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the son of Tydeus, wounded me because I was bearing my
dear son Aeneas, whom I love best of all mankind, out of
the fight. The war is no longer one between Trojans and
Achaeans, for the Danaans have now taken to fighting with
the immortals.’
‘Bear it, my child,’ replied Dione, ‘and make the best of
it. We dwellers in Olympus have to put up with much at the
hands of men, and we lay much suffering on one another.
Mars had to suffer when Otus and Ephialtes, children of
Aloeus, bound him in cruel bonds, so that he lay thirteen
months imprisoned in a vessel of bronze. Mars would have
then perished had not fair Eeriboea, stepmother to the sons
of Aloeus, told Mercury, who stole him away when he was
already well-nigh worn out by the severity of his bondage.
Juno, again, suffered when the mighty son of Amphitryon
wounded her on the right breast with a three-barbed ar-
row, and nothing could assuage her pain. So, also, did huge
Hades, when this same man, the son of aegis-bearing Jove,
hit him with an arrow even at the gates of hell, and hurt
him badly. Thereon Hades went to the house of Jove on
great Olympus, angry and full of pain; and the arrow in
his brawny shoulder caused him great anguish till Paeeon
healed him by spreading soothing herbs on the wound, for
Hades was not of mortal mould. Daring, head-strong, evil-
doer who recked not of his sin in shooting the gods that
dwell in Olympus. And now Minerva has egged this son of
Tydeus on against yourself, fool that he is for not reflecting
that no man who fights with gods will live long or hear his
children prattling about his knees when he returns from

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