HOMER'S ILIAD COMPLETE

Rhapsody 18

Literally Translated, with Explanatory Notes, by Theodore Alois Buckley

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Page 4

"Hear, sister Nereides, that hearing ye may all well know what griefs are in my mind. Woe is me wretched! woe is me who have in an evil hour brought forth the bravest [of men], I who, after having borne a son, blameless and valiant, the chief of heroes, and he grew up[572] like a young tree: having reared him like a sapling in a fruitful spot of a field, I afterwards sent him forth in the curved ships to Ilium, to fight against the Trojans; but I shall not receive him again, having returned home to the palace of Peleus. But whilst he lives and beholds the light of the sun, he grieves,[573] nor can I, going to him, avail him aught. Yet will I go, that I may see my beloved son, and hear what grief comes upon him remaining away from the battle."

Thus having spoken, she left the cave; but they all went along with her, weeping, and the wave of the ocean was cleft around for them.[574] But when they reached fertile Troy, they in order ascended the shore, where the fleet ships of the Myrmidons were drawn up round swift Achilles. Then his venerable mother, shrilly wailing, stood near to him deeply lamenting, and took the head of her son, and, mourning, addressed to him winged words:

[Footnote 572: [Greek: Anedramon] is used in the same way by Herodot. vii. 156, viii. 55; Theocrit. xviii. 29. It corresponds to our English phrase "to run up."]

[Footnote 573: I.e. he continues to do so, and will, till his death.]

[Footnote 574: [Greek: Sphisi] is the dativus commodi.]

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