Achilles

“The son of Peleus went back to his tents and ships with the son of Menoetius and his company”

“They found Achilles sitting by his tent and his ships”

“meanwhile stay where you are with your ships”

“Achilles abode at his ships”

“Achilles stayed by his ships”

“Achilles was now holding aloof at his ships”

“When they reached the ships and tents of the Myrmidons, they found Achilles playing on a lyre, fair, of cunning workmanship, and its cross-bar was of silver.”

“I have honour from Jove himself, which will abide with me at my ships while I have breath in my body, and my limbs are strong.”

“Meanwhile Achilles went about everywhere among the tents, and bade his Myrmidons put on their armour. Even as fierce ravening wolves that are feasting upon a homed stag which they have killed upon the mountains, and their jaws are red with blood—they go in a pack to lap water from the clear spring with their long thin tongues; and they reek of blood and slaughter; they know not what fear is, for it is hunger drives them—even so did the leaders and counsellors of the Myrmidons gather round the good squire of the fleet descendant of Aeacus, and among them stood Achilles himself cheering on both men and horses”

“I shall stay here where my ships are lying, but I shall send my comrade into battle”

“Meanwhile the fleet runner Antilochus, who had been sent as messenger, reached Achilles, and found him sitting by his tall ships”

“When they reached the rich plain of Troy, they came up out of the sea in a long line on to the sands, at the place where the ships of the Myrmidons were drawn up in close order round the tents of Achilles. His mother went up to him as he lay groaning”

“I stay here by my ships a bootless burden upon the earth”

“Thetis reached the ships with the armour that the god had given her. She found her son fallen about the body of Patroclus and weeping bitterly.”

“There he sits by the ships all desolate for the loss of his dear comrade, and though the others are gone to their dinner he will neither eat nor drink.”

“Hector fell headlong, and Achilles vaunted over him saying, ‘Hector, you deemed that you should come off scatheless when you were spoiling Patroclus, and recked not of myself who was not with him. Fool that you were: for I, his comrade, mightier far than he, was still left behind him at the ships”

“She went to her son’s tents where she found him grieving bitterly, while his trusty comrades round him were busy preparing their morning meal, for which they had killed a great woolly sheep”

“Thus did mother and son talk together at the ships in long discourse with one another”

“We went to Thebe the strong city of Eetion, sacked it”

“Achilles slew my father when he sacked Thebe the goodly city of the Cilicians. He slew him”

“With this he led them forward, and bade them sit on seats covered with purple rugs; then he said to Patroclus who was close by him, ‘Son of Menoetius, set a larger bowl upon the table, mix less water with the wine, and give every man his cup, for these are very dear friends, who are now under my roof.’”

“‘Hail,’ said he, ‘Achilles, we have had no scant of good cheer, neither in the tent of Agamemnon, nor yet here; there has been plenty to eat and drink, but our thought turns upon no such matter.”

“Be then of a more gracious mind, respect the hospitality of your own roof. We are with you as messengers from the host of the Danaans, and would fain he held nearest and dearest to yourself of all the Achaeans.”

“Then Achilles went inside his tent and opened the lid of the strong chest”

“Achilles went inside his tent and put back the cup into his chest”

“Thrice did he drag it round the tomb of the son of Menoetius, and then went back into his tent”

“The old man went straight into the house where Achilles, loved of the gods, was sitting. There he found him with his men seated at a distance from him: only two, the hero Automedon, and Alcimus of the race of Mars, were busy in attendance about his person”

“The two wept bitterly—Priam, as he lay at Achilles’ feet, weeping for Hector, and Achilles now for his father and now for Patroclous, till the house was filled with their lamentation”

“Then the son of Peleus sprang like a lion through the door of his house, not alone, but with him went his two squires Automedon and Alcimus”

“Achilles then went back into the tent and took his place on the richly inlaid seat from which he had risen, by the wall that was at right angles to the one against which Priam was sitting”

“Many a time was I minded when at home in Phthia to woo and wed a woman who would make me a suitable wife, and to enjoy the riches of my old father Peleus.”

