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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="/comments.php?id=410313" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Iliad: Book 9</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=410313" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Thus did the Trojans watch. But Panic, comrade of blood-stained<br>Rout, had taken fast hold of the Achaeans and their princes were all<br>of them in despair. As when the two winds that blow from Thrace- the<br>north and the northwest- spring up of a sudden and rouse the fury of<br>the main- in a moment the dark waves uprear their heads and scatter<br>their sea-wrack in all directions- even thus troubled were the<br>hearts of the Achaeans.<br>The son of Atreus in dismay bade the heralds call the people to a<br>council man by man, but not to cry the matter aloud; he made haste<br>also himself to call them, and they sat sorry at heart in their<br>assembly. Agamemnon shed tears as it were a running stream or cataract<br>on the side of some sheer cliff; and thus, with many a heavy sigh he<br>spoke to the Achaeans. "My friends," said he, "princes and councillors<br>Of the Argives, the hand of heaven has been laid heavily upon me.<br>Cruel Jove gave me his solemn promise that I should sack the city of<br>Troy before returning, but he has played me false, and is now<br>bidding me go ingloriously back to Argos with the loss of much people.<br>Such is the will of Jove, who has laid many a proud city in the dust<br>as he will yet lay others, for his power is above all. Now, therefore,<br>let us all do as I say and sail back to our own country, for we<br>shall not take Troy."<br>Thus he spoke, and the sons of the Achaeans for a long while sat<br>sorrowful there, but they all held their peace, till at last Diomed of<br>the loud battle-cry made answer saying, "Son of Atreus, I will chide<br>your folly, as is my right in council. Be not then aggrieved that I<br>should do so. In the first place you attacked me before all the<br>Danaans and said that I was a coward and no soldier. The Argives young<br>and old know that you did so. But the son of scheming Saturn endowed<br>you by halves only. He gave you honour as the chief ruler over us, but<br>valour, which is the highest both right and might he did not give you.<br>Sir, think you that the sons of the Achaeans are indeed as unwarlike<br>and cowardly as you say they are? If your own mind is set upon going<br>home- go- the way is open to you; the many ships that followed you<br>from Mycene stand ranged upon the seashore; but the rest of us stay<br>here till we have sacked Troy. Nay though these too should turn<br>homeward with their ships, Sthenelus and myself will still fight on<br>till we reach the goal of Ilius, for for heaven was with us when we<br>came."<br>The sons of the Achaeans shouted applause at the words of Diomed,<br>and presently Nestor rose to speak. "Son of Tydeus," said he, "in<br>war your prowess is beyond question, and in council you excel all<br>who are of your own years; no one of the Achaeans can make light of<br>what you say nor gainsay it, but you have not yet come to the end of<br>the whole matter. You are still young- you might be the youngest of my<br>own children- still you have spoken wisely and have counselled the<br>chief of the Achaeans not without discretion; nevertheless I am<br>older than you and I will tell you every" thing; therefore let no man,<br>not even King Agamemnon, disregard my saying, for he that foments<br>civil discord is a clanless, hearthless outlaw.<br>"Now, however, let us obey the behests of night and get our suppers,<br>but let the sentinels every man of them camp by the trench that is<br>without the wall. I am giving these instructions to the young men;<br>when they have been attended to, do you, son of Atreus, give your<br>orders, for you are the most royal among us all. Prepare a feast for<br>your councillors; it is right and reasonable that you should do so;<br>there is abundance of wine in your tents, which the ships of the<br>Achaeans bring from Thrace daily. You have everything at your disposal<br>wherewith to entertain guests, and you have many subjects. When many<br>are got together, you can be guided by him whose counsel is wisest-<br>and sorely do we need shrewd and prudent counsel, for the foe has<br>lit his watchfires hard by our ships. Who can be other than<br>dismayed? This night will either be the ruin of our host, or save it."