Sexual life in ancient Greece : with thirty-two full-page plates

INTRODUCTION

Hypnos, terrified, flatly refuses the dangerous commission of the goddess, and not until she has promised him under a solemn oath one of the Graces as a reward, does he consent. He repairs with Hera to the mountains of Ida, from the heights of which Zeus is looking down upon the combat between Greeks and Trojans. Hypnos changes himself into a bird, and perches on a lofty fir-tree, to wait for the end of the love-scene between Zeus and Hera, on the description of which Homer spends more than sixty lines.

Hera invents various reasons why she has decked herself out in such a manner, and, by the pretended excuse that she is going on an important journey, arouses the desire of the god, who is infatuated with her beauty. Zeus tells her that he has never yet been so excited by a woman as he is now at the sight of her, and proceeds to enumerate, with a naivete certainly to be found nowhere else in the world’s literature, for the benefit of his wife (!), an imposing list of women who had rested in his arms without his having ever felt half so much excitement as on the present occasion.

To his desire that they should unite at once and on the spot in the enjoyment of love, Hera raises the objection that they might be seen here by one or other of the gods, and proposes to repair with him to the bridal-bed in the palace of Olympus, where she will comply with his wishes.

“Then in answer to her spake Zeus the cloudgatherer : ‘ Hera, fear thou not that any god or man shall behold the thing; with such a cloud shall I enfold thee withal, a cloud of gold. Therethrough might not even Helios discern us twain, albeit his sight is the keenest of all for beholding.’ Therewith the son of Cronos clasped his wife to his arms, and beneath them the divine earth made freshsprung grass to grow, and dewy lotus, and crocus, and hyacinth, thick and soft, that upbare them from the ground. Therein lay the twain, and were clothed

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