day on which I laid Lyrnessus waste! So many Greeks would then have not been forced, Slain by the enemy’s hand, to bite the dust Of the great earth, while I was brooding o’er My wrath. All that was for the good of Troy And Hector; but the Greeks, I think, will long Remember our contention. Let us leave These things among the things that were, and, though They make us grieve, let us subdue our minds To what the time requires. Here then my wrath Shall end; it is not meet that it should burn Forever. Hasten thou and rouse to war The long-haired Greeks, that I may yet again Go forth among the men of Troy, and learn If they design to encamp another night Before the fleet. There is among them all No man, I ween, who will not joyfully Sit down when he escapes my deadly spear.”
He ended, and the Achaians all rejoiced To hear the brave Pelides thus renounce His anger. Agamemnon, king of men, Then rose. He came not forth into the midst, But stood beside his seat, and thus he spake:—
“O friends, Achaian heroes, ministers Of Mars! Whoever rises up to speak ’Tis well to hear him through, and not break in Upon his speech, else is the most expert Confounded. Who amid a clamorous throng Can listen or can speak? The orator Of clearest voice must utter it in vain. Now I address Pelides; for the rest, Hearken ye all, and ponder what I say. The Greeks speak often of this feud, and cast The blame on me. Yet was I not the cause, But Jupiter and Fate, and she who walks In darkness, dread Erynnis. It was they Who filled my mind with fury in the hour When from Achilles I bore off his prize. What could I do? A deity prevails In all things, Atè, mighty to destroy, Daughter of Jove, and held in awe by all. Delicate are her feet; she never comes Near to the ground, but glides above the heads Of men, to do them harm, and in her net Entangles one at least of two who strive. Jove, deemed the mightiest among men and gods, Once felt her power of mischief. Him his spouse, Juno, entrapped by cunning, when within The massive walls of Thebes Alcmena lay In childbed, and the mighty Hercules Was near his birth.