The Iliad (Audiobook) by Homer - Book 19

Book 19: Achilles Returns to Battle
Achilles reconciles with Agamemnon and prepares to rejoin the war, setting aside his personal grievances. Summary by Dream Audiobooks

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section nineteen of the Iliad by Homer, translated by Samuel Butler.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
Peter Dan, Book nineteen. Achilles is reconciled with Agamemnon, puts
on the armor which Vulcan had made him, and goes
out to fight. Now when dawn in robe of Saffron

(00:24):
was hasting from the streams of Ercianas to bring light
to mortals and immortals, Thetus reached the ships with the
armor that the gods had given her. She found her
son fallen about the body of Patroclus and weeping bitterly.
Many or so of his followers were weeping round him,
but when the Goddess came among them, she clasped his
hand in her own, saying, my son, grieve as we may.

(00:48):
We must let this man lie, for it is by
Heaven's will that he has fallen. Now. Therefore, except from Vulcan,
this rich and goodly armor, which no man has ever
yet borne upon his shoulder. As she spoke, she set
the armour before Achilles, and it rang out bravely. As
she did so, the Mermadons were struck with awe and

(01:09):
none dad look full at it, for they were afraid.
But Achilles was roused to still greater fury, and his
eyes gleamed with a fierce light, for he was glad
when he handled the splendid present which the gods had
made him. Then, as soon as he had satisfied himself
with looking at it, he said to his mother mother,
the God has given me armour, meat, handiwork for an immortal,

(01:32):
and such as no one living could have fashioned. I
will now arm. But I much fear that flies will
settle upon the son of Monotias, and breed worms about
his wounds, so that his body, now he is dead,
will be disfigured, and the flesh will rot silver footed.
Thetis answered, my son, be not disquieted about this matter.

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I will find means to protect him from the swarms
of noisome flies that prey on the bodies of men
who have been killed in battle. He may lie for
a whole year, and his flesh shall still be as
sound as ever, or even sounder. Call. Therefore, the Achaean
heroes in assembly, unsay your anger against Agamemnon. Arm at

(02:15):
once and fight with might and main. As she spoke,
she put strength and courage into his heart, and she
then dropped ambrosia and read nectar into the wounds of Petroclus,
that his body might suffer no change. Then Achilles went
out upon the sea shore, and with a loud cry
called on the Achaean heroes on this. Even those who

(02:37):
as yet had stayed always at the ships, the pilots
and helmsmen, and even the stewards who were about the
ships and served out rations, all came to the place
of assembly. Because Achilles had shown himself after having held
aloof so long from fighting. Two sons of Mars, Ulysses
and the son of Tydeus came, limping, for their wounds

(02:57):
still pained them. Nevertheless, they came and took their seats
in the front row of the assembly. Last of all
came Agamemnon, king of Men, he too wounded, for Coon,
son of Antenno, had struck him with a spear in battle.
When the Achaeans were got together, Achilles rose and said,

(03:18):
son of Atreus, surely it would have been better alike
for both you and me, when we two were in
such high anger about Briseus. Surely it would have been
better had Diana's arrows slain her at the ships on
the day when I took her after having sacked learnesus.
For so many an Achaean the less would have bitten
dust before the foe. In the days of my anger.

(03:41):
It has been well for Hector and the Trojans, but
the Achaeans will long indeed remember our quarrel. Now, however,
let it be, for it is over. If we have
been angry, Necessity has schooled our anger. I put it
from me. I dare not nurse it for ever. Therefore,
bid the Achaean's arm forthwith that I may go out

(04:01):
against the Trojans and learn whether they will be in
a mind to slip by the ships or no? Glad
I ween, will he be to rest his knees, who
may fly my spear when I wield it. Thus did
he speak, and the Achaeans rejoiced in that he had
put away his anger. Then Agamemnon spoke, rising in his

