so the trojans held their night watchers meanwhile immortal panic companion of cold terror gripped the achaeans as all their best was stricken with grief that passes endurance as two winds rise to shake the sea where the fish swarm boreas and zephyrus north wind and east that blow from thracewood suddenly descending and the darkened water is gathered to crests and far across the salt water scatters the seaweed so the heart in the breast of each akian was troubled and the son of atreus stricken at heart with the great sorrow went among his heralds the clear spoken and told them to summon calling by name each man into the assembly but with no outcry and he himself was at work with the foremost they took their seats in assembly dispirited and agamemnon stood up before them shedding tears like a spring dark running that down the face of a rock impassable drips it's dim water so groaning heavily agamemnon spoke to the archives friends who are leaders of the archives and keep their counsel zeus son of kronos has caught me badly in bitter futility he is hard who before this time promised me and consented that i might sack strong walled alien and sail homeward now he has devised a vile deception and bids me go back to argos in dishonor having lost many of my people such is the way it will be pleasing to zeus who is too strong who before now has broken the crests of many cities and will break them again since his power is beyond all others come then do as i say let us all be won over let us run away with our ships to the beloved land of our fathers since no longer now shall we capture troy of the wide ways so he spoke and all of them stayed stricken to silence for some time the sons of the achaeans said nothing in sorrow but at long last diamonds of the great war cry addressed them son of atreus i will be first to fight with your folly as is my right lord in this assembly then do not be angered i was the first of the dinar aunts whose valor you slighted and said i was unwar-like and without courage the young men of the archives know all these things and the elders know it the son of devious devising chronos has given you gifts in two ways with the scepter he gave you honor beyond all but he did not give you a heart and of all power this is the greatest sir sir can you really believe the sons of the achaeans are so unwar-like and so weak of their hearts as you call them but if in truth your own heart is so set upon going go the way is there and next to the water are standing your ships that came so many of them with you from mu can i and yet the rest of the flowing heritage will stay here until we have sacked the city of troy let even these also run away with their ships to the beloved land of their fathers still we too stenilos and i will fight till we witness the end of alien for it was with god that we made our way hitter so he spoke and all the sons of the athens shouted acclaim for the word of diomedy's breaker of horses and now nestor the horsemen stood forth among them and spoke to them son of tidayas beyond others you are strong in battle and in council also a noblest among all men of your own age not one man of all the achaeans will belittle your words nor speak against them yet you have not made to complete your argument since you are a young man still and could even be my own son and my youngest born of all yet still you argue in wisdom with the argued kings since all you have spoken was spoken fairly but let me speak since i can call myself older than you are and go through the whole matter since there is none who can dishonor the thing i say not even powerful agamemnon out of all brotherhood outlawed homeless shall be that man who longs for all the horror of fighting among his own people but now let us give way to the darkness of night and let us make ready our evening meal and let the guards severally take their stations by the ditch we have dug outside our ramparts this i wouldn't join upon our young men but thereafter do you son of atreus take command since you are our kingliest divide a feast among the princes it befits you it is not unbecoming our shelters are filled with wine that the archaean ships carry day by day from thrace across the wide water all hospitality is for you you are lord over many when many assemble together follow him who advises the best counsel for in truth there is need for all the achaeans of good close counsel since now close to our ships the enemy burned their numerous fires what man could be cheered to say this here is the knight that will break our army or else preserve it so he spoke and they listened hard to him and obeyed him and the centuries went forth rapidly in their armor gathering about nestor's son threshimedes shepherd of the people and about ascalophos and the almenos sons both of aries about mariones and apharaeus and apyros and about the son of crayon lycomedes the brilliant there were seven leaders of the sentinels and with each one a hundred fighting men followed gripping in their hands the long spears they took position in the space between the ditch and the rampart and there they kindled their fires and each made ready his supper but the son of atreus led the assembled lords of the achaeans to his own shelter and