Menrva

Pain grew inside Jupiter’s head and became so severe that he could no longer endure it. He called Vulcan to him and ordered him to open the place where the pain had gathered. Vulcan obeyed. He struck Jupiter’s head with force and split it open. Minerva sprang from the wound at once. She did not emerge as a child. She came out fully grown, armed from the moment she appeared, and equipped as a warrior prepared for battle. She carried the arms and equipment of war with her, as though they had been ready before her birth. Jupiter had suffered the pain until Vulcan’s blow opened his head. The wound then released Minerva, and the torment ended with her emergence. The pain no longer afflicted Jupiter after she came out. Minerva stood before the gods as an armed goddess, not as a helpless newborn. Her arrival came through the wound in Jupiter’s head, and Vulcan’s strike caused both the opening and the release. She was Minerva, the goddess who belonged among Jupiter and Juno in the chief Roman grouping of gods. The Romans also connected her with Athena, and she had earlier Italian associations with handicrafts. These associations did not alter the manner of her birth. Jupiter endured the injury, Vulcan opened his head, and Minerva emerged fully grown and fully armed. When she stood before the gods, Jupiter’s pain had ended.

Minerva sent Envy to punish Aglaurus, who had obstructed Mercury's approach to Herse. Envy found Athens in peace, wealth, feasting, and learning. Since nothing there gave her cause to weep, the city's happiness tormented her. She went to the court where the daughters of King Cecrops lived and entered Aglaurus's lodging.

Envy smeared her filthy hand with poison and laid it upon Aglaurus's breast. She filled her fingers with hooked thorns and breathed the poison into the girl's face. It spread through her bones, lungs, and heart. Envy then placed Herse's good fortune before Aglaurus's eyes. She made Aglaurus watch her sister's happiness and showed Mercury's divine form continually to her wounded thoughts. She also made the gold that Mercury had given Aglaurus appear as a cause of pride and jealousy. Aglaurus's heart grew bitter towards her sister and the god.

Mercury came to the house because he loved Herse. Aglaurus kept the gold, but she did nothing to earn it. She sat by the barred door and leaned against it so that the god could not enter. He used gentle words, then offered more talk, but she refused to move. She demanded a great mass of gold before she allowed him through. When he asked her to leave, she said that she would not go unless he went away. Mercury then pressed his rod against the barred door, and it flew open.

Aglaurus tried to rise, but a heavy cold had taken hold of her limbs. Her hamstrings and knees stiffened. The cold entered her nails and veins, and her blood and living warmth faded. She struggled to straighten herself, but the effort failed. The cold of death spread through her body, and she became stone beside the door. Mercury entered the house and approached Herse.