<br>Thus did he speak, and they did even as he had said. The sentinels<br>went out in their armour under command of Nestor's son Thrasymedes,<br>a captain of the host, and of the bold warriors Ascalaphus and<br>Ialmenus: there were also Meriones, Aphareus and Deipyrus, and the son<br>of Creion, noble Lycomedes. There were seven captains of the<br>sentinels, and with each there went a hundred youths armed with long<br>spears: they took their places midway between the trench and the wall,<br>and when they had done so they lit their fires and got every man his<br>supper.<br>The son of Atreus then bade many councillors of the Achaeans to<br>his quarters prepared a great feast in their honour. They laid their<br>hands on the good things that were before them, and as soon as they<br>had enough to eat and drink, old Nestor, whose counsel was ever<br>truest, was the first to lay his mind before them. He, therefore, with<br>all sincerity and goodwill addressed them thus.<br>"With yourself, most noble son of Atreus, king of men, Agamemnon,<br>will I both begin my speech and end it, for you are king over much<br>people. Jove, moreover, has vouchsafed you to wield the sceptre and to<br>uphold righteousness, that you may take thought for your people<br>under you; therefore it behooves you above all others both to speak<br>and to give ear, and to out the counsel of another who shall have been<br>minded to speak wisely. All turns on you and on your commands,<br>therefore I will say what I think will be best. No man will be of a<br>truer mind than that which has been mine from the hour when you,<br>sir, angered Achilles by taking the girl Briseis from his tent against<br>my judgment. I urged you not to do so, but you yielded to your own<br>pride, and dishonoured a hero whom heaven itself had honoured- for you<br>still hold the prize that had been awarded to him. Now, however, let<br>us think how we may appease him, both with presents and fair<br>speeches that may conciliate him."<br>And King Agamemnon answered, "Sir, you have reproved my folly<br>justly. I was wrong. I own it. One whom heaven befriends is in himself<br>a host, and Jove has shown that he befriends this man by destroying<br>much people of the Achaeans. I was blinded with passion and yielded to<br>my worser mind; therefore I will make amends, and will give him<br>great gifts by way of atonement. I will tell them in the presence of<br>you all. I will give him seven tripods that have never yet been on the<br>fire, and ten talents of gold. I will give him twenty iron cauldrons<br>and twelve strong horses that have won races and carried off prizes.<br>Rich, indeed, both in land and gold is he that has as many prizes as<br>my horses have won me. I will give him seven excellent workwomen,<br>Lesbians, whom I chose for myself when he took Lesbos- all of<br>surpassing beauty. I will give him these, and with them her whom I<br>erewhile took from him, the daughter of Briseus; and I swear a great<br>oath that I never went up into her couch, nor have been with her after<br>the manner of men and women.<br>"All these things will I give him now down, and if hereafter the<br>gods vouchsafe me to sack the city of Priam, let him come when we<br>Achaeans are dividing the spoil, and load his ship with gold and<br>bronze to his liking; furthermore let him take twenty Trojan women,<br>the loveliest after Helen herself. Then, when we reach Achaean<br>Argos, wealthiest of all lands, he shall be my son-in-law and I will<br>show him like honour with my own dear son Orestes, who is being<br>nurtured in all abundance. I have three daughters, Chrysothemis,<br>Laodice, and lphianassa, let him take the one of his choice, freely<br>and without gifts of wooing, to the house of Peleus; I will add such<br>dower to boot as no man ever yet gave his daughter, and will give<br>him seven well established cities, Cardamyle, Enope, and Hire, where<br>there is grass; holy Pherae and the rich meadows of Anthea; Aepea<br>also, and the vine-clad slopes of Pedasus, all near the sea, and on<br>the borders of sandy Pylos. The men that dwell there are rich in<br>cattle and sheep; they will honour him with gifts as though he were<br>a god, and be obedient to his comfortable ordinances. All this will<br>I do if he will now forgo his anger. Let him then yieldit is only<br>Hades who is utterly ruthless and unyielding- and hence he is of all<br>gods the one most hateful to mankind. Moreover I am older and more<br>royal than himself. Therefore, let him now obey me."<br>Then Nestor answered, "Most noble son of Atreus, king of men,<br>Agamemnon. The gifts you offer are no small ones, let us then send<br>chosen messengers, who may go to the tent of Achilles son of Peleus<br>without delay. Let those go whom I shall name. Let Phoenix, dear to<br>Jove, lead the way; let Ajax and Ulysses follow, and let the heralds<br>Odius and Eurybates go with them. Now bring water for our hands, and<br>bid all keep silence while we pray to Jove the son of Saturn, if so be<br>that he may have mercy upon us."