no less
  I also loved, for punctual were his gifts
  To us; mine altar never miss’d from him
  Libation, or the steam of sacrifice,
  The meed allotted to us from of old. 95
  But steal him not, since by Achilles’ eye
  Unseen ye cannot, who both day and night
  Watches[3] him, as a mother tends her son. 
  But call ye Thetis hither, I would give
  The Goddess counsel, that, at Priam’s hands 100
  Accepting gifts, Achilles loose the dead. 
    He ceased.  Then Iris tempest-wing’d arose. 
  Samos between, and Imbrus rock-begirt,
  She plunged into the gloomy flood; loud groan’d
  The briny pool, while sudden down she rush’d, 105
  As sinks the bull’s[4] horn with its leaden weight,
  Death bearing to the raveners of the deep. 
  Within her vaulted cave Thetis she found
  By every nymph of Ocean round about
  Encompass’d; she, amid them all, the fate 110
  Wept of her noble son ordain’d to death
  At fertile Troy, from Phthia far remote. 
  Then, Iris, drawing near, her thus address’d. 
    Arise, O Thetis!  Jove, the author dread
  Of everlasting counsels, calls for thee. 115
    To whom the Goddess of the silver feet. 
  Why calls the mighty Thunderer me?  I fear,
  Oppress’d with countless sorrows as I am,
  To mingle with the Gods.  Yet I obey—­
  No word of his can prove an empty sound. 120
    So saying, the Goddess took her sable veil
  (Eye ne’er beheld a darker) and began
  Her progress, by the storm-wing’d Iris led. 
  On either hand the billows open’d wide
  A pass before them; they, ascending soon 125
  The shore, updarted swift into the skies. 
  They found loud-voiced Saturnian Jove around
  Environ’d by the ever-blessed Gods
  Convened in full assembly; she beside
  Her Father Jove (Pallas retiring) sat. 130
  Then, Juno, with consolatory speech,
  Presented to her hand a golden cup,
  Of which she drank, then gave it back again,
  And thus the sire of Gods and men began. 
    Goddess of ocean, Thetis! thou hast sought 135
  Olympus, bearing in thy bosom grief
  Never to be assuaged, as well I know. 
  Yet shalt thou learn, afflicted as thou art,
  Why I have summon’d thee.  Nine days the Gods,
  Concerning Hector’s body and thy own 140
  Brave city-spoiler son, have held dispute,
  And some have urged ofttimes the Argicide
  Keen-sighted Mercury, to steal the dead. 
  But I forbade it for Achilles’ sake,
  Whom I exalt, the better to insure 145
  Thy reverence and thy friendship evermore. 
  Haste, therefore, seek thy son, and tell him thus,
  The Gods resent it, say (but most of all