Classics Final

Daughter of Leda, guardian of my house, you have made a speech that was like my absence—you stretched it out to a great length; but to be fittingly praised is an honour that ought to come to me from others. 191 For the rest, do not pamper me as if I were a woman;

Aeschylus, Agamemnon. Agamemnon to Clytamnestra

Well, if that's what you want, let someone quickly take off my shoes, which serve like slaves for my feet to tread on; and as I walk on these purple-dyed <robes>, 200 may no jealous eye strike me from afar! For I feel a great sense of impropriety about despoiling this house under my feet, ruining its wealth and the woven work bought with its silver. Well, so much for that.

Aeschylus, Agamemnon. Agamemnon to Clytamnestra

Men of the city, you assembled Argive elders, I will not be ashamed to speak to you of my feelings of love for my husband: with the passing of time, fear dies away in the human mind. What I will say is not second-hand knowledge, but my own wretched life through all the time that this man was away at 177 Ilium. In the first place, it is a terrible trial for a wife to be sitting alone at home without her man, hearing many dire reports, with first one man coming and then another after him capping his bad news with an even worse disaster to proclaim to the house.

Aeschylus, Agamemnon. Clytaemnestra to men of the city

But whoever is a good judge of his flock will certainly not be fooled by a man's eyes whose gaze, pretending to come from a loyal disposition,is fawning on him with watery affection. To me, at that time, when you were leading forth an expedition on account of Helen—I will not conceal this from you— you seemed painted in very ugly colours and like one whose mind was steering a bad course, trying to win back a willingly wanton <woman>by taking men to their deaths; but now, from the depths of my heart and with affection,I am friendly to those who have made a good end of their labours. In time you will know by inquiry which of the citizens has acted honestly when staying at home in the city, and which inappropriately.

Aeschylus, Oresteia (Agamemnon), Chorus to Agamemnon

The gods heard pleas uttered not by men's tongues but through men's deaths, 169 and without division of opinion cast their votes in the urn of blood for the destruction of Troy; to the vessel on the other side only hope approached— no hand filled it. Even now the smoke rising from the city proclaims it fallen; the gusts of ruin are still alive and blowing, and the ashes, reluctant to die down, send forth thick puffs of wealth. For this we must be deeply mindful of the gods' favour and pay them thanks, since we have punished that arrogant abduction, and on account of a woman a city has been ground into dust by the Argive beast, the offspring of the Horse,

Aeschylus, Oresteia, Agamemnon to Chorus

But Phaedra, fearing that he might accuse her to his father, cleft open the doors of her bedchamber, rent her garments, and falsely charged Hippolytus with an assault. Theseus believed her and prayed to Poseidon that Hippolytus might perish. So, when Hippolytus was riding in his chariot and driving beside the sea, Poseidon sent up a bull from the surf, and the horses were frightened, the chariot

Apollodorus, Epitome

But when Theseus arrived with Pirithous in Hades, he was beguiled; for, on the pretence that they were about to partake of good cheer, Hades bade them first be seated on the Chair of Forgetfulness, to which they grew and were held fast by coils of serpents. Pirithous, therefore, remained bound for ever, but Hercules brought Theseus up and sent him to Athens

Apollodorus, Epitome

And he was numbered among those who were to be sent as the third tribute to the Minotaur; or, as some affirm, he offered himself voluntarily.1 And as the ship had a black sail, Aegeus charged his son, if he returned alive, to spread white sails on the ship.2 And when he came to Crete, Ariadne, daughter of Minos, being amorously disposed to him, offered to help him if he would agree to carry her away to Athens and have her to wife.

Apollodorus, Epitome, Theseus

Third, he slew at Crommyon the sow that was called Phaea after the old woman who bred it;1 that sow, some say, was the offspring of Echidna and Typhon. Fourth, he slew Sciron, the Corinthian, son of Pelops, or, as some say, of Poseidon. He in the Megarian territory held the rocks called after him Scironian, and compelled passers-by to wash his feet, and in the act of washing he kicked them into the deep to be the prey of a huge turtle.

