The Iliad, Homer [big screen ebook reader .txt] 📗

<b>THE ILIAD OF HOMER

Rendered into English Prose for
the use of those who cannot
read the original


by

Samuel Butler


BOOK I

The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles--Achilles withdraws
from the war, and sends his mother Thetis to ask Jove to help
the Trojans--Scene between Jove and Juno on Olympus.

Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought
countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send
hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and
vultures, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from the day on
which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell
out with one another.

And which of the gods was it that set them on to quarrel? It was the
son of Jove and Leto; for he was angry with the king and sent a
pestilence upon the host to plague the people, because the son of
Atreus had dishonoured Chryses his priest. Now Chryses had come to the
ships of the Achaeans to free his daughter, and had brought with him a
great ransom: moreover he bore in his hand the sceptre of Apollo
wreathed with a suppliant's wreath, and he besought the Achaeans, but
most of all the two sons of Atreus, who were their chiefs.

"Sons of Atreus," he cried, "and all other Achaeans, may the gods who
dwell in Olympus grant you to sack the city of Priam, and to reach your
homes in safety; but free my daughter, and accept a ransom for her, in
reverence to Apollo, son of Jove."

On this the rest of the Achaeans with one voice were for respecting the
priest and taking the ransom that he offered; but not so Agamemnon, who
spoke fiercely to him and sent him roughly away. "Old man," said he,
"let me not find you tarrying about our ships, nor yet coming
hereafter. Your sceptre of the god and your wreath shall profit you
nothing. I will not free her. She shall grow old in my house at Argos
far from her own home, busying herself with her loom and visiting my
couch; so go, and do not provoke me or it shall be the worse for you."

The old man feared him and obeyed. Not a word he spoke, but went by the
shore of the sounding sea and prayed apart to King Apollo whom lovely
Leto had borne. "Hear me," he cried, "O god of the silver bow, that
protectest Chryse and holy Cilla and rulest Tenedos with thy might,
hear me oh thou of Sminthe. If I have ever decked your temple with
garlands, or burned your thigh-bones in fat of bulls or goats, grant my
prayer, and let your arrows avenge these my tears upon the Danaans."

Thus did he pray, and Apollo heard his prayer. He came down furious
from the summits of Olympus, with his bow and his quiver upon his
shoulder, and the arrows rattled on his back with the rage that
trembled within him. He sat himself down away from the ships with a
face as dark as night, and his silver bow rang death as he shot his
arrow in the midst of them. First he smote their mules and their
hounds, but presently he aimed his shafts at the people themselves, and
all day long the pyres of the dead were burning.

For nine whole days he shot his arrows among the people, but upon the
tenth day Achilles called them in assembly--moved thereto by Juno, who
saw the Achaeans in their death-throes and had compassion upon them.
Then, when they were got together, he rose and spoke among them.

"Son of Atreus," said he, "I deem that we should now turn roving home
if we would escape destruction, for we are being cut down by war and
pestilence at once. Let us ask some priest or prophet, or some reader
of dreams (for dreams, too, are of Jove) who can tell us why Phoebus
Apollo is so angry, and say whether it is for some vow that we have
broken, or hecatomb that we have not offered, and whether he will
accept the savour of lambs and goats without blemish, so as to take
away the plague from us."

With these words he sat down, and Calchas son of Thestor, wisest of
augurs, who knew things past present and to come, rose to speak. He it
was who had guided the Achaeans with their fleet to Ilius, through the
prophesyings with which Phoebus Apollo had inspired him. With all
sincerity and goodwill he addressed them thus:--

"Achilles, loved of heaven, you bid me tell you about the anger of King
Apollo, I will therefore do so; but consider first and swear that you
will stand by me heartily in word and deed, for I know that I shall
offend one who rules the Argives with might, to whom all the Achaeans
are in subjection. A plain man cannot stand against the anger of a
king, who if he swallow his displeasure now, will yet nurse revenge
till he has wreaked it. Consider, therefore, whether or no you will
protect me."

And Achilles answered, "Fear not, but speak as it is borne in upon you
from heaven, for by Apollo, Calchas, to whom you pray, and whose
oracles you reveal to us, not a Danaan at our ships shall lay his hand
upon you, while I yet live to look upon the face of the earth--no, not
though you name Agamemnon himself, who is by far the foremost of the
Achaeans."

