9.]

He spoke and rose, a wondrous bulk,[592] from his anvil-block, limping,
and his weak legs moved actively beneath him. The bellows he laid apart
from the fire, and all the tools with which he laboured he collected
into a silver chest. With a sponge he wiped, all over, his face and both
his hands, his strong neck and shaggy breast; then put on his tunic and
seized his stout sceptre. But he went out of the doors limping, and
golden handmaids, like unto living maidens, moved briskly about the
king; and in their bosoms was prudence with understanding, and within
them was voice and strength; and they are instructed in works by the
immortal gods. These were busily occupied[593] by the king's side; but
he, hobbling along, sat down upon a splendid throne near where Thetis
was, and hung upon her hand, and spoke, and addressed her:

"Why, long-robed Thetis, venerable and dear, hast thou come to our
abode? For indeed thou didst not often come before. Make known what thou
desirest, for my mind orders me to perform it,[594] if in truth I can
perform it, and if it is to be performed."

[Footnote 592: I have endeavoured to express Buttmann's idea
respecting the meaning of [Greek: aieton]. See Lexil. p. 44-7. He
concludes that it simply means _great_, but with a collateral
notion of _astonishment_ implied, connecting it with [Greek:
agetos].]

[Footnote 593: See Buttmann, Lexil. p. 481]

[Footnote 594: Virg. AEn. i. 80:

"----Tuus, o regina, quid optes,
Explorare labor: mini jussa capessere fas est."]

Him then Thetis, pouring forth tears, answered: "O Vulcan, has any then,
as many as are the goddesses in Olympus, endured so many bitter griefs
in her mind, as, to me above all, Jove, the son of Saturn, has given
sorrows? Me, from among the other marine inhabitants, has he subjected
to a man, to Peleus, son of AEacus; and I have endured the couch of a man
very much against my will. He, indeed, now lies in his palaces,
afflicted with grievous old age; but now other [woes] are my lot. After
he had granted me to bring forth aud nurture a son, distinguished among
heroes, and who grew up like a plant; him having reared, as a plant in a
fertile spot of the field, I sent forth in the crooked barks to Ilium,
to fight with the Trojans; but him I shall not receive again, having
returned home to the mansion of Peleus. As long, however, as he lives to
me, and beholds the light of the sun