Apollodorus, Epitome, Theseus

Minotaur in the last part of the labyrinth, he killed him by smiting him with his fists; and drawing the clue after him made his way out again. And by night he arrived with Ariadne and the children1 at Naxos. There Dionysus fell in love with Ariadne and carried her off;2 and having brought her to Lemnos he enjoyed her, and begat Thoas, Staphylus, Oenopion, and Peparethus.3 In his grief on account of Ariadne, Theseus forgot to spread white sails on his ship when he stood for port; and Aegeus, seeing from the acropolis the ship with a black sail, supposed that Theseus had perished; so he cast himself down and died

Apollodorus, Epitome-Theseus

he feasted the centaurs because they were her kinsmen. But being unaccustomed to wine, they made themselves drunk by swilling it greedily, and when the bride was brought in, they attempted to violate her.

Apollodorus, Epitome-Theseus

Daedalus was tried in the Areopagus, and being condemned fled to Minos. And there Pasiphae having fallen in love with the bull of Poseidon, Daedalus acted as her accomplice by contriving a wooden cow, and he constructed the labyrinth, to which the Athenians every year sent seven youths and as many damsels to be fodder for the Minotaur.

Apollodorus, The Library, Book 3-Theseus

Yes, he weeps, holding his beloved wife in his arms, and he begs her not to abandon him, asking for the impossible. For she is waning and wasting with her malady. And now, her body limp, a pitiful burden in his arms, <she lies unable to raise herself up>. Still, although she has scarcely any breath within her, she wishes once more to look on the light of the sun since it is now for the last time and never again that she does so [she will look upon the ray and orb of the sun]. But I will go and announce your arrival: for by no means does everyone wish their rulers well and stand by to show goodwill to them in their misfortune. But you are a friend of long standing to my masters.

Euripides, Alcestis

Yet if I had driven from my house and city a friend who had just arrived, would you have praised me more? No, indeed, since my misfortune would have been in no way lessened, and I would have been less hospitable. And in addition to my ills we would have the further ill that my house would be called a spurner of guests. I myself find in this man the best of hosts whenever I go to thirsty Argos.

Euripides, Alcestis-Admetus to Chorus

O heart and hand that have endured so much, now show what kind of son Tirynthian Alcmene, daughter of Electryon, bore to Zeus! I must save the woman who has just died and show my gratitude to Admetus by restoring Alcestis once more to this house. I shall go and look out for the black-robed lord of the dead, Death himself, and I think I shall find him drinking from the offerings near the tomb. And if once I rush from ambush and catch him in my

Euripides, Alcestis-Heracles

You there, why do you look so grave and careworn? A servant ought not to scowl at the guest but welcome him with an affable air. But you, though you see an old friend of your master arrive, receive him with an unfriendly face and with your brows knit together, worrying about a grief that does not concern your house. Come here so that you may be made wiser! Do you know the nature of our mortal life? I think not. How could you? But listen to me. Death is a debt all mortals must pay, and no man knows for certain whether he will still be living on the morrow. The outcome of our fortune is hid from our eyes, and it lies beyond the scope of any teaching or craft.

Euripides, Alcestis-Heracles to Manservant

I have known many men from all manner of lands to come as guests to Admetus' house, and I have served them dinner. But never yet have I welcomed a worse guest to our hearth than this one. In the first place, though he saw that our master was in mourning, he was shameless enough to enter our doors. Then he did not soberly accept the fare that was set before him, as he might in view of our misfortunes, but if we failed to bring anything, he ordered it brought. Then taking an ivy-wood drinking bowl in his hands and drinking unmixed wine, offspring of the dark grape, until the fire in it enveloped and warmed his heart, he garlanded his head with sprays of myrtle and howled songs out of tune.

Euripides, Alcestis-Manservant to Chorus

And when I have set all here to rights, I shall journey on to another land and show myself there. But if the city of Thebes gets angry and tries to bring the bacchants from the mountain by force of arms, I will meet them in battle at the head of an army of maenads. That is why I have taken on mortal form and changed my appearance to that of a man.

Euripides, Bacchae

Because of this I myself have stung them in madness from their homes: they are out of their wits and live in the mountains, and I have forced them to wear the trappings of my rites. All the female seed of the Cadmeans, all the women there were, I have driven in madness from their houses. Mixed together with the daughters of Cadmus they sit upon the cliffs in the open air under the green fir trees. This city, though it is uninitiated in my bacchic rites, must learn them to the full, whether it wants to or no, and I must speak in my mother Semele's defense by appearing to mortals as the god she bore to Zeus.

