The Iliad of Homer

by Richmond Lattimore

  160 and thus they would leave to Priam and to the Trojans Helen of Argos,

  to glory over, for whose sake many Achaians

  lost their lives in Troy far from their own native country.

  But go now along the host of the bronze-armored Achaians.

  Speak to each man in words of gentleness and draw him backward

  165 nor let them drag down to the salt sea their oarswept vessels.”

  So she spoke, nor did the goddess gray-eyed Athene

  disobey her, but went in speed down the peaks of Olympos,

  and lightly she arrived beside the fast ships of the Achaians.

  There she came on Odysseus, the equal of Zeus in counsel,

  170 standing still; he had laid no hand upon his black, strong-benched

  vessel, since disappointment touched his heart and his spirit.

  Athene of the gray eyes stood beside him and spoke to him:

  “Son of Laërtes and seed of Zeus, resourceful Odysseus:

  will it be this way? Will you all hurl yourselves into your benched ships

  175 and take flight homeward to the beloved land of your fathers,

  and would you thus leave to Priam and to the Trojans Helen

  of Argos, to glory over, for whose sake many Achaians

  lost their lives in Troy far from their own native country?

  Go now along the host of the Achaians, give way no longer,

  180 speak to each man in words of gentleness and draw them backward,

  nor let them drag down to the salt sea their oarswept vessels.”

  So she spoke, and he knew the voice of the goddess speaking

  and went on the run, throwing aside his cloak, which was caught up

  by Eurybates the herald of Ithaka who followed him.

  185 He came face to face with Agamemnon, son of Atreus,

  and took from him the scepter of his fathers, immortal forever.

  With this he went beside the ships of the bronze-armored Achaians.

  Whenever he encountered some king, or man of influence,

  he would stand beside him and with soft words try to restrain him:

  190 “Excellency! It does not become you to be frightened like any

  coward. Rather hold fast and check the rest of the people.

  You do not yet clearly understand the purpose of Atreides.

  Now he makes trial, but soon will bear hard on the sons of the Achaians.

  Did we not all hear what he was saying in council?

  195 May he not in anger do some harm to the sons of the Achaians!

  For the anger of god-supported kings is a big matter,

  to whom honor and love are given from Zeus of the counsels.”

  When he saw some man of the people who was shouting,

  he would strike at him with his staff, and reprove him also:

  200 “Excellency! Sit still and listen to what others tell you,

  to those who are better men than you, you skulker and coward

  and thing of no account whatever in battle or council.

  Surely not all of us Achaians can be as kings here.

  Lordship for many is no good thing. Let there be one ruler,

  205 one king, to whom the son of devious-devising Kronos

  gives the scepter and right of judgment, to watch over his people.”

  So he went through the army marshaling it, until once more

  they swept back into the assembly place from the ships and the shelters

  clamorously, as when from the thunderous sea the surf-beat

  210 crashes upon the great beach, and the whole sea is in tumult.

  Now the rest had sat down, and were orderly in their places,

  but one man, Thersites of the endless speech, still scolded,

  who knew within his head many words, but disorderly;

  vain, and without decency, to quarrel

  215 with the princes with any word he thought might be amusing to the Argives.

  This was the ugliest man who came beneath Ilion. He was

  bandy-legged and went lame of one foot, with shoulders

  stooped and drawn together over his chest, and above this

  his skull went up to a point with the wool grown sparsely upon it.

  220 Beyond all others Achilleus hated him, and Odysseus.

  These two he was forever abusing, but now at brilliant

  Agamemnon he clashed the shrill noise of his abuse. The Achaians

  were furiously angry with him, their minds resentful.

  But he, crying the words aloud, scolded Agamemnon:

  225 “Son of Atreus, what thing further do you want, or find fault with

  now? Your shelters are filled with bronze; there are plenty of the choicest

  women for you within your shelter, whom we Achaians

  give to you first of all whenever we capture some stronghold.

  Or is it still more gold you will be wanting, that some son

  230 of the Trojans, breakers of horses, brings as ransom out of Ilion,

  one that I, or some other Achaian, capture and bring in?

  Is it some young woman to lie with in love and keep her

  all to yourself apart from the others? It is not right for

  you, their leader, to lead in sorrow the sons of the Achaians.

  235 My good fools, poor abuses, you women, not men, of Achaia,

  let us go back home in our ships, and leave this man here

  by himself in Troy to mull his prizes of honor

  that he may find out whether or not we others are helping him.

  And now he has dishonored Achilleus, a man much better

  240 than he is. He has taken his prize by force and keeps her.

  But there is no gall in Achilleus’ heart, and he is forgiving.

  Otherwise, son of Atreus, this were your last outrage.”

  So he spoke, Thersites, abusing Agamemnon

  the shepherd of the people. But brilliant Odysseus swiftly

  245 came beside him scowling and laid a harsh word upon him:

  “Fluent orator though you be, Thersites, your words are

  ill-considered. Stop, nor stand up alone against princes.

