Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/279

167—215 Receive and execute his dread command."

She said, and sat. The god that gilds the day,

And various Iris, wing their airy way.

Swift as the wind, to Ida's hills they came;

Fair nurse of fountains, and of savage game;

There sat the Eternal; he whose nod controls

The trembling world, and shakes the steady poles.

Veiled in a mist of fragrance him they found,

With clouds of gold and purple circled round.

Well-pleased the Thunderer saw their earnest care,

And prompt obedience to the queen of air;

Then, while a smile serenes his awful brow,

Commands the goddess of the showery bow:

"Iris! descend, and what we here ordain

Report to yon mad tyrant of the main,

Bid him from fight to his own deeps repair,

Or breathe from slaughter in the fields of air.

If he refuse, then let him timely weigh

Our elder birthright, and superior sway.

How shall his rashness stand the dire alarms,

If heaven's omnipotence descend in arms?

Strives he with me, by whom his power was given,

And is there equal to the lord of heaven?"

The Almighty spoke; the goddess winged her flight

To sacred Ilion from the Idsean height.

Swift as the rattling hail or fleecy snows

Drive through the skies, when Boreas fiercely blows;

So from the clouds descending Iris falls;

And to blue Neptune thus the goddess calls:

"Attend the mandate of the sire above,

In me behold the messenger of Jove:

He bids thee from forbidden wars repair

To thy own deeps, or to the fields of air.

This if refused, he bids thee timely weigh

His elder birthright, and superior sway.

How shall thy rashness stand the dire alarms,

If heaven's omnipotence descend in arms?

Strivest thou with him, by whom all power is given?

And art thou equal to the lord of heaven?"

"What means the haughty sovereign of the skies?"

The king of ocean thus, incensed, replies;

"Rule as he will his portioned realms on high,

No vassal god, nor of his train, am I.

Three brother deities from Saturn came,

And ancient Rhea, earth's immortal dame:

Assigned by lot, our triple rule we know:

Infernal Pluto sways the shades below;

O'er the wide clouds, and o'er the starry plain,

Ethereal Jove extends his high domain;