(04:21):
place and not going into the middle of the assembly.
Darnayan heroes said he servants of Mars. It is well
to listen when a man stands up to speak, and
it is not seemly to interrupt him, or it will
go hard even with a practiced speaker who can either
hear or speak in an uproar. Even the finest orator

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will be disconcerted by it. I will expound to the
son of Peleus, and do you other Achaeans heed me
and mark me well? Often have the Achaeans spoken to
me of this matter and upbraided me. But it was
not I that did it. Jove and Fate and erhinies
that walk in darkness struck me mad when we were assembled,

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on the day that I took from Achilles the mead
that had been awarded to him. What could I do?
All things are in the hands of Heaven, and Folly,
eldest of Jove's daughters, shuts men's eyes to their destruction.
She walks delicately, not on the solid earth, but hovers
over the heads of men, to make them stumble or

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to ensnare them. Time was when she fooled Jove himself,
who they say is greatest, whether of gods or men.
For Juno woman, though she was beguiled him. On the
day when Alkmena was to bring forth mighty Hercules in
the fair city of Thebes, he told it out among
the gods, saying, hear me, all gods and goddesses, that

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I may speak even as I am minded this dation,
and an Ilithuia, helper of women who are in labor,
bring a man child into the world, who shall be
lord over all that dwell about him, who are of
my blood and lineage. Then said June, know all crafty
and full of guile, you will play false and will

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not hold to your word. Swear me, O Olympian, swear
me a great oath that he who shall this day
fall between the feet of a woman shall be lord
over all that dwell about him, who are of your
blood and lineage. Thus she spoke, and Jove suspected her not,
but swore the great oath to his much ruing thereafter,

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for Juno darted down from the high summit of Olympus
and went in haste to Aqui and Argos, where she
knew that the noble wife of Sthenalus, son of Perseus.
Then was she being with child, And in his seventh
month Juno brought the child to birth. Oh, there was
a month still wanting, but she stayed the offspring of
Alcmena and kept back the Illethuia. Then she went to

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tell Jove, the son of satin, and said, fa the Jove,
Lord of the Lightning, I have a word for your ear.
There is a fine child born this day, Eresthea, son
of Sthenalus, the son of Erseus. He is of your lineage.
It is well therefore that he should reign and over
the Argives. On this Jove was stung to the very quick,

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and in his rage he caught Folly by the hair
and swore a great oath that never should she again
invade starry Heaven and Olympus, for she was the bane
of all. Then he whirled around with a twist of
his hand and flung her down from heaven, so that
she fell on to the fields of mortal men. And
he was ever angry with her when he saw his
son groaning under the cruel labors that Eurystheus laid upon him.

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Even so did I grieve when mighty Hector was killing
the Argives at their ships. And all the time I
kept thinking of Folly, who had so baned me. I
was blind, and Jove robbed me of my reason. I
will now make atonement and will add much treasure by
way of amends. Go therefore into battle, you and your

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people with you, I will give you all that Ulysses
offered you yesterday in your tents, or if it so
please you, wait, though you would fain, fight at once,
and my squire shall bring you the gift from my ship,
that you may see whether what I give you is enough.
And Achilles answered, son of Atreus, king of men, Nagamemnon,

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you can give such gifts as you think proper, or
you can withhold them. It is in your own hands.
Let us now set battle in array. It is not
well to tarry talking about trifles, for there is a
deed which is as yet to do. Achilles shall again
be seen fighting among the foremost and laying low the
ranks of the Trojans. Bear this in mind, each one

(08:39):
of you when he is fighting. Then, Ulysses, said Achilles,
godlike and brave, send not the Achaeans thus against Ilius
to fight the Trojans fasting, for the battle will be
no brief one when it is once begun and Heaven
has filled both sides with fury. Bid them first take food,
both bread and wine by the ships, for in this

(09:01):
there is strength and stay. No man can do battle
the livelong day to the going down of the sun
if he is without food, however much he may want
to fight, his strength will fail him before he knows it.
Hunger and thirst will find him out, and his limbs
will grow weary under him. But a man can fight
all day if he is full fed with meat and wine.

