2
So nothing, it seems, that they do is done without compensation. They sell men their blessings, and one can buy from them health, it may be, for a calf, wealth for four oxen, a royal throne for a hundred, a safe return from Troy to Pylos for nine bulls, and a fair voyage from Aulis to Troy for a_king’s daughter! Hecuba, you know, purchased temporary immunity for Troy from Athena for twelve oxen and a frock. One may imagine, too, that they have many things on sale for the price of a cock or a wreath or nothing more than incense.
3
Chryses knew this, I suppose, being a priest and an — old man and wise in the ways of the gods; so when he came away from Agamemnon unsuccessful, it was just as if he had loaned his good works to Apollo; he took him to task, demanded his due, and all but insulted him, saying: “My good Apollo, I have often dressed your temple with wreaths when it lacked them before, and have burned in your honour all those thighs of bulls and goats upon your .altars, but you neglect me when I[ am in such straits and take no account of your benefactor.”Iliad1, 33 ff. Consequently, he so discomfited Apollo by his talk that he caught up his bow and arrows, sat. himself down above the ships, and shot down the Achaeans with the plague, even to their mules and dogs.
