HOMER'S ILIAD COMPLETE

Rhapsody 19

Literally Translated, with Explanatory Notes, by Theodore Alois Buckley

Homer Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Homer in Print

Page 10

"Now first let Jove be witness, the most supreme and best of gods, and Earth, and Sun, and ye Furies, who beneath the earth chastise men, whoever may swear a falsehood; never have I laid hands upon the maid Briseis, needing her for the sake of the couch, or any other purpose; but inviolate has she remained in my tents. But if any of these things be false, may the gods inflict on me those very many distresses which they inflict when men sin in swearing."

He said, and cut the throat of the boar with the ruthless brass; which Talthybius, whirling round, cast into the mighty water of the hoary sea, as food for fishes. But Achilles, rising, said among the war-loving Greeks:

"O father Jove, certainly thou givest great calamities to men; for never could Atrides have so thoroughly aroused the indignation in my bosom, nor foolish, led away the girl, I being unwilling, but Jove for some intent wished death should happen to many Greeks. But now go to the repast, that we may join battle."

Thus then he spoke, and dissolved the assembly in haste.[634]

[Footnote 634: So Od. viii. 38: [Greek: thoen alegynete daita], i.e. [Greek: thoos]. Virg. Aen. iv. 226: "Celeres defer mea dicta per auras," which Servius interprets, "celer, vel celeriter."]

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