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His heart beats high, and his strength will stay till
he has routed all his foes. Therefore, send the people
away and bid them prepare their meal. King Agamemnon will
bring out the gifts in presence of the assembly, that
all may see them, and you may be satisfied. Moreover,
let him swear an oath before the argives that he
has never gone up into the couch of Briseus, nor

(09:44):
been with her after the manner of men and women.
And do you, too, show yourself of a gracious mind.
Let Agamemnon entertain you in his tents with a feast
of reconciliation, that so you may have had your dues
in full as we you, son of Atreus, treat people
more righteously in future. It is no disgrace even to

(10:05):
a king that he should make amends if he is
wrong in the first instance. And King Agamemnon answered, son
of Laertes, your words, please me well, for throughout you
have spoken wisely. I will swear as you would have me.
Do I do so of my own free will. Neither
shall I take the name of Heaven in vain. Let then,

(10:28):
Achilles wait, though he would fain, fight at once, And
do you others wait also till the gifts come from
my tent and we ratify the oaths with sacrifice. Thus,
then do I charge you, take some noble young Achaeans
with you, and bring from my tents the gifts that
I promised yesterday to Achilles, and bring the women also. Furthermore,

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let tell Thebius find me a bore from those that
are within the host, and make it ready for sacrifice
to Jove and to the son, then said Achilles, son
of Atreus, king of Men n Agamemnon. See to these
matters at some other season, when there is breathing time,
and when I am calmer. Would you have men eat
while the bodies of those whom Hector, son of Priam's

(11:11):
slew are still lying mangled upon the plain. Let the
sons of the Achaeans, say, I fight, fasting and without food,
till we have avenged them. Afterwards, at the going down
of the sun. Let them meet their fill. As for me,
Patroclus is lying dead in my tent, all hacked and hewn,
with his feet to the door, and his comrades are

(11:32):
mourning round him. Therefore I can take thought of nothings.
I have only slaughter and blood than the rattle in
the throat of the dying Ulysses, answered Achilles, son of Pelius,
mightiest of all the Achaeans. In battle, you are better
than I, and that more than a little. But in
counsel I am much before you, for I am older

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and of greater knowledge. Therefore, be patient under my words.
Fighting is a thing of which men soon surfeet. And
when Jove, who is war's steward, weighs the upshot, it
may well prove that the straw which our sickles have
reaped is far heavier than the grain. It may not
be that the Achaean should mourn the dead with their bellies.

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Day by day men fall thick and threefold continually. When
should we have respite from our sorrow. Let us mourn
our dead for a day and bury them out of
sight and mind. But let those of us who are
left eat and drink, that we may arm and fight
our foes more fiercely, and that I let no man
hold back waiting for a second summons. Such summons shall

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bode ill for him who is found lagging behind at
our ships. Let us rather sally as one man, and
loose the fury of war upon the Trojans. When he
had thus spoken, he took with him the sons of Nestor,
with Meggi's son of Phylius, Thoas, Meriones, Lysomedes, son of Creontes,
and Melanippus, and went to the tent of Agamemnon, son

(12:59):
of Atree. The word was not sooner said than the
deed was done. They brought out the seven tripods which
Agamemnon had promised, with the twenty metal cauldrons and the
twelve horses. They also brought the women skilled in useful arts,
seven in number with Bryseus, which made eight ulysses. Weighed
out the ten talents of gold, and then led the

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way back, while the young Achaeans brought the rest of
the gifts and laid them in the middle of the assembly.
Agamemnon then rose, and Tarphibius, whose voice was like that
of a god, came to him with the boar. The
son of Atreus, drew the knife which he wore by
the scabbard of his mighty sword, and began by cutting
off some bristles from the boar, lifting up his hands