Euripides, Bacchae

This man is a god-fighter where my worship is concerned, forcibly excluding me from libations and making no mention of me in prayer.

Euripides, Bacchae

he boasted in the mountain glades that he was better in the hunt than Artemis. Let this not be your fate! Come here, let me garland your head with ivy: join us in giving honor to the god.

Euripides, Bacchae-Cadmus to Pentheus

Cadmus' daughter Semele, midwived by the lightning fire, once gave birth to me. 1 I have exchanged my divine form for a mortal one and have come to the waters of Dirce and Ismenus. 2 I see here by the palace the tomb of my lightning-slain mother and the ruins of her house, smouldering with the still-living flames of Zeus's fire: thus Hera's violence against my mother lives on forever. I praise Cadmus, who made this ground sacred and untrodden, a holy spot for his daughter. And I have covered it all around with the clustering growth of grapevines.

Euripides, Bacchae-Dionysus

Then thinking that I had escaped he ceased from these efforts, snatched up a dark-gleaming sword, and rushed into the house. And then Bromios, I think—I'm telling you how it seemed to me—caused an apparition in the palace. Pentheus set off in pursuit of this and stabbed at <the air>, thinking he was slaughtering me. And the bacchic god did him other injury beyond this. He razed his house to the ground, the whole thing is shattered: he has seen a bitter end to his imprisoning of me. He has dropped his sword and is exhausted: though a man he dared to fight against a god. As for me, I left the house quietly and came to you, unconcerned about Pentheus.

Euripides, Bacchae-Dionysus to Chorus

Look, I seem to see two suns in the sky! The seven-gated city of Thebes—I see two of them! And you seem to be going before me as a bull, and horns seem to have sprouted upon your head! Were you an animal before now? Certainly now you have been changed into a bull.

Euripides, Bacchae-Pentheus to Dionysus

Well, quite an attractive fellow you are, stranger—attractive to women, which is why you have come to Thebes. Your hair is long—no wrestler you—and it comes tumbling down all the way to your cheeks: how full of desire it is! And you deliberately keep your skin white: it is not in the sun's rays but in the shade that you hunt for love by means of your beauty. But first tell me what your country is.

Euripides, Bacchae-Pentheus to Dionysus (in disguise)

First they let their hair fall to their shoulders, and those whose fastenings had come undone adjusted their fawnskin garments, girdling the dappled skins with snakes that licked their cheeks. New mothers, their babies left behind and their breasts overfull with milk, cradled gazelles or wolf cubs in their arms and gave them to drink of their white milk. They decked themselves with crowns of ivy, oak, and flowering bryony. Someone took a thyrsus and struck it against a cliff, and out leapt a dewy spring of water. Another sunk her fennel wand into the ground, and the god at that spot put forth a fountain of wine. All who desired a drink of milk dug with their fingertips in the ground and the white liquid bubbled up. From their ivy-covered thyrsi dripped streams of honey. If you had been there and seen this, you would have approached in prayer the god you now disparage.

Euripides, Bacchae-messenger to pentheus

But help me in my misfortune, son of the goddess, help her who was called, even if falsely, your wife. It was for you that I decked her out and brought her to be married, but now I'm bringing her to be slaughtered. It will be a reproach to you if you do not help her. For even if you were not married to her, you were at least called the poor maiden's beloved husband. I entreat you by your chin, by your right hand, by your mother (for it was your name that destroyed me, and you must come to its defense): I have no other altar to flee to except your knees, and no friend stands near me.

Euripides, Iphigenia-Cyltamenstra to Achilles

Eros accompanied her and beautiful Desire stayed with her as soon as she was born and when she went to the tribe of the gods; and since the beginning she possesses this honor and has received as her lot this portion among human beings and immortal gods

Hesiod-Theogony

Seer of evil: never yet have you told me a good thing. Always the evil things are dear to your heart to prophesy, but nothing excellent have you said nor ever accomplished. Now once more you make divination to the Danaans, argue forth your reason why he who strikes from afar afflicts them,because I for the sake of the girl Chryseis would not take the shining ransom; and indeed I wish greatly to have her in my own house; since I like her better than Klytaimnestra my own wife, for in truth she is in no way inferior, neither in build nor stature nor wit, not in accomplishment

