Ovid’s Metamorphoses #077/111: “Sleep”

What this project is about.  

This one is from Book 11.

Or if you prefer

How long it took to read this (aloud): 4 mins 49s

What it’s “about”: Iris is on a mission from (a g)od. She wakes Sleep, gives him the gig, gets out before falling asleep. Sleep taps Morpheus on the shoulder…

Words I didn’t know: None

Quotable quotes: 

Down where Cimmerians lived a mountain’s cave 

Concealed the home of Sleep where Idleness, 

Languor, and Listlessness slept side by side, 

And all at rest in rooms of shadowed ease 

No Phoebus entered there with morning light, 

No noons nor reddening twilights touched the floors, 

Only fog-breathing Earth held Sleep in her arms, 

In shades where cock-crow never wakes the dawn 

Nor does the watchdog waken Sleep with warnings, 

Nor does one hear the cry of geese whose noises 

Have sharper cleverness than barking dogs, 

Nor sound of beasts, nor low of wandering cattle, 

Men’s voices nor the quick-tongued voice of leaves.

AND

Around him drift the shapes of empty dreams, 

As many images as ears of grain in autumn, 

As leaves on trees, as sands along the beach

AND

Then Iris, almost overcome by Sleep 

Ran from his cave and briskly took her way — 

Arched like a rainbow, went the path she came.

AND

One of his brothers was an expert at 

Zoology; he could be bird or beast, 

And he could writhe like any long-tailed snake. 

Gods named him Icelos (which means “like” in Greek); 

Men call him Phobetor (in Greek the word 

Means “fear”) which was in tribute to his acting.

AND

Sleep passed them by and fixed on Morpheus 

To do the work commissioned him through Iris. 

This duty done, Sleep sank to sleep again, 

His head fell back upon his velvet pillow.

How it lands to my eco-sensibility: xx

Obvious allusions, ways it was used (that I am aware of already) : xx

What I know I didn’t ‘get’: xx

To my knowledge, who’s used it why/how (RACC): xx

Further research questions: xx

Anything else: xx