FROM THE GREEK.

ILIAD.

BOOK I.

F Peleus' son, Achilles, sing, O Muse,

OF

The vengeance, deep and deadly; whence to Greece

Unnumber'd ills arose; which many a soul

Of mighty warriors to the viewless shades
Untimely sent; they on the battle plain
Unburied lay, a prey to rav'ning dogs,

And carrion birds; but so had Heav'n decreed,
From that sad day when first in wordy war,
The mighty Agamemnon, king of men,
Confronted stood by Peleus' godlike son.

Say then, what God the fatal strife provok❜d?

Jove's and Latona's son; he, fill'd with wrath
Against the king, with deadly pestilence

The camp afflicted, and the people died,—

For Chryses' sake, his priest, whom Atreus' son

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With scorn dismiss'd, when to the Grecian ships
He came, his captive daughter to redeem,
With costly ransom charg'd; and in his hand
The sacred fillet of his God he bore,

And golden staff; to all he sued, but chief
To Atreus' sons, twin captains of the host:
"Ye sons of Atreus, and ye well-greav'd Greeks,
May the great Gods, who on Olympus dwell,
Grant you yon hostile city to destroy,
And home return in safety; but my child
Restore, I pray; her proffer'd ransom take,
And in his priest, the Lord of Light revere.
Then through the ranks assenting murmurs ran,
The priest to rev'rence, and the ransom take:
Not so Atrides; he, with haughty mien,
And bitter speech, the trembling sire address'd:
"Old man, I warn thee, that beside our ships
I find thee not, or ling'ring now, or back
Returning; lest thou prove of small avail
Thy golden staff, and fillet of thy God.
Her I release not, till her youth be fled;