Day 54: A Goddess Lets Fall a Tear

Lines 413-24
τὸν δ' ἠμείβετ' ἔπειτα Θέτις κατὰ δάκρυ χέουσα·
"ὤ μοι, τέκνον ἐμον, τί νύ ς' ἔτρεφον αἰνὰ τεκοῦσα;
αἵθ' ὄφελες παρὰ νηυσὶν ἀδάκρυτος καὶ ἀπήμων
ἧσθαι, ἐπεί νύ τοι αἶσα μίννυνθά περ, οὔ τι μάλα δήν·
νῦν δ' ἅμα τ' ὠκύμορος καὶ ὀιζυρὸς περὶ πάντων
ἔπλεο· τῶ σε κακῇ αἶσῃ τέκον ἐν μεγάροισιν.
τοῦτο δέ τοι ἐρέουσα ἔπος Διὶ τερπικεραύνῳ
εἶμ' αὐτὴ πρὸς Ὄλυμπον ἀγάννιφον, οἴ κε πίθηται.
ἀλλὰ σὺ μὲν νῦν νηυσὶ παρήμενος ὠκυπόροισιν
μήνι' Ἀχαιοῖσιν, πολέμου δ' ἀποπαύεο πάμπαν·
Ζεὺς γὰρ ἐς Ὠκεανὸν μετ' ἀμύνονας Αἰθιοπῆας
χθιζὸς ἔβη κατὰ δαῖτα, θεοὶ δ' ἅμα παντες ἕποντο·



And Thetis answered him, letting a tear stream down:
"O my dear child, why indeed did I bring you up,
Raising you to a dreadful end? Would that you were sitting
By the ships, without tears and without pain,
Since for you time is so terribly short, there is not a long while.
Now then it is swift fated and piteous for all men along with you;
Therefore I bore you to evil dread in that palace.
So I go myself to the snowy heights of Olympus
To speak a word of this to Zeus who hurls the thunderbolt,
If he should heed me. But you now restrain yourself from war
Entirely, and rage against the Achaeans sitting by
The fast sailing ships; For Zeus yesterday went to Oceanus,
To a feast with the noble Ethiopians, and all the gods went with;



This I think is the first mention of the Ethiopians in western literature. There are other poems in the epic cycle that mention a hero that fights on the Trojan side named Memnon who is Ethiopian. I think that Ethiopians were probably to the Greeks all the dark skinned peoples who lived to the south of Upper Egypt along the Nile, and therefore at world's end. It is kind of amusing to consider that Achilles' request here cannot be fulfilled right away because the gods are all on vacation. Kind of makes you wonder...