all of us approve your counsel."

Jove was angry and answered, "My dear, what harm have Priam and his
sons done you that you are so hotly bent on sacking the city of Ilius?
Will nothing do for you but you must within their walls and eat Priam
raw, with his sons and all the other Trojans to boot? Have it your own
way then; for I would not have this matter become a bone of contention
between us. I say further, and lay my saying to your heart, if ever I
want to sack a city belonging to friends of yours, you must not try to
stop me; you will have to let me do it, for I am giving in to you
sorely against my will. Of all inhabited cities under the sun and stars
of heaven, there was none that I so much respected as Ilius with Priam
and his whole people. Equitable feasts were never wanting about my
altar, nor the savour of burning fat, which is honour due to ourselves."

"My own three favourite cities," answered Juno, "are Argos, Sparta, and
Mycenae. Sack them whenever you may be displeased with them. I shall
not defend them and I shall not care. Even if I did, and tried to stay
you, I should take nothing by it, for you are much stronger than I am,
but I will not have my own work wasted. I too am a god and of the same
race with yourself. I am Saturn's eldest daughter, and am honourable
not on this ground only, but also because I am your wife, and you are
king over the gods. Let it be a case, then, of give-and-take between
us, and the rest of the gods will follow our lead. Tell Minerva to go
and take part in the fight at once, and let her contrive that the
Trojans shall be the first to break their oaths and set upon the
Achaeans."

The sire of gods and men heeded her words, and said to Minerva, "Go at
once into the Trojan and Achaean hosts, and contrive that the Trojans
shall be the first to break their oaths and set upon the Achaeans."

This was what Minerva was already eager to do, so down she darted from
the topmost summits of Olympus. She shot through the sky as some
brilliant meteor which the son of scheming Saturn has sent as a sign to
mariners or to some great army, and a fiery train of light follows in
its wake. The Trojans and Achaeans were struck with awe as they beheld,
and one would turn to his neighbour, saying, "Either we shall again
have war and din of combat, or Jove the lord of battle will now make
peace between us."

Thus did they converse. Then Minerva took the form of Laodocus, son of
Antenor, and went