Verse
Iliad
Book 9, Line 410 by Samuel Butler (English)
"My mother Thetis tells me that there are two ways in which I may meet my end [ telos ]. If I stay here and fight, I shall lose my safe homecoming [ nostos ] but I will have a glory [ kleos ] that is unwilting: whereas if I go home my glory [ kleos ] will die, but it will be a long time before the outcome [ telos ] of death shall take me. To the rest of you, then, I say, ‘Go home, for you will not take Ilion .’ Zeus has held his hand over her to protect her, and her people have taken heart. Go, therefore, as in duty bound, and tell the princes of the Achaeans the message that I have sent them; tell them to find some other plan for the saving of their ships and people, for so long as my displeasure lasts the one that they have now hit upon may not be. As for Phoenix, let him sleep here that he may sail with me in the morning if he so will. But I will not take him by force."
IliadBook 9, Line 410Samuel ButlerEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 9
HomerProseID iliad-iliad-butler-en-prose-9-410