296 F OVULAR TALES OF FLOWERS 
iorth into such a loud, wailing lamentation that the sound 
found its way unto Olympus, and fell upon the ever-open 
ear of Jove, who in a moment dashed the golden nectar- 
cup upon the ground, which he was in the act of lifting 
to his lips, and sprang upon his feet. 
There was a sound of hurrying to and fro over the 
mountain-summits which sloped down to the edge of the 
forest — of gods and goddesses passing through the air — 
of golden chariots that went whistling along like the wind 
as they cleft their rapid way — ^and the flapping of dark, 
immortal wings, between which many a beautiful divinity 
was seated. 
The golden clouds of sunset gathered red and ominously 
about the rounded summit of Olympus, and a blood-red 
light glared upon such parts of the forest as were not 
darkened by the deepening shadows of the approaching 
twilight; for the Thunderer had stamped his immortal 
foot, and jarred the mighty mountain to its very base. 
And now, in that forest iS Je, which but a few moments 
before was so wild and desolate, where only the forms 
of the grisly boar, the dead Adonis, and the weeping 
Goddess of Beauty broke the level lines of the angry 
sunset, were assembled the stern Gods, and the weeping 
Graces, and the fluttering Loves that ever hover around 
the chariot of Venus. With bleeding feet and drooping 
head; wan, and cold, and speechless, was the Goddess 
of Beauty borne into her golden chariot, and, with the 
dead body of Adonis, wafted by her silver and silent- 
winged doves to Mount Olympus. And then a deep dark- 
ness settled down upon the forest. Death was to her a 
new grief ; she had seen the sun set from the steep of 
Olympus, but only to arise again on the morrow; the 
roses of Paphos withered, but there were ever other buds 
hanging beside them ready to open; and although she 
knew that all things change, yet Death had never before 
seized upon one whom she loved. 
In vain did Jove attempt to comfort her — ^throughout 
the long hours which wrap earth in night she wept without 
ceasing. The stars of heaven burnt brightly around her, 
but she regarded them not, for those which she loved to 
look into were dim and quenched for ever. In low tones 
the mighty Thunderer told her that all who were mortal 