Homer, Iliad, Agamemnon to Kalchas

Oh my child, ill-fated beyond all other mortals, this is not Persephone, daughter of Zeus, beguiling you, but it is only what happens, when they die, to all mortals. The sinews no longer hold the flesh and the bones together, and once the spirit has left the white bones, all the rest of the body is made subject to the fire's strong fury, but the soul flitters out like a dream and flies away

Homer, Odyssey-Antiklea speaking to odysseus

But for you, Menelaos, O fostered of Zeus, it is not the gods' will that you shall die and go to your end in horse-pasturing Argos,but the immortals will convoy you to the Elysian Field, and the limits of the earth, where fair-haired Rhadamanthys is, and where there is made the easiest life for mortals, for there is no snow, nor much winter there, nor is there ever rain, but always the stream of the Ocean sends up breezes of the West Wind blowing briskly for the refreshment of mortals

Homer, Odyssey-Nereus speaking to Menelaos

And when great Zeus' purpose came to fulfilment, and her tenth moon was set in the sky, she brought forth, and notable things came to pass. And she gave birth to a son resourceful and cunning, a robber, a rustler of cattle, a bringer of dreams, a night watcher, a gate-lurker, who was soon to display deeds of renown among the immortal gods: born in the morning, by midday he was playing the lyre, and in the evening he stole

Homeric Hymn 4

Cutting reed stalks to measure, he fixed them in, piercing the back of the stony-hided tortoise. Over them he cleverly stretched oxhide; he attached two arms, and fastened a crossbar on them, and stretched out seven sheep-gut strings to sound in concord. When he had made it, he carried the lovely plaything and tried it out with a plectrum in a tuned scale, and it rang out impressively under his hand.

Homeric Hymn 4

Following one job with another, he cut up the meat, rich with fat, and roasted it, fixed on wooden spits, the flesh pieces together with the honorific chines and the dark blood in sausages of tripe; the remaining parts lay there on the ground. The hides he spread out on a rugged rock, as even now in after time they remain long-lasting through the ages in a fused mass.

Homeric Hymn 4

and soon, with the lyre's clear accompaniment, he was striking up his song, and his voice came lovely: he spoke authoritatively of the immortal gods and of dark Earth, how they were born originally and how each received his portion. Remembrance first of the gods he honored in his song, the mother of the Muses, for she had Maia's son in her province, and then the rest of the immortal gods Zeus' splendid son honored according to seniority and affiliation, relating everything in due order, and playing the lyre that hung from his arm

Homeric Hymn 4

over a sandy region, turning their footprints round, for his skill in deception did not fail him; he turned their hooves opposite ways, fore to back and hinder to front, while he himself walked backwards. At the sands of the coast he at once used wicker to plait sandals beyond description or imagination, wondrous work, combining tamarisk and myrtle twigs.

Homeric Hymn 4

My dear sly swindler, by the way you talk, I reckon you will often be burgling prosperous houses by night and leaving more than one man sitting on the floor as you rob his household without a sound; and you'll be vexing many a herdsman who sleeps in the open in the mountain glens, any time you crave meat and come upon their cattle herds and their flocks of sheep. Now then, if you don't want to be put to sleep once and for all, come down from your cradle

Homeric Hymn 4-Apollo to Hermes

but when he had crossed the long track of sand, the cows' tracks and his own soon became indistinguishable on the rocky terrain. But a mortal man noticed him driving the broad-browed cattle directly towards Pylos. After he had penned them in quietly and completed his conjuring act on this side of the road and that, he lay down in his cradle, invisible as night in the darkness of the gloomy cave—not even a keen-sighted eagle would have spotted him—and did a lot of rubbing his eyes to further his deception.

Homeric Hymn 4-Apollo to Zeus

Mother mine, why try to scare me like this, as if I were a baby who knows little of mischief, a timorous one afraid of his mother's scoldings? I am going to embark on the finest of arts, keeping the two of us in clover for ever. We won't put up with staying here and being without offerings or prayers alone of all the immortals, as you would have us do. It's better to spend every day in pleasant chat among the gods, with wealth and riches and substance, than to sit at home in a gloomy cave. As for privilege, I'm going to enter on my rights, the same as Apollo. And if my father doesn't let me, then I shall set out—and I have the means—to be the prince of thieves. And if glorious Leto's son is going to track me down, I reckon I can meet him with something even bigger:

