on were
upon her forehead, with ears of corn with their bright golden colour,
and the royal ornament {of the diadem}; with her was the barking
Anubis,[66] and the holy Bubastis,[67] and the particoloured Apis;[68]
he, too, who suppresses[69] his voice, and with his finger enjoins
silence. There were the sistra too, and Osiris,[70] never enough sought
for; and the foreign serpent,[71] filled with soporiferous poison. When
thus the Goddess addressed her, as though roused from her sleep, and
seeing {all} distinctly: "O Telethusa, one of my votaries, lay aside thy
grievous cares, and evade the commands of thy husband; and do not
hesitate, when Lucina shall have given thee ease by delivery, to bring
up {the child}, whatever it shall be. I am a befriending Goddess,[72]
and, when invoked, I give assistance; and thou shalt not complain that
thou hast worshipped an ungrateful Divinity."

{Thus} she advises her, and {then} retires from her chamber. The Cretan
matron arises joyful from her bed; and suppliantly raising her pure
hands towards the stars {of heaven}, prays that her vision may be
fulfilled. When her pains increased, and her burden forced itself into
the light, and a girl was born to the father unaware of it, the mother
ordered it to be brought up, pretending it was a boy; and the thing
gained belief, nor was any one but the nurse acquainted with the fact.
The father performed his vows, and gave {the child} the name of its
grandfather. The grandfather had been called Iphis. The mother rejoiced
in that name because it was common {to both sexes}, nor would she be
deceiving[73] any one by it. Her deception lay unperceived under this
fraud, the result of natural affection. The {child's} dress was that of
a boy; the face such, that, whether you gave it to a girl or to a boy,
either would be beautiful. In the meantime the third year had {now}
succeeded the tenth, when her father, O Iphis, promised to thee, in
marriage, the yellow-haired Iaenthe, who was a virgin the most commended
among all the women of Phaestus, for the endowments of her beauty; the
daughter of the Dictaean Telestes. Equal was their age, their beauty
equal; and they received their first instruction, the elements {suited}
to their age, from the same preceptor.

Love, in consequence, touches the inexperienced breasts of them both,
and inflicts on each an equal wound; but {how} different are their
hopes! Iaenthe awaits the time of their union, and of the cerem