Long is their life, and immortal food do they eat, and they join in the
goodly dance with the immortal Gods. With them the Sileni and the keen-
sighted Slayer of Argus live in dalliance in the recesses of the darkling
caves. At their birth there sprang up pine trees or tall-crested oaks on
the fruitful earth, nourishing and fair, and on the lofty mountain they
stand, and are called the groves of the immortal Gods, which in no wise
doth man cut down with the steel. But when the fate of death approaches,
first do the fair trees wither on the ground, and the bark about them
moulders, and the twigs fall down, and even as the tree perishes so the
soul of the nymph leaves the light of the sun.

"These nymphs will keep my child with them and rear him; and him when
first he enters on lovely youth shall these Goddesses bring hither to
thee, and show thee. But to thee, that I may tell thee all my mind, will
I come in the fifth year bringing my son. At the sight of him thou wilt
be glad when thou beholdest him with thine eyes, for he will be divinely
fair, and thou wilt lead him straightway to windy Ilios. But if any
mortal man asketh of thee what mother bare this thy dear son, be mindful
to answer him as I command: say that he is thy son by one of the flower-
faced nymphs who dwell in this forest-clad mountain, but if in thy folly
thou speakest out, and boastest to have been the lover of fair-garlanded
Cytherea, then Zeus in his wrath will smite thee with the smouldering
thunderbolt. Now all is told to thee: do thou be wise, and keep thy
counsel, and speak not my name, but revere the wrath of the Gods."

So spake she, and soared up into the windy heaven.

Goddess, Queen of well-stablished Cyprus, having given thee honour due, I
shall pass on to another hymn.