Briseis

Created by Jijith Nadumuri at 21 Sep 2011 13:57 and updated at 21 Sep 2011 13:57

ILIAD NOUN

ild.01 I care neither for you nor for your anger; and thus will I do: since Phoebus Apollo is taking Chryseis from me, I shall send her with my ship and my followers, but I shall come to your tent and take your own prize Briseis, that you may learn how much stronger I am than you are, and that another may fear to set himself up as equal or comparable with me.
ild.01 "Go," said he, "to the tent of Achilles, son of Peleus; take Briseis by the hand and bring her hither; if he will not give her I shall come with others and take her which will press him harder.
ild.01 They stood fearfully and reverently before him, and never a word did they speak, but he knew them and said, "Welcome, heralds, messengers of Gods and men; draw near; my quarrel is not with you but with Agamemnon who has sent you for the girl Briseis.
ild.01 He brought Briseis from the tent and gave her over to the heralds, who took her with them to the ships of the Achaeans and the Woman was loth to go.
ild.02 But they now took no part in the war, inasmuch as there was no one to marshal them; for Achilles stayed by his ships, furious about the loss of the girl Briseis, whom he had taken from Lyrnessus at his own great peril, when he had sacked Lyrnessus and Thebe, and had overthrown Mynes and Epistrophus, sons of king Evenor, son of Selepus.
ild.09 No man will be of a truer mind than that which has been mine from the hour when you, sir, angered Achilles by taking the girl Briseis from his tent against my judgment.
ild.19 When the Achaeans were got together Achilles rose and said, Son" of Atreus, surely it would have been better alike for both you and me, when we two were in such high anger about Briseis, surely it would have been better, had Diana s arrow slain her at the ships on the day when I took her after having sacked Lyrnessus.
ild.19 Moreover let him swear an oath before the Argives that he has never gone up into the couch of Briseis, nor been with her after the manner of men and Women; and do you, too, show yourself of a gracious mind; let Agamemnon entertain you in his tents with a feast of reconciliation, that so you may have had your dues in full.
ild.19 The word was not sooner said than the deed was done: they brought out the Seven tripods which Agamemnon had promised, with the Twenty metal cauldrons and the Twelve Horses; they also brought the Women skilled in useful arts, Seven in number, with Briseis, which made eight.
ild.19 The other Achaeans sat where they were all silent and orderly to hear the king, and Agamemnon looked into the vault of heaven and prayed saying, "I call Jove the first and mightiest of all Gods to witness, I call also Earth and Sun and the Erinyes who dwell below and take vengeance on him who shall swear falsely, that I have laid no hand upon the girl Briseis, neither to take her to my bed nor otherwise, but that she has remained in my tents inviolate.
ild.19 The son of Atreus had not else stirred me to so fierce an anger, nor so stubbornly taken Briseis from me against my will.
ild.19 Briseis, fair as Venus, when she saw the mangled body of Patroclus, flung herself upon it and cried aloud, tearing her breast, her neck, and her lovely face with both her hands.
ild.24 As he spoke he laid his hand on the old man s right wrist, in token that he should have no fear; thus then did Priam and his attendant sleep there in the forecourt, full of thought, while Achilles lay in an inner room of the house, with fair Briseis by his side.

Arise Greece! from thy silent sleep, 2000 years long it is! Forget not, thy ancient culture, beautiful and marvelous it is!

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