quently
heard thee boasting in the palaces of my sire, when thou saidest that
thou alone, amongst the immortals, didst avert unworthy destruction from
the cloud-collecting son of Saturn, when the other Olympian inhabitants,
Juno, and Neptune, and Pallas Minerva, wished to bind him. But thou, O
goddess, having approached, freed him from his chains, having quickly
summoned to lofty Olympus, the hundred-handed, whom the gods call
Briareus, and all men AEgeon, because he was superior to his father in
strength,[47] who then sat by the son of Saturn, exulting in renown. Him
then the blessed gods dreaded, nor did they bind [Jove]. Of these things
now reminding him, sit beside him, and embrace his knees, if in anywise
he may consent to aid the Trojans, and hem in[48] at their ships, and
along the sea, the Greeks [while they get] slaughtered, that all may
enjoy their king, and that the son of Atreus, wide-ruling Agamemnon, may
know his baleful folly,[49] when he in no wise honoured the bravest of
the Greeks."

[Footnote 46: Thebe was situated on the border of Mysia, on the
mountain Placus, in the district afterwards called Adramyttium.
The inhabitants were Cilicians.--See Heyne, and De Pinedo on
Steph. Byz. s.v. p. 307, n. 58.]

[Footnote 47: There is some doubt whether Homer considered
Briareus as the son of Neptune or of Uranus and Terra.--See
Arnold. The fable is ridiculed by Minucius Felix, Sec. 22.]

[Footnote 48: See Buttm. Lexil. pp. 257, 261, Fishlake's
translation.]

[Footnote 49: The idea of infatuation is not, however,
necessarily implied in [Greek: ate]. See Buttm. Lex. p. 5, sq.]

But him Thetis then answered, shedding down a tear: "Alas! my son,
wherefore have I reared thee, having brought thee forth in an evil hour.
Would that thou wert seated at the ships tearless and uninjured; for thy
destined life is but for a very short period, nor very long; but now art
thou both swift-fated and wretched above all mortals: therefore have I
brought thee forth in my palace under an evil fate. However, to tell thy
words to thunder-delighting Jove, I myself will go to snow-clad Olympus,
if by chance he will be persuaded. But do thou, now sitting at the
swift ships, wage resentment against the Greeks, and totally abstain
from war. For yesterday Jove went to Oceanus,[50] to the blameless
AEthiopians, to a banquet, and with him went all the gods. But on the
twelfth day he will return to Olympu