Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/166

164 And now the Thunderer meditates his flight

From Ida's summits to the Olympian height.

Swifter than thought the wheels instinctive fly,

Flame through the vast of air, and reach the sky.

'Twas Neptune's charge his coursers to unbrace,

And fix the car on its immortal base;

There stood the chariot, beaming forth its rays,

Till with a snowy veil he screened the blaze.

He, whose all-conscious eyes the world behold,

The eternal Thunderer, sat throned in gold.

High heaven the footstool of his feet he makes,

And wide beneath him all Olympus shakes.

Trembling afar the offending Powers appeared,

Confused and silent, for his frown they feared.

He saw their soul, and thus his word imparts:

"Pallas and Juno! say, why heave your hearts?

Soon was your battle o'er: proud Troy retired

Before your face, and in your wrath expired.

But know, whoe'er almighty power withstand,

Unmatched our force, unconquered is our hand:

Who shall the sovereign of the skies control?

Not all the gods that crown the starry pole.

Your hearts shall tremble, if our arms we take,

And each immortal nerve with horror shake.

For thus I speak, and what I speak shall stand;

What power soe'er provokes our lifted hand,

On this our hill no more shall hold his place,

Cut off, and exiled from the ethereal race."

Juno and Pallas grieving hear the doom,

But feast their souls on Ilion's woes to come.

Though secret anger swelled Minerva's breast,

The prudent goddess yet her wrath repressed:

But Juno, impotent of rage, replies:

"What hast thou said, O tyrant of the skies!

Strength and omnipotence invest thy throne;

'Tis thine to punish; ours to grieve alone.

For Greece we grieve, abandoned by her fate

To drink the dregs of thy unmeasured hate:

From fields forbidden we submiss refrain,

With arms unaiding see our Argives slain;

Yet grant our counsels still their breasts may move,

Lest all should perish in the rage of Jove."

The goddess thus: and thus the god replies,

Who swells the clouds, and blackens all the skies:

"The morning sun, awaked by loud alarms,

Shall see the almighty Thunderer in arms.

What heaps of Argives then shall load the plain,

Those radiant eyes shall view, and view in vain.

Nor shall great Hector cease the rage of fight,