<br>Thus did he speak, and his saying pleased them well. Men-servants<br>poured water over the hands of the guests, while pages filled the<br>mixing-bowls with wine and water, and handed it round after giving<br>every man his drink-offering; then, when they had made their<br>offerings, and had drunk each as much as he was minded, the envoys set<br>out from the tent of Agamemnon son of Atreus; and Nestor, looking<br>first to one and then to another, but most especially at Ulysses,<br>was instant with them that they should prevail with the noble son of<br>Peleus.<br>They went their way by the shore of the sounding sea, and prayed<br>earnestly to earth-encircling Neptune that the high spirit of the<br>son of Aeacus might incline favourably towards them. When they reached<br>the ships and tents of the Myrmidons, they found Achilles playing on a<br>lyre, fair, of cunning workmanship, and its cross-bar was of silver.<br>It was part of the spoils which he had taken when he sacked the city<br>of Eetion, and he was now diverting himself with it and singing the<br>feats of heroes. He was alone with Patroclus, who sat opposite to<br>him and said nothing, waiting till he should cease singing. Ulysses<br>and Ajax now came in- Ulysses leading the way -and stood before him.<br>Achilles sprang from his seat with the lyre still in his hand, and<br>Patroclus, when he saw the strangers, rose also. Achilles then greeted<br>them saying, "All hail and welcome- you must come upon some great<br>matter, you, who for all my anger are still dearest to me of the<br>Achaeans."<br>With this he led them forward, and bade them sit on seats covered<br>with purple rugs; then he said to Patroclus who was close by him, "Son<br>of Menoetius, set a larger bowl upon the table, mix less water with<br>the wine, and give every man his cup, for these are very dear friends,<br>who are now under my roof."<br>Patroclus did as his comrade bade him; he set the chopping-block<br>in front of the fire, and on it he laid the loin of a sheep, the<br>loin also of a goat, and the chine of a fat hog. Automedon held the<br>meat while Achilles chopped it; he then sliced the pieces and put them<br>on spits while the son of Menoetius made the fire burn high. When<br>the flame had died down, he spread the embers, laid the spits on top<br>of them, lifting them up and setting them upon the spit-racks; and<br>he sprinkled them with salt. When the meat was roasted, he set it on<br>platters, and handed bread round the table in fair baskets, while<br>Achilles dealt them their portions. Then Achilles took his seat facing<br>Ulysses against the opposite wall, and bade his comrade Patroclus<br>offer sacrifice to the gods; so he cast the offerings into the fire,<br>and they laid their hands upon the good things that were before<br>them. As soon as they had had enough to eat and drink, Ajax made a<br>sign to Phoenix, and when he saw this, Ulysses filled his cup with<br>wine and pledged Achilles.<br>"Hail," said he, "Achilles, we have had no scant of good cheer,<br>neither in the tent of Agamemnon, nor yet here; there has been<br>plenty to eat and drink, but our thought turns upon no such matter.<br>Sir, we are in the face of great disaster, and without your help<br>know not whether we shall save our fleet or lose it. The Trojans and<br>their allies have camped hard by our ships and by the wall; they<br>have lit watchfires throughout their host and deem that nothing can<br>now prevent them from falling on our fleet. Jove, moreover, has sent<br>his lightnings on their right; Hector, in all his glory, rages like<br>a maniac; confident that Jove is with him he fears neither god nor<br>man, but is gone raving mad, and prays for the approach of day. He<br>vows that he will hew the high sterns of our ships in pieces, set fire<br>to their hulls, and make havoc of the Achaeans while they are dazed<br>and smothered in smoke; I much fear that heaven will make good his<br>boasting, and it will prove our lot to perish at Troy far from our<br>home in Argos. Up, then, and late though it be, save the sons of the<br>Achaeans who faint before the fury of the Trojans. You will repent<br>bitterly hereafter if you do not, for when the harm is done there will<br>be no curing it; consider ere it be too late, and save the Danaans<br>from destruction.