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in prayer. As he did so, the other Achaean sat
where they were all silent and orderly to hear. The
king and Agamemnon looked into the vault of heaven and prayed, saying,
I call Jove, the first and mightiest of all gods,
to witness. I call also Earth and Son, and the
errhinies who dwell below, and take vengeance on him who

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shall swear falsely that I have laid no hand upon
the girl Brecius, neither to take her to my bed
nor otherwise, but that she has remained in my tents inviolate.
If I swear falsely, may Heaven visit me with all
the penalties which it meets out to those who perjure themselves.
He cut the bull's throat as he spoke, whereon Talthhibius

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whirled it round his head and flung it into the
wide sea to feed the fishers. Then Achilles also rose
and said to the argives, Father Jove, of a truth,
you blind men's eyes and bane them. The son of
Atreus had not else stirred me to so fierce an anger,
nor so stubbornly taken Breseius from me against my will.

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Surely Jove must have counseled the destruction of many an archive.
Go now and take your food, that we may begin
fighting on this. He broke up the assembly, and every
man went back to his own ship. The Murmadans attended
to the presence and took them away to the ship
of Achilles. They placed them in his tents, while the

(15:10):
stable men drove the horses in among the others. Breseus,
fair as Venus, when she saw the mangled body of Petroclus,
flung herself upon it and cried aloud, tearing her breast,
her neck, and her lovely face with both her hands.
Beautiful as a goddess, she wept and said, Patroclus, dearest friend,

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when I went, hence I left you living. I returned
no prince to find you dead. Thus do fresh sorrows
multiply upon me, one after the other. I saw him
to whom my father and mother married me, cut down
before our city, and my three own dear brothers perished
with him on the self same day. But you, Petroclus,

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even when Achilles slew my husband and sacked the city
of noble Mines, told me that I was not to
weep for you said you would make Achilles marries marry me,
and take me back with him to Phythea, where we
should have a wedding feast among the Mrmidons. You are
always kind to me, and I shall never cease to
grieve for you. She wept as she spoke, and the

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women joined in her lament, making as though their tears
were for Petroclus, but in truth each was weeping for
her own sorrows. The oldest of the Achaeans gathered round
Achilles and prayed him to take food, but he groaned
and would not do so. I pray you, said he.
If any comrade will hear me, bid me neither eat
nor drink, for I am in great heaviness and will

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stay fasting even to the going down of the sun.
On this he sent the other princes away, save only
the two sons of Atreus and Ulysses, Nestor Idomeneus, and
the knight Phoenix, who stayed behind and tried to comfort
him in the bitterness of his sorrow, But he would
not be comforted till he should have flung himself into
the jaws of battle and fetched sigh on sigh, Thinking

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ever of Petroclus, then he said, hapless, and dearest comrade,
you it was who would get a good dinner ready
for me at once and without delay, when the Achaeans
were hasting to fight the Trojans. Now, therefore, though I
have meat and drink in my tents, yet will I
fast for sorrow? Grief greater than this? I could not know, not,

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even though I were to hear of the death of
my father, who is now in Phythia weeping for the
loss of me his son, who am here fighting the
Trojans in a strange land, for the accursed sake of Helen.
Yet though I should hear that my son is no more,
he was being brought up in Scyros, if indeed Neaptolemus
is still living. Till now I made sure that I

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alone was to fall here at Troy, away from Argos,
while you were to return to Phythia. Bring back my
son with you in your own ship, and show him
all my property, my bondsman, and the greatness of my house.
For Peleus must surely be either dead or what little
life remains to him, as oppressed alike with the infirmities
of age, and ever present, fear lest he should hear

(18:03):
the sad tidings of my death. He wept as he spoke,
and the eldest sighed in concert, as each thought on
what he had left home behind him. The son of
Satin looked down with pity upon them, and said, presently
to Minerva, my child, you have quite deserted your hero.
Is he then gone so clean out of your recollection?

