Zeus to Hera · divine
The Iliad 15.14–33
that hath stayed goodly Hector from the fight, and hath driven the host in rout. Verily I know not but thou shalt yet be the first to reap the fruits of thy wretched ill-contriving, and I shall scourge thee with stripes. Dost thou not remember when thou wast hung from on high, and from thy feet I suspended two anvils, and about thy wrists cast a band of gold that might not be broken? And in the air amid the clouds thou didst hang, and the gods had indignation throughout high Olympus; howbeit they availed not to draw nigh and loose thee. Nay, whomsoever I caught, I would seize and hurl from the threshold until he reached the earth, his strength all spent. Yet not even so was my heart eased of its ceaseless pain for godlike Heracles, whom thou when thou hadst leagued thee with the North Wind and suborned his blasts, didst send over the unresting sea, by thine evil devising, and thereafter didst bear him away unto well-peopled Cos. Him did I save from thence, and brought again to horse-pasturing Argos, albeit after he had laboured sore. Of these things will I mind thee yet again, that thou mayest cease from thy beguilings, to the end that thou mayest see whether they anywise avail thee, the dalliance and the couch, wherein thou didst lie with me when thou hadst come forth from among the gods, and didst beguile me.
ἦ μάλα δὴ κακότεχνος ἀμήχανε σὸς δόλος Ἥρη
Ἕκτορα δῖον ἔπαυσε μάχης, ἐφόβησε δὲ λαούς.
οὐ μὰν οἶδʼ εἰ αὖτε κακορραφίης ἀλεγεινῆς
πρώτη ἐπαύρηαι καί σε πληγῇσιν ἱμάσσω.
ἦ οὐ μέμνῃ ὅτε τʼ ἐκρέμω ὑψόθεν, ἐκ δὲ ποδοῖιν
ἄκμονας ἧκα δύω, περὶ χερσὶ δὲ δεσμὸν ἴηλα
χρύσεον ἄρρηκτον; σὺ δʼ ἐν αἰθέρι καὶ νεφέλῃσιν
ἐκρέμω· ἠλάστεον δὲ θεοὶ κατὰ μακρὸν Ὄλυμπον,
λῦσαι δʼ οὐκ ἐδύναντο παρασταδόν· ὃν δὲ λάβοιμι
ῥίπτασκον τεταγὼν ἀπὸ βηλοῦ ὄφρʼ ἂν ἵκηται
γῆν ὀλιγηπελέων· ἐμὲ δʼ οὐδʼ ὧς θυμὸν ἀνίει
ἀζηχὴς ὀδύνη Ἡρακλῆος θείοιο,
τὸν σὺ ξὺν Βορέῃ ἀνέμῳ πεπιθοῦσα θυέλλας
πέμψας ἐπʼ ἀτρύγετον πόντον κακὰ μητιόωσα,
καί μιν ἔπειτα Κόων δʼ εὖ ναιομένην ἀπένεικας.
τὸν μὲν ἐγὼν ἔνθεν ῥυσάμην καὶ ἀνήγαγον αὖτις
Ἄργος ἐς ἱππόβοτον καὶ πολλά περ ἀθλήσαντα.
τῶν σʼ αὖτις μνήσω ἵνʼ ἀπολλήξῃς ἀπατάων,
ὄφρα ἴδῃ ἤν τοι χραίσμῃ φιλότης τε καὶ εὐνή,
ἣν ἐμίγης ἐλθοῦσα θεῶν ἄπο καί μʼ ἀπάτησας.
Lattimore commentary