FABLE XVI.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Ovid and Riley, Henry T. (Henry Thomas)
Mercury, having lulled Argus to sleep, cuts off his head, and Juno places his eyes in the peacock’s tail.
The Cyllenian God109 being about to say such things, perceived that all his eyes were sunk in sleep, and that his sight was wrapped110 in slumber. At once he puts an end to his song, and strengthens his slumbers, stroking his languid eyes with his magic wand. There is no delay; he wounds him, as he nods, with his crooked sword, where the head is joined to the neck; and casts him, all blood-stained, from the rock, and stains the craggy cliff with his gore.
Argus, thou liest low, and the light which thou hadst in so many eyes is now extinguished; and one night I. 722-733 takes possession of a whole hundred eyes. The daughter of Saturn takes them, and places them on the feathers of her own bird, and she fills its tail with starry gems.