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There he sits by the ships, all desolate for the
loss of his dear comrade. And though the others are
gone to their dinner, he will neither eat nor drink.
Go then, and drop nectar and ambrosia into his breast,
that he may know no hunger. With these words, he
urged Minerva, who was already of the same mind. She
darted down from heaven into the air like some falk

(18:47):
and sailing on his broad wings and screaming. Meanwhile, the
Achaeans were arming throughout the host. And when Minerva had
dropped nectar and ambrosia into Achilles, so that no cruel
hunger should cause his limbs to fail him. She went
back to the house of her mighty Father. Thick as
the chill snowflakes shed from the hand of Jove and

(19:08):
borne on the keen blasts of the north wind. Even
so thick did the gleaming helmets, the bossed shields, the
strongly plaited breastplates, and the ashen spears stream from the ships.
The sheen pierced the sky. The whole land was radiant
with their flashing armor, and the sound of the tramp
of their treading rose from under their feet. In the

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midst of them. All Achilles put on his armor. He
gnashed his teeth, his eyes gleamed like fire, for his
grief was greater than he could bear. Thus, then, full
of fury against the Trojans, did he don the gift
of the God, the armor that Vulcan had made him.
First he put on the goodly greaves fitted with ankle clasps,

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and next he did on the breastplate about his chest.
He slung the silver studded sword of bronze about his shoulders,
and then took up the shield, so great and strong
that shone afar with as splendor as of the moon,
as the light seen by sailors from out at sea,
when men have lit a fire in their homestead high
up among the mountains, but the sailors are carried out

(20:11):
to sea by wind and storm, far from the haven
where they would be. Even so did the gleam of
achilles wondrous shields strike up into the heavens. He lifted
the redoubtable helmet and set it upon his head. From
whence it shone like a star, and the golden plumes
which Vulcan had set thick about the ridge of the helmet,
waved all around it. Then Achilles made trial of himself

(20:35):
in his armor to see whether it fitted him so
that his limbs could play freely under it, and it
seemed to buoy him up, as though it had been wings.
He also drew his father's spear out of the spear stand,
a spear so great and heavy and strong that none
of the Achaian save only Achilles, had strength to wield it.
This was the spear of Pelian ash from the topmost

(20:57):
ridges of Mount Pelian, which Chiron had once given to Peleus.
Fraught with the death of heroes, Automedon and Alcimus busied
themselves with the harnessing of his horses. They made the
bands fast about them and put the bit in their mouths,
drawing the reins back towards the chariot. Ortomidan whip in hand,

(21:17):
sprang up behind the horses, and after him Achilles mounted
in full armor, resplendent as the sun gode Hyperion. Then,
with a loud voice, he chided to his father's horses, saying,
Xanthus and Balius famed offspring of Pardage. This time, when
we have done fighting, be sure and bring your driver
safely back to the host of the Achaeans, and do

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not leave him dead on the plain, as you did Patrucles.
Then Fleetxanthus answered under the yoke, for white armed Juno
had endowed him with human speech, and he bowed his
head till his mane touched the ground as it hung
down from under the yoke band dread, Achilles said he
we will indeed save you. Now. The day of your

(22:00):
death is near, and the blame will not be ours,
for it will be heaven and stern fate that will
destroy you. Neither was it through any sloth or slackness
on our part that the Trojans stripped Petrucles of his armor.
It was the mighty God, whom lovely Lito bore, that
slew him as he fought among the foremost, and vartsafe

(22:21):
to triumph. To hector, we took and fly as swiftly
as a farr's, who they say is fleetest of all winds. Nevertheless,
it is your doom to fall by the hand of
a man and of a god. When he had thus said,
the Erinnis stayed his speech, and Achilles answered him in
great sadness, saying, why, O xanthus, do you thus foretell

(22:45):
my death? You need not do so, for I well
know that I am to fall here far from my
father and mother. None the more, however, shall I stay
my hand till I have given the Trojans their fill
of fighting. So, saying with a loud he drove his
horses to the front end of section nineteen