The new-forged counsels were of Jove’s own devising—viz., that he should marry Thetis; of which marriage, if it should take place, the son was destined to usurp his father’s throne.—Scholiast.
“O, ’tis hard, most hard to reach
The heart of Jove!”
Inexorability is a grand characteristic of the gods.
“Desine fata deum flecti sperare precando.”—Virg., Æn. VI.
And so Homer makes Nestor say of Agamemnon, vainly hoping to appease the wrath of Pallas Athena, by hecatombs—
“Witless in his heart he knew not what dire sufferings he must bear,
For not lightly from their purposed counsel swerve the eternal gods.”
Odys. III. 147.