“Heigh me! brazen
of front, thou glutton for plunder, how can one,
Servant here to thy
mandates, heed thee among our Achaians,
Either the mission hie
on or stoutly do fight with the foemen?
I, not hither I fared
on account of the spear-armed Trojans,
Pledged to the combat;
they unto me have in nowise a harm done;
Never have they, of
a truth, come lifting my horses or oxen;
Never in deep-soiled
Phthia, the nurser of heroes, my harvests
Ravaged, they; for between
us is numbered full many a darksome
Mountain, ay, therewith
too the stretch of the windy sea-waters.
O hugely shameless!
thee did we follow to hearten thee, justice
Pluck from the Dardans
for him, Menelaos, thee too, thou dog-eyed!
Whereof little thy thought
is, nought whatever thou reckest.
Worse, it is thou whose
threat ’tis to ravish my prize from me,
portion
Won with much labour,
the which my gift from the sons of Achaia.
Never, in sooth, have
I known my prize equal thine when Achaians
Gave some flourishing
populous Trojan town up to pillage.
Nay, sure, mine were
the hands did most in the storm of the combat,
Yet when came peradventure
share of the booty amongst us,
Bigger to thee went
the prize, while I some small blessed thing
bore
Off to the ships, my
share of reward for my toil in the bloodshed!
So now go I to Phthia,
for better by much it beseems me
Homeward go with my
beaked ships now, and I hold not in prospect,
I being outraged, thou
mayst gather here plunder and wealth-store.”
Poem: The Invective of Achilles — V. 225.
“Bibber besotted, with scowl of a cur, having heart of a deer, thou! Never to join to thy warriors armed for the press of the conflict, Never for ambush forth with the princeliest sons of Achaia Dared thy soul, for to thee that thing would have looked as a death-stroke. Sooth, more easy it seems, down the lengthened array of Achaians, Snatch at the prize of the one whose voice has been lifted against thee. Ravening king of the folk, for that thou hast thy rule over abjects; Else, son of Atreus, now were this outrage on me thy last one. Nay, but I tell thee, and I do swear a big oath on it likewise: Yea, by the sceptre here, and it surely bears branches and leaf- buds Never again, since first it was lopped from its trunk on the mountains, No more sprouting; for round it all clean has the sharp metal clipped off Leaves and the bark; ay, verify now do the sons of Achaia, Guardian hands of the counsels of Zeus, pronouncing the judgement, Hold it aloft; so now unto thee shall the oath have its portent; Loud will the cry for Achilles burst from the sons of Achaia Throughout the army, and thou chafe powerless, though in an anguish, How to give succour when vast crops down under man-slaying Hector Tumble expiring; and thou deep in thee shalt tear at thy heart- strings, Rage-wrung, thou, that in nought thou didst honour the flower of Achaians.”
Poem: Marshalling Of The Achaians