son; betake thee to Olympus and beseech Zeus by any word whereby thou
ever didst make glad his heart. For oft have I heard thee proclaiming in
my father's halls and telling that thou alone amid the immortals didst
save the son of Kronos, lord of the storm-cloud, from shameful wreck,
when all the other Olympians would have bound him, even Hera and
Poseidon and Pallas Athene. Then didst thou, O goddess, enter in and
loose him from his bonds, having with speed summoned to high Olympus him
of the hundred arms whom gods call Briareus, but all men call Aigaion;
for he is mightier even than his father--so he sate him by Kronion's
side rejoicing in his triumph, and the blessed gods feared him withal
and bound not Zeus. This bring thou to his remembrance and sit by him
and clasp his knees, if perchance he will give succour to the Trojans;
and for the Achaians, hem them among their ships' sterns about the bay,
given over to slaughter; that they may make trial of their king, and
that even Atreides, wide-ruling Agamemnon, may perceive his blindness,
in that he honoured not at all the best of the Achaians."

Then Thetis weeping made answer to him: "Ah me, my child, why reared I
thee, cursed in my motherhood? Would thou hadst been left tearless and
griefless amid the ships, seeing thy lot is very brief and endureth no
long while; but now art thou made short-lived alike and lamentable
beyond all men; in an evil hour I bare thee in our halls. But I will go
myself to snow-clad Olympus to tell this thy saying to Zeus, whose joy
is in the thunder, [perhaps rather, "hurler of the thunderbolt."] if
perchance he may hearken to me. But tarry thou now amid thy fleet-faring
ships, and continue wroth with the Achaians, and refrain utterly from
battle: for Zeus went yesterday to Okeanos, unto the noble Ethiopians
for a feast, and all the gods followed with him; but on the twelfth day
will he return to Olympus, and then will I fare to Zeus' palace of the
bronze threshold, and will kneel to him and think to win him."