set before them the feast in abundance they put their hands to the good things that lay ready before them but when they had put away their desire for eating and drinking the aged man began to weave his counsel before them first nestor whose advice had shown best before this he in kind intention toward all stood forth and address them son of atreus most lordly and king of men agamemnon with you i will end with you i will make my beginning since you are lord over many people and zeus has given into your hand the scepter and rights of judgment to be king over the people it is yours therefore to speak a word yours also to listen and grant the right to another also when his spirit stirs him to speak for our good all shall be yours when you lead the way still i will speak in the way it seems best to my mind and no one shall have in his mind any thought that is better than this one that i have in my mind either now or long before now ever since that day illustrious when you went from the shelter of angered achilles taken by forced girl against the will of the rest of us since i for my part urged you strongly not to but you giving way to your proud hearts anger dishonor the great man one whom the immortals honor since you have taken his prize and keep it but let us even now think how we can make this good and persuade him with words of supplication and with gifts of friendship then in turn the lord of man agamemnon spoke to him agent sir this was no lie when you spoke of my madness i was mad i myself will not deny it [Music] with many fighters is that man whom zeus in his heart loves as now he has honored this man and beaten down the aquian people but since i was mad in the persuasion of my heart's evil i am willing to make all good and give back gifts in abundance before you all i will count off my gifts in their splendor seven unfired tripods 10 talents weight of gold 20 shining cauldrons and 12 horses strong race competitors who have won prizes in the speed of their feet that man would not be poor in possessions to whom were given all these have won me nor be unpossessed a dearly honored gold where he given all the prizes these single foot horses have won for me i will give him seven women of lesbos the work of whose hands is blameless whom when he himself captured strong founded lesbos i chose and who in their beauty surpassed the races of women i will give him these and with them shall go the one i took from him the daughter of brazius and to this i will swear a great oath that i never entered into her bed and never lay with her as is natural for human people between men and women all these gifts shall be his at once but again if hereafter the gods grant that we storm and suck the great city of priam let him go to his ship and load it deep as he pleases with gold and bronze when we achieved divide the war spoils and let him take for himself 20 of the trojan women who are the loveliest of all after helen of argos and if we come back to aquian argos pride of the tilled land he may be my son-in-law i will honor him with orestes my growing son who is brought up there in abundant luxury since as i have three daughters there in my strong-built castle let him lead away the one of these that he likes with no bride price to the house of peleus and with the girl i will grant him as dowry many gifts such as no man ever gave with his daughter i will grant him seven citadels strongly settled cardamole and enope and hurray of the grasses ferrei the sacrosanct and amphia deep in meadows with ipay the lovely and pedestals of the vineyards all these lie near the sea at the bottom of sandy pilos and men live among the bridge in cattle and rich in sheep flocks who will honor him as if he were a god with gifts given and fulfill his prospering decrees underneath his scepter all this will i bring to pass for him if he changes his anger let him give way the hades gives not way and is pitiless and therefore he among all the gods is most hateful to mortals and let him yield place to me in as much as i am the king lear and in as much as i can call myself born the elder thereupon the geranian horseman nestor answered him son of atreus most lordly and king of men agamemnon none could scorn any longer these gifts you offer to achilles the king come let us choose and send some men who in all speed will go to the shelter of achilles the son of peleus or come the men on whom my eye falls let these take the duty first of all let phoenix beloved of zeus be their leader and after him take i asked the great and brilliant odysseus and of the heralds let odors and europeans go with them bring also water for their hands and be them keep words of good omen so we may pray to zeus son of chronos if he will have pity so he spoke and the word he spoke was pleasing to all of them and the heralds brought water at once and poured it over their hands and the young men filled the mixing bowls with pure wine and passed it to all pouring first a libation in goblets then when they had poured out wine and drunk as much as their hearts wished they set out from the shelter of atria's son agamemnon and the iranian horseman nestor gave them much instruction looking eagerly at each and most of all at odisus to try hard so