But if thou yet hate from thy heart Agamemnon and his gifts, then I pray thee have pity upon the Greeks, who will honour thee even as men honour a god. Hector, too, thou mayest slay, for he will come near thee in his madness, for he deems that there is not a man of all the Greeks that can stand against him." To him Achilles, fleet of foot, made answer: "Son of Laertes, plain shall be my speech; for I would not have you sit before me, seeking to coax me, one man this way and another another. Why must the Greeks make war against the sons of Troy? Why did the sons of Atreus gather this host together, and lead them to this land? Was it not for fair-haired Helen's sake? Tell me, then, do the sons of Atreus alone of all men love their wives? Nay, but whosoever is good and sound of heart loveth his wife and cherisheth her, even as I loved mine, though I won her by my spear. He took her from me, and deceived me; let him not make trial of me again, for I know him well, and he shall not prevail with me. Let him take counsel now with thee, Ulysses, and with the other princes of the host, how he may keep from the ships the devouring fire. Many things hath he done without my help, building a wall and digging a ditch about it, both wide and deep, and setting stakes in the ditch; yet for all this can he not keep Hector from the ships. And yet, when I fought in the host of the Greeks, this Hector dared not set his army in array far from the walls, but scarce came to the Scæan gates and the fig tree. Once did he await me there to do battle, man against man, and scarce escaped my spear. But now, seeing that I have no mind to fight with him, I will do sacrifice to-morrow to Zeus and all the gods, and I will store my ships and launch them on the sea. Yea, to-morrow, right early in the morning, thou shalt see them, if thou wilt, sailing along the Hellespont, and my men toiling eagerly at the oar; and if the god that shaketh the earth grants me a fair journey, on the third morning shall I come to the fair land of Phthia. There is all the wealth that I left behind me when I came to Troy; and hence I shall carry with me yet more of gold and bronze and iron, and fair women slaves, my portion of the spoil. King Agamemnon shall not deceive me again with lying speech. And as for his gifts, I scorn them; though he give me tenfold, yea, twentyfold, all that he now hath promised. Yea, verily, though he give me gifts as the sand of the sea for multitude, he shall not persuade me, till he shall have endured bitterness of soul like mine. And his daughter I will not wed--no, not though she be as fair as golden Aphrodite, and match Athene of the flashing eyes in skill of handiwork. Let him choose him from among the Greeks some kinglier son-in-law than I, and for me, if the gods bring me safe to my home, Peleus shall choose a wife. For all the wealth that was stored in the city of Troy, in the days