Literature and Humanities Study Guide Flashcards

He spoke thus, and as he wept the father took pity upon him
and bent his head, that the people should stay alive, and not perish.
Straightway he sent down the most lordly of birds, an eagle,
with a fawn, the young of the running deer, caught in his talons,
who cast down the fawn beside Zeus's splendid altar
where the Achians wrought their devotions to Zeus' splendid alter

“The son of devious-devising Kronos has given you gifts in two ways; with the scepter he gave you honor beyond all, but he did not give you a heart, and of all power this is the greatest.”

"Son of Tydeus, beyond others the fast-mounted Danaans honored you
with pride of place, the choice meats and the filled wine-cups.
But now they will disgrace you, who are no better than a woman."

And circled in the midst of all was the blank-eyed face of the Gorgon
With her stare of horror, and Fear was inscribed upon it, and Terror.
The strap of shield bad silver upon it, and there also on it
Was coiled a cobalt snake, and there were three heads upon him
Twisted to look backward and grown from a single neck, all three.

…The very immortals
can be moved; their virtue and honor and strength are greater than ours are
and yet with sacrifices and offerings for endearment,
with libations and with savor men turn back even the immortals
in supplication, when any man does wrong and transgresses

"For as I detest the doorways of Death, I detest that man, who
Hides one thing in the depths of his heart, and speaks forth another.
but I will speak to you the way it seems best to me: neither
do I think the son of Atreus, Agamemnon, will persuade me,
not the rest of the Danaans, since there was no gratitude given,
for fighting incessantly forever against your enemies.
Fate is the same for the man who holds back, the same if he fights
hard.
We are all held in a single honour, the brave with the weaklings.
A man dies still if he has nothing, as one who has done much.
Nothing is won for me, now that my heart has gone through its
afflictions
in forever setting my life on the hazard of battle."

For my mother Thetis the goddess of the silver feet tells me / I carry two sorts of destiny toward the day of my death. Either, / if I stay here and fight beside the city of the Trojans, / my return home is gone, but my glory shall be everlasting; / but if I return home to the beloved land of my fathers,/ 415 the excellence of my glory is gone, but there will be a long life /left for me, and my end in death will not come to me quickly. / And this would be my counsel to others also, to sail back / home again, since no longer shall you find any term set / on the sheer city of Ilion, since Zeus of the wide brows has strongly / 420 held his own hand over it, and its people are made bold.

And the men, like two lines of reapers who, facing each other,
drive their course all down the field of wheat or barley
for a man blessed in substance, and the cut swathes drop showering,
so Trojans and Achaians driving in against one another
cut men down, nor did either side think of disastrous panic.
The pressure held their heads on a line, and they whirled and fought like
wolves, and Hate, the Lady of Sorrow, was gladdened to watch them.
She alone of all the immortals attended this action
but the other immortals attended this action
but the other immortals were not there, but sat quietly
remote and apart in their palaces, where for each one of them
a house had been build in splendor along the folds of Olympos.

So these lords of the Danaans killed each his own man.
They as wolves make havoc among lambs or young goats in their fury,
catching them out of the flocks, when the sheep separate in the mountains
through the thoughtfulness of the shepherd, and the wolves seeing them
suddenly snatch them away, and they have have no heart for fighting;
so the Danaans ravaged the Trojans, and these remembered
the bitter sound of terror, and forgot their furious valor.

"The man does better who runs from disaster than he who is caught by it."

Then deeply disturbed Achilleus of the swift feet answered her:/ 'I must die soon, then; since I was not to stand by my companion/when he was killed. And now, far away from the land of his fathers,/ he has perished, and lacked my fighting strength to defend him./ Now, since I am not going back to the beloved land of my fathers,/since I was no light of safety to Patroklos, nor to my other/ companions, who in their numbers went down before glorious Hektor,/ but sit here beside my ships, a useless weight on good land,/ I, who am such as no other of the bronze-armored Achaians/ in battle, though there are others also better in council--/why, I wish that strife would vanish away from among gods and mortals,/ and gall, which makes a man grow angry for all his great mind,/ that gall of anger that swarms like smoke inside a man's heart/ and becomes a thing sweeter to him by far than the dripping of honey.

"I am going against him now, though his hands are like flame,
though his hands are like flame, and his heart like the shining of iron."

"So she spoke in tears but the wife of Hektor had not yet
heard: for no sure messenger had come to her and told her
how her husband had held his ground there outside the gates;
but she was weaving a web in the inner room of the high house,
a red folding robe, and inworking elaborate figures."

"And the shivers took hold of Hector when he saw them, and he could no longer
stand his ground there, but left the gates behind, and fled, frightened
and Peleus' son went after him in the confidence of his quick feet.
As when a hawk in the mountains who moves lightest of things
makes his effortless swoop for a trembling dove..."

"No more entreating of me, you dog, by knees or parents.
I wish only that my spirit and fury would drive me
to hack your meat away and eat it raw for the things
that you have done to me."