  Out of all those who came beneath Ilion with Atreides

  I assert there is no worse man than you are. Therefore

  250 you shall not lift up your mouth to argue with princes,

  cast reproaches into their teeth, nor sustain the homegoing.

  We do not even know clearly how these things will be accomplished,

  whether we sons of the Achaians shall win home well or badly;

  yet you sit here throwing abuse at Agamemnon,

  255 Atreus’ son, the shepherd of the people, because the Danaän

  fighters give him much. You argue nothing but scandal.

  And this also will I tell you, and it will be a thing accomplished.

  If once more I find you playing the fool, as you are now,

  nevermore let the head of Odysseus sit on his shoulders,

  260 let me nevermore be called Telemachos’ father,

  if I do not take you and strip away your personal clothing,

  your mantle and your tunic that cover over your nakedness,

  and send you thus bare and howling back to the fast ships,

  whipping you out of the assembly place with the strokes of indignity.”

  265 So he spoke and dashed the scepter against his back and

  shoulders, and he doubled over, and a round tear dropped from him,

  and a bloody welt stood up between his shoulders under

  the golden scepter’s stroke, and he sat down again, frightened,

  in pain, and looking helplessly about wiped off the tear-drops.

  270 Sorry though the men were they laughed over him happily,

  and thus they would speak to each other, each looking at the man next him:

  “Come now: Odysseus has done excellent things by thousands,

/>   bringing forward good counsels and ordering armed encounters;

  but now this is far the best thing he ever has accomplished

  275 among the Argives, to keep this thrower of words, this braggart

  out of assembly. Never again will his proud heart stir him

  up, to wrangle with the princes in words of revilement.”

  So the multitude spoke, but Odysseus, sacker of cities,

  stood up holding the staff, and beside him gray-eyed Athene

  280 in the likeness of a herald enjoined the people to silence,

  that at once the foremost and the utmost sons of the Achaians

  might listen to him speaking and deliberate his counsel.

  He in kind intention toward all stood forth and addressed them:

  “Son of Atreus: now, my lord, the Achaians are trying

  285 to make you into a thing of reproach in the sight of all mortal

  men, and not fulfilling the promise they undertook once

  as they set forth to come here from horse-pasturing Argos,

  to go home only after you had sacked strong-walled Ilion.

  For as if they were young children or widowed women

  290 they cry out and complain to each other about going homeward.

  In truth, it is a hard thing, to be grieved with desire for going.

  Any man who stays away one month from his own wife

  with his intricate ship is impatient, one whom the storm winds

  of winter and the sea rising keep back. And for us now

  295 this is the ninth of the circling years that we wait here. Therefore

  I cannot find fault with the Achaians for their impatience

  beside the curved ships; yet always it is disgraceful

  to wait long and at the end go home empty-handed.

  No, but be patient, friends, and stay yet a little longer

  300 until we know whether Kalchas’ prophecy is true or is not true.

  For I remember this thing well in my heart, and you all are

  witnesses, whom the spirits of death have not carried away from us;

  yesterday and before, at Aulis, when the ships of the Achaians

  were gathered bringing disaster to the Trojans and Priam,

  305 and we beside a spring and upon the sacred altars

  were accomplishing complete hecatombs to the immortals

  under a fair plane tree whence ran the shining of water.

  There appeared a great sign; a snake, his back blood-mottled,

  a thing of horror, cast into the light by the very Olympian,

  310 wound its way from under the altar and made toward the plane tree.

  Thereupon were innocent children, the young of the sparrow,

  cowering underneath the leaves at the uttermost branch tip,

  eight of them, and the mother was the ninth, who bore these children.

  The snake ate them all after their pitiful screaming,

  315 and the mother, crying aloud for her young ones, fluttered about him,

  and as she shrilled he caught her by the wing and coiled around her.

  After he had eaten the sparrow herself with her children

  the god who had shown the snake forth made him a monument,

  striking him stone, the son of devious-devising Kronos,

  320 and we standing about marveled at the thing that had been done.

  So as the terror and the god’s monsters came into the hecatomb

  Kalchas straightway spoke before us interpreting the gods’ will:

  ‘Why are you turned voiceless, you flowing-haired Achaians?

  Zeus of the counsels has shown us this great portent: a thing late,

  325 late to be accomplished, whose glory shall perish never.

  As this snake has eaten the sparrow herself with her children,

  eight of them, and the mother was the ninth, who bore them,

  so for years as many as this shall we fight in this place

  and in the tenth year we shall take the city of the wide ways.’

  330 So he spoke to us then; now all this is being accomplished.

  Come then, you strong-greaved Achaians, let every man stay

  here, until we have taken the great citadel of Priam.”

  So he spoke, and the Argives shouted aloud, and about them

  the ships echoed terribly to the roaring Achaians

  335 as they cried out applause to the word of godlike Odysseus.

