Thus she spoke; but Vulcan darted forth his fierce-burning fire. First, indeed, he kindled a fire in the plain, and burned many dead bodies, which were in abundance, over it, whom Achilles had slain; so that the whole plain was dried up, and the clear water restrained. And as when an autumnal north wind immediately dries a newly-watered garden, and gratifies him whoever cultivates it, so was the whole plain dried, and it consumed the dead; whereupon he turned his all-resplendent flame against the river. The elms were burned up, and the willows and tamarisks; the lotus was consumed, and the rushes and reeds, which grew in great abundance round the beautiful streams of the river. Harassed were the eels and the fishes, which through the whirlpools, [and] which through the fair streams dived here and there, exhausted by the breath of the various artificer Vulcan. The might of the river was burnt up, and he spoke, and addressed him.
"None of the gods, O Vulcan, can oppose thee on equal terms, nor can I contend with thee, thus burning with fire. Cease from combat, and let noble Achilles instantly expel the Trojans from their city; what have I to do with contest and assistance?"
He spoke, scorched; and his fair streams boiled up. As a caldron pressed by much fire, glows, bubbling up within on all sides, while melting the fat of a delicately-fed sow, while the dry wood lies beneath it; so were his fair streams dried up with fire, and the water boiled; nor could he flow on, but was restrained, and the vapor [raised] by the might of crafty Vulcan harassed him. At length, supplicating much, he addressed to Juno winged words:
"O Juno, why does thy son press upon my stream, to annoy [me] beyond others? nor truly am I so much to blame as all the others, as many as are assistants to the Trojans. But I will, however, desist, if thou biddest it; and let him also cease; and I moreover will swear this, that I never will avert the evil day from the Trojans, not even when all burning Troy shall be consumed with destructive fire, and the warlike sons of the Greeks shall burn it."
But when the white-armed goddess Juno heard this, she straightway addressed her beloved son Vulcan: "Vulcan, my
