waged an ineffectual war and fought against
fewer men, and no accomplishment was ever shown.
Indeed, if Achaeans and Trojans alike were willing
to cut a sacred truce and be counted on both sides,
and those Trojans who have homes in the city were numbered,
and we Achaeans were to be divided into companies of ten,
and each of our divisions chose a man of Troy to pour their wine,
there would be many tens of men lacking a pourer of wine.
So much more numerous, I say, are we sons of the Achaeans
than the Trojans, those who reside throughout the city; yet there are allies130
from many cities, spear-wielding men,
who have knocked me wide off course and do not allow me, as I desire,
to sack the well-settled town of Ilion;
nine years have passed under mighty Zeus,
and the ship planks have rotted, the lines frayed;
no doubt our wives and our young children
sit in our homes watching for us; the task
for which we came here is utterly unaccomplished.
But come—let us all be persuaded to do as I say;
let us flee with our ships to our beloved fatherland,140
for we will not ever take Troy of the wide ways.”
Thus he spoke and stirred the heart in every breast
among the multitude, all who had not heard his plan.
The assembly was shaken like the towering waves of the sea,
the open sea of Icaria; waves which the South and East Winds
raise, rushing down from the clouds of Zeus the father.
As when the West Wind’s coming shakes a deep stand of corn
rushing onward in its fury, and the corn bends its ears before the blast—
so all the assembly was shaken; with a shout
the men rushed to the ships, and dust raised beneath their feet150
hung in the air. They urged one another
to seize the ships and drag them to the bright sea,
and to clear out the launching tracks. The cry reached heaven
of men longing for home. They lifted the props from beneath the ships.
Then against fate would there have been homecoming for the Argives
had not Hera spoken a word to Athena:
“Shame, shame! Child of Zeus who wields the stormy aegis, Unwearied One—
is it in this way now the Argives will flee homeward to their beloved
fatherland, across the broad back of the sea?
They would leave as trophy for Priam and the Trojans160
Helen of Argos, on whose account many Achaeans
have died at Troy, far from the soil of their fatherland.
But now go throughout the host of the bronze-clad Achaeans;
check each man with your calming words,
do not allow them to drag their double-ended ships to the sea.”
Thus she spoke, and the gleaming-eyed goddess Athena did not disobey,
and she left, shooting down from the heights of Olympus.167
Then she found Odysseus, like Zeus in wiles,169
just standing; he had not touched his dark, well-benched ship170
since anguish gripped him in his heart and soul.
Standing close, gleaming-eyed Athena addressed him:
“Son of Zeus-descended Laertes, Odysseus of many stratagems,
is it in this way you Argives will flee homeward now to your beloved
fatherland, falling into your ships with their many oars?
You would leave as a trophy for Priam and the Trojans
Helen of Argos, on whose account many Achaeans
have died at Troy, far from the dear soil of their fatherland.
Come, go now throughout the host of the Achaeans, hold back no longer;
check each man with your calming words,180
do not allow them to drag their double-ended ships to the sea.”
Thus she spoke, and he recognized the voice of the goddess speaking,
and departed at a run, casting off his cloak; this
Eurybates gathered up, the herald from Ithaca who attended him.
And Odysseus, coming straight up to the son of Atreus Agamemnon,
took from him the scepter of his fathers, imperishable, eternal,
and with this he strode to the ships of the bronze-clad Achaeans.
Encountering a king, or some man of prominence,
he would check him with soothing words, standing beside him:
“What possesses you? It is not seemly that I should frighten you as if you were base-born man,190
but come, sit yourself down and get your people seated.
For you do not yet fully know the plan of the son of Atreus;
he is testing now, but shortly will bear hard upon the sons of the Achaeans.
We did not all hear what he said in council;
may he not in anger commit some violence against the sons of the Achaeans—
the anger of the king Zeus cherishes is mighty,
his rank is from Zeus, and Zeus all-devising loves him.”
But if he saw and came upon some man of the ranks crying out,
he beat him with the scepter and shouted a threat:
“Mad man, be still and heed the word of others200
who are your betters; you are craven and cowardly
and count for nothing in war or council.
It seems not all we Achaeans can be kings here;
the rule of many is not a good thing; let there be one ruler,
one king, to whom the son of devious Cronus gave sovereignty.”205
So giving commands he brought the army to order; the men rushed back207
to the assembly from the ships and shelters
with a shout, as when a wave of the tumultuous sea
roars mightily on the shore, and the whole sea crashes.210
The other men were seated, settled in their seats;
Thersites alone still jabbered his unbridled speech,
who knew in his mind many incoherent things to say—
vain, indecent—to antagonize kings,
but which seemed to him to be amusing to the Argive men.
