Page 408 - the-iliad

a great stone, so huge that two men, as men now are, would
be unable to lift it, but Aeneas wielded it quite easily.
Aeneas would then have struck Achilles as he was spring-
ing towards him, either on the helmet, or on the shield that
covered him, and Achilles would have closed with him and
despatched him with his sword, had not Neptune lord of
the earthquake been quick to mark, and said forthwith to
the immortals, ‘Alas, I am sorry for great Aeneas, who will
now go down to the house of Hades, vanquished by the
son of Peleus. Fool that he was to give ear to the counsel of
Apollo. Apollo will never save him from destruction. Why
should this man suffer when he is guiltless, to no purpose,
and in another’s quarrel? Has he not at all times offered ac-
ceptable sacrifice to the gods that dwell in heaven? Let us
then snatch him from death’s jaws, lest the son of Saturn be
angry should Achilles slay him. It is fated, moreover, that
he should escape, and that the race of Dardanus, whom
Jove loved above all the sons born to him of mortal women,
shall not perish utterly without seed or sign. For now in-
deed has Jove hated the blood of Priam, while Aeneas shall
reign over the Trojans, he and his children’s children that
shall be born hereafter.’
Then answered Juno, ‘Earth-shaker, look to this matter
yourself, and consider concerning Aeneas, whether you will
save him, or suffer him, brave though he be, to fall by the
hand of Achilles son of Peleus. For of a truth we two, I and
Pallas Minerva, have sworn full many a time before all the
immortals, that never would we shield Trojans from de-
struction, not even when all Troy is burning in the flames

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