“He then went on to kill Isus and Antiphus two sons of Priam, the one a bastard, the other born in wedlock; they were in the same chariot—the bastard driving, while noble Antiphus fought beside him. Achilles had once taken both of them prisoners in the glades of Ida”

“His spear has already put me to Right from Ida, when he attacked our cattle”

“Have you forgotten how when you were alone I chased you from your herds helter-skelter down the slopes of Ida”

“Fair Hecamede, whom Nestor had had awarded to him from Tenedos when Achilles took it”

“When they reached the rich plain of Troy, they came up out of the sea in a long line on to the sands, at the place where the ships of the Myrmidons were drawn up in close order round the tents of Achilles. His mother went up to him as he lay groaning”

“Meanwhile the whole plain was alive with men and horses, and blazing with the gleam of armour. The earth rang again under the tramp of their feet as they rushed towards each other, and two champions, by far the foremost of them all, met between the hosts to fight—to wit, Aeneas son of Anchises, and noble Achilles”

“Achilles struggled out of the stream, and fled full speed over the plain”

“He fled on in front, but the river with a loud roar came tearing after”

“Achilles strove onward over the plain”

“he would see me as I am hurrying from the city over the plain, and would speed after me till he had caught me”

“pursued him over the corn lands of the plain”

“On this, with fell intent he made towards the city, and as the winning horse in a chariot race strains every nerve when he is flying over the plain, even so fast and furiously did the limbs of Achilles bear him onwards. King Priam was first to note him as he scoured the plain”

“Achilles dear to Jove arose, and Minerva flung her tasselled aegis round his strong shoulders; she crowned his head with a halo of golden cloud from which she kindled a glow of gleaming fire. As the smoke that goes up into heaven from some city that is being beleaguered on an island far out at sea—all day long do men sally from the city and fight their hardest, and at the going down of the sun the line of beacon-fires blazes forth, flaring high for those that dwell near them to behold, if so be that they may come with their ships and succour them—even so did the light flare from the head of Achilles, as he stood by the trench”

“There did he stand and shout aloud”

“Achilles raise his loud cry as he stood by the trench”

“when we two were in such high anger about Briseis, surely it would have been better, had Diana’s arrow slain her at the ships on the day when I took her after having sacked Lyrnessus.”

“but you, Patroclus, even when Achilles slew my husband and sacked the city of noble Mynes, told me that I was not to weep,”

“when he attacked our cattle and sacked Lyrnessus and Pedasus”

“You did not turn round to look behind you; you took refuge in Lyrnessus, but I attacked the city, and with the help of Minerva and father Jove I sacked it”

“who am here fighting the Trojans in a strange land for the accursed sake of Helen, nor yet though I should hear that my son is no more—he who is being brought up in Scyros—if indeed Neoptolemus is still living. Till now I made sure that I alone was to fall here at Troy away from Argos,”

“those whom heaven delivers into my hands before the city of Ilius”

“to defend Ilius. Here therefore, huge and mighty warrior though you be, here shall you die”

“I must stay here at Troy”

“when he attacked our cattle and sacked Lyrnessus and Pedasus”

“when they came to the ford of the full-flowing river Xanthus, begotten of immortal Jove, Achilles cut their forces in two”

“plunged into the river like a god, armed with his sword only”

“There he found Lycaon, son of Priam seed of Dardanus, as he was escaping out of the water”

“the death of the youths whom Achilles was slaying ruthlessly within his waters”

“Achilles, fain to kill him, hurled his spear at Asteropaeus, but failed to hit him and struck the steep bank of the river”

“With this he drew his bronze spear out of the bank”

“Achilles sprang from the bank into midstream”

“the mighty wave come beating down upon his shoulders”

“save me from the river”

“Neptune and Minerva came up to him in the likeness of two men, and took him by the hand”

“he upraised his tumultuous flood high against Achilles”

