Page 429 - the-iliad

drew back and with her strong hand seized a stone that was
lying on the plain— great and rugged and black—which
men of old had set for the boundary of a field. With this
she struck Mars on the neck, and brought him down. Nine
roods did he cover in his fall, and his hair was all soiled
in the dust, while his armour rang rattling round him. But
Minerva laughed and vaunted over him saying, ‘Idiot, have
you not learned how far stronger I am than you, but you
must still match yourself against me? Thus do your moth-
er’s curses now roost upon you, for she is angry and would
do you mischief because you have deserted the Achaeans
and are helping the Trojans.’
She then turned her two piercing eyes elsewhere, where-
on Jove’s daughter Venus took Mars by the hand and led
him away groaning all the time, for it was only with great
difficulty that he had come to himself again. When Queen
Juno saw her, she said to Minerva, ‘Look, daughter of aegis-
bearing Jove, unweariable, that vixen Venus is again taking
Mars through the crowd out of the battle; go after her at
once.’
Thus she spoke. Minerva sped after Venus with a will,
and made at her, striking her on the bosom with her strong
hand so that she fell fainting to the ground, and there they
both lay stretched at full length. Then Minerva vaunted
over her saying, ‘May all who help the Trojans against the
Argives prove just as redoubtable and stalwart as Venus did
when she came across me while she was helping Mars. Had
this been so, we should long since have ended the war by
sacking the strong city of Ilius.’

The Iliad