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who will do me honor, and above all Zeus, the lord of counsel. There is no king here so hateful to me as you are, for you are ever quarrelsome and ill affected. What though you be brave? Was it not heaven that made you so? Go home, then, with your ships and comrades
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to lord it over the Myrmidons. I care neither for you nor for your anger; and thus will I do: since Phoebus Apollo is taking Chryseis from me, I shall send her with my ship and my followers, but I shall come to your tent and
take your own prize Briseis, that you may learn how much more prestigious I am than you are, and that another may fear to set himself up as equal or comparable with me." The son of Peleus felt grief [akhos], and his heart within his shaggy breast was divided
whether to draw his sword, push the others aside, and kill the son of Atreus, or to restrain himself and check his anger. While he was thus in two minds, and was drawing his mighty sword from its scabbard, Athena came down
from heaven (for Hera had sent her in the love she bore to them both), and seized the son of Peleus by his yellow hair, visible to him alone, for of the others no man could see her. Achilles turned in amaze, and by the fire that flashed from her eyes at once knew that she was
Athena. "Why are you here," said he, "daughter of aegis-bearing Zeus? To see the pride [hubris] of Agamemnon, son of Atreus? Let me tell you - and it shall surely be -
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he shall pay for this insolence with his life." And Athena said, "I come from heaven, if you will hear me, to bid you stay your anger. Hera has sent me, who cares for both of you alike.
Cease, then, this brawling, and do not draw your sword; rail at him if you will, and your railing will not be vain, for I tell you - and it shall surely be - that you shall hereafter receive gifts three times as splendid by reason of this present insult [hubris]. Hold, therefore, and obey."
"Goddess," answered Achilles, "however angry a man may be, he must do as you two command him. This will be best, for the gods ever hear the prayers of him who has obeyed them." He stayed his hand on the silver hilt of his sword,
and thrust it back into the scabbard as Athena bade him. Then she went back to Olympus among the other gods [daimones], and to the house of aegis-bearing Zeus. But the son of Peleus again began railing at the son of Atreus, for he was still in a rage.
"Wine-bibber," he cried, "with the face of a dog and the heart of a hind, you never dare to go out with the host in fight, nor yet with our chosen men in ambuscade. You shun this as you do death itself. You had rather go round and
rob his prizes from any man who contradicts you. You devour your people, for you are king over a feeble folk; otherwise, son of Atreus, henceforward you would insult no man. Therefore I say, and swear it with a great oath - nay, by this my scepter which shall sprout neither leaf nor shoot,
