Book I

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"You are always suspecting," answered Jupiter, "but now it will avail you nothing. Even though I have done what you say, such is my sovereign pleasure. Be silent, and sit down in peace, and take care not to provoke my anger."

[Illustration: JUNO.

_National Museum, Naples._]

At this point Vulcan interfered, entreating his mother, Juno, to submit to the will of almighty Jove; "for," said he, "if the Thunderer wishes to hurl us from our seats in heaven he can easily do it, since his power is far greater than that of all the other gods."

Vulcan then reminded her how she and he had both been punished on a former occasion for an offense against Jupiter. When Hercules was returning to Greece from Troy after capturing that city, Juno, who hated the great hero, caused a storm to be raised in the Ægean Sea, which drove his ships out of their course and almost destroyed them. That she might do this without Jupiter knowing it, she contrived to cast him into a deep sleep. When he awoke and found out what she had done, he was so angry that he hung her from the heavens by a golden chain, and tied two heavy iron anvils to her feet. Vulcan tried to loose the chains and set his mother free, and for this offense Jupiter hurled him from the abode of the gods. He fell on the island of Lem'nos in the Ægean Sea, but some of the inhabitants, seeing him descend, caught him in their arms. Nevertheless, he broke his leg by the fall and was ever afterwards lame.

How he fell From heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove Sheer o'er the crystal battlements; from morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, A summer's day; and with the setting sun Dropped from the zenith, like a falling star, On Lemnos, the Ægean isle.

MILTON, _Paradise Lost_,