“Mother! Since thou didst bring me forth to dwell Brief space on earth, Olympian Jupiter, Who thunders in the highest, should have filled That space with honors, but he grants them not. Wide-ruling Agamemnon takes and holds The prize I won, and thus dishonors me.”

Thus, shedding tears, he spake. His mother heard, Sitting within the ocean deeps, beside Her aged father. Swiftly from the waves Of the gray deep emerging like a cloud, She sat before him as he wept, and smoothed His brow with her soft hand, and kindly said:⁠—

“My child, why weepest thou? What grief is this? Speak, and hide nothing, so that both may know.”

Achilles, swift of foot, sighed heavily, And said: “Thou know’st already. Why relate These things to thee, who art apprised of all?