e of Jupiter alone does not so much declare whether she blames or
whether she approves, as she rejoices at the calamity of a family sprung
from Agenor, and transfers the hatred that she has conceived from the
Tyrian mistress to the partners of her race. Lo! a fresh occasion is
{now} added to the former one; and she grieves that Semele is pregnant
from the seed of great Jupiter. She then lets loose her tongue to abuse.

"And what good have I done by railing so often?" said she. "She herself
must be attacked {by me}. If I am properly called the supreme Juno,
I will destroy her; if it becomes me to hold the sparkling sceptre in my
right hand; if I am the queen, and both the sister and wife of Jupiter.
The sister {I am}, no doubt. But I suppose she is content with a stolen
embrace, and the injury to my bed is but trifling. She is {now}
pregnant; that {alone} was wanting; and she bears the evidence of his
crime in her swelling womb, and wishes to be made a mother by Jupiter,
a thing which hardly fell to my lot alone. So great is her confidence in
her beauty. I will take care[61] he shall deceive her; and may I be no
daughter of Saturn, if she does not descend to the Stygian waves, sunk
{there} by her own {dear} Jupiter."

Upon this she rises from her throne, and, hidden in a cloud of fiery
hue, she approaches the threshold of Semele. Nor did she remove the
clouds before she counterfeited an old woman, and planted gray hair on
her temples; and furrowed her skin with wrinkles, and moved her bending
limbs with palsied step, and made her voice that of an old woman. She
became Beroe[62] herself, the Epidaurian[63] nurse of Semele. When,
therefore, upon engaging in discourse with her, and {after} long
talking, they came to the name of Jupiter, she sighed, and said,
"I {only} wish it may be Jupiter; yet I {am apt to} fear everything.
Many a one under the name of a God has invaded a chaste bed. Nor yet is
it enough that he is Jupiter; let him, if, indeed, he is the real one,
give some pledge of his affection; and beg of him to bestow his caresses
on thee, just in the greatness and form in which he is received by the
stately Juno; and let him first assume his ensigns {of royalty}." With
such words did Juno tutor the unsuspecting daughter of Cadmus. She
requested of Jupiter a favor, without naming it. To her the God said,
"Make thy choice, thou shalt suffer no denial; and that thou mayst
believe it the more, let the majesty of the Sty