Page:The Story of the Iliad.djvu/127

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the next morning came Zeus called the gods to an assembly on the topmost ridge of Olympus, and spake to them, saying:―

"Hearken, gods and goddesses! Let none of you presume to go against my word. Whosoever of you shall succour either Greek or Trojan, him will I smite with the thunder, or else will cast him far down to the darkness of Tartarus, whose gates are iron and whose threshold bronze, and he shall know that I am chief among gods. And if ye will make trial of my strength, let down a chain of gold from heaven to earth, and take hold thereof, all ye gods and goddesses. Yet shall ye not drag down Zeus, no, though ye strive with all your might. But if I should draw with all my strength, I could lift you up, and earth and sea with you, and bind the chain about a horn of Olympus, and leave you hanging