Achilles (Mythological character); Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Trojan War
The others indeed sat down, and were kept to their respective seats.
But Thersites alone, immediate in words, was wrangling; who, to wit,
knew in his mind expressions both unseemly and numerous, so as idly,
and not according to discipline, to wrangle with the princes, but [to
blurt out] whatever seemed to him to be matter of laughter to the
Greeks. And he was the ugliest man who came to Ilium. He was
bandy-legged, 95 and lame of one foot; his shoulders were crooked, and
contracted towards his breast; and his head was peaked 96 towards the
top, and thin woolly hair was scattered over it. To Achilles and
Ulysses he was particularly hostile, for these two he used to revile.
But on this occasion, shouting out shrilly, he uttered bitter taunts
against noble Agamemnon; but the Greeks were greatly irritated against
him, and were indignant in their minds. But vociferating aloud, he
reviled Agamemnon with words:
Footnote 95: (return) See Buttm. Lexil. p. 540, § 8.
Footnote 96: (return) See Buttm. p. 537, who derives φοζος from
φώγειν, _to dry_, as if φωξός, _warped by heat_.
“Son of Atreus, of what dost thou now complain, or what dost thou want?
Thy tents are full of brass, and many chosen women are in thy tents,
whom we Greeks bestow on thee the first of all, whenever we capture a
city. Dost thou still require gold, which some one of the horse-taming
Trojans shall bring from Troy, as a ransom for his son, whom I, or some
other of the Greeks, having bound, may lead away? Or a young maid, that
thou mayest be mingled in dalliance, and whom thou for thyself mayest
retain apart 97 [from the rest]? Indeed it becomes not a man who is
chief in command, to lead the sons of the Greeks into evil. Ο ye soft
ones, vile disgraces, Grecian dames, no longer Grecian men, 98 let us
return home, home! 99 with our ships, and let us leave him here to
digest his honours at Troy, that he may know whether we really aid him
in anything or not. He, who but just now has dishonoured Achilles, a
man much more valiant than himself; for, taking away, he retains his
prize, he himself having seized it. But assuredly there is not much
anger in the heart of Achilles; but he is forbearing; for truly, were
it not so, Ο son of Atreus, thou wouldest have insulted now for the
last time.”
Footnote 97: (return) Not being compelled to restore her, like the
daughter of Chryses.
Footnote 98: (return) Virg. Æn. ix. 617: “Ο vere Phrygiæ, neque enim
Phryges!”
Footnote 99: (return) This is Nägelsbach’s spirited rendering of
οίκαδε περ.
Thus spoke Thersites, reviling Agamemnon, the shepherd of the people.
But godlike Ulysses immediately stood beside him, and eyeing him with
scowling brow, reproached him with harsh language:
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