She spake; and Mars resigned to her his steeds With trappings of bright gold. She climbed the car, Still grieving, and, beside her, Iris took Her seat, and caught the reins and plied the lash. On flew the coursers, on, with willing speed, And soon were at the mansion of the gods On high Olympus. There the active-limbed, Fleet Iris stayed them, loosed them from the car, And fed them with ambrosial food. Meanwhile, The goddess Venus at Dione’s feet Had cast herself. The mother round her child Threw tenderly her arms, and with her hand Caressed her brow, and spake, and thus inquired:—
“Which of the dwellers of the skies, dear child, Has dealt thus cruelly with thee, as one Caught in the doing of some flagrant wrong?”
And thus did Venus, queen of smiles, reply:— “The son of Tydeus, arrogant Diomed, Wounded me as I sought to bear away From battle’s dangers my beloved son Aeneas, dear beyond all other men: For now no longer does the battle rage Between the Greeks and Trojans, but the Greeks Venture to combat even with the gods.”
Dione, great among the goddesses, Rejoined: “Submit, my daughter, and endure, Though inly grieved; for many of us who dwell Upon the Olympian mount have suffered much From mortals, and have brought great miseries Upon each other. First, it was the fate Of Mars to suffer, when Aloëus’ sons, Otus and mighty Ephialtes, made Their fetters fast upon his limbs. He lay Chained thirteen months within a brazen cell; And haply there the god, whose thirst of blood Is never cloyed, had perished, but for aid Which Eriboea gave, the beautiful, His step-mother. She made his miseries known To Mercury, who set him free by stealth, Withered and weak with long imprisonment. And Juno suffered when Amphitryon’s son, The valiant, dared to plant in her right breast A three-pronged