<br>"My good friend, when your father Peleus sent you from Phthia to<br>Agamemnon, did he not charge you saying, 'Son, Minerva and Juno will<br>make you strong if they choose, but check your high temper, for the<br>better part is in goodwill. Eschew vain quarrelling, and the<br>Achaeans old and young will respect you more for doing so.' These were<br>his words, but you have forgotten them. Even now, however, be<br>appeased, and put away your anger from you. Agamemnon will make you<br>great amends if you will forgive him; listen, and I will tell you what<br>he has said in his tent that he will give you. He will give you<br>seven tripods that have never yet been on the fire, and ten talents of<br>gold; twenty iron cauldrons, and twelve strong horses that have won<br>races and carried off prizes. Rich indeed both in land and gold is<br>he who has as many prizes as these horses have won for Agamemnon.<br>Moreover he will give you seven excellent workwomen, Lesbians, whom he<br>chose for himself, when you took Lesbos- all of surpassing beauty.<br>He will give you these, and with them her whom he erewhile took from<br>you, the daughter of Briseus, and he will swear a great oath, he has<br>never gone up into her couch nor been with her after the manner of men<br>and women. All these things will he give you now down, and if<br>hereafter the gods vouchsafe him to sack the city of Priam, you can<br>come when we Achaeans are dividing the spoil, and load your ship<br>with gold and bronze to your liking. You can take twenty Trojan women,<br>the loveliest after Helen herself. Then, when we reach Achaean<br>Argos, wealthiest of all lands, you shall be his son-in-law, and he<br>will show you like honour with his own dear son Orestes, who is<br>being nurtured in all abundance. Agamemnon has three daughters,<br>Chrysothemis, Laodice, and Iphianassa; you may take the one of your<br>choice, freely and without gifts of wooing, to the house of Peleus; he<br>will add such dower to boot as no man ever yet gave his daughter,<br>and will give you seven well-established cities, Cardamyle, Enope, and<br>Hire where there is grass; holy Pheras and the rich meadows of Anthea;<br>Aepea also, and the vine-clad slopes of Pedasus, all near the sea, and<br>on the borders of sandy Pylos. The men that dwell there are rich in<br>cattle and sheep; they will honour you with gifts as though were a<br>god, and be obedient to your comfortable ordinances. All this will<br>he do if you will now forgo your anger. Moreover, though you hate both<br>him and his gifts with all your heart, yet pity the rest of the<br>Achaeans who are being harassed in all their host; they will honour<br>you as a god, and you will earn great glory at their hands. You<br>might even kill Hector; he will come within your reach, for he is<br>infatuated, and declares that not a Danaan whom the ships have brought<br>can hold his own against him."<br>Achilles answered, "Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, I should give you<br>formal notice plainly and in all fixity of purpose that there be no<br>more of this cajoling, from whatsoever quarter it may come. Him do I<br>hate even as the gates of hell who says one thing while he hides<br>another in his heart; therefore I will say what I mean. I will be<br>appeased neither by Agamemnon son of Atreus nor by any other of the<br>Danaans, for I see that I have no thanks for all my fighting. He<br>that fights fares no better than he that does not; coward and hero are<br>held in equal honour, and death deals like measure to him who works<br>and him who is idle. I have taken nothing by all my hardships- with my<br>life ever in my hand; as a bird when she has found a morsel takes it<br>to her nestlings, and herself fares hardly, even so man a long night<br>have I been wakeful, and many a bloody battle have I waged by day<br>against those who were fighting for their women. With my ships I<br>have taken twelve cities, and eleven round about Troy have I stormed<br>with my men by land; I took great store of wealth from every one of<br>them, but I gave all up to Agamemnon son of Atreus. He stayed where he<br>was by his ships, yet of what came to him he gave little, and kept<br>much himself.<br>"Nevertheless he did distribute some meeds of honour among the<br>chieftains and kings, and these have them still; from me alone of<br>the Achaeans did he take the woman in whom I delighted- let him keep<br>her and sleep with her. Why, pray, must the Argives needs fight the<br>Trojans? What made the son of Atreus gather the host and bring them?