Dialogues of the Gods (19.1-19.2)

What’s this I hear you’re up to, Mistress Moon? They say that every time you get over Caria, you stop your team and gaze at Endymion sleeping out of doors in hunter’s fashion, and sometimes even leave your course and go down to him.

Ask your own son, [*] Aphrodite; it’s his fault.

You needn’t tell me. He’s got a cheek right enough. See what he’s done to me, his own mother. First he brought me down to Ida after Anchises the Trojan, and then to Mount Libanus after that Assyrian lad [*] ; and then he made Persephone fall in love with the boy and robbed me of half my sweetheart. So I’ve threatened him time and again, if he doesn’t stop it, I’ll smash his archery set and strip off his wings. Last time I even took my sandal to his behind. But somehow or other, though he’s scared for the moment and begs for

But tell me, is Endymion good-looking? If so, your plight is sorry indeed.

I think he’s very good-looking, Aphrodite, especially when he sleeps with his cloak under him on the rock, with his javelins just slipping out of his left hand as he holds them, and his right hand bent upwards round his head and framing his face makes a charming picture, while he’s relaxed in sleep and breathing in the sweetest way imaginable. Then I creep down quietly on tip-toe, so as not to waken him and give him a fright, and then—but you can guess; there’s no need to tell you what happens next. You must remember I’m dying of love.