Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
me again hear you bragging in my father’s house, as you have
often done in the presence of the immortals, that you would stand
up and fight with Neptune.”
Apollo made her no answer, but Jove’s august queen was angry
and upbraided her bitterly. “Bold vixen,” she cried, “how dare you
cross me thus? For all your bow you will find it hard to hold your
own against me. Jove made you as a lion among women, and lets
you kill them whenever you choose. You will And it better to chase
wild beasts and deer upon the mountains than to fight those who
are stronger than you are. If you would try war, do so, and find out
by pitting yourself against me, how far stronger I am than you are.”
She caught both Diana’s wrists with her left hand as she spoke, and
with her right she took the bow from her shoulders, and laughed as
she beat her with it about the ears while Diana wriggled and
writhed under her blows. Her swift arrows were shed upon the
ground, and she fled weeping from under Juno’s hand as a dove
that flies before a falcon to the cleft of some hollow rock, when it is
her good fortune to escape. Even so did she fly weeping away,
leaving her bow and arrows behind her.
Then the slayer of Argus, guide and guardian, said to Leto, “Leto, I
shall not fight you; it is ill to come to blows with any of Jove’s
wives. Therefore boast as you will among the immortals that you
worsted me in fair fight.”
Leto then gathered up Diana’s bow and arrows that had fallen
about amid the whirling dust, and when she had got them she
made all haste after her daughter. Diana had now reached Jove’s
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