Page:The Story of the Iliad.djvu/63

Rh has my altar failed of feast and banquet and the sweet savour that is the due of gods."

Then Hera answered: "Three cities have I that I love, Argos and Sparta and Mycenæ. If they have offended thee, destroy them; I begrudge them not; nor, indeed, could I withstand thy will. Yet my toil also should not be made vain; for I, too, am a daughter of Chronos, and first in place among the immortals, seeing that I am thy wife, who art the King. Come, therefore, let us yield to one another, and the other gods will follow us. Let now Athené go down, and bring it to pass that some one of the Trojans begin the strife and break the truce."

Thus she ended, and Zeus said not nay, but spake straightway to Athené: "Make haste, get thee down to the host, and bring it to pass that the men of Troy break the truce."

So Athené sped down from the top of Olympus, like to a star which Zeus sends as a sign to sailors on the sea, or to some host that goeth forth to battle; and wonder cometh upon all that behold it.

Among the host of Troy she went, taking