[Footnote 265: Theophilus Jctus. iii. tit. xxiii. Sec. 1. [Greek:
Kai touto esti to en to plethei thrylloumenon te ton pragmaton
enallage prysin kai agorasian synistasthai, kai touto to eidos
praseos archaiotaton einai]. He then alleges these lines of Homer
as the earliest known instance of barter.]

BOOK THE EIGHTH.

ARGUMENT.

Jove assembles the gods, and forbids them to interfere between the
Greeks and Trojans. He then repairs to Ida, where, having consulted the
scales of destiny, he directs his lightning against the Greeks. Nestor,
in the chariot of Diomede, goes against Hector, whose charioteer is
slain by Diomede. Jove again interposes his thunders, and the Greeks
seek refuge within the rampart. Upon a favourable omen accompanying the
prayer of Agamemnon, Diomede and the rest set out, and Teucer performs
great exploits, but is disabled by Hector. Juno and Minerva are
prevented interfering by Jove, and Hector takes measures to insure the
safety of Troy during the night.

Now did saffron-mantled morn diffuse herself over all the earth, and
thunder-rejoicing Jove made an assembly of the gods on the highest peak
of many-topped Olympus. And he himself harangued them, and all the other
deities hearkened (to his command):[266]

"Hear me, all ye gods and all ye goddesses, that I may tell you what the
soul in my breast prompts me. Let no female deity, therefore, nor any
male, attempt to infringe this my injunction; but do ye all at once
assent, that I may very speedily bring these matters to their issue.
Whomsoever of the gods I shall discover, having gone apart from [the
rest], wishing to aid either the Trojans or the Greeks, disgracefully
smitten shall he return to Olympus: or seizing, I will hurl him into
gloomy Tartarus, very far hence, where there is a very deep gulf beneath
the earth, and iron portals, and a brazen threshold, as far below Hades
as heaven is from earth;[267] then shall he know by how much I am the
most powerful of all the gods. But come, ye gods, and try me, that ye
may all know. Having suspended a golden chain from heaven, do all ye
gods and goddesses suspend yourselves therefrom; yet would ye not draw
down from heaven to earth your supreme counsellor Jove, not even if ye
labour ever so much: but whenever I, desiring, should wish to pull it, I
could draw it up together, earth, and ocean, and all: then, indeed,
would