Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ILIAD: BOOK 1. THE BEGINNING OF THE WRATH, by HOMER


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ILIAD: BOOK 1. THE BEGINNING OF THE WRATH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Who of the gods set on those two to strife?
Last Line: Of dead were burning thickly.
Subject(s): Mythology - Classical; Trojan War


WHO of the gods set on those two to strife?
The son of Zeus and Leto. He was angered
Against the king and stirred an evil plague
Upon the army, and the people perished,
Because Atrides had disdained his priest
Chryses: for he had come to the quick ships
Of the Achaeans to redeem his daughter,
Uncounted ransom bringing; and he carried
The fillets of the Archer-god Apollo
Upon a golden sceptre, and made prayer
To all the Achaeans, but in chiefest place
To both the Atridae, marshals of the host:
'Atridae, and ye other armed Achaeans,
Now may the gods in their Olympian houses
Grant you to ravage Priam's town and come
In honour home! But give me back my child
And take her ransom, showing deference
To Phoebus son of Zeus, who smites afar.'
Then all the other Achaeans shouted 'Ay!
Respect the priest: and take the noble price.'
Only Atrides Agamemnon's heart
Disliked it, and he sent the priest away
Rudely, and laid on him a harsh command:
'Let not me find thee by the hollow ships
Or loitering now, or coming back anon,
Old man, lest possibly thou have no profit
From either wand or chaplet of thy god!
Her will I not let go; not till old age
Comes on her in my house in Argos, far
From home, where she shall ply the loom and share
My bed. No, get thee hence: provoke me not,
That thou mayest go the safer.'
So said he, and the terrified old man
obeyed his order: and he walked in silence
Along the beach of the loud-sounding sea;
Where in a lone place he made earnest prayer
To King Apollo, fair-haired Leto's son:
'Lord of the silver bow, give ear! that hast
Chryse and holy Cilla in thy keeping
And guardest Tenedos with thy strong arm;
O God of Plague, if ever I have roofed
One temple to thy heart, if ever I have
Burned unto thee fat thighs of bulls or goats,
Fulfil this prayer for me, and let the Danai
Pay by thine arrows for these tears of mine.'
So said he praying, and Apollo heard.
Down from Olympus' peaks he came, enraged
At heart; and from his shoulders hung his bow
And lidded quiver, and upon his shoulders
The arrows rattled as he walked in wrath;
And like the night he came. Then down he sat
Far off the ships and let an arrow fly;
And a grim clang came from the silver bow.
At first he reached the mules and the quick dogs,
And then he turned and loosed his pointed bolt
Upon the troops; and all the time the pyres
Of dead were burning thickly.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net