Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
better man of the two; you know how easily young men are
betrayed into indiscretion; their tempers are more hasty and they
have less judgement; make due allowances therefore, and bear
with me; I will of my own accord give up the mare that I have won,
and if you claim any further chattel from my own possessions, I
would rather yield it to you, at once, than fall from your good
graces henceforth, and do wrong in the sight of heaven.”
The son of Nestor then took the mare and gave her over to
Menelaus, whose anger was thus appeased; as when dew falls
upon a field of ripening corn, and the lands are bristling with the
harvest- even so, O Menelaus, was your heart made glad within
you. He turned to Antilochus and said, “Now, Antilochus, angry
though I have been, I can give way to you of my own free will; you
have never been headstrong nor ill-disposed hitherto, but this time
your youth has got the better of your judgement; be careful how
you outwit your betters in future; no one else could have brought
me round so easily, but your good father, your brother, and
yourself have all of you had infinite trouble on my behalf; I
therefore yield to your entreaty, and will give up the mare to you,
mine though it indeed be; the people will thus see that I am neither
harsh nor vindictive.”
With this he gave the mare over to Antilochus’s comrade Noemon,
and then took the cauldron. Meriones, who had come in fourth,
carried off the two talents of gold, and the fifth prize, the twohandled
urn, being unawarded, Achilles gave it to Nestor, going
up to him among the assembled Argives and saying, “Take this,
my good old friend, as an heirloom and memorial of the funeral of
Patroclus- for you shall see him no more among the Argives. I give
461