Page 394 - the-iliad

He cut the boar’s throat as he spoke, whereon Talthybius
whirled it round his head, and flung it into the wide sea to
feed the fishes. Then Achilles also rose and said to the Ar-
gives, ‘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 Briseis from me against
my will. Surely Jove must have counselled the destruction
of many an Argive. 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 Myrmidons attended to the pres-
ents and took them away to the ship of Achilles. They placed
them in his tents, while the stable-men drove the horses in
among the others.
Briseis, fair as Venus, when she saw the mangled body
of Patroclus, flung herself upon it and cried aloud, tear-
ing her breast, her neck, and her lovely face with both her
hands. Beautiful as a goddess she wept and said, ‘Patroclus,
dearest friend, when I went hence I left you living; I return,
O prince, to find you dead; thus do fresh sorrows multiply
upon me one after the other. I saw him to whom my fa-
ther 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, Patroclus, even when Achilles slew my
husband and sacked the city of noble Mynes, told me that I
was not to weep, for you said you would make Achilles mar-
ry me, and take me back with him to Phthia, we should have
a wedding feast among the Myrmidons. You were always
kind to me and I shall never cease to grieve for you.’