女神啊，歌唱珀琉斯之子阿喀琉斯的愤怒吧，它给亚该亚人带来了无数的灾难。它使许多勇敢的人匆匆下地狱，使许多英雄成为狗和秃鹫的猎物，因为从人类之王阿特柔斯的儿子和伟大的阿喀琉斯第一次发生争执的那一天起，朱庇特的忠告就这样应验了。是哪一个神让他们吵架的?他是朱庇特和勒托的儿子;因为阿特柔斯的儿子侮辱了他的祭司克里西斯，他对国王很生气，就降瘟疫降在军队中，使人民受苦。克丽塞斯来到亚该亚人的船上解救他的女儿，并带来了一大笔赎金。此外，他手里拿着阿波罗的权杖，上面戴着一个恳求者的花环，他向亚该亚人恳求，但最重要的是向阿特柔斯的两个儿子，他们是亚该亚人的首领。“阿特柔斯的儿子们，”他喊道，“以及所有其他的亚该亚人，愿居住在奥林匹斯山的诸神赐予你们洗劫普里阿摩斯城，并安全返回家园;但请释放我的女儿，并为她接受一笔赎金，以表示对朱庇特之子阿波罗的敬意。”其余的亚该亚人都一致赞成尊重祭司，接受他的赎价;但阿伽门农却不是这样，他对他恶语相向，粗暴地把他打发走了。 "Old man," said he, "let me not find you tarrying about our ships, nor yet coming hereafter. Your sceptre of the god and your wreath shall profit you nothing. I will not free her. She shall grow old in my house at Argos far from her own home, busying herself with her loom and visiting my couch; so go, and do not provoke me or it shall be the worse for you." The old man feared him and obeyed. Not a word he spoke, but went by the shore of the sounding sea and prayed apart to King Apollo whom lovely Leto had borne. "Hear me," he cried, "O god of the silver bow, that protectest Chryse and holy Cilla and rulest Tenedos with thy might, hear me oh thou of Sminthe. If I have ever decked your temple with garlands, or burned your thigh-bones in fat of bulls or goats, grant my prayer, and let your arrows avenge these my tears upon the Danaans." Thus did he pray, and Apollo heard his prayer. He came down furious from the summits of Olympus, with his bow and his quiver upon his shoulder, and the arrows rattled on his back with the rage that trembled within him. He sat himself down away from the ships with a face as dark as night, and his silver bow rang death as he shot his arrow in the midst of them. First he smote their mules and their hounds, but presently he aimed his shafts at the people themselves, and all day long the pyres of the dead were burning. For nine whole days he shot his arrows among the people, but upon the tenth day Achilles called them in assembly- moved thereto by Juno, who saw the Achaeans in their death-throes and had compassion upon them. Then, when they were got together, he rose and spoke among them. "Son of Atreus," said he, "I deem that we should now turn roving home if we would escape destruction, for we are being cut down by war and pestilence at once. Let us ask some priest or prophet, or some reader of dreams (for dreams, too, are of Jove) who can tell us why Phoebus Apollo is so angry, and say whether it is for some vow that we have broken, or hecatomb that we have not offered, and whether he will accept the savour of lambs and goats without blemish, so as to take away the plague from us." With these words he sat down, and Calchas son of Thestor, wisest of augurs, who knew things past present and to come, rose to speak. He it was who had guided the Achaeans with their fleet to Ilius, through the prophesyings with which Phoebus Apollo had inspired him. With all sincerity and goodwill he addressed them thus:- "Achilles, loved of heaven, you bid me tell you about the anger of King Apollo, I will therefore do so; but consider first and swear that you will stand by me heartily in word and deed, for I know that I shall offend one who rules the Argives with might, to whom all the Achaeans are in subjection. A plain man cannot stand against the anger of a king, who if he swallow his displeasure now, will yet nurse revenge till he has wreaked it. Consider, therefore, whether or no you will protect me." And Achilles answered, "Fear not, but speak as it is borne in upon you from heaven, for by Apollo, Calchas, to whom you pray, and whose oracles you reveal to us, not a Danaan at our ships shall lay his hand upon you, while I yet live to look upon the face of the earth- no, not though you name Agamemnon himself, who is by far the foremost of the Achaeans." Thereon the seer spoke boldly. "The god," he said, "is angry neither about vow nor hecatomb, but for