I shall be grateful to
you ever after. Close Jove's keen eyes for me in slumber while I hold
him clasped in my embrace, and I will give you a beautiful golden seat,
that can never fall to pieces; my clubfooted son Vulcan shall make it
for you, and he shall give it a footstool for you to rest your fair
feet upon when you are at table."

Then Sleep answered, "Juno, great queen of goddesses, daughter of
mighty Saturn, I would lull any other of the gods to sleep without
compunction, not even excepting the waters of Oceanus from whom all of
them proceed, but I dare not go near Jove, nor send him to sleep unless
he bids me. I have had one lesson already through doing what you asked
me, on the day when Jove's mighty son Hercules set sail from Ilius
after having sacked the city of the Trojans. At your bidding I suffused
my sweet self over the mind of aegis-bearing Jove, and laid him to
rest; meanwhile you hatched a plot against Hercules, and set the blasts
of the angry winds beating upon the sea, till you took him to the
goodly city of Cos, away from all his friends. Jove was furious when he
awoke, and began hurling the gods about all over the house; he was
looking more particularly for myself, and would have flung me down
through space into the sea where I should never have been heard of any
more, had not Night who cows both men and gods protected me. I fled to
her and Jove left off looking for me in spite of his being so angry,
for he did not dare do anything to displease Night. And now you are
again asking me to do something on which I cannot venture."

And Juno said, "Sleep, why do you take such notions as those into your
head? Do you think Jove will be as anxious to help the Trojans, as he
was about his own son? Come, I will marry you to one of the youngest of
the Graces, and she shall be your own--Pasithea, whom you have always
wanted to marry."

Sleep was pleased when he heard this, and answered, "Then swear it to
me by the dread waters of the river Styx; lay one hand on the bounteous
earth, and the other on the sheen of the sea, so that all the gods who
dwell down below with Saturn may be our witnesses, and see that you
really do give me one of the youngest of the Graces--Pasithea, whom I
have always wanted to marry."

Juno did as he had said. She swore, and invoked all the gods of the
nether world, who are called Titans, to witness. When she had completed
her oath, the two enshrouded themselves in a thick mist and