1–84 The gods are in assembly; Zeus maliciously suggests making peace after the duel, and Here and Athene are furious; he agrees that the latter should descend to earth to organize the breaking of the truce

1–4 The gods are on Mt Olumpos (as 74 will confirm), seated in the level space ‘by Zeus‘; that is, before his house.

1 ἠγορόωντο, by diectasis from ἀγοράομαι: ‘were gathered in assembly’, ἀγορά is from the root of ἀγείρω, ‘gather’, but came to denote the place of speech-making (as well as of trade); hence ἀγορεύειν means ‘make a speech in assembly’, or simply ‘speak’ – ἀγορεύειν in 6 could be either, ἀγοράομαι recurs only twice in the Iliad, at 2.337 and 8.230 where speech rather than assembly is indicated.

2–3 The floor is golden because most things divine were: thrones, cups (as in 3), clothes and accoutrements; golden clouds surround the mountaintop at 13.523 and 14.343f.

Hebe pours (literally ‘wine-pours’) their nectar; as Aristarchus noted (Arn/A), she is not here married to Herakles as in the probable rhapsodic addition at Od. 11.602–4. She recurs in the Iliad only at 5.722 and 905, where she performs other useful but lowly functions.