The most repellent man to come beneath the walls of Ilion;
he was a dragger of feet, lame in one leg, his humped-over shoulders
came together at his chest; above them
his head was misshapen to a point and meager stubble sprouted on it.
Above all he was detested by Achilles and Odysseus220
for he was always reviling the two. But now it was against godlike Agamemnon
he noisily gave his litany of shrill abuse; for at him the Achaeans
were greatly angered and resentful in spirit.
Shouting loudly, he abused Agamemnon with his speech:
“Son of Atreus, what thing now do you fault and covet?
Your huts are full of bronze, many choice women
are within your shelter, whom we Achaeans gave you
as first spoils when we sacked a city.
Or do you lack yet more gold, which some man
of the horse-breaking Trojans will carry from Ilion as ransom for his son,230
whom I, or another Achaean, have bound and led away—
or a new woman so you can join in fornication,
a woman you can possess apart? It is indecent
that you, the leader, march the sons of the Achaeans into evil.
Wretches, cowardly disgraces, Achaean women, no longer men of Achaea!
Let us return to our homes with our ships, let us leave this man
here in Troy to brood upon his prizes, so that he may know
whether we too, in some way, are of use to him, or whether not.
And now he has dishonored Achilles, a far better man than him;
for he keeps his prize, having seized it, he personally taking it.240
Why, there is no gall in the heart of Achilles, rather he is slow to action!
Otherwise, son of Atreus, now would be your last outrage.”
Thus Thersites spoke reviling Agamemnon, the shepherd of the people;
but straightway godlike Odysseus confronted him,
and looking at him from under his brows upbraided him with hard words:
“Thersites, incoherent in speech, clear speaker though you may be,
restrain yourself, and do not seek to contend on your own with kings.
For I say there is no other mortal man baser than you,
however many came with the sons of Atreus beneath the walls of Ilion;
therefore do not have kings on your tongue when you hold forth in the assembly250
and cast abuse at them and be vigilant for departure.
We have no clear idea how this business will turn out,
whether we sons of Achaeans will return home well or badly.
So; now at the son of Atreus—Agamemnon, shepherd of the people—
you sit hurling abuse, because the Danaan warriors
gave him much; your declaiming in assembly is mockery.
I say this outright to you, and it will be accomplished—
if ever again I find you ranting as you do now,
then let Odysseus’ head stand no longer on his shoulders,
nor may I still be called the father of Telemachos,260
if I don’t take hold of you and strip off your very clothes,
your cloak and tunic that conceal your private parts,
and send you wailing to the swift ships,
after being flogged round the assembly with shameful blows.”
Thus he spoke and with the scepter beat the other’s back
and shoulders; Thersites doubled over and shed welling tears;
a bloody welt started up between his shoulders
under the gold-studded scepter; and he sat down, terrified,
in pain, and looking helplessly around wiped away his tears.
And distressed as they were, the men laughed heartily at him,270
and a man looking at his neighbor would speak in this way:
“Oh me, Odysseus has accomplished thousands of good deeds,
both leading good councils and marshaling battle—
but this now is the best thing he has accomplished among the Argives,
he has shut out this flinger of scurrilous words from speaking in assemblies.
Likely his bold heart will not drive him again
to contend against kings with abusive words!”
Thus the multitude spoke. Odysseus the sacker of cities
stood up holding the scepter, and beside him gleaming-eyed Athena
in the likeness of a herald commanded the host to silence,280
so that the sons of Achaeans, both in front and behind,
might hear his word and learn his plan.
He, with wise regard for them, spoke and addressed them:
“Son of Atreus, now, my lord, the Achaeans have a mind
to make you most contemptible in the eyes of all mortal men,
nor do they fulfill the promise that they undertook
at that time that they were leaving for here from the horse-grazed pastures of Argos—
that they would return home after sacking well-walled Ilion.
For like young children and widowed women
they wail among themselves about returning to their homes.290
But surely it is also hardship to return home sick at heart!
For even a man away from his wife for a single month
chafes as he waits with his many-benched ship, he whom stormy winds
of winter hold, and the tempestuous sea;
for us this is the ninth revolving year
we tarry here. Therefore, I do not blame the Achaeans
for chafing beside their curved ships; but for all that,
it is shameful to tarry a long time and also return empty-handed.
