"Listen," she cried, "sisters, daughters of Nereus, that you may hear the burden of my sorrows. Alas, woe is me, woe in that I have borne the most glorious of offspring. I bore him fair and strong, hero among heroes, and he shot up as a sapling; I tended him as a plant in a goodly garden, and sent him with his ships to Ilius to fight the Trojans, but never shall I welcome him back to the house of Peleus. So long as he lives to look upon the light of the sun he is in heaviness, and though I go to him I cannot help him. Nevertheless I will go, that I may see my dear son and learn what sorrow has befallen him though he is still holding aloof from battle."

Κλῦτε κασίγνηται Νηρηΐδες͵ ὄφρ΄ ἐῢ πᾶσαι εἴδετ΄ ἀκούουσαι ὅσ΄ ἐμῷ ἔνι κήδεα θυμῷ. ὤ μοι ἐγὼ δειλή͵ ὤ μοι δυσαριστοτόκεια͵ ἥ τ΄ ἐπεὶ ἂρ τέκον υἱὸν ἀμύμονά τε κρατερόν τε ἔξοχον ἡρώων· ὃ δ΄ ἀνέδραμεν ἔρνεϊ ἶσος· τὸν μὲν ἐγὼ θρέψασα φυτὸν ὣς γουνῷ ἀλωῆς νηυσὶν ἐπιπροέηκα κορωνίσιν Ἴλιον εἴσω Τρωσὶ μαχησόμενον· τὸν δ΄ οὐχ ὑποδέξομαι αὖτις οἴκαδε νοστήσαντα δόμον Πηλήϊον εἴσω. ὄφρα δέ μοι ζώει καὶ ὁρᾷ φάος ἠελίοιο ἄχνυται͵ οὐδέ τί οἱ δύναμαι χραισμῆσαι ἰοῦσα. ἀλλ΄ εἶμ΄͵ ὄφρα ἴδωμι φίλον τέκος͵ ἠδ΄ ἐπακούσω ὅττί μιν ἵκετο πένθος ἀπὸ πτολέμοιο μένοντα.