Homeric Hymn 4-Hermes to Mother Maia

Old sir with bent shoulders, digging your vines, you will indeed be well in wine when these all bear fruit, <provided you do as I say: keep your own counsel,> and don't see what you've seen, and don't hear what you've heard, and keep silent so long as it isn't harming your own affairs

Homeric Hymn 4-Hermes to Old Man

I shall tell you it as it was, for I am truthful and do not know how to tell a lie. He came into our place in search of his shambling cattle today as the sun was just rising. He didn't bring witnesses or observers from the blessed gods, but insisted on disclosure with much duress, and with many threats to throw me into broad Tartarus, because he has the delicate bloom of his glorious prime, while I was born yesterday, as he well knows, and I don't look like a cattle rustler, a strong man.

Homeric Hymn 4-Hermes to Zeus

Friend, it is hard to keep count of everything one's eyes may see. There are many travellers on the road; some of them go with much ill intent, others with much good, and it is difficult to know which is which. But I was digging about my vine slopes all day to sunset, and I thought I saw a boy—but I don't rightly know, sir, what boy it was going behind the strong-horned cows, an infant, with a rod, walking this way and that, and he was driving them backwards, and they had their heads facing him

Homeric Hymn 4-Old man to Apollo

She even led astray the mind of Zeus whose sport is the thunderbolt, who is the greatest and has the greatest honor as his portion: even his intricate mind she deceived when she liked, and easily coupled him with mortal women, putting out of his mind Hera his sister and consort, who is much the finest of aspect among the immortal goddesses, the most glorious daughter of crooked-schemer Kronos and her mother Rhea, and Zeus whose counsels do not fade made her his reverend consort, dutiful as she is.

Homeric Hymn 5

She reached Ida with its many springs, mother of wild creatures, and went straight for the steading across the mountain, while after her went fawning the grey wolves and fierce-eyed lions, bears and swift leopards insatiable for deer. Seeing them, she was glad at heart; in their breasts too she cast longing, and they all lay down in pairs in their shadowy haunts. She herself came to the sturdy huts, and found him left all alone in the steading, the manly Anchises who had his beauty from the gods; the others were all following the cattle over the grassy pastures, while he, left all alone in the steading, was going about this way and that, playing loudly on a lyre.

Homeric Hymn 5

They will keep my son among them and nurse him.49 As soon as the lovely prime of youth possesses him, the goddesses will bring him here to you and show you your son. As soon as you set eyes on your scion, you will rejoice as you look on him, for he will be quite godlike. You will take him straight away to windy Ilios. If anyone asks you who was the mother that got your dear son under her girdle, be sure to answer him as I tell you: say he is the child of a nymph with eyes like buds, one of those who dwell on this forest-clad mountain. But if you speak out and foolishly boast of having united in love with fair-garlanded Cytherea, Zeus will be angry and will strike you with a smoking bolt.50 There, I have told you everything. Take note of it, restrain yourself from mentioning me, and have regard for the gods' wrath

Homeric Hymn 5

he wanted to bring it about as soon as possible that not even she was set apart from a mortal bed, to boast among the assembled gods with a merry laugh how she had coupled gods with mortal women, and they had borne mortal sons to immortal fathers, and how she had coupled goddesses with mortal men. So he cast into her heart a sweet longing for Anchises, who at that time tended cattle on the heights of Ida with its many springs, in build like the immortals.

Homeric Hymn 5

Hail, Lady, whichever of the blessed ones you are that arrive at this dwelling, Artemis or Leto or golden Aphrodite, high-born Themis or steely-eyed Athena; or perhaps you are one of the Graces come here, who are companions to all the gods and are called immortal; or one of the nymphs, who haunt the fair groves and the waters of rivers and the grassy meads. I will build you an altar on a hilltop, in a conspicuous place, and make goodly sacrifices to you at every due season. Only have a kindly heart, and grant that I may be a man outstanding among the Trojans, and make my future offspring healthy, and myself to live long and well, seeing the light of the sun and enjoying good fortune among the peoples, and to reach the doorstep of old age

Homeric Hymn 5-Anchises to Aphrodite

If you are a mortal, and the mother who bore you was a woman, and your father is the famed Otreus, as you say, and you have come here by the will of the immortal go-between Hermes, and you are to be known as my wife for ever, then no god or mortal man is going to hold me back from making love to you right now, not even if far-shooting Apollo himself discharges baleful arrows from his silver bow: I should choose in that case, O woman like a goddess, after once mounting your bed, to go down into the house of Hades

