and noticed not the approach of Cypris. And she stood before her boy,
and laying her hand on his lips, addressed him:

"Why dost thou smile in triumph, unutterable rogue? Hast thou cheated
him thus, and unjustly overcome the innocent child? Come, be ready to
perform for me the task I will tell thee of, and I will give thee Zeus'
all-beauteous plaything--the one which his dear nurse Adrasteia made for
him, while he still lived a child, with childish ways, in the Idaean
cave--a well-rounded ball; no better toy wilt thou get from the hands of
Hephaestus. All of gold are its zones, and round each double seams run
in a circle; but the stitches are hidden, and a dark blue spiral
overlays them all. But if thou shouldst cast it with thy hands, lo, like
a star, it sends a flaming track through the sky. This I will give thee;
and do thou strike with thy shaft and charm the daughter of Aeetes with
love for Jason; and let there be no loitering. For then my thanks would
be the slighter."

Thus she spake, and welcome were her words to the listening boy. And he
threw down all his toys, and eagerly seizing her robe on this side and
on that, clung to the goddess. And he implored her to bestow the gift at
once; but she, facing him with kindly words, touched his cheeks, kissed
him and drew him to her, and replied with a smile:

"Be witness now thy dear head and mine, that surely I will give thee the
gift and deceive thee not, if thou wilt strike with thy shaft Aeetes'
daughter."

She spoke, and he gathered up his dice, and having well counted them all
threw them into his mother's gleaming lap. And straightway with golden
baldric he slung round him his quiver from where it leant against a