that they might win over the blameless pileon so these two walked along the strand of the sea deep thundering with many prayers to the holder and shaker of the earth that they might readily persuade to the great heart of iacodes now they came beside the shelters and ships of the myrmidons and they found achilles delighting his heart and a liar clear sounding splendid and carefully wrought with a bridge of silver upon it which he won out of the spoils when he ruined the aeteon's city with this he was pleasuring his heart and singing of men's fame as patroclus was sitting over against him alone in silence watching ayakites and the time he would leave off singing now these two came forward as brilliant odysseus led them and stood in his presence achilles rose to his feet in amazement holding the lyre as it was leaving the place where he was sitting in the same way patroclus when he saw the men come stood up and in greeting achilles of the swift foot spoke to them welcome you are my friends who have come and greatly i need you who even to this my anger are dearest of all the akins so brilliant achilles spoke and guided them forward and caused them to sit down on couches with purple coverlets and at once called over to patroclus who was not far from him son of monoi to set up a mixing bowl that is bigger and mix a stronger drink and make ready a cup for each man since these who have come beneath my roof are the men that i love best so he spoke and patroclus obeyed his beloved companion and tossed down a great chopping block into the firelight and laid upon it the back of a sheep and one of a fat goat with the shine of a fatted pig edged thick with lard and for him automaton held the meets and brilliant achilles carved them and cut it well into pieces and spitted them as meanwhile minotaur's son a man like a god made the fire blaze greatly but when the fire had burned itself out and the flames had died down he scattered the embers apart and extended the spits across them lifting them to the and irons and sprinkled the meats with divine salt then when he had roasted all and spread the food on the platters patroclus took the bread and set it out on a table in fair baskets while achilles served the meats thereafter he himself sat over against the godlike odysseus against the further wall and told his companion patroclus to sacrifice to the gods and he threw the firstlings in the fire they put their hands to the good things that lay ready before them but when they had put aside their desire for eating and drinking ios nodded to phoenix and brilliant odysseus saw it and filled a cup with wine and lifted it to achilles your health achilles you have no lack of your equal portion either within the shelter of atria's son agamemnon nor here in your own we have good things in abundance to feast on here it is not the desirable feast we think of but a trouble all too great beloved of zeus that we look on and are afraid there is doubt if we save our strong benched vessels or if they will be destroyed unless you put on your war strength the trojans in their pride with their far renowned companions have set up an encampment close by the ships and the rampart and lit many fires along their army and think no longer of being held but rather to drive in upon the black ships and zeus son of chronos lightens upon their right hand showing them portents of good while hector in the huge pride of his strength rages irresistibly reliant on zeus and gives way to no one neither god nor man but the strong fury has descended upon him he prays now that the divine dord will show most quickly since he threatens to shear the uttermost horns from the ship sterns to light the ships themselves with ravening fire than to cut down the aqians themselves as they stir from the smoke beside them all this i fear terribly in my heart lest immortals accomplish these threats and lest for us it be destiny to die here in troy far away from horse pasturing argos up then if you are minded late though it'd be to rescue the afflicted sons of the achaeans from the trojan onslaught it will be an affliction to you hereafter there will be no remedy found to heal the evil thing when it has been done no beforehand take thought to beat the evil day aside from the denials dear friend surely thus your father peleus advised you that day he sent you away to agamemnon from fear my child for the matter of strength athena and hera will give it if it be their will but be it yours to hold fast in your bosom the anger of the proud heart for consideration is better keep from the bad complication of quarrel and all the more for this the archives will honor you both their younger men and their elders so the old man advised but you have forgotten yet even now stop and give way from the anger that hurts the heart agamemnon offers you worthy recompense if you change from your anger come in if you will listen to me while i count off for you all the gifts in his shelter that agamemnon has promised seven unfired tripod 10 talents weight of gold 20 shining cauldrons and 12 horses strong race competitors who have won prizes in the speed of their feet that man would not be pouring possessions to whom were given all these of one him nor beyond possessed of