<br>Was it not for the sake of Helen? Are the sons of Atreus the only<br>men in the world who love their wives? Any man of common right feeling<br>will love and cherish her who is his own, as I this woman, with my<br>whole heart, though she was but a fruitling of my spear. Agamemnon has<br>taken her from me; he has played me false; I know him; let him tempt<br>me no further, for he shall not move me. Let him look to you, Ulysses,<br>and to the other princes to save his ships from burning. He has done<br>much without me already. He has built a wall; he has dug a trench deep<br>and wide all round it, and he has planted it within with stakes; but<br>even so he stays not the murderous might of Hector. So long as I<br>fought the Achaeans Hector suffered not the battle range far from<br>the city walls; he would come to the Scaean gates and to the oak tree,<br>but no further. Once he stayed to meet me and hardly did he escape<br>my onset: now, however, since I am in no mood to fight him, I will<br>to-morrow offer sacrifice to Jove and to all the gods; I will draw<br>my ships into the water and then victual them duly; to-morrow morning,<br>if you care to look, you will see my ships on the Hellespont, and my<br>men rowing out to sea with might and main. If great Neptune vouchsafes<br>me a fair passage, in three days I shall be in Phthia. I have much<br>there that I left behind me when I came here to my sorrow, and I shall<br>bring back still further store of gold, of red copper, of fair<br>women, and of iron, my share of the spoils that we have taken; but one<br>prize, he who gave has insolently taken away. Tell him all as I now<br>bid you, and tell him in public that the Achaeans may hate him and<br>beware of him should he think that he can yet dupe others for his<br>effrontery never fails him.<br>"As for me, hound that he is, he dares not look me in the face. I<br>will take no counsel with him, and will undertake nothing in common<br>with him. He has wronged me and deceived me enough, he shall not cozen<br>me further; let him go his own way, for Jove has robbed him of his<br>reason. I loathe his presents, and for himself care not one straw.<br>He may offer me ten or even twenty times what he has now done, nay-<br>not though it be all that he has in the world, both now or ever<br>shall have; he may promise me the wealth of Orchomenus or of<br>Egyptian Thebes, which is the richest city in the whole world, for<br>it has a hundred gates through each of which two hundred men may drive<br>at once with their chariots and horses; he may offer me gifts as the<br>sands of the sea or the dust of the plain in multitude, but even so he<br>shall not move me till I have been revenged in full for the bitter<br>wrong he has done me. I will not marry his daughter; she may be fair<br>as Venus, and skilful as Minerva, but I will have none of her: let<br>another take her, who may be a good match for her and who rules a<br>larger kingdom. If the gods spare me to return home, Peleus will<br>find me a wife; there are Achaean women in Hellas and Phthia,<br>daughters of kings that have cities under them; of these I can take<br>whom I will and marry her. Many a time was I minded when at home in<br>Phthia to woo and wed a woman who would make me a suitable wife, and<br>to enjoy the riches of my old father Peleus. My life is more to me<br>than all the wealth of Ilius while it was yet at peace before the<br>Achaeans went there, or than all the treasure that lies on the stone<br>floor of Apollo's temple beneath the cliffs of Pytho. Cattle and sheep<br>are to be had for harrying, and a man buy both tripods and horses if<br>he wants them, but when his life has once left him it can neither be<br>bought nor harried back again.<br>"My mother Thetis tells me that there are two ways in which I may<br>meet my end. If I stay here and fight, I shall not return alive but my<br>name will live for ever: whereas if I go home my name will die, but it<br>will be long ere death shall take me. To the rest of you, then, I say,<br>'Go home, for you will not take Ilius.' Jove has held his hand over<br>her to protect her, and her people have taken heart. Go, therefore, as<br>in duty bound, and tell the princes of the Achaeans the message that I<br>have sent them; tell them to find some other plan for the saving of<br>their ships and people, for so long as my displeasure lasts the one<br>that they have now hit upon may not be. As for Phoenix, let him<br>sleep here that he may sail with me in the morning if he so will.<br>But I will not take him by force."