“She told me I was to fall under the walls of Troy by the flying arrows of Apollo”

“Old King Priam stood on a high tower of the wall looking down on huge Achilles as the Trojans fled panic-stricken before him”

“Fear fell upon Hector as he beheld him, and he dared not stay longer where he was but fled in dismay from before the gates, while Achilles darted after him at his utmost speed. As a mountain falcon, swiftest of all birds, swoops down upon some cowering dove—the dove flies before him but the falcon with a shrill scream follows close after, resolved to have her—even so did Achilles make straight for Hector with all his might, while Hector fled under the Trojan wall as fast as his limbs could take him”

“On they flew along the waggon-road that ran hard by under the wall”

“my eyes behold a man who is dear to me being pursued round the walls of Troy; my heart is full of pity for Hector, who has burned the thigh-bones of many a heifer in my honour, one while on the crests of manyvalleyed Ida, and again on the citadel of Troy; and now I see noble Achilles in full pursuit of him round the city of Priam”

“you too Achilles, peer of gods, are doomed to die beneath the wall of the noble Trojans.”

“Scamander did not slacken in his pursuit, but was still more furious with the son of Peleus”

“On they flew along the waggon-road that ran hard by under the wall, past the lookout station, and past the weather-beaten wild fig-tree, till they came to two fair springs which feed the river Scamander. One of these two springs is warm, and steam rises from it as smoke from a burning fire, but the other even in summer is as cold as hail or snow, or the ice that forms on water”

“Then, at last, as they were nearing the fountains for the fourth time”

“On they flew along the waggon-road that ran hard by under the wall, past the lookout station, and past the weather-beaten wild fig-tree, till they came to two fair springs which feed the river Scamander. One of these two springs is warm”

“Then, at last, as they were nearing the fountains for the fourth time”

“on the day when Paris and Phoebus Apollo, valiant though you be, shall slay you at the Scaean gates”

“When Achilles had done spoiling Hector of his armour, he stood among the Argives and said, ‘My friends, princes and counsellors of the Argives, now that heaven has vouchsafed us to overcome this man, who has done us more hurt than all the others together, consider whether we should not attack the city in force, and discover in what mind the Trojans may be. We should thus learn whether they will desert their city now that Hector has fallen, or will still hold out even though he is no longer living. But why argue with myself in this way, while Patroclus is still lying at the ships unburied, and unmourned—he whom I can never forget so long as I am alive and my strength fails not? Though men forget their dead when once they are within the house of Hades, yet not even there will I forget the comrade whom I have lost”

“Achilles then bethought him of another matter. He went a space away from the pyre, and cut off the yellow lock which he had let grow for the river Spercheius. He looked all sorrowfully out upon the dark sea, and said, ‘Spercheius, in vain did my father Peleus vow to you that when I returned home to my loved native land I should cut off this lock and offer you a holy hecatomb; fifty she-goats was I to sacrifice to you there at your springs”

“There they made ready their supper, and then bethought them of the blessed boon of sleep; but Achilles still wept for thinking of his dear comrade, and sleep, before whom all things bow, could take no hold upon him. This way and that did he turn as he yearned after the might and manfulness of Patroclus; he thought of all they had done together, and all they had gone through both on the field of battle and on the waves of the weary sea. As he dwelt on these things he wept bitterly and lay now on his side, now on his back, and now face downwards, till at last he rose and went out as one distraught to wander upon the seashore. Then, when he saw dawn breaking over beach and sea, he yoked his horses to his chariot, and bound the body of Hector behind it that he might drag it about. Thrice did he drag it round the tomb of the son of Menoetius”

“whereas Achilles, now that he has slain noble Hector, drags him behind his chariot round the tomb of his comrade”

“At daybreak Achilles drags him cruelly round the sepulchre of his dear comrade”

“for when Achilles took any other of my sons, he would sell him beyond the seas, to Samos Imbrus or rugged Lemnos; and when he had slain you too with his sword, many a time did he drag you round the sepulchre of his comrade”