Inde ubi prima quies medio iam noctis abactae curriculo expulerat somnum, cum femina primum, cui tolerare colo vitam tenuique Minerva impositum, cinerem et sopitos suscitat ignis noctem addens operi, famulasque ad lumina longo exercet penso, castum ut servare cubile coniugis et possit parvos educere natos: haud secus ignipotens nec tempore segnior illo mollibus e stratis opera ad fabrilia surgit.
Then, when repose had banished sleep, in the mid career of now waning night, at the time when a housewife, whose task it is to eke out life with her distaff and Minervas humble toil, awakes the embers and slumbering fire, adding night to her days work, and keeps her handmaids toiling by lamplight at the long task, so that she can keep her husbands bed chaste and rear her little sons: just so, and not more slothful at that hour, the Lord of Fire rises from his soft couch to the work of his smithy.