Seba.Health

The Iliad 14.271–276

Hypnus to Hera · divine
The Iliad 14.271–276
that verily thou wilt give me one of the youthful Graces, even Pasithea, that myself I long for all my days.
ἄγρει νῦν μοι ὄμοσσον ἀάατον Στυγὸς ὕδωρ, χειρὶ δὲ τῇ ἑτέρῃ μὲν ἕλε χθόνα πουλυβότειραν, τῇ δʼ ἑτέρῃ ἅλα μαρμαρέην, ἵνα νῶϊν ἅπαντες μάρτυροι ὦσʼ οἳ ἔνερθε θεοὶ Κρόνον ἀμφὶς ἐόντες, ἦ μὲν ἐμοὶ δώσειν Χαρίτων μίαν ὁπλοτεράων Πασιθέην, ἧς τʼ αὐτὸς ἐέλδομαι ἤματα πάντα.
Lattimore commentary
On swearing an oath to confirm the promise of a prize, see 10.321. Hera’s cosmic witnesses include the previous generation of divinities, now imagined as confined to Tartaros. The penalty for a god breaking an oath sworn by Styx is to lie in a death-like trance for one year and spend the next nine cut off from the company of the Olympians (Theogony 738).
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