tents
and ships of the Myrmidons. They found Achilles sitting by his tent and
his ships, and ill-pleased he was when he beheld them. They stood
fearfully and reverently before him, and never a word did they speak,
but he knew them and said, "Welcome, heralds, messengers of gods and
men; draw near; my quarrel is not with you but with Agamemnon who has
sent you for the girl Briseis. Therefore, Patroclus, bring her and give
her to them, but let them be witnesses by the blessed gods, by mortal
men, and by the fierceness of Agamemnon's anger, that if ever again
there be need of me to save the people from ruin, they shall seek and
they shall not find. Agamemnon is mad with rage and knows not how to
look before and after that the Achaeans may fight by their ships in
safety."

Patroclus did as his dear comrade had bidden him. He brought Briseis
from the tent and gave her over to the heralds, who took her with them
to the ships of the Achaeans--and the woman was loth to go. Then
Achilles went all alone by the side of the hoar sea, weeping and
looking out upon the boundless waste of waters. He raised his hands in
prayer to his immortal mother, "Mother," he cried, "you bore me doomed
to live but for a little season; surely Jove, who thunders from
Olympus, might have made that little glorious. It is not so. Agamemnon,
son of Atreus, has done me dishonour, and has robbed me of my prize by
force."

As he spoke he wept aloud, and his mother heard him where she was
sitting in the depths of the sea hard by the old man her father.
Forthwith she rose as it were a grey mist out of the waves, sat down
before him as he stood weeping, caressed him with her hand, and said,
"My son, why are you weeping? What is it that grieves you? Keep it not
from me, but tell me, that we may know it together."

Achilles drew a deep sigh and said, "You know it; why tell you what you
know well already? We went to Thebe the strong city of Eetion, sacked
it, and brought hither the spoil. The sons of the Achaeans shared it
duly among themselves, and chose lovely Chryseis as the meed of
Agamemnon; but Chryses, priest of Apollo, came to the ships of the
Achaeans to free his daughter, and brought with him a great ransom:
moreover he bore in his hand the sceptre of Apollo, wreathed with a
suppliant's wreath, and he besought the Achaeans, but most of all the
two sons of Atreus who were their chiefs.

"On this the rest of the Achaeans with one voice were for respec