But the woman went with them reluctantly, whilst Achilles, weeping, 45 immediately sat down, removed apart from his companions, upon the shore of the hoary sea, gazing on the darkling main; and much he be sought his dear mother, stretching forth his hands:
Footnote 41: (return) Hesych. ρίγιον, φοβερώτερον, χαλεπώτερον.
Footnote 42: (return) "Misit eos, minaci jusso dato."--Heyne.
Footnote 43: (return) So called from their inviolability,--άσνλον γαρ και θείον το γένος των κηρύκων.--Schol. Και εζήν αντοίς πανταχόσε άδεώς ίεναι.--Pollux, viii. They were properly sacred to Mercury (id. iv. 9. Cf. Feith, Antiq. Homer, iv. 1), but are called the messengers of Jove, as being under his special protection, with a reference to the supporting of regal authority.
Footnote 44: (return) Observe the aposiopesis.
Footnote 45: (return) Not for the loss of Briseïs, but on account of the affront.
"O mother, since thou hast borne me, to be but short-lived, at least then ought high-thundering Olympian Jove to have vouchsafed honour to me; but now he has not honoured me ever so little; for the son of Atreus, wide-ruling Agamemnon, has dishonoured me; for he, taking away my prize, possesses it, himself having wrested it [from me]."
Thus he spoke, weeping. But to him his venerable mother hearkened, sitting in the depths of the ocean beside her aged sire. And immediately she rose up from the hoary deep, like a mist. And then she sat before him weeping, and soothed him with her hand, and addressed him, and spoke aloud:
"Son, why weepest thou--on account of what has grief come upon thy mind? Declare it, nor hide it in thy soul, that we both may know it."
But her, sighing deeply, swift-footed Achilles addressed: "Thou knowest; why should I tell all these things to thee, already knowing [them]? We went against Thebe, 46 the sacred city of Eëtion; and this we plundered, and brought hither all [the spoil]. And these things indeed the sons of the Greeks fairly divided among themselves, and selected for Agamemnon the fair-cheeked daughter of Chryses. But Chryses, priest of the far-darting Apollo, came afterwards to the fleet ships of the brazen-mailed Greeks, about to ransom his daughter, and bringing invaluable ransoms, having in his hand the fillets of far-darting Apollo, on his golden sceptre. And he supplicated all the Greeks, but chiefly the two sons of Atreus, the leaders of the people. Upon this all the other Greeks shouted assent, that the priest should be reverenced, and the splendid ransoms accepted: yet it was not pleasing to Agamemnon, son of Atreus, in his mind; but he dismissed him evilly, and added a harsh mandate. The old man therefore went back enraged; but Apollo hearkened to him praying, for he was very dear to him. And he sent a destructive arrow against the Greeks; and the forces were now dying one upon another, and the shafts of the god went on all sides through the wide army of the Greeks. But to us the skilful seer unfolded the divine will of the Far-darter. Straightway I first exhorted that we should appease the god; but then rage seized upon the son of Atreus, and instantly rising, he uttered a threatening speech, which is now accomplished; for the rolling-eyed Greeks attend her to Chrysa with a swift bark, and bring presents to the king; but the heralds have just now gone from my tent, conducting the virgin daughter of Brisëis, whom the sons of the Greeks gave to me. But do thou, if thou art able, aid thy son. Going to Olympus, supplicate Jove, if ever thou didst delight the heart of Jove as to anything, by word or deed; for I frequently heard thee boasting in the palaces of my sire, when thou saidest that thou alone, amongst the immortals, didst avert unworthy destruction from the cloud-collecting son of Saturn, when the other Olympian inhabitants, Juno, and Neptune, and Pallas Minerva, wished to bind him. But thou, O goddess, having approached, freed him from his chains, having quickly summoned to lofty Olympus, the hundred-handed, whom the gods call Briareus, and all men Ægeon, because he was superior to his father in strength, 47 who then sat by the son of Saturn, exulting in renown. Him then the blessed gods dreaded, nor did they bind [Jove]. Of these things now reminding him, sit beside him, and embrace his knees, if in anywise he may consent to aid the Trojans, and hem in 48 at their ships, and along the sea, the Greeks [while they get] slaughtered, that all may enjoy their king, and that the son of Atreus, wide-ruling Agamemnon, may know his baleful folly, 49 when he in no wise honoured the bravest of the Greeks."
Footnote 46: (return) Thebe was situated on the border of Mysia, on the mountain Placus, in the district afterwards called Adramyttium. The inhabitants were Cilicians.--See Heyne, and De Pinedo on Steph. Byz. s.v. p. 307, n. 58.
Footnote 47: (return) Briareus as the son of Neptune or of Uranus and Terra.--See Arnold. The fable is ridiculed by Minucius Felix, § 22.
Footnote 48: (return) See Buttm. Lexil. pp. 257, 261, Fishlake's translation.
Footnote 49: (return) The idea of infatuation is not, however, necessarily implied in ἄτη. See Buttm. Lex. p. 5, sq.
But him Thetis then answered, shedding down a tear: "Alas! my son, wherefore have I reared thee, having brought thee forth in an evil hour. Would that thou wert seated at the ships tearless and uninjured; for thy destined life is but for a very short period, nor very long; but now art thou both swift-fated and wretched above all mortals: therefore have I brought thee forth in my palace under an evil fate. However, to tell thy words to thunder-delighting Jove, I myself will go to snow-clad Olympus, if by chance he will be persuaded. But do thou, now sitting at the swift ships, wage resentment against the Greeks, and totally abstain from war. For yesterday Jove went to Oceanus, 50 to the blameless Æthiopians, to a banquet, and with him went all the gods. But on the twelfth day he will return to Olympus; and then will I go to the brazen-floored palace of Jove, and suppliantly embrace his knees, and I think that he will be persuaded."
Footnote 50: (return) According to Homer, the earth is a circular plane, and Oceanus is an immense stream encircling it, from which the different rivers run inward.
Thus having said, she departed, and left him there wrathful in his soul for his well-girded maid, whom they had taken from him against his will. But Ulysses, meantime, came to Chrysa, bringing the sacred hecatomb. But they, when they had entered the deep haven, first furled their sails, and stowed them in the sable bark; they next brought the mast to its receptacle, lowering it quickly by its stays, and they rowed the vessel forwards with oars into its moorage; they heaved out the sleepers, and tied the hawsers. They themselves then went forth on the breakers of the sea, and disembarked the hecatomb to far-darting Apollo, and then they made the daughter of Chryses descend from the sea-traversing bark. Then wise Ulysses, leading her to the altar, placed her in the hands of her dear father, and addressed him:
