On Mount Olympus the Gods Argue

The Illiad
by Homer
This is the Alexander Pope translation.

We are journeying through Book 4. Previously

The same day continues through this as through the last book (as it does also through the two following, and almost to the end of the seventh book). The scene is wholly in the field before Troy.

And now Olympus' shining gates unfold;

  The gods, with Jove, assume their thrones of gold:

  Immortal Hebe, fresh with bloom divine,

  The golden goblet crowns with purple wine:

  While the full bowls flow round, the powers employ

  Their careful eyes on long-contended Troy. 

  When Jove, disposed to tempt Saturnia's spleen,

  Thus waked the fury of his partial queen,

  "Two powers divine the son of Atreus aid,

  Imperial Juno, and the martial maid;

  But high in heaven they sit, and gaze from far,

  The tame spectators of his deeds of war.

  Not thus fair Venus helps her favour'd knight,

  The queen of pleasures shares the toils of fight,

  Each danger wards, and constant in her care,

  Saves in the moment of the last despair.

  Her act has rescued Paris' forfeit life,

  Though great Atrides gain'd the glorious strife.

  Then say, ye powers! what signal issue waits

  To crown this deed, and finish all the fates!

  Shall Heaven by peace the bleeding kingdoms spare,

  Or rouse the furies, and awake the war?

  Yet, would the gods for human good provide,

  Atrides soon might gain his beauteous bride,

  Still Priam's walls in peaceful honours grow,

  And through his gates the crowding nations flow." 

  Thus while he spoke, the queen of heaven, enraged,

  And queen of war, in close consult engaged:

  Apart they sit, their deep designs employ,

  And meditate the future woes of Troy.

  Though secret anger swell'd Minerva's breast,

  The prudent goddess yet her wrath suppress'd;

  But Juno, impotent of passion, broke

  Her sullen silence, and with fury spoke:

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.

More About This Book

From the earliest days of Ancient Greece, the author(s) of this poem were contemporaries of the writers of the Bible's Old Testament.

Summary of Fourth Book: A quarrel in Olympus--Minerva goes down and persuades Fandarus to violate the oaths by wounding Menelaus with an arrow-- Agamemnon makes a speech and sends for Machaon--He then goes about among his captains and upbraids Ulysses and Sthenelus, who each of them retort fiercely--Diomed checks Sthenelus, and the two hosts then engage, with great slaughter on either side..

Painting: The Wrath of Achilles by Michael Drolling, 1819.

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About Homer and His Poem

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