<br>They all held their peace, dismayed at the sternness with which he<br>had denied them, till presently the old knight Phoenix in his great<br>fear for the ships of the Achaeans, burst into tears and said,<br>"Noble Achilles, if you are now minded to return, and in the<br>fierceness of your anger will do nothing to save the ships from<br>burning, how, my son, can I remain here without you? Your father<br>Peleus bade me go with you when he sent you as a mere lad from<br>Phthia to Agamemnon. You knew nothing neither of war nor of the arts<br>whereby men make their mark in council, and he sent me with you to<br>train you in all excellence of speech and action. Therefore, my son, I<br>will not stay here without you- no, not though heaven itself vouchsafe<br>to strip my years from off me, and make me young as I was when I first<br>left Hellas the land of fair women. I was then flying the anger of<br>father Amyntor, son of Ormenus, who was furious with me in the<br>matter of his concubine, of whom he was enamoured to the wronging of<br>his wife my mother. My mother, therefore, prayed me without ceasing to<br>lie with the woman myself, that so she hate my father, and in the<br>course of time I yielded. But my father soon came to know, and<br>cursed me bitterly, calling the dread Erinyes to witness. He prayed<br>that no son of mine might ever sit upon knees- and the gods, Jove of<br>the world below and awful Proserpine, fulfilled his curse. I took<br>counsel to kill him, but some god stayed my rashness and bade me think<br>on men's evil tongues and how I should be branded as the murderer of<br>my father: nevertheless I could not bear to stay in my father's<br>house with him so bitter a against me. My cousins and clansmen came<br>about me, and pressed me sorely to remain; many a sheep and many an ox<br>did they slaughter, and many a fat hog did they set down to roast<br>before the fire; many a jar, too, did they broach of my father's wine.<br>Nine whole nights did they set a guard over me taking it in turns to<br>watch, and they kept a fire always burning, both in the cloister of<br>the outer court and in the inner court at the doors of the room<br>wherein I lay; but when the darkness of the tenth night came, I<br>broke through the closed doors of my room, and climbed the wall of the<br>outer court after passing quickly and unperceived through the men on<br>guard and the women servants. I then fled through Hellas till I came<br>to fertile Phthia, mother of sheep, and to King Peleus, who made me<br>welcome and treated me as a father treats an only son who will be heir<br>to all his wealth. He made me rich and set me over much people,<br>establishing me on the borders of Phthia where I was chief ruler<br>over the Dolopians.<br>"It was I, Achilles, who had the making of you; I loved you with all<br>my heart: for you would eat neither at home nor when you had gone<br>out elsewhere, till I had first set you upon my knees, cut up the<br>dainty morsel that you were to eat, and held the wine-cup to your<br>lips. Many a time have you slobbered your wine in baby helplessness<br>over my shirt; I had infinite trouble with you, but I knew that heaven<br>had vouchsafed me no offspring of my own, and I made a son of you,<br>Achilles, that in my hour of need you might protect me. Now,<br>therefore, I say battle with your pride and beat it; cherish not<br>your anger for ever; the might and majesty of heaven are more than<br>ours, but even heaven may be appeased; and if a man has sinned he<br>prays the gods, and reconciles them to himself by his piteous cries<br>and by frankincense, with drink-offerings and the savour of burnt<br>sacrifice. For prayers are as daughters to great Jove; halt, wrinkled,<br>with eyes askance, they follow in the footsteps of sin, who, being<br>fierce and fleet of foot, leaves them far behind him, and ever baneful<br>to mankind outstrips them even to the ends of the world; but<br>nevertheless the prayers come hobbling and healing after. If a man has<br>pity upon these daughters of Jove when they draw near him, they will<br>bless him and hear him too when he is praying; but if he deny them and<br>will not listen to them, they go to Jove the son of Saturn and pray<br>that he may presently fall into sin- to his ruing bitterly<br>hereafter. Therefore, Achilles, give these daughters of Jove due<br>reverence, and bow before them as all good men will bow. Were not<br>the son of Atreus offering you gifts and promising others later- if he<br>were still furious and implacable- I am not he that would bid you<br>throw off your anger and help the Achaeans, no matter how great<br>their need; but he is giving much now, and more hereafter; he has sent<br>his captains to urge his suit, and has chosen those who of all the<br>Argives are most acceptable to you; make not then their words and<br>their coming to be of none effect. Your anger has been righteous so<br>far. We have heard in song how heroes of old time quarrelled when they<br>were roused to fury, but still they could be won by gifts, and fair<br>words could soothe them.