The Iliad by Homer
Book 9, lines (407-473)

Translated by Samuel Butler
http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.9.ix.html

This online edition was prepared by Margaret Bakarich.

This passage starts right after Achilles has denied the request of a group of Achaens to come with them and join the battle against the Trojans. Thus far in the Iliad Achilles has abstained from fighting. This is not only because he is angry with King Agamemnon for stealing his war prize, a girl named Briseis. He is also wary of going into battle because his mother, Thetis, warned him that he basically had two options: to either die young as a glorious hero, or to die of old age but not be remembered for long. At this point, Achilles has chosen the life without glory and not even the Achaens promises of war prizes and wealth can tempt him. Most of the passage consists of Phoenix, a man who helped raise Achilles as a child, trying to convince him to join in the war efforts. This is a particularly interesting passage from the Iliad because not only does it give some great background information into the life of Achilles, Phoenix, and Peleus, but it has a tremendous amount of information relating to ancient Greek culture. It addresses many common aspects of the ancient culture, such as religion, war culture, and family life.

"My mother Thetis tells me that there are two ways in which I may
meet my end. If I stay here and fight, I shall not return alive but
my name will live for ever: whereas if I go home my name will die,
but it will be long ere death shall take me. To the rest of you, then,
I say, 'Go home, for you will not take Ilius.' Jove has held his hand
over her to protect her, and her people have taken heart. Go, therefore,
as in duty bound, and tell the princes of the Achaeans the message
that I have sent them; tell them to find some other plan for the saving
of their ships and people, for so long as my displeasure lasts the
one that they have now hit upon may not be. As for Phoenix, let him
sleep here that he may sail with me in the morning if he so will.
But I will not take him by force."
They all held their peace, dismayed at the sternness with which he
had denied them, till presently the old knight Phoenix in his great
fear for the ships of the Achaeans, burst into tears and said, "Noble
Achilles, if you are now minded to return, and in the fierceness of
your anger will do nothing to save the ships from burning, how, my
son, can I remain here without you? Your father Peleus bade me go
with you when he sent you as a mere lad from Phthia to Agamemnon.
You knew nothing neither of war nor of the arts whereby men make their
mark in council, and he sent me with you to train you in all excellence
of speech and action. Therefore, my son, I will not stay here without
you- no, not though heaven itself vouchsafe to strip my years from
off me, and make me young as I was when I first left Hellas the land
of fair women. I was then flying the anger of father Amyntor, son
of Ormenus, who was furious with me in the matter of his concubine,
of whom he was enamoured to the wronging of his wife my mother. My
mother, therefore, prayed me without ceasing to lie with the woman
myself, that so she hate my father, and in the course of time I yielded.
But my father soon came to know, and cursed me bitterly, calling the
dread Erinyes to witness. He prayed that no son of mine might ever
sit upon knees- and the gods, Jove of the world below and awful Proserpine,
fulfilled his curse. I took counsel to kill him, but some god stayed
my rashness and bade me think on men's evil tongues and how I should
be branded as the murderer of my father: nevertheless I could not
bear to stay in my father's house with him so bitter against me.
...
I then fled through
Hellas till I came to fertile Phthia, mother of sheep, and to King
Peleus, who made me welcome and treated me as a father treats an only
son who will be heir to all his wealth. He made me rich and set me
over much people, establishing me on the borders of Phthia where I was chief ruler over the Dolopians.
"It was I, Achilles, who had the making of you; I loved you with all
my heart: for you would eat neither at home nor when you had gone
out elsewhere, till I had first set you upon my knees, cut up the
dainty morsel that you were to eat, and held the wine-cup to your
lips. Many a time have you slobbered your wine in baby helplessness
over my shirt; I had infinite trouble with you, but I knew that heaven
had vouchsafed me no offspring of my own, and I made a son of you,
Achilles, that in my hour of need you might protect me. Now, therefore,
I say battle with your pride and beat it; cherish not your anger for
ever; the might and majesty of heaven are more than ours, but even
heaven may be appeased; and if a man has sinned he prays the gods,
and reconciles them to himself by his piteous cries and by frankincense,
with drink-offerings and the savour of burnt sacrifice. For prayers
are as daughters to great Jove; halt, wrinkled, with eyes askance,
they follow in the footsteps of sin, who, being fierce and fleet of
foot, leaves them far behind him, and ever baneful to mankind outstrips
them even to the ends of the world; but nevertheless the prayers come
hobbling and healing after.

Works Cited
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