dearly honored gold were he given all the prizes agamemnon's horses won in their speed for him he will give you seven women of lesbos the work of whose hands is blameless whom when you yourself captured strong founded lesbos he chose and who in their beauty surpassed the races of women he will give you these and with them shall go the one he took from you the daughter of briseis and to all this he will swear a great oath that he never entered into her bed and never lay with her as is common for human people between men and women all these gifts shall be yours at once but again if hereafter the gods grant that we storm and sack the great city of prime you may go to your ship and load it deep as you please with gold and bronze when we are kians divide the war spoils then you may choose for yourself 20 of the trojan women who are the loveliest of all after helen of argos and if we come back to a key in argos pride of the tilled land you could be his son-in-law he would honor you with orestes his growing son who is brought up there in abundant luxury since as he has three daughters there in his strong-built castle crusade and leo dickey and we feel nasa you may lead away the one of these that you like with no bright price to the house appelius then with the girl he will grant you as dowry many gifts such as no man ever gave with his daughter he will grant you seven citadels strongly settled the grasses ferrari the sacrosanct and anthea deep in the meadows with ipe are the lovely and pedestals of the vineyards all these lie near the sea at the bottom of santi pylors and men live among them rich in catholic and rich in sheep flocks who will honor you as if you were a god with gifts given and fulfill your prospering decrees underneath your scepter all this they will bring to pass for you if you change from your ang that if the son of atreus is too much hated in your heart himself and his gifts at least take pity on all the other archaeans who are afflicted along the host and will honor you as a god you may win very great glory among them for now you might kill hector since he would come very close to you with the wicked fury upon him since he thinks there is not his equal among the rest of the denials the ships carried hither then an answer to him spoke achilles of the swift feet son of laities and seed of zeus resourceful or disease without consideration for you i must make my answer the way i think in the way it will be accomplished that you may not come one after another and sit by me and speak softly for as i detest the doorways of death i detest that man who hides one thing in the depths of his heart and speaks forth another but i will speak to you the way it seems best to me neither do i think the son of the atrius agamemnon will persuade me nor the rest of the denials since there was no gratitude given for fighting incessantly forever against your enemies fate is the same for the man who holds back the same if he fights hard we are all held in a single honor the brave with the weaklings the man dies still if he has done nothing as one who has done much nothing is one for me now that my heart has gone through its afflictions in forever setting my life on the hazard of battle for as to her unwinged young ones the mother bird brings back morsels wherever she can find them but as for herself it is suffering such was i as i lay through all the many nights unsleeping such as i wore through the bloody days of the fight striding with warriors for the sake of these men's women but i say that i have stormed from my ships twelve cities of men and by land eleven more through the generous troad from all these we took forth treasures goodly and numerous and we would bring them back and give them to agamemnon atria's son while he waiting back beside the swift ships would take them and distribute them little by little and keep many all the other prizes of honor he gave the great men and the princes are held fast by them but from me alone of all the accused he has taken and keeps the bride of my heart let him lie beside her and be happy dead and why was it the son of atreus assembled and led here these people was it not for the sake of lovely haired helen are the sons of atreus alone among mortal men the ones who love their wives since any who is a good man and careful loves her who is his own and cares for her even as i now loved this one from my heart though it was my spear that won her now that he has deceived me and taken from my hands my prize of honor let him try me no more i know him well he will not persuade me let him take counsel with you oh jesus and the rest of the princes how to fight the ravening fire away from his vessels indeed there has been much hard work done even without me he has built himself a wall and driven a ditch about it making it great and wide and fixed to the sharp stakes inside it yet even so he cannot hold the strength of manslaughtering hector and yet when i was fighting among the achaeans hector would not drive his attack beyond the wall's shelter but would come forth only so far as the sky and gates and the oak tree there once he endured me alone and barely escaped my onslaught but now i am unwilling to fight against brilliant hector tomorrow when