‘s translation from the Latin has to be an anachronism just saying And at one fatal stroke the keeper slew. Down from the rock fell the dissever’d head, Opening its eyes in death; and falling, bled; And mark’d the passage with a crimson trail: Thus Argus lies in pieces, cold, and pale; And all his hundred eyes, with all their light, Are clos’d at once, in one perpetual night. These Juno takes, that they no more may fail, And spreads them in her peacock’s gaudy tail. goddesses Impatient to revenge her injur’d bed, Juno had been offended by the fact transgressed She wreaks her anger on her rival’s head; her rival, Io With Furies frights her from her native home; Furies, also known as Erinyes , goddesses of vengeance, the oldest of all the deities, they live in Erebus , the Underworld, look frightful, snakes in their hair, bat’s wings, and haunt, unsettle, the disrespectful, the insolent, those who betray, are not true to, their word frights, frightens And drives her gadding, round the world to roam: her, Io , nymph become heifer to gad, to wander Nor ceas’d her madness, and her flight, before She touch’d the limits of the Pharian shore. Pharian, relating to Pharos , island off the coast of Alexandria , notable for its lighthouse, itself called Pharos , At length, arriving on the banks of Nile, Wearied with length of ways, and worn with toil, She laid her down; She laid her down, she laid herself down, stopped, stayed in place and leaning on her knees, Invok’d the cause of all her miseries: the cause of all her miseries, Jove / her, Io , to the wrath of Juno , his wife, when she’d discovered him to be unfaithful And cast her languishing regards above, For help from Heav’n, and her ungrateful Jove. She sigh’d, she wept, she low’d; ’twas all she cou’d; And with unkindness seem’d to tax the God. to tax, to accuse, to make responsible for Last, with an humble pray’r, she beg’d repose, Or death at least, to finish all her woes. repose, relief, Io , nymph become heifer, has completely had it Jove heard her vows, and with a flatt’ring look, In her behalf to jealous Juno spoke, a flatt’ring look, a seductive approach,toward Juno , his reproachful wife He cast his arms about her neck, and said, Dame, rest secure; no more thy nuptial bed This nymph shall violate; Dame, or Madam by Styx I swear, Styx , one of the five rivers that separate Earth from the Underworld, also one of the earliest goddesses, after whom the river itself was named, who had, significantly, sided with Jove / War , for which, upon having won, all oaths be sworn upon her, Styx , much as we, in our own day, swear upon Bibles this all precedes, note, Bibles And every oath that binds the Thunderer. god, indeed, of Thunder The Goddess was appeas’d; The Goddess, Juno and at the word Was Io to her former shape restor’d. The rugged hair began to fall away; The sweetness of her eyes did only stay, Tho’ not so large; her crooked horns decrease; The wideness of her jaws and nostrils cease: Her hoofs to hands return, in little space: little space, the blink of an eye The five long taper fingers take their place, And nothing of the heyfer now is seen, Beside the native whiteness of the skin. Erected on her feet she walks again: And two the duty of the four sustain. rather than walk on four feet, Io now stands erect, [e]rected, on two She tries her tongue; her silence softly breaks, And fears her former lowings when she speaks: she can hardly believe she’s become, not just a nymph, but indeed A Goddess now, through all th’ Aegyptian State: And serv’d by priests, who in white linnen wait. Io has become the Egyptian but that’s an entirely other story stay tuned R ! chard
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