  Now among them spoke the Gerenian horseman, Nestor:

  “Oh, for shame! You are like children when you hold assembly,

  infant children, to whom the works of war mean nothing.

  Where then shall our covenants go, and the oaths we have taken?

  340 Let counsels and the meditations of men be given to the flames then,

  with the unmixed wine poured and the right hands we trusted.

  We do our fighting with words only, and can discover

  no remedy, though we have stayed here a long time. Son of Atreus,

  do you still as before hold fast to your counsel unshaken

  345 and be the leader of the Argives through the strong encounters;

  let them go perish, these one or two, who think apart from

  the rest of the Achaians, since there will be no use in them

  until they get back again to Argos without ever learning

  whether Zeus of the aegis promises false or truly.

  350 For I say to you, the son of all-powerful Kronos

  promised, on that day when we went in our fast-running vessels,

  we of Argos, carrying blood and death to the Trojans.

  He flashed lightning on our right, showing signs of favor.

  Therefore let no man be urgent to take the way homeward

  355 until after he has lain in bed with the wife of a Trojan

  to avenge Helen’s longing to escape and her lamentations.

  But if any man is terribly desirous to go home,

  let him only lay his hands on his well-benched black ship,

  that before all others he may win death and destruction.

  360 Come, my lord: yourself be careful, and listen to another.

  This shall not be a word to be cast away that I tell you.

  Set your men in order by tribes, by clans, Agamemnon,

  and let clan go in support of clan, let tribe support tribe.

  If you do it this way, and the Achaians obey you,

  365 you will see which of your leaders is bad, and which of your people,

  and which also is brave, since they will fight in divisions,

  and might learn also whether by magic you fail to take this

  city, or by men’s cowardice and ignorance of warfare.”

  Then in answer again spoke powerful Agamemnon:

  370 “Once again, old sir, you surpass the sons of the Achaians

  in debate. O father Zeus, Athene, Apollo:

  would that among the Achaians I had ten such counselors.

  Then perhaps the city of lord Priam would be bent

  underneath our hands, captured and sacked. But instead

  375 Zeus of the aegis, son of Kronos, has given me bitterness,

  who drives me into unprofitable abuse and quarrels.

  For I and Achilleus fought together for a girl’s sake

  in words’ violent encounter, and I was the first to be angry.

  If ever we can take one single counsel, then no longer

  380 shall the Trojans’ evil be put aside, not even for a small time.

  Now go back, take your dinner, and let us gather our warcraft.

  Let a man put a good edge to his spear, and his shield in order,

  let each put good fodder before his swift-footed horses,

  and each man look well over his chariot, careful of his fighting,

  385 that all day long we may be in the division of hateful Ares.

  There will not even for a small time be any respite<
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  unless darkness come down to separate the strength of the fighters.

  There will be a man’s sweat on the shield-strap binding the breast to

  the shield hiding the man’s shape, and the hand on the spear grow weary.

  390 There will be sweat on a man’s horse straining at the smoothed chariot.

  But any man whom I find trying, apart from the battle,

  to hang back by the curved ships, for him no longer

  will there be any means to escape the dogs and the vultures.”

  So he spoke, and the Argives shouted aloud, as surf crashing

  395 against a sheer ness, driven by the south wind descending,

  some cliff out-jutting, left never alone by the waves from

  all the winds that blow, as they rise one place and another.

  They stood up scattering and made for the ships; they kindled

  the fires’ smoke along the shelters, and took their dinner,

  400 each man making a sacrifice to some one of the immortal

  gods, in prayer to escape death and the grind of Ares.

  But Agamemnon the lord of men dedicated a fat ox

  five years old to Zeus, all-powerful son of Kronos,

  and summoned the nobles and the great men of all the Achaians,

  405 Nestor before all others, and next the lord Idomeneus,

  next the two Aiantes and Tydeus’ son Diomedes,

  and sixth Odysseus, a man like Zeus himself for counsel.

  Of his own accord came Menelaos of the great war cry

  who knew well in his own mind the cares of his brother.

  410 They stood in a circle about the ox and took up the scattering

  barley; and among them powerful Agamemnon spoke in prayer:

  “Zeus, exalted and mightiest, sky-dwelling in the dark mist:

  let not the sun go down and disappear into darkness

  until I have hurled headlong the castle of Priam

  415 blazing, and lit the castle gates with the flames’ destruction;

  not till I have broken at the chest the tunic of Hektor

  torn with the bronze blade, and let many companions about him

  go down headlong into the dust, teeth gripping the ground soil.”

  He spoke, but none of this would the son of Kronos accomplish,

  420 who accepted the victims, but piled up the unwished-for hardship.

  Now when all had made prayer and flung down the scattering barley,

  first they drew back the victim’s head, cut his throat and skinned him,

  and cut away the meat from the thighs and wrapped them in fat,

  making a double fold, and laid shreds of flesh above them.