Ilium, And as when snow drifts from the clouds, or cold hail, by the impulse of cloud-dispelling[1] Boreas, so quickly swift Iris with eagerness flew along, and standing near illustrious Neptune, she addressed him:
"O azure-haired Earth-shaker, I have come hither, bringing a certain message to thee from ægis-bearing Jove. He has commanded thee, having ceased from the battle and the war, to repair either to the assemblies of the gods or to the vast sea. But if thou will not obey his words, but shalt despise them, he threatens that he will come hither himself to fight against thee; and advises thee to avoid his hands, because he asserts that he is greatly superior to thee in strength, and elder in birth: but thy heart does not fear to profess that thou art equal to him, whom even the others dread."
But her illustrious Neptune, greatly indignant, then addressed: "Gods! powerful though he be, he surely has spoken proudly, if he will by force restrain me unwilling, who am of equal honor. For we are three brothers [descended] from Saturn, whom Rhea brought forth: Jupiter and I, and Pluto, governing the infernal regions, the third; all things were divided into three parts, and each was allotted his dignity.[2] I in the first place, the lots being shaken, was allotted to inhabit forever the hoary sea, and Pluto next obtained the pitchy darkness; but Jove in the third place had allotted to him the wide heaven in the air and in the clouds. Nevertheless the earth is still the common property of all, and lofty Olympus. Wherefore I shall not live according to the will of Jove, but although being very powerful, let him remain quiet in his third part; and let him by no means terrify me as a coward with his hands. For it would be better for him to insult with terrific language the daughters and sons whom he hath begotten, who will also through necessity attend to him, exhorting them."
But him the fleet wind-footed Iris then answered: "O[3]
- ↑ More literally, "producing clear air." So Eustathius, or Eumathius, Erotic, ii. p. 14: Αἰθρηγενέτης Βοῤῥᾶς. Heyne prefers "in aere genitus."
- ↑ On this division of things, see Servius on Virg. Æn. i. 143: Fulgent. Myth. i. 1, 3. The Scholiasts attempt to refer it to the ancient theory of the elements.
- ↑ These three verses were elegantly applied by Sostrates in mitigating
