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The Iliad of Homer

Translated by Alexander Pope,

With Notes and Introduction by the Rev. Theodore Alois Buckley, M.A., F.S.A.

and Flaxman’s Designs.

1899

THE ILIAD

BOOK I.

Sing, Goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought infinite sorrows upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it doom to feed the dogs and all the birds of prey, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from the day on which Agamemnon, king of men, and Achilles, godlike, first fell out with one another.

And in what wise this strife began: Zeus, the son of Cronus, was wroth with Agamemnon, and roused a pestilence throughout the host, for Agamemnon had dishonoured Chryses, priest of Apollo. He had sent his heralds to bring back his daughter, and had reviled the priest when he came to seek her with a ransom, and prayed to the god. Then the son of Atreus spake him foully, and charged him on his life to be gone. Then the old man turned back in sorrow, and when he had gone a space, he prayed to the lord Apollo, whose name he oft invokes: “Hear me, O archer of the silver bow, who standest over Chryse and the holy citadel of Cilla, and art lord of Tenedos! If ever before thine altar I dressed the fat of bulls or goats, and prayed thee, hear me now, and grant me this boon: Suffer the Danaans to pay for my tears with their shafts!”

So spake he, and Phoebus Apollo heard him. Then he came down from the heights of Olympus, wrathful in his heart, and his brightness shone like night. With his bow of silver and a quiver full of arrows on his back, he ranged the camps of the Achaeans, and the arrows smote the men; the dogs first, and then the mules; but after the mules the men themselves he smote. And the pyres of the dead were ever burning.

For nine days the shafts of the god rained upon the host. But on the tenth day Achilles called an assembly of all the Danaans, and set forth his mind to them in a white-feathered corselet. And he bade them rise and speak of what cause was this that the pestilence was come.

Then spake Achilles, and his heart was vexed: “Son of Atreus, I deem that we are come hither for a cause that we may return with shame, if Apollo sends this plague upon us, for that we have not done him some service, or taken some prize from him, or yielded up his priest’s daughter Chryseis. But if we be willing to receive her back, and yield up the ransom, let us give her to her father, and appease the god with a sacrifice.”

When he had spoken, Agamemnon, mightiest of men, answered him: “Nay, now, that is not what pleases me, that this woman should go from me. But I will have a prize in her stead, lest others among the Achaeans grow too bold and slight me, forgetting that I am first among them. But if some other man give me a prize, a worthy prize, to my heart’s liking, then will I give her up. But if he shall refuse, and I have no prize to my liking, then will I take by force the prize of one of the three, even thine own self, Achilles, or Ajax, or Odysseus.”

When he had spoken, a great silence fell upon the Danaans, and no man spake, fearing the son of Atreus. But swift-footed Achilles spake then with a loud voice, and his heart was filled with wrath: “Son of Atreus, what man now shall obey thee, or follow thee to the fight? For me, I have no prize which I have won, for all my prizes have been spent. But when we sack a rich city, and the Argives divide the spoil, then do thou give me a prize that is worthy of my labour. But now I shall return to Phthia, for I have had enough of taking spoil with thee, and of fighting with thee in this weary war.”

When he had spoken, Agamemnon answered him with an angry look: “Nay, now, if I must needs give up my prize, I will take another that shall be pleasing to my soul. For I will take thy prize, thee, Achilles, that thou mayest know well how much greater I am than thou, and that others may not mock me, nor say that I am lightly esteemed among men when I let go my prize. But let us be mindful of some other prize, one which I shall take hereafter, a prize threefold or fourfold, as is fitting for me, if we sack the city of the Trojans.”

Then the swift-footed Achilles answered him, and spake to his noble sire: “Most shameless one, with what heart canst thou bid me go, if I am to be robbed of the prize that I have fairly won with my spear? But never more will I fight with all my might, nor raise my spear against the foe, so long as any Trojans injure me, and I suffer such dishonour from thee, great Agamemnon, king of men.”

When he had spoken, he turned to his ship, and left the council. Then Thetis came to him, his mother, when she saw him weeping, and spake, and called him by his name: “My son, why weepest thou? Tell me what sorrow doth afflict thee. For thou hast not lost thy life, but art whole.” Then Achilles spake to her with a groan: “Mother, I have no mother here to shield me, but the son of Atreus holds my prize, the prize I won, and has dishonoured me before the Argives.”

Then Thetis wept, and answered him: “Alas for me, my son! I bore thee for a short life, or a long one. But now, if it is thy fate to have short fame, the long renown of Hector shall perish, and his glory be dimmed.” And she went up to Olympus, to seek Zeus, and prayed him to help her son.

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