Lessons LIX to LXIII

The Iliad: Achilles tells his mother the story

His mother rises swiftly from the gray sea like a mist. She sits down before him as he weeps, strokes him with her hand, and calls him by name. She asks why he weeps and what grief has come upon his heart. She tells him to speak out and not hide it, so that both may know.

Achilles groans heavily and answers. You know it, he says. Why should I tell you everything? Then he tells it. The Achaeans went to Thebe, the sacred city of Eëtion. They sacked it and brought everything back. They divided it among themselves and set apart fair-cheeked Chryseis for the son of Atreus.

The Iliad: the story of Chryses

Then Chryses, priest of far-shooting Apollo, came to the swift ships of the Achaeans to free his daughter. He brought a boundless ransom and held the wreaths of Apollo on a golden staff.

All the other Achaeans shouted their assent: respect the priest and accept the ransom. But this did not please the heart of Agamemnon, and he sent the priest away harshly.

οἶσθα, you know, begins Achilles' answer. It is the second person singular of a perfect of the verb meaning know.

The Iliad: Achilles finishes the story

Achilles goes on with the story. The angry old priest went back, and Apollo heard his prayer, since the priest was very dear to him. Apollo shot an evil arrow at the Argives, and the people died one after another. The god's arrows went everywhere through the wide camp. A seer who knew well declared the prophecies of the far-shooter.

Achilles says he was the first to urge them to appease the god. But anger seized the son of Atreus, and he made a threat. That threat is now fulfilled. The Achaeans are sending one girl to Chryse with gifts. A moment ago, heralds led the daughter of Briseus away from Achilles' hut.

The Iliad: Achilles asks his mother to plead with Zeus

So he asks his mother, if she can, to protect her own son. She is to go to Olympus and beg Zeus. In his father's halls he often heard her say that she alone of the immortals saved the son of Cronos from shameful ruin. That was when the other Olympians wished to bind him.

ἤκουσεν, he heard, and ἄκουσα, I have heard, both come from ἀκού-ω, hear, hearken. ἤκουσεν has the augment. ἄκουσα has none. Homer often omits the augment.

The relative pronoun ὅς

The relative pronoun joins two statements, like English who and whom. It refers to someone already named.

ὅς is nominative. ὃν is accusative.

ὃν Βριάρεων καλέουσι θεοί means whom the gods call Briareus. ὃν refers to the hundred-handed one. The gods are the subject.

In ὅς ῥα παρὰ Κρονίωνι καθέζετο, the English is and he sat down beside the son of Cronos. Here ὅς begins a new statement about the same person.

The Iliad: the hundred-handed Briareus

The speaker asks a goddess to act. He reminds her that she once came and freed Zeus from his bonds.

She called the hundred-handed one to high Olympus. The gods call him Briareus, and all men call him Aegaeon. He is greater in strength than his own father. The blessed gods were afraid of him.

Then comes the request. Remind Zeus of these things, sit beside him, and clasp his knees. If he is willing to help the Trojans, the Achaeans will be penned in against their ships and the sea. Then Agamemnon will know his own blind folly.

ἑκατόγχειρον means hundred-handed. The word list prints it as ἑκατόγ-χειρος, from hundred and hand.

The aorist ἔβη

The aorist tells what happened. English uses a simple past: she went, he came.

In this passage the aorist is ἔβη, he went. The line is χθιζὸς ἔβη κατὰ δαῖτα: he went yesterday to a feast. Pharr labels ἔβη a second aorist indicative.

The next words are θεοὶ δ’ ἅμα πάντες ἕποντο: and all the gods together followed. πάντες means all. It is nominative plural.

The Iliad: Thetis answers her son

Thetis answers him in tears. She calls him τέκνον ἐμόν, my child. She asks why she reared him, since she bore him to such sorrow.

She wishes he could sit beside the ships without tears and without harm. His fate is brief. Now he is short-fated and more sorrowful than all others.

She will go to snowy Olympus to tell this to Zeus, in case he may be persuaded. Meanwhile her son should nurse his wrath against the Achaeans and hold back from war. For Zeus went yesterday to the blameless Ethiopians, and the gods followed.

ὠκύμορος means swift-fated, and ὠκυπόροισιν means swift-faring. Both begin with a word for swift.

εἶμι, I will go

εἶμι is a form of the verb go. Pharr labels it a present. In this passage the English is I will go.

The line is καὶ τότ’ ἔπειτά τοι εἶμι Διὸς ποτὶ χαλκοβατὲς δῶ: and then I will go to the bronze-floored house of Zeus.

δῶ, the last word of the line, is a noun here: house, home.

The Iliad: a promise, and the ship at Chryse

A speaker ends her speech. On the twelfth day he will come back to Olympus, she says. Then she will go to the bronze-floored house of Zeus and clasp his knees. She thinks she will persuade him.

So speaking, she went away and left him there. He was angry at heart for the fair-girdled woman, whom they had taken from him by force, against his will.

The next scene begins with αὐτὰρ Ὀδυσσεὺς, but Odysseus. He came to Chryse, leading the holy hecatomb. In the deep harbor they furled the sail and stowed it in the black ship. Then they rowed her to the anchorage.