my bed, should enjoy the possessions which aged Peleus hath acquired. For not worth my life are all the [treasures] which they say the well-inhabited city Ilium possessed, whilst formerly at peace, before the sons of the Greeks arrived; nor all which the stony threshold of the archer Phœbus Apollo contains within it, in rocky Pytho. 313 By plunder, oxen and fat sheep are to be procured, tripods are to be procured, and the yellow heads of steeds; but the life of man cannot be obtained nor seized, so as to return again, when once it has passed the enclosure of the teeth. For my goddess mother, silver-footed Thetis, declares that double destinies lead me on to the end of death. If, on the one hand, remaining here, I wage war around the city of the Trojans, return is lost to me, but my glory will be immortal; but if, on the other hand, I return home to my dear fatherland, my excellent glory is lost, but my life will be lasting, nor will the end of death speedily seize upon me. And to others also would I give advice to sail home, for ye will not find an end of lofty Ilium; for far-sounding Jove hath stretched over it his hand, and the people have taken courage. But do ye, departing, bear back this message to the chiefs of the Greeks, for such is the office of ambassadors, that they devise within their minds some other better plan, which for them may preserve their ships, and the army of the Greeks in the hollow barks; since this, which they have now devised, is not expedient for them, while I cherish my wrath. But let Phœnix, remaining here, recline beside us, that to-morrow, if he will, he may follow me in the ships to my dear fatherland, although I will by no means lead him away by compulsion.” Footnote 303: (return) This word is etymologically connected with τρνγών. It properly signifies the moaning of the dove. Footnote 304: (return) Schol. περισσόν τί εστι. Kennedy explains it: “nor have all the toils which I have undergone been productive of any superior advantage to me.” Footnote 305: (return) See a list of these cities in Heyne’s note. Footnote 306: (return) Observe the broken construction, well suited to the irritability of the speaker. Footnote 307: (return) Cf. Cicero de Div. i. 25. Footnote 308: (return) “Εῤῥων, ἐπί φθορᾷ.” (ita etym. magn.) παραγενόμενος. Cf. Alberti on Hesych. t. i. p. 1445. Footnote 309: (return) “Εκηλος forcibly expresses the condition of one who is advancing imperceptibly, though surely, to final ruin.”—Kennedy. Footnote 310: (return) See Kennedy, and Duport, Gnom. p. 52, who compare the phrases “pilo minus amare”, “pili facere.” There is, however, much uncertainty respecting the origin and meaning of the proverb. Cf. Alberti on Hesych. t. i. p. 1246.