Goddess of love-kindling smiles 435
Venus thus answer'd; Diomede the proud,
Audacious Diomede; he gave the wound,
For that I stole AEneas from the fight
My son of all mankind my most beloved;
Nor is it now the war of Greece with Troy, 440
But of the Grecians with the Gods themselves.
Then thus Dione, Goddess all divine.
My child! how hard soe'er thy sufferings seem
Endure them patiently. Full many a wrong
From human hands profane the Gods endure, 445
And many a painful stroke, mankind from ours.
Mars once endured much wrong, when on a time
Him Otus bound and Ephialtes fast,
Sons of Aloeeus, and full thirteen moons
In brazen thraldom held him. There, at length, 450
The fierce blood-nourished Mars had pined away,
But that Eeriboea, loveliest nymph,
His step-mother, in happy hour disclosed
To Mercury the story of his wrongs;
He stole the prisoner forth, but with his woes 455
Already worn, languid and fetter-gall'd.
Nor Juno less endured, when erst the bold
Son of Amphytrion with tridental shaft
Her bosom pierced; she then the misery felt
Of irremediable pain severe. 460
Nor suffer'd Pluto less, of all the Gods
Gigantic most, by the same son of Jove
Alcides, at the portals of the dead
Transfix'd and fill'd with anguish; he the house
Of Jove and the Olympian summit sought 465
Dejected, torture-stung, for sore the shaft
Oppress'd him, into his huge shoulder driven.
But Paeon[12] him not liable to death
With unction smooth of salutiferous balms
Heal'd soon. Presumptuous, sacrilegious man! 470
Careless what dire enormities he wrought,
Who bent his bow against the powers of heaven!
But blue-eyed Pallas instigated him
By whom thou bleed'st. Infatuate! he forgets
That whoso turns against the Gods his arm 475
Lives never long; he never, safe escaped
From furious fight, the lisp'd caresses hears
Of his own infants prattling at his knees.
Let therefore Diomede beware, lest strong
And valiant as he is, he chance to meet 490
Some mightier foe than thou, and lest his wife,
Daughter of King Adrastus, the discrete
AEgialea, from portentous dreams
Upstarting, call her family to wail
Her first-espoused, Achaia's proudest b