Homeric Hymn 5-Anchises to Aphrodite

But now the gold-wand Argus-slayer has snatched me up from the dance to Artemis of the gold shafts and the view-halloo. There were many of us dancing, brides and marriageable girls, and a vast crowd ringed us about: from there the gold-wand Argus-slayer snatched me, and brought me over much farmland of mortal men, and much ownerless and uncultivated land where ravening beasts roam about their shadowy haunts; I felt that my feet were not touching the grain-growing earth. He told me I should be known as the young wife of Anchises' bed, and bear you splendid children. After showing me the way and pointing you out, the mighty Argus-slayer went off to rejoin the families of the immortals, while I have come to you, forced by necessity.

Homeric Hymn 5-Aphrodite to Anchises

Flaxen-haired Ganymede was seized by resourceful Zeus because of his beauty, so that he should be among the immortals and serve drink to the gods in Zeus' house, a wonder to see, esteemed by all the immortals as he draws the red nectar from the golden bowl. As for Tros,47 nagging grief possessed his heart; he did not know which way the miraculous whirlwind had snatched up his dear son, and he went on lamenting him day after day. Zeus took pity on him, and to compensate for his son he give him prancing horses, of the breed that carry the immortals: those he gave him to keep, and on Zeus' instructions the go-between,

Homeric Hymn 5-Aphrodite to Anchises

foolish lady Dawn, she did not think to ask for youth for him, and the stripping away of baneful old age. So long as lovely youth possessed him, he took his delight in Dawn of the golden throne, the early-born, and dwelt by the waters of Ocean at the ends of the earth; but when the first scattering of grey hairs came forth from his handsome head and his noble chin, the lady Dawn stayed away from his bed, but kept him in her mansion and nurtured him with food and ambrosia, and gave him fine clothing. And when repulsive old age pressed fully upon him, and he could not move or lift any of his limbs, this is what she decided was the best course: she laid him away in a chamber, and shut its shining doors. His voice still runs on unceasing, but there is none of the strength that there used to be in his bent limbs

Homeric Hymn 5-Aphrodite to Anchises

while I shall suffer great reproach among the gods evermore on your account. Formerly they used to be afraid of my whisperings and wiles, with which at one time or another I have coupled all the immortals with mortal women, for my will would overcome them all. But now my mouth will no longer open wide enough to mention this among the immortals, since I have been led very far astray, awfully and unutterably, gone out of my mind, and got a child under my girdle after going to bed with a mortal.

Homeric Hymn 5-Aphrodite to Anchises

I will make remembrance: how he appeared by the shore of the barren sea, on a jutting headland, in the likeness of a youth in first manhood; the fine sable locks waved about him, and he had a cloak of crimson about his strong shoulders. Suddenly men from a galley came speeding over the wine-faced sea, freebooters from Tuscany, led on by an ill doom. When they saw him, they nodded to one another, and at once leapt out, seized him, and set him aboard their ship, exulting, for they reckoned he was the son of a princely line fostered by Zeus. And they meant to bind him in grievous bonds; but the bonds would not contain him, the osiers fell clear away from his hands and feet, while he sat there smiling with his dark eyes. When the helmsman saw it, he at once cried out to his comrades:

Homeric Hymn 7

When they saw this, then they did start calling on the helmsman to take the ship to land. But the god became a lion in the ship, a terrible lion in the bows, and he roared loud; and amidships he made a shaggy-maned bear, to signal his power. Up it reared in fury, while the lion at the top of the deck stood glaring fearsomely. They fled to the stern, and about the prudent-hearted helmsman they halted in terror.

Homeric Hymn 7

Then, when he had yoked running horses under the chariot he would fasten Hektor behind the chariot, so as to drag him, and draw him three times around the tomb of Menoitios' fallen son, then rest again in his shelter, and throw down the dead man and leave him to lie sprawled on his face in the dust. But Apollo had pity on him, though he was only a dead man, and guarded the body from all ugliness

Iliad

"I for my part did not come here for the sake of the Trojan spearmen to fight against them, since to me they have done nothing. Never yet have they driven away my cattle or my horses, Never in Phthia where the soil is rich and men grow great did they spoil my harvest, since indeed there is much that lies between us, the shadowy mountains and the echoing sea; but for your sake, O great shamelessness, we followed, to do your favor, you with the dog's eyes, to win your honor and Menelaos' from the Trojans

Iliad, Achilles to Agamemnon

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.

