gian stream bear witness.
He {is} the dread and the God of the Gods."

Overjoyed at {what was} her misfortune, and too {easily} prevailing, as
now about to perish by the complaisance of her lover, Semele said,
"Present thyself to me, just such as the daughter of Saturn is wont to
embrace thee, when ye honor the ties of Venus." The God wished to shut
her mouth as she spoke, {but} the hasty words had now escaped into air.
He groaned; for neither was it {now} possible for her not to have
wished, nor for him not to have sworn. Therefore, in extreme sadness, he
mounted the lofty skies, and with his nod drew along the attendant
clouds; to which he added showers and lightnings mingled with winds, and
thunders, and the inevitable thunderbolt.

[Footnote 61: _I will take care._--Ver. 271. 'Faxo,' 'I will
make,' is sometimes used by the best authors for 'fecero;' and
'faxim' for 'faciam,' or 'fecerim.']

[Footnote 62: _Beroe._--Ver. 278. Iris, in the fifth book of the
AEneid (l. 620), assumes the form of another Beroe; and a third
person of that name is mentioned in the fourth book of the
Georgics, l. 34.]

[Footnote 63: _Epidaurian._--Ver. 278. Epidaurus was a famous city
of Argolis, in Peloponnesus, famous for its temple, dedicated to
the worship of AEsculapius, who was the tutelary Divinity of that
city.]

EXPLANATION.

It is most probable, that an intrigue between a female named Semele
and one of the princes called Jupiter having had a tragical end, gave
occasion to this Fable. Pausanias, in his Laconica, tells us, that
Cadmus, exasperated against his daughter Semele, caused her and her
son to be thrown into the sea; and that being thrown ashore at Oreate,
an ancient town of Laconia, Semele was buried there.

Semele, according to Apollodorus, was, after her death, ranked among
the Goddesses by the name of Thyone. He says that her son Bacchus
going down to hell, brought her thence, and carried her up to heaven;
where, according to Nonnus, she conversed with Pallas and Diana, and
ate at the same table with Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Venus. The
author, known by the name of Orpheus, gives Semele the title of
Goddess, and +Panbasileia+, or 'Queen of the Universe.'

FABLE V. [III.302-338]

Semele is visited by Jupiter, according to the promise she had obliged
him to make; but, being unable to support the effulgence of his
lightning, she i