i have sacrificed to zeus and to all the gods and loaded well my ships and rode out onto the salt water you will see if you have a mind to it and if it concerns you my ships in the dawn at sea on the helles pond where the fish swarmed and my men manning them with good will to roll if the glorious shaker of the earth should grant us a favoring passage on the third day thereafter we might raise generous fear i have many possessions there that i left behind when i came here on this desperate venture and from here there is more gold and red bronze and fair girdled women and grey iron i will take back all that was allotted to me but my prize he who gave it powerful agamemnon son of atreus has taken it back again outrageously go back and proclaim to him all that i tell you openly so other achaeans may turn against him in anger if he hopes yet one more time to swindle some other on wrapped as he is forever in shamelessness yet he would not bowled as a dog though he'd be dare look in my face any longer i will join with him in no counsel standing action he cheated me and did me a hurt let him not beguile me with words again that is enough for him let him of his own will be damned since zeus of the council has taken his wits away from him i hate his gifts i hold him light as the strip of a splinter not if he gave me 10 times as much and 20 times over as he possesses now not if more should come to him from elsewhere or gave all that is brought into our hominos all that is brought into thebes of egypt where the greatest possessions lie up in the houses thieves of the hundred gates were through each of the gates two hundred fighting men come forth to war with horses and chariots not if he gave me gifts as many as the sand what the dust is not even so would agamemnon have his way with my spirit until he had made good to me all this heart rending insolent nor will i marry a daughter of atria's son agamemnon not if she challenged aphrodite the golden for loveliness not if she matched the work of her hands with grey-eyed athena not even so will i marry her let him pick some other akin one who is to his liking and he's kinglier than i am for if the gods will keep me alive and i win homeward peleus himself will presently arrange a wife for me there are many arcane girls in the land of helas and fia daughters of great men who hold strong places in god and of these anyone that i please i might make my beloved lady and the great desire in my heart drives me rather in that place to take a wedded wife in marriage the bride of my fancy to enjoy with her the possessions won by agent peleus for not worth the value of my life for all the possessions they fable were one for illion that strong founded citadel in the old days when there was peace before the coming of the sons of the achaeans not all that the stone dorsal of the archer holds fast within it of phoebus apollo in pytho of the rocks of possessions cattle and fat sheep are things to be had for the lifting and tripods can be won and tony high heads of horses but a man's life cannot come back again it cannot be lifted nor captured again by force once it has crossed the teeth's barrier for my mother thetas the goddess of the silver feet tells me i carry two sorts of destiny toward the day of my death either if i stay here and fight beside the city of the trojans my return home is gone but my glory shall be everlasting but if i return home to the beloved land of my fathers the excellence of my glory is gone but there will be a long life left for me and my end in death will not come to me quickly and this would be my counsel to others also to sail back home again since no longer shall you find any term said on the sheer city of ilion since zeus of the wide browse has strongly held his own hand over it and its people are made bold do you go back therefore to the great men of the against and take them this message since such is the privilege of the princes that they think out in their minds some other scheme that is better which might rescue their ships and the people of the achaeans who man the hollow ships since this plan will not work for them which they thought of by reason of my anger let phoenix remain here with us and sleep here so that tomorrow he may come with us in our ships to the beloved land of our fathers if you will but i will never use force to hold him so he spoke and all of them stayed stricken to silence in amazement at his words he had spoken to them very strongly but at long last phoenix the aged horsemen spoke out in a storm burst of tears and fearing for the ships of the akins if it is going home glorious achilles you ponder in your heart and are utterly unwilling to drive the obliterating fire from the fast ships since anger has descended on your spirit how then shall i dear child be left in this place behind you all alone peleus the aged horseman sent me forth with you on that day when he sent you from fear to agamemnon a new child who knew nothing yet of the joining a battle nor of debate where men are made preeminent therefore he sent me along with you to teach you of all these matters to make you a speaker of words and one who accomplished in action therefore apart from you dear child i would not be willing to be