Thereon the seer spoke boldly. "The god," he said, "is angry neither
about vow nor hecatomb, but for his priest's sake, whom Agamemnon has
dishonoured, in that he would not free his daughter nor take a ransom
for her; therefore has he sent these evils upon us, and will yet send
others. He will not deliver the Danaans from this pestilence till
Agamemnon has restored the girl without fee or ransom to her father,
and has sent a holy hecatomb to Chryse. Thus we may perhaps appease
him."

With these words he sat down, and Agamemnon rose in anger. His heart
was black with rage, and his eyes flashed fire as he scowled on Calchas
and said, "Seer of evil, you never yet prophesied smooth things
concerning me, but have ever loved to foretell that which was evil. You
have brought me neither comfort nor performance; and now you come
seeing among Danaans, and saying that Apollo has plagued us because I
would not take a ransom for this girl, the daughter of Chryses. I have
set my heart on keeping her in my own house, for I love her better even
than my own wife Clytemnestra, whose peer she is alike in form and
feature, in understanding and accomplishments. Still I will give her up
if I must, for I would have the people live, not die; but you must find
me a prize instead, or I alone among the Argives shall be without one.
This is not well; for you behold, all of you, that my prize is to go
elsewhither."

And Achilles answered, "Most noble son of Atreus, covetous beyond all
mankind, how shall the Achaeans find you another prize? We have no
common store from which to take one. Those we took from the cities have
been awarded; we cannot disallow the awards that have been made
already. Give this girl, therefore, to the god, and if ever Jove grants
us to sack the city of Troy we will requite you three and fourfold."

Then Agamemnon said, "Achilles, valiant though you be, you shall not
thus outwit me. You shall not overreach and you shall not persuade me.
Are you to keep your own prize, while I sit tamely under my loss and
give up the girl at your bidding? Let the Achaeans find me a prize in
fair exchange to my liking, or I will come and take your own, or that
of Ajax or of Ulysses; and he to whomsoever I may come shall rue my
coming. But of this we will take thought hereafter; for the present,
let us draw a ship into the sea, and find a crew for her expressly; let
us put a hecatomb on board, and let us send Chryseis also; further, let
some chief man among us be in command, either Ajax, or Idomeneus, or
yourself, son of Peleus, mighty warrior that you are, that we may offer
sacrifice and appease the anger of the god."

Achilles scowled at him and answered, "You are steeped in insolence and
lust of gain. With what heart can any of the Achaeans do your bidding,
either on foray or in open fighting? I came not warring here for any
ill the Trojans had done me. I have no quarrel with them. They have not
raided my cattle nor my horses, nor cut down my harvests on the rich
plains of Phthia; for between me and them there is a great space, both
mountain and sounding sea. We have followed you, Sir Insolence! for
your pleasure, not ours--to gain satisfaction from the Trojans for your
shameless self and for Menelaus. You forget this, and threaten to rob
me of the prize for which I have toiled, and which the sons of the
Achaeans have given me. Never when the Achaeans sack any rich city of
the Trojans do I receive so good a prize as you do, though it is my
hands that do the better part of the fighting. When the sharing comes,
your share is far the largest, and I, forsooth, must go back to my
ships, take what I can get and be thankful, when my labour of fighting
is done. Now, therefore, I shall go back to Phthia; it will be much
better for me to return home with my ships, for I will not stay here
dishonoured to gather gold and substance for you."

And Agamemnon answered, "Fly if you will, I shall make you no prayers
to stay you. I have others here who will do me honour, and above all
Jove, the lord of counsel. There is no king here so hateful to me as
you are, for you are ever quarrelsome and ill-affected. What though you
be brave? Was it not heaven that made you so? Go home, then, with your
ships and comrades to lord it over the Myrmidons. I care neither for
you nor for your anger; and thus will I do: since Phoebus Apollo is
taking Chryseis from me, I shall send her with my ship and my
followers, but I shall come to your tent and take your own prize
Briseis, that you may learn how much stronger I am than you are, and
that another may fear to set himself up as equal or comparable with me."

The son of Peleus was furious, and his heart within his shaggy breast
was divided whether to draw his sword, push the others aside, and kill
the son of Atreus, or to restrain himself and check his anger. While he
was thus in two minds, and was drawing his mighty sword from its
scabbard, Minerva came down from heaven (for Juno had sent her in the
love she bore to them both), and seized the son of Peleus by his yellow
hair, visible to him alone, for of the others no man could see her.
Achilles