Page:The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice (Buckley 1853).djvu/195

482—520. land any where, but I still have troubles: but there was no man before more blessed than thou, O Achilles, nor will there be hereafter. For formerly we Argives honoured thee when alive equally with the gods, and now again, when thou art here, thou hast great power amongst the deceased; do not therefore when dead be sad, O Achilles.'

"Thus I spoke; but he immediately addressed me in answer: 'Do not, O illustrious Ulysses, speak to me of death; I would wish, being on earth, to serve for hire with another man of no estate, who had not much livelihood, rather than rule over all the departed dead. But come, tell me an account of my noble son; did he follow to the war so as to be a chief or not? and, tell me if thou hast heard any thing of blameless Peleus; whether has he still honour amongst the many Myrmidonians? or do they dishonour him in Greece and Pthia, because old age possesses his hands and feet? for I am not assistant to him under the beams of the sun, being such a one, as when I slew the best of the people in wide Troy, fighting for the Grecians. If I should come as such a one even for a short time to the house of my father, so I would make my strength and unconquerable hands terrible to any, who treat him with violence, and keep him from honour.'

"Thus he spoke; but I answering addressed him: 'I have not indeed heard any thing of blameless Peleus. But I will tell thee the whole truth, as thou biddest me, about thy dear son Neoptolemus; for I myself led him in an equal hollow ship from Scyros to the well-greaved Grecians. Of a truth when we were taking counsels concerning the city Troy, he always spoke first, and did not err in his words: and godlike Nestor and myself alone contended with him. But when we were fighting about the city of the Trojans, he never remained in the number of men, nor in the crowd, but ran on much before, yielding to no one in his might; and many men he slew in the terrible contest: but I could not tell nor name all, how great a people he slew, defending the Greeks. But [I will relate] how be slew the hero Eurypylus, son of Telephus, with the brass, and many Cetean companions were slain