Page:The Iliad of Homer in English Hexameter Verse.djvu/39

 What it behoves thee to know thou shalt know soon as the time comes; No one of Gods or men shall e'er be enlighten'd before thee. But what apart from the Gods I devise by myself, for the future, Question me not upon that, nor meddle with what is above thee."

Answer'd again, to the God, thus the broad-eyed beautiful Hère.

"Cronĭdes, sternest of Gods, what an ill-devised speech thou hast uttered!— Heretofore nought have I question'd, nor meddled with what is above me. Thou by thyself hast schem'd whatsoever thy heart has devised. But I am now much afraid thou art being seduced by the Goddess, She whose feet are as silver, the child of the ancient of Ocean. She, as the mist of the morning, has clung to thy knees in entreaty: Much do I fear, that thy nod has assented to honor Achilleus: Honoring him, in the deaths of a host of the sons of Achaia."

Then, in reply to the taunt, spake Zeus, great whirler-of-storm-clouds.

"Fertile still of surmise, no action of mine can escape thee. Yet thou wilt not succeed:—from my confidence further than ever Further yet wilt thou stand;—which perchance will gall thee the deeper. Nor if it do, unto me will thine anger be cause of displeasure. Sit then in silence down, and attend to the words I have utter'd: Lest, if thou move me to wrath, not the whole of the Gods of Olympus, All combined, may avail to release this grasp, if I clutch thee."

Thus spake the God:—and afraid was the broad-eyed beautiful Hère; Silent she sat; with her breast scarce restraining the swell of her passion. Sore in the dome of Zeus, were the Gods distress'd at the contest. Then to appease such strife did Hephæstus, notable artist, Speak to them, soothing the mind of his mother, the white-arm'd Goddess. 21