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Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

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<strong>Homer</strong>’s <strong>Iliad</strong><br />

Agamemnon will bring out the gifts in presence of the assembly,<br />

that all may see them and you may be satisfied. Moreover let him<br />

swear an oath before the Argives that he has never gone up into the<br />

couch of Briseis, nor been with her after the manner of men and<br />

women; and do you, too, show yourself of a gracious mind; let<br />

Agamemnon entertain you in his tents with a feast of reconciliation,<br />

that so you may have had your dues in full. As for you, son of<br />

Atreus, treat people more righteously in future; it is no disgrace<br />

even to a king that he should make amends if he was wrong in the<br />

first instance.”<br />

And King Agamemnon answered, “Son of Laertes, your words<br />

please me well, for throughout you have spoken wisely. I will<br />

swear as you would have me do; I do so of my own free will,<br />

neither shall I take the name of heaven in vain. Let, then, Achilles<br />

wait, though he would fain fight at once, and do you others wait<br />

also, till the gifts come from my tent and we ratify the oath with<br />

sacrifice. Thus, then, do I charge you: take some noble young<br />

Achaeans with you, and bring from my tents the gifts that I<br />

promised yesterday to Achilles, and bring the women also;<br />

furthermore let Talthybius find me a boar from those that are with<br />

the host, and make it ready for sacrifice to Jove and to the sun.”<br />

Then said Achilles, “Son of Atreus, king of men Agamemnon, see to<br />

these matters at some other season, when there is breathing time<br />

and when I am calmer. Would you have men eat while the bodies<br />

of those whom Hector son of Priam slew are still lying mangled<br />

upon the plain? Let the sons of the Achaeans, say I, fight fasting<br />

and without food, till we have avenged them; afterwards at the<br />

going down of the sun let them eat their fill. As for me, Patroclus is<br />

382

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