Lines 233-39
ἀλλ' ἐκ τοι ἐρέω καὶ ἐπὶ μέγαν ὅρκον ὀμοῦμαι·
ναὶ μὰ τόδε σκῆπτρον· τὸ μὲν οὔ ποτε φύλλα καὶ ὄζους
φύσει, ἐπεὶ δὴ πρῶτα τομὴν ἐν ὄρεσσι λέλοιπεν,
οὐδ' ἀναθηλήσει· περὶ γάρ ῥα ἑ χαλκὸς ἔλεψεν
φύλλα τε καὶ φλοιόν· νῦν αὖτέ μιν υἷες Ἀχαιῶν
ἐν παλάμῃς φορέουσι δικασπόλοι, οἵ τε θέμιστας
πρὸς Διὸς εἰρύαται· ὁ δέ τοι μέγας ἔσσεται ὅρκος·
But I will declare and I shall swear a great oath to you from now:
Truly, by this scepter, that shall never produce leaves nor branches,
Nor shall it bud anew, since it has now forsaken its stump
In the mountains and all around bronze has shed its leaves
And bark as well; and now again the sons of the Achaeans,
Arbiters of justice who draw their laws from Zeus,
Bear it in their hands; so this shall be my great oath to you:
Achilles about to make another oath, the definitive oath which will define the course of the rest of the poem. And the object by which he swears is a scepter that will bear neither leaf nor branch, which is ironic on so many levels.
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