Important Quotations Explained
1. Rage—Goddess,
sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
murderous,
doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling
down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,
great
fighters' souls, but made their bodies carrion,
feasts
for the dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus
was moving toward its end.
Begin, Muse, when
the two first broke and clashed,
Agamemnon
lord of men and brilliant Achilles.
2. We
everlasting gods . . . Ah what chilling blows
we
suffer—thanks to our own conflicting wills—
whenever
we show these mortal men some kindness.
3. Cattle
and fat sheep can all be had for the raiding,
tripods
all for the trading, and tawny-headed stallions.
But
a man's life breath cannot come back again—
.
. .
Mother tells me,
the
immortal goddess Thetis with her glistening feet,
that
two fates bear me on to the day of death.
If
I hold out here and I lay siege to Troy,
my
journey home is gone, but my glory never dies.
If
I voyage back to the fatherland I love,
my
pride, my glory dies. . . .
4. There
is nothing alive more agonized than man
of
all that breathe and crawl across the earth.
5. Remember
your own father, great godlike Achilles—
as
old as I am, past the threshold of deadly old age!
No
doubt the countrymen round about him plague him now,
with
no one there to defend him, beat away disaster.
No
one—but at least he hears you're still alive
and
his old heart rejoices, hopes rising, day by day,
to
see his beloved son come sailing home from Troy.
