Book XX - Page 2

looking like Mars himself. When,

however, the Olympians came to take their part among men,

forthwith uprose strong Strife, rouser of hosts, and Minerva

raised her loud voice, now standing by the deep trench that ran

outside the wall, and now shouting with all her might upon the

shore of the sounding sea. Mars also bellowed out upon the other

side, dark as some black thunder-cloud, and called on the Trojans

at the top of his voice, now from the acropolis, and now speeding

up the side of the river Simois till he came to the hill

Callicolone.

Thus did the gods spur on both hosts to fight, and rouse fierce

contention also among themselves. The sire of gods and men

thundered from heaven above, while from beneath Neptune shook the

vast earth, and bade the high hills tremble. The spurs and crests

of many-fountained Ida quaked, as also the city of the Trojans

and the ships of the Achaeans. Hades, king of the realms below,

was struck with fear; he sprang panic-stricken from his throne

and cried aloud in terror lest Neptune, lord of the earthquake,

should crack the ground over his head, and lay bare his mouldy

mansions to the sight of mortals and immortals--mansions so

ghastly grim that even the gods shudder to think of them. Such

was the uproar as the gods came together in battle. Apollo with

his arrows took his stand to face King Neptune, while Minerva

took hers against the god of war; the archer-goddess Diana with

her golden arrows, sister of far-darting Apollo, stood to face

Juno; Mercury the lusty bringer of good luck faced Leto, while

the mighty eddying river whom men can Scamander, but gods

Xanthus, matched himself against Vulcan.

The gods, then, were thus ranged against one another. But the

heart of Achilles was set on meeting Hector son of Priam, for it

was with his blood that he longed above all things else to glut

the stubborn lord of battle. Meanwhile Apollo set Aeneas on to

attack the son of Peleus, and put courage into his heart,

speaking with the voice of Lycaon son of Priam. In his likeness

therefore, he said to Aeneas, "Aeneas, counsellor of the Trojans,

where are now the brave words with which you vaunted over your

wine before the Trojan princes, saying that you would fight

Achilles son of Peleus in single combat?"

And Aeneas answered, "Why do you thus bid me fight the proud son

of Peleus, when I am in no mind to do so? Were I to face him now,

it would not be for the first time. His spear has already put me

to Right from Ida, when he attacked our cattle and sacked

Lyrnessus and Pedasus;