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PinkMonkey.com Digital Library - PinkMonkey.com - The Odyssey by Homer
door of our ambuscade, or close it, though all the other leaders and chief men among
the Danaans were drying their eyes and quaking in every limb, I never once saw him
turn pale nor wipe a tear from his cheek; he was all the time urging me to break out
from the horse-grasping the handle of his sword and his bronze-shod spear, and
breathing fury against the foe. Yet when we had sacked the city of Priam he got his
handsome share of the prize money and went on board (such is the fortune of war)
without a wound upon him, neither from a thrown spear nor in close combat, for the
rage of Mars is a matter of great chance.’ “When I had told him this, the ghost of
Achilles strode off across a meadow full of asphodel, exulting over what I had said
concerning the prowess of his son.

“The ghosts of other dead men stood near me and told me each his own melancholy
tale; but that of Ajax son of Telamon alone held aloof-still angry with me for having
won the cause in our dispute about the armour of Achilles. Thetis had offered it as a
prize, but the Trojan prisoners and Minerva were the judges.

Would that I had never gained the day in such a contest, for it cost the life of Ajax, who
was foremost of all the Danaans after the son of Peleus, alike in stature and prowess.
“When I saw him I tried to pacify him and said, ‘Ajax, will you not forget and forgive
even in death, but must the judgement about that hateful armour still rankle with you?
It cost us Argives dear enough to lose such a tower of strength as you were to us. We
mourned you as much as we mourned Achilles son of Peleus himself, nor can the
blame be laid on anything but on the spite which Jove bore against the Danaans, for it
was this that made him counsel your destruction-come hither, therefore, bring your
proud spirit into subjection, and hear what I can tell you.’ “He would not answer, but
turned away to Erebus and to the other ghosts; nevertheless, I should have made him
talk to me in spite of his being so angry, or I should have gone talking to him, only that
there were still others among the dead whom I desired to see.

“Then I saw Minos son of Jove with his golden sceptre in his hand sitting in judgement
on the dead, and the ghosts were gathered sitting and standing round him in the
spacious house of Hades, to learn his sentences upon them.

“After him I saw huge Orion in a meadow full of asphodel driving the ghosts of the
wild beasts that he had killed upon the mountains, and he had a great bronze club in
his hand, unbreakable for ever and ever.

“And I saw Tityus son of Gaia stretched upon the plain and covering some nine acres
of ground. Two vultures on either side of him were digging their beaks into his liver,
and he kept on trying to beat them off with his hands, but could not; for he had
violated Jove’s mistress Leto as she was going through Panopeus on her way to Pytho.
“I saw also the dreadful fate of Tantalus, who stood in a lake that reached his chin; he
was dying to quench his thirst, but could never reach the water, for whenever the poor
creature stooped to drink, it dried up and vanished, so that there was nothing but dry
ground-parched by the spite of heaven. There were tall trees, moreover, that shed their
fruit over his head-pears, pomegranates, apples, sweet figs and juicy olives, but
whenever the poor creature stretched out his hand to take some, the wind tossed the
branches back again to the clouds.
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PinkMonkey.com Digital Library - PinkMonkey.com - The Odyssey by Homer



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