The Story of the Iliad by Alfred John Church

Achilles went along the shore of the sea, shouting aloud to the / warriors. And at his call they came; and also Diomed and Ulysses / came to the assembly, leaning on spears, for their wounds were fresh, / and King Agamemnon.

Then Achilles stood up, and spake: "It was ill done, son of Atreus, / that we strove for a woman! Would that Artemis had slain her with an / arrow on the day when I took her captive! Many a Greek who hath now / bitten the ground had then lived, and the Trojans had not reaped such / profit from our wrath. But come, let the past be past. Here I make / an end of my anger. And now make haste, and send the Greeks to / battle. Let us see whether the men of Troy will camp beside the / ships."

Then said Agamemnon, speaking from his place: "Listen, ye Greeks. / Oft have ye blamed me for this quarrel. Yet it was not I that was in / fault; rather it was Zeus and Fate, and the Fury that walketh in / darkness. But to thee, Achilles, I make full amends, for here I / offer thee the gifts which Ulysses promised thee yesterday. Stay for / a time, while my people bring them from my ships."

To him Achilles made answer: "Give thy gifts, O King, if it be thy / will, or keep them to thyself. But let us turn without delay to the / battle."

Then spake the wise Ulysses: "Achilles, urge not the Greeks to enter / fasting into the battle: for verily the strife will not be short. A / man that hath not eaten cannot fight till set of sun, for his limbs / grow heavy unawares, and he is hindered by hunger and thirst. Bid, / therefore, the people disperse, and make ready their food. / Meanwhile, let King Agamemnon send for the gifts and deliver them to / thee in full assembly. And afterwards let him furnish a feast."

Then said the King: "Thou speakest well, Ulysses. Do them thyself / fetch the gifts, and let the herald fetch us a boar, that we may do / sacrifice to Zeus and to the Sun."

But Achilles said: "Now the dead whom Hector slew lieth low, and ye / bid me think of food. Let the Greeks enter fasting into battle, and / make them a great supper when the sun goes down. As for me, neither / food nor drink shall pass my lips."

To him Ulysses made reply: "Thou art the stronger, son of Peleus, yet / I may be the wiser, for I am older than thou, and of more experience. / Ask not the Greeks to fast because of the dead. Verily they fall / every day. Rather let us bury him that dieth, and bewail him for a / day, and harden our hearts to forget: and then let us who are left / eat and drink, that we may fight with better heart."

Then did Ulysses go to the tent of the King; and they brought thence / the gifts, the treasure, and twelve horses, and seven women, skilled / workers with the needle, and the fair Briseis the eighth.

These the Myrmidons took to the tent of Achilles. But when Briseis / saw Patroclus, she beat her breast and her fair face and neck, and / wailed aloud, for he had been gentle and good, she said. And all the / women wailed with her, thinking each of her own sorrows.

Then the chiefs would have Achilles feast with them; but he hearkened / not, for he would neither eat nor drink till he had had vengeance for / the dead. And he spake, saying: "Often, Patroclus, hast thou ordered / the feast when we were hastening to the war. And now thou liest / slain, and for grief for thee I cannot eat nor drink. For greater / sorrow could not have come to me. Often did I think that I only / should perish here, but that thou shouldst return and show my son all / that was mine, goods and servants and palace."

And as he wept, the old men wept with him, thinking each of what he / had left at home.

But Zeus said to Athene: "Carest thou not for Achilles that is so / dear to thee? See, the other Greeks are gone to their meal, but he / sits fasting."

Then Athene leapt down from heaven, and shed into the breast of / Achilles nectar and ambrosia, that his knees should not fail from / hunger.

Meanwhile the Greeks poured out to battle, and in the midst Achilles / armed himself. He put the lordly greaves about his legs, and fitted / the corselet on his breast. From his shoulders he hung the sword, / and he took the great shield that Hephestus had made, and it blazed / as it were the heaven. Also he put the helmet on his head, and the / plumes waved all around. Then he made trial of the arms, and they / fitted him well, and bare him up like wings. Last he drew from its / case his father's spear, which none might wield but Achilles' self. / Then he spake to his horses: "Take heed, Bayard and Piebald, that ye / save your driver to-day, nor leave him dead on the field, as ye left / Patroclus."

Then Hera gave to the horse Bayard a voice, so that he spake: "Surely / we will save thee, great Achilles; yet for all that, doom is near to / thee, nor are we the cause, but the gods and mastering Fate. Nor was / it of us that Patroclus died, but Apollo slew him and gave the glory / to Hector. So shalt thou, too, die by the hands of a god and of a / mortal man."

And Achilles said: "What need to tell me of my doom? Right well I / know it. Yet will I not cease till I have made the Trojans weary of / battle."