The Iliad of Homer. Homer

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       Irregular, he let his anger loose.

       Dread is the anger of a King; he reigns

       038 By Jove's own ordinance, and is dear to Jove,

      But what plebeian base soe'er he heard

       Stretching his throat to swell the general cry,235

       He laid the sceptre smartly on his back,

       With reprimand severe. Fellow, he said,

       Sit still; hear others; thy superiors hear.

       For who art thou? A dastard and a drone,

       Of none account in council, or in arms.240

       By no means may we all alike bear sway

       At Ilium; such plurality of Kings

       Were evil. One suffices. One, to whom

       The son of politic Saturn hath assign'd

       The sceptre, and inforcement of the laws,245

       That he may rule us as a monarch ought.[8]

      With such authority the troubled host

       He sway'd; they, quitting camp and fleet again

       Rush'd back to council; deafening was the sound

       As when a billow of the boisterous deep250

       Some broad beach dashes, and the Ocean roars.

      The host all seated, and the benches fill'd,

       Thersites only of loquacious tongue

       Ungovern'd, clamor'd mutinous; a wretch

       Of utterance prompt, but in coarse phrase obscene255

       Deep learn'd alone, with which to slander Kings.

       Might he but set the rabble in a roar,

       He cared not with what jest; of all from Greece

       To Ilium sent, his country's chief reproach.

       Cross-eyed he was, and halting moved on legs260

       Ill-pair'd; his gibbous shoulders o'er his breast

       039 Contracted, pinch'd it; to a peak his head

       Was moulded sharp, and sprinkled thin with hair

       Of starveling length, flimsy and soft as down.

       Achilles and Ulysses had incurr'd265

       Most his aversion; them he never spared;

       But now, imperial Agamemnon 'self

       In piercing accents stridulous he charged

       With foul reproach. The Grecians with contempt

       Listen'd, and indignation, while with voice270

       At highest pitch, he thus the monarch mock'd.

      What wouldst thou now? Whereof is thy complaint

       Now, Agamemnon? Thou hast fill'd thy tents

       With treasure, and the Grecians, when they take

       A city, choose the loveliest girls for thee.275

       Is gold thy wish? More gold? A ransom brought

       By some chief Trojan for his son's release

       Whom I, or other valiant Greek may bind?

       Or wouldst thou yet a virgin, one, by right

       Another's claim, but made by force thine own?280

       It was not well, great Sir, that thou shouldst bring

       A plague on the Achaians, as of late.

       But come, my Grecian sisters, soldiers named

       Unfitly, of a sex too soft for war,

       Come, let us homeward: let him here digest285

       What he shall gorge, alone; that he may learn

       If our assistance profit him or not.

       For when he shamed Achilles, he disgraced

       A Chief far worthier than himself, whose prize

       He now withholds. But tush—Achilles lacks290

       Himself the spirit of a man; no gall

       Hath he within him, or his hand long since

       Had stopp'd that mouth,[9] that it should scoff no more.

      Thus, mocking royal Agamemnon, spake

       Thersites. Instant starting to his side,

       295

       Noble Ulysses with indignant brows

       Survey'd him, and him thus reproved severe.

      040 Thersites! Railer!—peace. Think not thyself,

       Although thus eloquent, alone exempt

       From obligation not to slander Kings.300

       I deem thee most contemptible, the worst

       Of Agamemnon's followers to the war;

       Presume not then to take the names revered

       Of Sovereigns on thy sordid lips, to asperse

       Their sacred character, and to appoint305

       The Greeks a time when they shall voyage home.

       How soon, how late, with what success at last

       We shall return, we know not: but because

       Achaia's heroes numerous spoils allot

       To Agamemnon, Leader of the host,310

       Thou therefore from thy seat revilest the King.

       But mark me. If I find thee, as even now,

       Raving and foaming at the lips again,

       May never man behold Ulysses' head

       On these my shoulders more, and may my son315

       Prove the begotten of another Sire,

       If I not strip thee to that hide of thine

       As bare as thou wast born, and whip thee hence

       Home to thy galley, sniveling like a boy.

      He СКАЧАТЬ