Homer, Iliad (Orange Street).pdf

Homer’s Iliad
Agamemnon will bring out the gifts in presence of the assembly,
that all may see them and you may be satisfied. Moreover let him
swear an oath before the Argives that he has never gone up into the
couch of Briseis, nor been with her after the manner of men and
women; and do you, too, show yourself of a gracious mind; let
Agamemnon entertain you in his tents with a feast of reconciliation,
that so you may have had your dues in full. As for you, son of
Atreus, treat people more righteously in future; it is no disgrace
even to a king that he should make amends if he was wrong in the
first instance.”
And King Agamemnon answered, “Son of Laertes, your words
please me well, for throughout you have spoken wisely. I will
swear as you would have me do; I do so of my own free will,
neither shall I take the name of heaven in vain. Let, then, Achilles
wait, though he would fain fight at once, and do you others wait
also, till the gifts come from my tent and we ratify the oath with
sacrifice. Thus, then, do I charge you: take some noble young
Achaeans with you, and bring from my tents the gifts that I
promised yesterday to Achilles, and bring the women also;
furthermore let Talthybius find me a boar from those that are with
the host, and make it ready for sacrifice to Jove and to the sun.”
Then said Achilles, “Son of Atreus, king of men Agamemnon, see to
these matters at some other season, when there is breathing time
and when I am calmer. Would you have men eat while the bodies
of those whom Hector son of Priam slew are still lying mangled
upon the plain? Let the sons of the Achaeans, say I, fight fasting
and without food, till we have avenged them; afterwards at the
going down of the sun let them eat their fill. As for me, Patroclus is
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