Page:The Story of the Iliad.djvu/225

Rh Greeks were driving the men of Troy before them, and Hector lay upon the plain, and vomited blood, and his friends knelt about him. Senseless he lay, for it was no puny hand that had dealt the blow. Very wroth was Zeus to see such a sight, and he said to Hera: "What is this that thou hast done, sending Hector from the battle? Rememberest thou not how I hung thee amid the clouds with a band of gold about thy hands and an anvil of gold on either foot, and how when any god came to help thee I flung him from Olympus to fall till he came utterly spent to the earth? Make an end of thy deceits, or verily nothing shall protect thee from my wrath."

Then Hera answered: "It is Poseidon that afflicts the Trojans, and bears up the Greeks. Yet he, too, would do well to walk in the paths wherein thou walkest." Then said Zeus: "Call hither Iris and Apollo the Archer; let Iris go to Poseidon, and bid him cease from the battle and get him to his own domain, and let Apollo strengthen Hector, that he may go back to the battle; so shall my will be accomplished, fulfilling the