left behind not with a god in person to promise he would scale away my old age and make me a young man blossoming as i was that time when i first left hilas the land of fair women running from the hatred of volmeno's son amentur my father who hated me for the sake of a fair-haired mistress for he made love to her himself and dishonored his own wife my mother who was forever taking my knees and entreating me to lie with this mistress instead so that she would hate the old man i was persuaded and did it and my father when he heard of it straightway called down his curses and invoked against me the dreaded furies that i might never have any son born of my seed to dandel on my knees and the divinities zeus of the underworld and persephone the honored goddess accomplished his curses then i took it into my mind to cut him down with the sharp bronzed but some one of the immortals checked my anger reminding me of rumor among the people and men's maledictions repeated that i might not be called a parasite among the akins but now no more could the heart in my breast be ruled entirely to reign still among these halls when my father was angered rather it was the many kinsmen and cousins about me who held me closed in the house with supplications repeated and slaughtered fat sheep in their numbers and shambling horn curved cattle and numerous swine with the fat abundant upon them was singed and stretched out across the flame of hephaestus and much wine was drunk that was stored in the jars of the old man nine nights they slept night long [Music] in their places beside me and they kept up an interchange of watches and the fire was never put out one below the gate of the strong closed courtyard and one in the antechamber before the doors of the bedroom but when the tenth night had come to me in its darkness then i broke the close compacted doors of the chamber and got away and overlapped the fence of the courtyard lightly unnoticed by the guarding men and the women's servants then i fled far away through the wide spaces of helas and came as far as generous fria mother of sheep flocks and to lord peleus who accepted me with a good will and gave me his love even as a father loves his own son who is a single child brought up among many possessions he made me a rich man and granted me many people and i lived lord over the dolopes in remotest fear and godlike achilles i made you all that you are now and loved you out of my heart for you would not go with another out to any feast nor taste any food in your own halls until i had set you on my knees and cut little pieces from the meat and given you all you wished and held the wine for you and many times you soaked the shirt that was on my body with wine you would spit up in the troublesomeness of your childhood so i have suffered much through you and i've had much trouble thinking always how the gods would not bring to birth any children of my own so that it was you godlike achilles i made my own child so that someday you might keep hard affliction from me then achilles beat down your great anger it is not yours to have a pitiless heart the very immortals can be moved their virtue and honor and strength are greater than ours are and yet with sacrifices and offerings for endearment with libations and with savor men turn back even the immortals in supplication when any man does wrong and transgresses for there are also the spirits of prayer the daughters of great zeus and they are lame of their feet and wrinkled and cast their eyes side long who toil on their way left far behind by the spirit of ruin but she ruined is strong and sound on her feet and therefore far outruns all prayers and wins into every country to force men astray and prayers follow as healers after her if a man venerates these daughters of zeus as they draw near such a man they bring great advantage and hear his entreaty but if a man shall deny them and stubbornly with the harsh word refuse they go to zeus son of chronos in supplication that ruin may overtake this man that he be hurt and punished so achilles grant you also that zeus's daughters be given their honor which lordly though they be curbs the will of others since were he not bringing gifts and naming still more hereafter atria's son were he to remain still swollen with rancor even i would not bid you throw your anger aside nor defend the archives though they needed you sorely but see now he offers you much straightway and has promised you more hereafter he has sent the best men to you to supplicate you choosing them out of all the akin host those who to yourself are the dearest of all the archives do not you make vayne their argument nor their footsteps though before this one could not blame your anger thus it was in the old days also the deeds that we hear of from the great men when the swelling anger descended upon them the heroes would take gifts they would listen and be persuaded for i remember this action of old it is not a new thing and how it went you were all my friends i will tell that among you the kuritis and the steadfast italians were fighting and slaughtering one another about the city of calidon the italians in lovely caledon's defense the kurtis furious to storm and suck it in war for artemis she