Dawn spread her saffron robe over the whole earth, and Zeus who delights in thunder called the gods to assembly on the highest peak of many-ridged Olympus. He told every god and goddess to listen while he spoke what his heart commanded.
No immortal, male or female, was to cut across his word. All were to approve it, so he could finish his work quickly. If he caught anyone going apart to help either the Trojans or the Danaans, that god would come back to Olympus beaten and out of order, or be thrown by his hand into murky Tartaros, as far below Hades as heaven is above the earth.
Zeus dared them to test him with a golden chain hung down from heaven. Let every god and goddess pull: they could not drag him from heaven to earth. But if he chose to pull, he would lift earth and sea together and tie the chain around Olympus, and all would hang in the air. So much stronger was he than gods and men.
The gods sat silent, amazed at the force of his speech. At last gray-eyed Athena answered him gently: they all knew his strength could not be matched, yet they pitied the Danaan spearmen who were filling up an evil fate. They would hold back from battle as he ordered, but might still give the Argives counsel so they did not all perish under his anger.
Zeus who gathers the clouds smiled at his daughter and told Tritogeneia to take heart. He was not speaking with a harsh mind toward her; he wished to be kind. Then he yoked his bronze-footed horses, put on gold about himself, took the well-made whip, mounted the chariot, and drove between earth and starry heaven.
He came to Ida, rich in springs and mother of wild beasts, to Gargaros, where his precinct and fragrant altar stood. There the father of gods and men stopped the horses, wrapped them in thick mist, and sat on the peaks glorying in his strength, looking down on Troy and the ships of the Achaeans.