The Iliad

Stunned by his words, the gods all held their tongues. His speech had been so forceful. But at last 30 40 the goddess with the bright gray eyes, Athena, said, “Mighty father, greatest son of Cronus, we do know that you are invincible. Yet we are sorry for the brave Greek spearmen, in so much pain and dying dreadful deaths. We will draw back from war, as you command. But we will give the Greeks some good advice, so that your rage will not destroy them all.” Smiling at her, cloud-gathering Zeus replied, “Dear daughter, born of Triton, do not worry. 50 I was not being serious. I love you. 40 I want to treat you kindly.”

Come, mount my chariot, 140 and see the caliber of Trojan horses, able to gallop all across the plain, swerving at top speed in pursuit or flight. I took them from Aeneas a while ago.

With this, he called his horses, saying to them, “Now Swiftfoot, Blondie, Flame, and godlike Sparkle, repay me for the food Andromache, daughter of Eetion, once gave to you in such abundance, feeding you on grain as sweet as honey.

Now Gorgythion 410 slumped his head sideways—like a garden poppy, weighted with seed and springtime showers of rain— so drooped his head, weighed down by his heavy helmet.

At these words, Hera and Athena hissed. They sat beside each other, forming schemes for ruining the Trojans. But Athena did not speak out against her father Zeus.

Powerful Hector will not leave the fighting until Achilles, son of Peleus, rises on swift feet from beside his ships, the day the Greeks are trapped beside their fleet, desperately fighting for the dead Patroclus.

I know I was deluded when I yielded to my destructive impulse. So I want 120 to make amends with lavish gifts of friendship.

When they had reached the area in which the Myrmidons had beached their ships and pitched their tents, they found him cheering himself with music. He was playing a well-tuned lyre of ornate craftsmanship, whose bridge was silver, which he got as war loot 240 when he destroyed the town of Eetion.

And when their hunger and their thirst were sated, then Ajax gave a nod to Phoenix, but Odysseus observed him doing it and filled a cup of wine and raised a toast, saying,

A man who fights his hardest in the war gets just the same as one who stays behind. Cowards and heroes have the same reward. 320 Do everything or nothing—death still comes.

To me, no wealth is worth a person’s life.

My silver-footed goddess mother Thetis says that there are two ways my death may come. If I stay here and fight, besieging Troy, my chance of ever going home is lost, but I shall have a name that lasts forever. Or if I go home to my own dear country, I lose my glory but I gain long life.

It will be much harder to save the ships once they are set alight.

And when he left the town of Thebes, my father managed to massacre a multitude, 290 thanks to your presence at his side, great goddess.

and every time the son of Tydeus approached a man and killed him with his sword, Odysseus would grab the victim’s foot and drag him to the side, because he wanted to make sure that the splendid long-maned horses would pass through easily and not be spooked by stepping on the corpses of the dead. 620 They were not yet accustomed to dead bodies.