The Project Gutenberg Etext of the Iliad of - Stanford Exploration ...

22 ILIAD. II. 256–308
give him very many gifts, while thou, insulting, dost harangue. But I declare
to thee, which shall also be accomplished: if ever again I catch thee raving, as
now thou art, no longer may the head of Ulysses rest upon his shoulders, and no
longer may I be called the father of Telemachus, unless I seizing thee divest thee
of thy very garments, thy coat, thy cloak, and those which cover thy loins; and
send thyself weeping to the swift ships, having beaten thee out of the assembly
with severe blows.”
Thus he spoke, and smote him with the scepter upon the back and the
shoulders; but he writhed, and plenteous tears fell from him, and a bloody weal
arose under the scepter upon his back. But he sat down and trembled; and
grieving, looking foolish, he wiped away the tears. They, although chagrined,
laughed heartily at him, and thus one would say, looking toward the person
next him:
“O strange! surely ten thousand good deeds has Ulysses already performed,
both originating good counsels, and arousing the war. But now has he done
this by far the best deed among the Greeks, in that he has restrained this foulmouthed
reviler from his harangues. Surely his petulant mind will not again
urge him to chide the kings with scurrilous language.”
Thus spake the multitude; but Ulysses, the sacker of cities, arose, holding
the scepter, and beside him azure-eyed Minerva, likened unto a herald, ordered
the people to be silent, that at the same time the sons of the Greeks, both first
and last, might hear his speech, and weigh his counsel. He wisely counseling,
addressed them, and said:
“O son of Atreus, the Greeks wish to render thee now, O king, the meanest
among articulately-speaking men; nor perform their promise to thee, 1 which
they held forth, coming hither from steed-nourishing Argos, that thou shouldst
return home, having destroyed well-fortified Ilium. For, like tender boys, or
widowed women, they bewail unto one another to return home. And truly it is
a hardship to return [so], having been grieved. For he is impatient who is absent
even for a single month from his wife, remaining with his many-benched ships, 2
though wintery storms and the boisterous sea may be hemming in; 3 but to us it
is [now] the ninth revolving year since we have been lingering here. Wherefore I
am not indignant that the Greeks are growing impatient by their curved ships;
but still it would be disgraceful both to remain here so long, and to return
ineffectually. Endure, my friends, and remain yet awhile, that we may know
whether Calchas prophecies truly or not. For this we well know, and ye are all
witnesses, whom the Fates of death carried not off yesterday and the day before,
when the ships of the Greeks were collected at Aulis, bearing evils to Priam and
the Trojans, and we round about the fountain, at the sacred altars, offered
perfect hecatombs to the immortals, beneath a beauteous plane-tree, whence
flowed limpid water. 4 There a great prodigy appeared; a serpent, spotted on the
1 See Grote, vol. i. p. 392, n. 2.
2 I have followed Wolf, taking su\n nhi+\poluzu/ gw | in connection with me/ nwn. Others
most awkwardly make su\n ≡para/ .
3 Cf. Buttm. Lexil. s. v. ei)lei=n.
4 Pausanias, ix. 20, says that both the spring and the remains of the tree were shown in his