Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
schooled our anger. I put it from me: I dare not nurse it for ever;
therefore, bid the Achaeans arm forthwith that I may go out against
the Trojans, and learn whether they will be in a mind to sleep by
the ships or no. Glad, I ween, will he be to rest his knees who may
fly my spear when I wield it.”
Thus did he speak, and the Achaeans rejoiced in that he had put
away his anger.
Then Agamemnon spoke, rising in his place, and not going into the
middle of the assembly. “Danaan heroes,” said he, “servants of
Mars, it is well to listen when a man stands up to speak, and it is
not seemly to interrupt him, or it will go hard even with a practised
speaker. Who can either hear or speak in an uproar? Even the finest
orator will be disconcerted by it. I will expound to the son of
Peleus, and do you other Achaeans heed me and mark me well.
Often have the Achaeans spoken to me of this matter and
upbraided me, but it was not I that did it: Jove, and Fate, and
Erinys that walks in darkness struck me mad when we were
assembled on the day that I took from Achilles the meed that had
been awarded to him. What could I do? All things are in the hand
of heaven, and Folly, eldest of Jove’s daughters, shuts men’s eyes to
their destruction. She walks delicately, not on the solid earth, but
hovers over the heads of men to make them stumble or to ensnare
them.
“Time was when she fooled Jove himself, who they say is greatest
whether of gods or men; for Juno, woman though she was,
beguiled him on the day when Alcmena was to bring forth mighty
Hercules in the fair city of Thebes. He told it out among the gods
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