strations; among these is Zeus
speaking to his brother (I. xx. 20):--

The purpose, Neptune, well thou know'st thyself
For which I called thee; true, they needs must die,
But still they claim my care.

And in other places (I. xxii. 168):--

A woful sight mine eyes behold: a man
I love in plight around the walls! my heart
For Hector grieves.

He refers to the royal dignity of the gods and their loving care of men,
saying (O. i. 65):--

How should I forget divine Odysseus, who in understanding is
beyond mortals, and beyond all men hath done sacrifice to the
deathless gods who keep the wide heaven?

How he makes the gods mingling with and working with men themselves
it is possible to learn completely in many passages for just as he
represents Athene once helping Achilles and always aiding Odysseus, so
he represents Hermes helping Priam, and again Odysseus, for he says (O.
xvii. 485):--

Yea even the gods, in the likeness of strangers from far
countries, put on all manner of shapes, and wander through
cities to watch the violence and the righteousness of men.

It is the characteristic of divine providence to wish men to live
justly. This the poet indicates very clearly (O. xiv. 83):--

Verily it is not forward deeds the gods love, but they
reverence justice and the righteous acts of men.

And (O. xvi. 386):--

When Jove
Pours down his fiercest storms in wrath to men,
Who in their courts unrighteous judgments pass.

Then just as he introduces the gods caring for men, so he represents
men as mindful of them in every crisis. As the leader, succeeding in an
action, says (I. viii. 526):--

Hopeful to Jove I pray, and all the gods
To chase from hence these fate-inflicted hounds.

And in danger (I. xvii. 646):--

Father Jove, from o'er the sons of Greece,
Remove this cloudy darkness.

And again when one has slayed another (I. xxii. 379):--

Since heaven has granted us this man to slay.

And dying (I. xxii. 358):--

But see I bring not down upon thy head the wrath of heaven.

From what other place than here did originate that doctrine of the
Stoics? I mean this, that the world is one and in it both gods and men
minister, sharing in justice by their nature. For when he says (I. xx.
4):--

Then Jove to Themis gave command to call
The gods to council from the l