back. Yield, then, the maiden to the god, and we, The Achaians, freely will appoint for thee Threefold and fourfold recompense, should Jove Give up to sack this well-defended Troy.”
Then the king Agamemnon answered thus:— “Nay, use no craft, all valiant as thou art, Godlike Achilles; thou hast not the power To circumvent nor to persuade me thus. Think’st thou that, while thou keepest safe thy prize, I shall sit idly down, deprived of mine? Thou bid’st me give the maiden back. ’Tis well, If to my hands the noble Greeks shall bring The worth of what I lose, and in a shape That pleases me. Else will I come myself, And seize and bear away thy prize, or that Of Ajax or Ulysses, leaving him From whom I take his share with cause for rage. Another time we will confer of this. Now come, and forth into the great salt sea Launch a black ship, and muster on the deck Men skilled to row, and put a hecatomb On board, and let the fair-cheeked maid embark, Chryseis. Send a prince to bear command— Ajax, Idomeneus, or the divine Ulysses;—or thyself, Pelides, thou Most terrible of men, that with due rites Thou soothe the anger of the archer-god.”
Achilles the swift-footed, with stern look, Thus answered: “Ha, thou mailed in impudence And bent on lucre! Who of all the Greeks Can willingly obey thee, on the march, Or bravely battling with the enemy? I came not to this war because of wrong Done to me by the valiant sons of Troy. No feud had I with them; they never took My beeves or horses, nor, in Phthia’s realm, Deep-soiled and populous, spoiled my harvest fields. For many a shadowy mount between us lies, And waters of the wide-resounding sea. Man unabashed! We follow thee that thou Mayst glory in avenging upon Troy The grudge of Menelaus and thy own, Thou shameless one! And yet thou hast for this Nor thanks nor care. Thou threatenest now to take From me the prize for which I bore long toils In battle; and the Greeks decreed it mine. I never take an equal share with thee Of booty when the Grecian host has sacked Some populous Trojan town. My hands perform The harder labors of the field in all The