prove short though glorious, Thetis promises to visit Jupiter on
Olympus in his behalf. There she wins from the Father of the Gods a
promise that the Greeks will suffer defeat as long as her son does not
fight in their ranks,--a promise confirmed by his divine nod. This,
however, arouses the wrath and jealousy of Juno, whom Jupiter is
compelled to chide so severely that peace and harmony are restored in
Olympus only when Vulcan, acting as cup-bearer, rouses the
inextinguishable laughter of the gods by his awkward limp.

_Book II._ That night, while all are sleeping, Zeus sends a deceptive
dream to Agamemnon to suggest the moment has come to attack Troy. At
dawn, therefore, Agamemnon calls an assembly, and the chiefs decide to
test the mettle of the Greeks by ordering a return home, and, in the
midst of these preparations, summoning the men to fight.

These signs of imminent departure incense Juno and Minerva, who, ever
since the golden apple was bestowed upon Venus, are sworn foes of
Paris and Troy. In disguise, therefore, Minerva urges Ulysses,
wiliest of the Greeks, to silence the clown Thersites, and admonish
his companions that if they return home empty-handed they will be
disgraced. Only too pleased, Ulysses reminds his countrymen how, just
before they left home, a serpent crawled from beneath the altar and
devoured eight young sparrows and the mother who tried to defend them,
adding that this was an omen that for nine years they would vainly
besiege Troy but would triumph in the tenth.

His eloquent reminder, reinforced by patriotic speeches from Nestor
and Agamemnon, determines the Greeks to attempt a final attack upon
Troy. So, with the speed and destructive fury of a furious fire, the
Greek army, whose forces and leaders are all named, sweeps on toward