Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
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 fardarting
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
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