Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

At dawn Zeus calls an assembly of the gods on Olympus and lays down a hard command: none of the immortals is to aid either Danaans or Trojans; any who disobey he will strike into Tartarus, far below, where the pit is as deep beneath Hades as heaven is above earth. He boasts that if a golden chain were fastened from heaven, all gods and goddesses together could not drag him down, whereas he could haul them up with earth and sea. The gods sit silent; Athena alone answers that they know his strength, yet they pity the Greek spearmen and will advise in counsel if they may not fight. Zeus softens enough to grant her words without rage, then yokes his chariot and drives to Ida, where he sits in glory and weighs the fates of Trojans and Achaeans; the Achaean side sinks. The ban reshapes the middle *Iliad*: goddesses who armed freely in Book 5 now risk Tartarus for the same act. Catalogue Zeus’s prohibition as its own theopolitical act—the sovereign’s withdrawal of open divine war—before the stories of its breach (Poseidon; Dios apate) and its later lifting.