Achilles (Mythological character); Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Trojan War
So spake he, nor did she disobey, the white-armed goddess Hera; she
sware as he bade her, and called all the gods by name, even those below
Tartaros that are called Titans. But when she had sworn and ended that
oath, the twain left the citadel of Lemnos, and of Imbros, clothed on
in mist, and swiftly they accomplished the way. To many-fountained Ida
they came, the mother of wild beasts, to Lekton, where first they left
the sea, and they twain fared above the dry land, and the topmost
forest waved beneath their feet. There Sleep halted, ere the eyes of
Zeus beheld him, and alighted on a tall pine tree, the loftiest pine
that then in all Ida rose through the nether to the upper air. Therein
sat he, hidden by the branches of the pine, in the likeness of the
shrill bird that on the mountains the gods call _chalkis_, but men
_kymindis_.* But Hera swiftly drew nigh to topmost Gargaros, the
highest crest of Ida, and Zeus the cloud-gatherer beheld her. And as he
saw her, so love came over his deep heart, even as when first they
mingled with each other in delight, and went together to the couch,
their dear parents knowing it not. And he stood before her, and spoke,
and said: “Hera, with what desire comest thou thus hither from Olympus,
and thy horses and chariot are not here, whereon thou mightst ascend?”
* The names of Night-jar, Goat-sucker, Doehawk, and Fern-owl are given
in Bewick for this bird, which is really a kind of swift.—R. W. R.
Then with crafty purpose lady Hera answered him: “I am going to visit
the limits of the bountiful Earth, and Okeanos, father of the gods, and
mother Tethys, who reared me well and cherished me in their halls. Them
am I going to visit, and their endless strife will I loose, for already
this long time they hold apart from each other, from love and the
marriage bed, since wrath hath settled in their hearts. But my horses
are standing at the foot of many-fountained Ida, my horses that shall
bear me over wet and dry. And now it is because of thee that I am thus
come hither, down from Olympus, lest perchance thou mightest be wroth
with me hereafter, if silently I were gone to the mansion of
deep-flowing Okeanos.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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