<br>"I have an old story in my mind- a very old one- but you are all<br>friends and I will tell it. The Curetes and the Aetolians were<br>fighting and killing one another round Calydon- the Aetolians<br>defending the city and the Curetes trying to destroy it. For Diana<br>of the golden throne was angry and did them hurt because Oeneus had<br>not offered her his harvest first-fruits. The other gods had all<br>been feasted with hecatombs, but to the daughter of great Jove alone<br>he had made no sacrifice. He had forgotten her, or somehow or other it<br>had escaped him, and this was a grievous sin. Thereon the archer<br>goddess in her displeasure sent a prodigious creature against him- a<br>savage wild boar with great white tusks that did much harm to his<br>orchard lands, uprooting apple-trees in full bloom and throwing them<br>to the ground. But Meleager son of Oeneus got huntsmen and hounds from<br>many cities and killed it- for it was so monstrous that not a few were<br>needed, and many a man did it stretch upon his funeral pyre. On this<br>the goddess set the Curetes and the Aetolians fighting furiously about<br>the head and skin of the boar.<br>"So long as Meleager was in the field things went badly with the<br>Curetes, and for all their numbers they could not hold their ground<br>under the city walls; but in the course of time Meleager was angered<br>as even a wise man will sometimes be. He was incensed with his<br>mother Althaea, and therefore stayed at home with his wedded wife fair<br>Cleopatra, who was daughter of Marpessa daughter of Euenus, and of<br>Ides the man then living. He it was who took his bow and faced King<br>Apollo himself for fair Marpessa's sake; her father and mother then<br>named her Alcyone, because her mother had mourned with the plaintive<br>strains of the halcyon-bird when Phoebus Apollo had carried her off.<br>Meleager, then, stayed at home with Cleopatra, nursing the anger which<br>he felt by reason of his mother's curses. His mother, grieving for the<br>death of her brother, prayed the gods, and beat the earth with her<br>hands, calling upon Hades and on awful Proserpine; she went down<br>upon her knees and her bosom was wet with tears as she prayed that<br>they would kill her son- and Erinys that walks in darkness and knows<br>no ruth heard her from Erebus.<br>"Then was heard the din of battle about the gates of Calydon, and<br>the dull thump of the battering against their walls. Thereon the<br>elders of the Aetolians besought Meleager; they sent the chiefest of<br>their priests, and begged him to come out and help them, promising him<br>a great reward. They bade him choose fifty plough-gates, the most<br>fertile in the plain of Calydon, the one-half vineyard and the other<br>open plough-land. The old warrior Oeneus implored him, standing at the<br>threshold of his room and beating the doors in supplication. His<br>sisters and his mother herself besought him sore, but he the more<br>refused them; those of his comrades who were nearest and dearest to<br>him also prayed him, but they could not move him till the foe was<br>battering at the very doors of his chamber, and the Curetes had scaled<br>the walls and were setting fire to the city. Then at last his<br>sorrowing wife detailed the horrors that befall those whose city is<br>taken; she reminded him how the men are slain, and the city is given<br>over to the flames, while the women and children are carried into<br>captivity; when he heard all this, his heart was touched, and he<br>donned his armour to go forth. Thus of his own inward motion he<br>saved the city of the Aetolians; but they now gave him nothing of<br>those rich rewards that they had offered earlier, and though he<br>saved the city he took nothing by it. Be not then, my son, thus<br>minded; let not heaven lure you into any such course. When the ships<br>are burning it will be a harder matter to save them. Take the gifts,<br>and go, for the Achaeans will then honour you as a god; whereas if you<br>fight without taking them, you may beat the battle back, but you<br>will not be held in like honour."<br>And Achilles answered, "Phoenix, old friend and father, I have no<br>need of such honour. I have honour from Jove himself, which will abide<br>with me at my ships while I have breath in my body, and my limbs are<br>strong. I say further- and lay my saying to your heart- vex me no more<br>with this weeping and lamentation, all in the cause of the son of<br>Atreus. Love him so well, and you may lose the love I bear you. You<br>ought to help me rather in troubling those that trouble me; be king as<br>much as I am, and share like honour with myself; the others shall take<br>my answer; stay here yourself and sleep comfortably in your bed; at<br>daybreak we will consider whether to remain or go."