Day 53: The Hundred Hander and the Best of the Achaeans

Lines 401-12
ἀλλὰ σὐ τόν γ' ἐλθουσα, θεά, ὑπελύσαο δεσμῶν.
ὦχ' ἑκατόγχειρον καλέσασ' ἐς μακρον Ὄλυμπον,
ὃν Βριάρεων καλέουσι θεοί, ἅνδρες δέ τε πάντες
Αἰγαίων'· ὁ γὰρ αὖτε βίῃ οὖ πατρὸς ἀμείνων·
ὅς ῥα παρὰ Κρονίωνι καθέζετο κύδεϊ γαίων·
τὸν καὶ ὑπέδεισαν μάκαρες θεοὶ οὐδέ τ' ἔδησαν.
τῶν νῦν μιν μνήσασα παρέζεο καὶ λαβὲ γούνων,
αἴ κέν πως ἐθέλῃσιν ἐπὶ Τρώεσσιν ἀρῆξαι,
τοὺς δὲ κατὰ πρύμνας τε καὶ ἀμφ' ἅλα ἕλσαι Ἀχαιοὺς
κτεινομένους, ἵνα πάντες ἐπαύρωνται βασιλῆος,
γνῷ δὲ καὶ Ἀτρεΐδης εὐρὺ κρείων Ἀγαμέμνων
ἢν ἄτην, ὅ τ' ἄριστον Ἀχαιῶν οὐδὲν ἔτισεν."



But you who went to him, goddess, you loosed his bonds
In secret. Swiftly summoning the hundred hander to lofty Olympus,
He whom the gods name Briareus, and all men call Aegaeon;
For he made the father's side superior in strength;
He who then sat down beside the son of Cronos,
Exulting in his glory; Even those high gods
Shrank before him, and did not even bind him.
Now sit beside him and take hold of his knee,
All the while reminding him of this,
If in some way he might be willing to assist the Trojans,
And so to drive and slay these Achaeans
Onto the sterns of their ships about the briny deep,
So that all might reap the rewards of their king,
And even Atreus' son, wide ruling Agamemnon,
May recognize this folly, that he did no honor
To the best of the Achaeans."



Achilles finishes beseeching his mother, recounting a tale she once told him about Zeus and her summoning of the hundred hander to save him from his trouble with the other Olympians, then telling her to go to Zeus and get him to punish all the Achaeans for Agamemnon's misstep in dishonoring him. It is easy here to paint Achilles as a whiny, spoiled brat as many modern readers do. But one has to put himself in Achilles' position where this life is all there is since there is no afterlife in which to gain compensation for any sufferings experienced here and now, and a warrior's honor is ultimately all he has, and without it he is nothing. And, after all, if you had a sea nymph for a mother wouldn't you do the same thing?