So now, I tell you, drop this anger for your son. By now some fighter better than he, a stronger hand has gone down in his own blood, or soon will go. It is no small labor to rescue all mankind, every mother's son.

So now, I tell you, drop this anger for your son.
By now some fighter better than he, a stronger hand
has gone down in his own blood, or soon will go.
It is no small labor to rescue all mankind,
every mother’s son.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 15, lines 167-171. When an angry Ares claims the right to avenge his son Ascalaphus, the Greek fighter killed by Deiphobus, Athena warns him about Zeus’s wrath and advises him that his attempts are useless. The father of the gods would only come to batter them on Olympus, she says.

Homer Quotes