Endure, my friends! And stand firm until that time when we learn
whether Calchas prophesized truthfully, or not.300
For this we know well in our minds—you are all
witnesses, you whom the fates of death have not carried off,
only yesterday, as it seems—when the Achaean ships in Aulis
were gathered, bearing evil for Priam and Troy,
and we around a spring and about the sacred altars
performed perfect sacrificial hecatombs for the immortals,
beneath a lovely plane tree, from where bright water flowed;
and there appeared a momentous portent; a snake, its back mottled blood-red,
a thing of dread that the Olympian himself dispatched into the light,
darting from beneath the altar sped toward the plane tree—310
where a sparrow’s nestlings were, innocent young,
on the tip-top branch, cowering beneath the leaves,
eight of them, and the mother made nine, who gave them life.
There it devoured them as they cheeped piteously,
the mother fluttering around, crying for her beloved children.
Then, having coiled itself up, it seized her by the wing as she cried about.
And when it had devoured utterly both the young and the mother sparrow,
the god removed him from sight, the god who had brought it to light;
for the son of devious Cronus turned it to stone;
and we standing by marveled at what happened—320
in this way, then, the terrible portent of the gods broke into our hecatombs.
Thereupon Calchas spoke at once, prophesying:
‘Why are you become silent, O long-haired Achaeans?
Zeus, all-devising, brought to light this great omen for us,
late arriving, late to be fulfilled, and the fame of which will never die.
As this thing devoured the sparrow’s young and the sparrow herself—
eight they were, but the mother made nine, who gave the young life—
so for as many years we shall wage battle here,
and in the tenth we shall take the city of wide ways.’
Thus he was telling us; and now all these things are being fulfilled.330
stay here until we take the great city of Priam.”
So he spoke, and the Argives shouted loud assent—the ships around them
echoed terribly with the force of the Achaeans’ shouting—
approving the speech of godlike Odysseus.
Then among them also spoke the Gerenian driver of horses, Nestor:
“For shame! You debate like children,
infants with no concern for warlike deeds.
Where go our covenants and oaths?
Let the counsels and plans of men be burned in fire,340
and solemn libations of treaty and the pledges in which we trusted!
To no end do we contest with words, nothing expedient
are we able to find, for all the long time we have been here.
Son of Atreus, hold firm yet, as before, to your unshaken plan,
lead the Argives through the mighty combat,
and let those perish, the one or two who
make their plans apart from the Achaeans—they will accomplish nothing—
to return early to Argos, before knowing
whether the promise of Zeus who wields the aegis was false, or not.
For I say that the almighty son of Cronus nodded his assent350
on that day, when in fast-running ships the Argives departed
bringing death and slaughter to the Trojans,
flashing lightning to our right, showing forth a true sign.
Therefore, let no one press to return home
before he has bedded the wife of a Trojan man,
to exact requital for the struggle and groaning over Helen.
&n
bsp; And if any man strongly wishes to go home,
let him only touch his black, well-benched ship,
so that before the others he may meet his death and destiny.
But, my lord, both plan carefully yourself and also listen to another;360
not to be disregarded is the word I say.
Separate the men by tribes, then by clans, Agamemnon,
so that clan stands by clan, and tribe by tribe.
If you do this, and the Achaeans obey you,
then you will know which of the leaders is worthless, as well as which of the ranks,
and which is outstanding; for they will fight in separate divisions on their own,
and you will learn too whether it is by the will of god you do not sack the city,
or by the cowardice of man and ignorance of war.”
Then answering him lord Agamemnon spoke:
“Once again, old man, you have outdone the sons of the Achaeans in speech.370
Father Zeus, Athena and Apollo! Would that
there were ten such advisers among the Achaeans!
The city of lord Priam would swiftly totter
beneath our hands, captured and sacked.
But Zeus who wields the aegis, the son of Cronus, gave me woes,
who cast me into useless quarrels and contentions.
So I and Achilles have fought over a girl,
confronting each other with words, and I was first to be angry.
If ever we should be at one in counsel, then there would be no further
respite from evil for the Trojans, not even a little.380
Now go to your dinner, so that we may assemble our battle.
Let each man sharpen his spear, let him get his shield at the ready,
let him feed well his swift-footed horses.
And when he has inspected his chariot, let each man turn his attention to war.
Daylong we shall be measured in hateful warfare.
There will be no interlude in it, not even a little,
until night descending separates the raging men;
around a man’s chest the strap of his body shield
will be wet with sweat, his hand will grow weary around his spear,
and the horse will be wet with sweat that draws his burnished chariot.390
That man I find away from battle, seeking
to linger round the curved ships—for him
there will be no surety of escaping the dogs and birds.”
So he spoke and the Argives roared assent, like a wave
when the coming South Wind rouses it, upon a high headland,
a jutting prominence; one which the surge, wind-driven from all quarters,
never leaves in peace, coming on this side and that.