Homer: Mars, most unjust, most odious of all the gods

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Greek and Roman writers on war and peace
Homer: Caging the terrible Lord of War
Homer: The great gods are never pleased with violent deeds
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Homer
From The Iliad
Translated by Alexander Pope
Of lawless force shall lawless Mars complain?
Of all the gods who tread the spangled skies,
Thou most unjust, most odious in our eyes!
Inhuman discord is thy dire delight,
The waste of slaughter, and the rage of fight:
No bound, no law, thy fiery temper quells,
And all thy mother in thy soul rebels.
In vain our threats, in vain our power, we use:
She gives the example, and her son pursues.

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