HOMER'S ILIAD COMPLETE

Rhapsody 18

Literally Translated, with Explanatory Notes, by Theodore Alois Buckley

Homer Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Homer in Print

Page 19

Him then Thetis, pouring forth tears, answered: "O Vulcan, has any then, as many as are the goddesses in Olympus, endured so many bitter griefs in her mind, as, to me above all, Jove, the son of Saturn, has given sorrows? Me, from among the other marine inhabitants, has he subjected to a man, to Peleus, son of Aeacus; and I have endured the couch of a man very much against my will. He, indeed, now lies in his palaces, afflicted with grievous old age; but now other [woes] are my lot. After he had granted me to bring forth aud nurture a son, distinguished among heroes, and who grew up like a plant; him having reared, as a plant in a fertile spot of the field, I sent forth in the crooked barks to Ilium, to fight with the Trojans; but him I shall not receive again, having returned home to the mansion of Peleus. As long, however, as he lives to me, and beholds the light of the sun, he suffers sorrow, nor am I, going to him, able to avail him aught. The maid whom the sons of the Greeks selected as a reward for him, her hath king Agamemnon taken back again from his hands. Certainly, grieving for her, he has been wasting his soul; whilst the Trojans were hemming in the Greeks at the ships, nor suffered them to go beyond the gates: but the elders of the Greeks supplicated him, and named many distinguished presents. But then he refused to avert destruction, yet he clad Patroclus in his own armour, and sent him forth to the battle, and he gave with him much people. All day they fought round the Scaean gates, and certainly on that day had overturned Troy, had not Apollo slain, among the foremost warriors, the gallant son of Menoetius, after having done much mischief, and given glory to Hector. On this account do I now approach thy knees, if thou wilt give to my short-lived son a shield and helmet, and beautiful greaves, joined with clasps, and a corslet: for what were his, his faithful companion has lost, subdued by the Trojans; and he (Achilles) lies upon the ground, grieving in his soul."

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