of the golden chair had driven this evil upon them angered that oyneos had not given the pride of the orchards to her first fruits the rest of the gods were given due sacrifice but alone to this daughter of great zeus he had given nothing he had forgotten or had not thought in his heart delusion and in wrath at his whole mighty line the lady of arrows sent upon them the fierce wild boar with the shining teeth where after the way of his kind did much evil to the orchards of ines but he ripped up whole tall trees from the ground and scattered them headlong roots and all even to the very flowers of the orchard the son of oyneus killed this boar meleagros assembling together many hunting men out of numerous cities with their hounds since the boar might not have been killed by a few men so huge was he and had put many men on the sad fire for burning but the goddess again made a great stir of anger and crying battle over the head of the boar and the bristling boars hide between kuriti's and the high-hearted italians so long as malayagross lover of battle stayed in the fighting it went the worse for the creatives and they could not even hold their ground outside the wall though they were so many but when the anger came on meliagros such anger as whales in the hearts of others also though their minds are careful he in the wrath of his heart against his own mother all fire lay apart with his wedded bride cleopatra the lovely daughter of sweet stepping my pesa child of el enos and i dust who was the strongest of all men upon earth in his time for he even took up the bow to face the king's onset phoebus apollo for the sake of the sweet stepping maiden a girl her father and honored mother had named in their palace alcuaner seabird as a by name since for her sake her mother with the sorrow laden cry of a seabird wept because far-reaching phoebus apollo had taken her with this cleopatra he lay mulling his heart sore anger raging by reason of his mother's curses which she called down from the gods upon him in deep grief for the death of her brother and many times beating with her hands on the earth abundant she called on hades and on honored persephone lying at length along the ground and the tears were wet on her bosom to give death to her son and erin is the mist walking she of the heart without pity heard her out of the dark places presently there was thunder about the gates and the sound rose and towers under assault and the itolian elders supplicated him sending their noblest priests of the immortals to come forth and defend them they offered him a great gift wherever might lie the richest ground in lovely calidon there they told him to choose out a piece of land an entirely good one of 50 acres the half of it to be vineyard and the half of it unworked plough land of the plain to be furrowed in the ancient horsemen or neus again and again and treated him and took his place at the threshold of the high vaulted chamber and shook against the bolted doors pleading with his own son and again and again his honored mother and his sisters entreated him but he only refused the more then his own friends who were the most honored and dearest of all and treated him but even so they could not persuade the heart within him until as the chamber was under close assault the kuretis were mounting along the towers and set fire to the great city and then at last his wife the fair girdled bride supplicated miliagros in tears and rehearsed in their numbers before him all the sorrows that come to men when their city is taken they kill the men [Music] and the fire leaves the city and ashes and strangers lead the children away and the deep girdled women and the heart as he listened to all this evil was stirred within him and he rose and went and closed his body in shining armor so he gave way in his own heart and drove back the day of evil from the itolians yet these no longer would make good their many and gracious gifts yet he drove back the evil from them listen then do not have such a thought in your mind let not the spirit within you turn that way dear friend it would be worse to defend the ships after they are burning oh with gifts promised go forth the achaeans will honor you as they would an immortal but if without gifts you go into the fighting where men perish your honor will no longer be as great though you drive back the battle then in answer to him spoke achilles of the swift feet phoenix my father aged illustrious such honor is a thing i need not i think i am honored already in zeus's ordinance stop confusing my heart with lamentation and sorrow for the favor of great atreides it does not become you to love this man for fear you turn hateful to me who love you it should be your pride with me to hurt whoever shall hurt me be king equally with me take half of my honor these men will carry back the message you stay here and sleep here in a soft bed and we shall decide tomorrow as dawn shows whether to go back home again or else to remain here he spoke and saying nothing nodded with his brows too patroclus to make up a neat bed for phoenix so the others might presently think of going home from his shelter the son of telomon i asked the godlike saw it and now spoke his word among them son of