Book 16 (40) Your heart is unbending. But if in your mind you are shunning some oracle, and your queenly mother has declared to you anything from Zeus, yet at least send me forth speedily, and with me let the rest of the host of the Myrmidons follow, if

1
Book 16(40) Your heart is unbending. But if in
your mind you are shunning some oracle, and your
queenly mother has declared to you anything from
Zeus, yet at least send me forth speedily, and
with me let the rest of the host of the Myrmidons
follow, if I may prove a light of deliverance to
the Danaans. 40 And grant me to buckle upon my
shoulders that armour of yours, in hope that the
Trojans may take me for you, and so desist from
war.
2
(69) These things will we let be, as past and
done. In no way, I suppose, was I to be filled
with ceaseless wrath at heart yet I really
deemed that I should not make an end of my anger
until the hour when the war-cry and the battle
should come to my own ships. But come, put on
your shoulders my glorious armour, 65 and lead
forth the war-loving Myrmidons to the fight, if
the dark cloud of the Trojans lies over the ships
mightily, and those others abide with nothing to
support them but the shore of the sea.
3
(96) Listen, so that I may put in your mind the
sum of my counsel to the end that you may win me
great recompense and glory 85 at the hands of
all the Danaans and they send back that beauteous
girl, and give glorious gifts. When you have
driven them from the ships, come back, and if the
loud-thundering lord of Hera grant you to win
glory, be not inclined apart from me to war 90
against the war-loving Trojans you will lessen
my honour. Nor yet, as you exult in war and
conflict, and slay the Trojans, lead on to Ilium,
lest one of the gods that are for ever shall come
down from Olympus and enter the fray
4
(258) And in the front of all two warriors
arrayed themselves for war, even Patroclus and
Automedon, both of one mind, 220 to war in the
forefront of the Myrmidons. But Achilles prayed.
. . Zeus, you king, Dodonaean, Pelasgian, you
that dwelt afar, ruling over wintry Dodona, and
about you dwell the Selli, 235 your own
interpreters, men with unwashen feet that crouch
on the ground. Aforetime verily you did hear my
word, when I prayed me you did honour, and did
mightily smite the host of the Achaeans even so
now also fulfill you for me this my desire.
Myself verily will I abide in the gathering of
the ships, 240 but my comrade am I sending
forth amid the host of the Myrmidons to war with
him do you send forth glory, O Zeus, whose voice
is borne afar, and make bold the heart in his
breast, to the end that Hector, too, may know
whether even alone my squire has skill to fight,
or whether his hands 245 then only rage
invincible, when I enter the turmoil of Ares. But
when away from the ships he has driven war and
the din of war, then all-unscathed let him come
back to the swift ships with all his arms, and
his comrades that fight in close combat.
5
(326) When the Trojans saw the valiant son of
Menoetius, himself and his squire, shining in
their armour, 280 the heart of each man was
stirred, and their battalions were shaken, for
they deemed that by the ships the swift-footed
son of Peleus had cast aside his wrath and had
chosen friendliness and each man gazed about to
see how he might escape utter destruction.
6
(512) The son of crooked-counseling Cronos took
pity when he saw them, and spoke to Hera, his
sister and his wifeAh, woe is me, for it is
fated that Sarpedon, dearest of men to me, be
slain by Patroclus, son of Menoetius! 435 And
in two ways is my heart divided in counsel as I
ponder in my thought whether I shall snatch him
up while yet he lives and set him afar from the
tearful war in the rich land of Lycia, or whether
I shall slay him now beneath the hands of the son
of Menoetius. Then ox-eyed queenly Hera
answered him 440 Most dread son of Cronos,
what a word have you said! A man that is mortal,
doomed long since by fate, are you minded to
deliver again from dolorous death? Do as you
will but be sure that we other gods do not
assent to it. And another thing will I tell you,
and take it to heart 445 if you send Sarpedon
living to his house, think how afterwards some
other god may also be minded to send his own dear
son away from the fierce conflict.
7
784 Give him to swift conveyers to bear with
them, even to the twin brothers, Sleep and Death,
who shall set him speedily in the rich land of
wide Lycia. There shall his brethren and his
kinsfolk give him burial 675 with mound and
pillar for this is the due of the dead.
8
805 But ever is the intent of Zeus stronger than
that of men, for he drives even a valiant man in
rout, and robs him of victory 690 full easily,
and again of himself he rouses men to fight and
he it was that now put fury in the breast of
Patroclus.
9
(916) Phoebus met you in the fierce conflict, an
awful god. And Patroclus marked him not as he
passed through the turmoil, 790 for enfolded in
thick mist did he meet him and Apollo took his
stand behind him, and struck his back and broad
shoulders with the flat of his hand, and his eyes
were made to whirl. And from his head Phoebus
Apollo knocked the helmet.This time, Hector,
you boast mightily for to you have 845 Zeus,
the son of Cronos, and Apollo, assured victory,
they that subdued me easily, for of themselves
they took the harness from my shoulders. But if
twenty such as you had faced me, here would all
have perished, slain by my spear. No, it was
baneful Fate and the son of Leto that slew me,
850 and of men Euphorbus, while you are the
third in my slaying. And another thing will I
tell you, and take it to heart you shall not
yourself be long in life, but even now does death
stand hard by you, and mighty fate, that you be
slain beneath the hands of Achilles.