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no respect for me if I were to fight you about a pack of miserable
mortals, who come out like leaves in summer and eat the fruit of the
field, and presently fall lifeless to the ground. Let us stay this
fighting at once and let them settle it among themselves."
He turned away as he spoke, for he would lay no hand on the brother
of his own father. But his sister the huntress Diana, patroness of
wild beasts, was very angry with him and said, "So you would fly,
Far-­‐Darter, and hand victory over to Neptune with a cheap vaunt to
boot. Baby, why keep your bow thus idle? Never let me again hear you
bragging in my father's house, as you have often done in the presence
of the immortals, that you would stand up and fight with Neptune."
Apollo made her no answer, but Jove's august queen was angry and upbraided
her bitterly. "Bold vixen," she cried, "how dare you cross me thus?
For all your bow you will find it hard to hold your own against me.
Jove made you as a lion among women, and lets you kill them whenever
you choose. You will And it better to chase wild beasts and deer upon
the mountains than to fight those who are stronger than you are. If
you would try war, do so, and find out by pitting yourself against
me, how far stronger I am than you are."
She caught both Diana's wrists with her left hand as she spoke, and
with her right she took the bow from her shoulders, and laughed as
she beat her with it about the ears while Diana wriggled and writhed
under her blows. Her swift arrows were shed upon the ground, and she
fled weeping from under Juno's hand as a dove that flies before a
falcon to the cleft of some hollow rock, when it is her good fortune