laities and seed of zeus resource fellow jesus let us go i think that nothing will be accomplished by argument on this errand it is best to go back quickly and tell this story though it is not good too that denials who sit there waiting for us to come back seeing that achilles has made savage the proud-hearted spirit within his body he is hard and does not remember that friend's affection wherein we honored him by the ships far beyond all others pitiless and yet a man takes from his brother's slayer the blood price or the price for a child who was killed and the guilty one when he has largely repaid stays in the country and the injured man's heart is curbed and his pride and his anger when he has taken the price but the gods put in your breast to spirit not to be placated bad for the sake of one single girl yet now we offer you seven surpassingly lovely and much beside these now make gracious the spirit within you respect your own house see we are under the same roof with you from the multitude of the denials we who desire beyond all others to have your honor and love out of all the accused then an answer to him spoke achilles of the swift feet son of telamon seed of zeus i asked lord of the people all that you have said seems spoken after my own mind yet still the heart in me swells up in anger when i remember the disgrace that he wrought upon me before the archives the son of atreus as if i was some dishonored vagabond do you then go back to him and take him this message that i shall not think again of the bloody fighting until such time as the son of wise priam hector the brilliant comes all the way to the ships of the myrmidons and their shelters slaughtering the archives and shall darken with fire our vessels but around my own shelter i think and beside my black ship hector will be held though he'd be very hungry for battle he spoke and they taking each a two-handled cup poured out a libation then went back to their ships and odysseus led them now patroclus gave the maids and his followers orders to make up without delay and need bed for phoenix and these obeyed him and made up the bed as he had commanded laying fleeces on it and a blanket and a sheet of fine linen there the old man lay down and waited for the divine dawn but achilles slept in the inward corner of the strong-built shelter and a woman lay beside him one he had taken from lesbos forbus daughter dear mayday of the fair coloring in the other corner patrol close went to bed with him also was a girl with the fair girdled whom brilliant achilles gave him when he took sheer skuros anywhere else citadel now when these had come back to the shelters of agamemnon the sons of the akins greeted them with their gold cups uplifted one after another standing and asked them questions and the first to question them was the lord of man agamemnon tell me honor this great glory of the akins is he willing to fight the ravening fire away from our vessels or did he refuse and does the anger still hold his proud heart then long great odysseus spoke to him in answer son of atreus most lordly king of men agamemnon that man will not quench his anger but still more than ever is filled with rage he refuses you and refuses your presence he tells you yourself to take counsel among the archives how to save your ships and the people of the achaeans and he himself has threatened that tomorrow as dawn shows he will drag down his strong benched or swept ships to the water he said it would be his council to others also to sail back home again since no longer will you find any terms set on the sheer city of illinois since zeus of the wide browse has strongly held his own hand over it and the people are made bold so he spoke there are these two attested who went there with me also ayas and the two heralds both men of good counsel but aged phoenix stayed there for the night as achilles urged him so he might go home in the ships to the beloved land of his fathers if phoenix will but he will never use force to persuade him so he spoke and all of them stayed stricken to silence in amazement at his words he had spoken to them very strongly for a long time the sons of the achaeans said nothing in sorrow but at long last diameters of the great war cry spoke to them son of atreus most lordly and king of men agamemnon i wish you had not supplicated the blameless son of peleus with innumerable gifts offered he is a proud man without this and now you have driven him far deeper into his pride rather we shall pay him no more attention whether he comes in with us or stays away he will fight again whenever the time comes that the heart in his body urges him to and the god drives him come then do as i say and let us all be won over go to sleep now that the inward heart is made happy with food and drink for these are the strength and courage within us but when the lovely dawn shows forth with rose fingers atreides rapidly form before our ships both people and horses stirring them on and yourself be ready to fight in the foremost so he spoke and all the kings gave him their approval claiming the word of diomedes breaker of horses then they poured a libation and each man went to his shelter where they went to their beds and took the blessing of slumber