Day 51: A Recap From Achilles to His Mother

Lines 359-79
καρπαλίμως δ' ἀνέδυ πολιῆς ἁλὸς ἠύτ' ὀμίχλη,
καί ῥα πάροιθ' αὐτοῖο καθέζετο δάκρυ χέοντος,
χειρί τέ μιν κατέρεξεν, ἔπος τ' ἔφατ' ἔκ τ' ὀνόμαζεν·
"τέκνον, τί κλαίεις; τί δέ σε φρένας ἵκετο πένθος;
ἐξαύδα, μὴ κεῦθε νόῳ, ἵνα εἴδομεν ἄμφω."

τὴν δὲ βαρὺ στενάχων προσέφη πόδας ὠκὺς Ἀχιλλεύς·
"οἶσθα· τί ἦ τοι ταῦτα ἰδυίῃ πάντ' ἀγορεύω;
ᾠχόμεθ' ἐς Θήβην, ἱερὴν πόλιν Ἠετίωνος,
τὴν δὲ διεπράθομέν τε καὶ ἤγομεν ἐνθάδε πάντα.
καὶ τὰ μὲν εὖ δάσσαντο μετὰ σφίσιν υἷες Ἀχαιῶν,
ἐκ δ' ἕλον Ἀτρεΐδῃ Χρυσηίδα καλλιπάρῃον.
Χρύσης δ' αὖθ' ἱερεὺς ἑκατηβόλου Ἀπόλλωνος
ἦλθε θοὰς ἐπὶ νῆας Ἀχαιῶν χαλκοχιτώνων
λυσόμενός τε θύγατρα φέρων τ' ἀπερείσι ἄποινα,
στέμματ' ἔχων ἐν χερσὶν ἑκηβόλου Ἀπόλλωνος
χρυσέῳ ἀνὰ σκήπτρῳ, καὶ ἐλίσσετο πάντας Ἀχαιούς,
Ἀτρεΐδα δὲ μάλιστα δύω, κοσμήτορε λαῶν.
ἔνθ' ἄλλοι μὲν πάντες ἐπευφήμησαν Ἀχαιοὶ
αἰδεῖσθαι θ' ἱερῆα καὶ ἀγλαὰ δέχθαι ἄποινα.
ἀλλ' οὐκ Ἀτρεΐδῃ Ἀγαμέμνονι ἥνδανε θυμῷ,
ἀλλὰ κακῶς ἀφίει, κρατερὸν δ' ἐπὶ μῦθον ἔτελλεν.

Then swiftly she dove up from the hoary salt brined sea
Like the mist, and sat down before him and his streaming tears,
And caressed him with her hands speaking out a word addressing him:
"My child, why do you weep? And what grief comes up in your spirit?
Speak up, do not hide your mind, so that we both may know."

And swift footed Achilles addressed her, groaning heavily:
"You know. Indeed why do I tell this to you who know all?
We went to Thebe, Eetion's sacred city, and plundered it,
Then we brought it all here. And first the sons of the Achaeans
Divided it fairly among themselves, and they took out fair cheeked Chryseis
For Atreus' son. But then Chryses, the priest of far shooting Apollo,
Came to the fast ships of the bronze clad Achaeans,
And was seeking to free his daughter bearing countless ransoms,
Holiding in his hands the wreaths of Apollo who strikes from afar
Along with a golden scepter, and he was begging all the Achaeans,
But most of all the two sons of Atreus, commanders of the armies.
Then all the Achaeans shouted their assent, revering the priest,
And accepting his shining ransoms. But this did not please Atreus's son,
Agamemnon in his soul, and he sent him off evilly, and imparted on him
A harsh command.



Achilles divine mother rises like a mist from the sea to comfort the mighty warrior's wounded pride. Caressing him with her immortal fingers she seeks to stop his tears and her son's heart. This bit of commentary is an extension of the last, because once again it is hard to imagine a scene like this included in, say, a movie about the Second World War, whether the man's mother was a goddess or not. But it is sung here in the Iliad without any commentary or reproach against Achilles' character. In fact this moment is celebrated because Achilles' tears get his mother to produce a series of events that initially increases his honor and presitige, even though it leads to disaster in the end.

It is interesting to note that Achilles words in describing the happenings that led to his sorrow here are almost an exact repetition of what the narrator describes during the first fifty lines, with only slight variation to fit the meter at the beginning. This must have been an oral device originally toprovide a break for the wandering bard's hard pressed memory.