<br>On this she nodded quietly to Patroclus as a sign that he was to<br>prepare a bed for Phoenix, and that the others should take their<br>leave. Ajax son of Telamon then said, "Ulysses, noble son of<br>Laertes, let us be gone, for I see that our journey is vain. We must<br>now take our answer, unwelcome though it be, to the Danaans who are<br>waiting to receive it. Achilles is savage and remorseless; he is<br>cruel, and cares nothing for the love his comrades lavished upon him<br>more than on all the others. He is implacable- and yet if a man's<br>brother or son has been slain he will accept a fine by way of amends<br>from him that killed him, and the wrong-doer having paid in full<br>remains in peace among his own people; but as for you, Achilles, the<br>gods have put a wicked unforgiving spirit in your heart, and this, all<br>about one single girl, whereas we now offer you the seven best we<br>have, and much else into the bargain. Be then of a more gracious mind,<br>respect the hospitality of your own roof. We are with you as<br>messengers from the host of the Danaans, and would fain he held<br>nearest and dearest to yourself of all the Achaeans."<br>"Ajax," replied Achilles, "noble son of Telamon, you have spoken<br>much to my liking, but my blood boils when I think it all over, and<br>remember how the son of Atreus treated me with contumely as though I<br>were some vile tramp, and that too in the presence of the Argives. Go,<br>then, and deliver your message; say that I will have no concern with<br>fighting till Hector, son of noble Priam, reaches the tents of the<br>Myrmidons in his murderous course, and flings fire upon their ships.<br>For all his lust of battle, I take it he will be held in check when he<br>is at my own tent and ship."<br>On this they took every man his double cup, made their<br>drink-offerings, and went back to the ships, Ulysses leading the<br>way. But Patroclus told his men and the maid-servants to make ready<br>a comfortable bed for Phoenix; they therefore did so with<br>sheepskins, a rug, and a sheet of fine linen. The old man then laid<br>himself down and waited till morning came. But Achilles slept in an<br>inner room, and beside him the daughter of Phorbas lovely Diomede,<br>whom he had carried off from Lesbos. Patroclus lay on the other side<br>of the room, and with him fair Iphis whom Achilles had given him<br>when he took Scyros the city of Enyeus.<br>When the envoys reached the tents of the son of Atreus, the Achaeans<br>rose, pledged them in cups of gold, and began to question them. King<br>Agamemnon was the first to do so. Tell me, Ulysses," said he, "will he<br>save the ships from burning, or did be refuse, and is he still<br>furious?"<br>Ulysses answered, "Most noble son of Atreus, king of men, Agamemnon,<br>Achilles will not be calmed, but is more fiercely angry than ever, and<br>spurns both you and your gifts. He bids you take counsel with the<br>Achaeans to save the ships and host as you best may; as for himself,<br>he said that at daybreak he should draw his ships into the water. He<br>said further that he should advise every one to sail home likewise,<br>for that you will not reach the goal of Ilius. 'Jove,' he said, 'has<br>laid his hand over the city to protect it, and the people have taken<br>heart.' This is what he said, and the others who were with me can tell<br>you the same story- Ajax and the two heralds, men, both of them, who<br>may be trusted. The old man Phoenix stayed where he was to sleep,<br>for so Achilles would have it, that he might go home with him in the<br>morning if he so would; but he will not take him by force."<br>They all held their peace, sitting for a long time silent and<br>dejected, by reason of the sternness with which Achilles had refused<br>them, till presently Diomed said, "Most noble son of Atreus, king of<br>men, Agamemnon, you ought not to have sued the son of Peleus nor<br>offered him gifts. He is proud enough as it is, and you have<br>encouraged him in his pride am further. Let him stay or go as he will.<br>He will fight later when he is in the humour, and heaven puts it in<br>his mind to do so. Now, therefore, let us all do as I say; we have<br>eaten and drunk our fill, let us then take our rest, for in rest there<br>is both strength and stay. But when fair rosy-fingered morn appears,<br>forthwith bring out your host and your horsemen in front of the ships,<br>urging them on, and yourself fighting among the foremost."<br>Thus he spoke, and the other chieftains approved his words. They<br>then made their drink-offerings and went every man to his own tent,<br>where they laid down to rest and enjoyed the boon of sleep.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br/></a><a href="https://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="https://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Homer">Homer</a></strong>, translated by Samuel Butler</div>

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