Iliad, Achilles to Odysseus

He cheated me and he did me hurt. Let him not beguile me with words again. This is enough for him. Let him of his own will be damned, since Zeus of the counsels has taken his wits away from him. I hate his gifts. I hold him light as the strip of a splinter

Iliad, Achilles to Odysseus

We are all held in a single honor, the brave with the weaklings. A man dies still if he has done 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

Iliad, Achilles to Odysseus

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, by my glory shall be everlasting; but if I return home to the beloved land of my fathers, 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

Iliad, Achilles to his men/Odysseus

"[T]he spirit within does not drive me to go on living and be among men, except on condition that Hektor first be beaten down under my spear, lose his life and pay the price for stripping Patroklos, the son of Menoitios

Iliad, Achilles to his mother Thetis

I was mad, I myself will not deny it. Worth many fighters is that man whom Zeus in his heart loves, as now he has honored this man and beaten down the Achaian people. But since I was mad, in the persuasion of my heart's evil, I am willing to make all good, and give back gifts in abundance

Iliad, Agamemnon to his men

In both hands he caught up the grimy dust, and poured it over his head and face, and fouled his handsome countenance, and the black ashes were scattered over his immortal tunic. And he himself, mightily in his might, in the dust lay at length, and took and tore at his hair with his hands, and defiled it

Iliad, Narrator, Achilles is crying because Patroklos is dead

The sons sitting around their father inside the courtyard made their clothes sodden with their tears, and among them the old man sat veiled, beaten into his mantle. Dung lay thick on the head and neck of the aged man, for he had been rolling in it, he had gathered and smeared it on with his hands. And his daughters all up and down the house and the wives of his sons were mourning as they remembered all those men in their numbers and valor who lay dead, their lives perished at the hands of the Argives

Iliad, mourning of Priam for Hektor

Honor then the gods, Achilleus, and take pity on me remembering your father, yet I am still more pitiful; I have gone through what no other mortal on earth has gone through; I put my lips to the hands of the man who has killed my children

Iliad-Priam to Achilles

Your solicitude is a joy to me, ye gods of heaven, and I rejoice with all my heart that I am called king and father of a grateful race of gods, and that my offspring is safe under your protecting favour also. For, though this tribute is offered to his own mighty deeds, still I myself am much beholden to you. But let not your faithful hearts be filled with needless fear. Ignore Oeta's flames! He who has conquered all things shall conquer these fires which you see; nor shall he feel Vulcan's power save in the part his mother gave him. Immortal is the part which he took from me, and that is safe and beyond the power of death, which no flame can destroy. And when this is done with earth I shall receive him on the heavenly shores, and I trust that this act of mine will be pleasing to all the gods.

Metamorphoses Book IX-Zeus to the gods about Heracles

But now long-suffering great Odysseus went on through the house, wearing still the deep mist that Athene had drifted about him, until he came to Arete and to the king, Alkinoos. Odysseus clasped Arete's knees in his arms, and at that time the magical and surrounding mist was drifted from him, and all fell silent through the house when they saw the man there, and they wondered looking on him.

Odyssey

But when they had put away their desire for eating and drinking, the Muse stirred the singer to sing the famous actions of men on that venture, whose fame goes up into the wide heaven, the quarrel between Odysseus and Peleus' son, Achilles

Odyssey

These things the famous singer sang for them, but Odysseus, taking in his ponderous hands the great mantle dyed in sea-purple, drew it over his head and veiled his fine features, shamed for tears running down his face before the Phaiakians

Odyssey

O father Zeus, Athene and Apollo, how I wish that, being the man you are and thinking the way that I do, you could have my daughter and be called my son-in-law, staying here with me. I would dower you with a house and properties if you stayed by your own good will

Odyssey, Alkinoos

You shall no longer stay in my house when none of you wish to; but first there is another journey you must accomplish and reach the house of Hades and of reverend Persephone, there to consult with the soul of Teiresias the Theban, the blind prophet, whose senses stay unshaken within him, to whom alone Persephone has granted intelligence even after death, but the rest of them are flittering shadows

Odyssey, Circe speaking to Odysseus

The herald came near, bringing with him the excellent singer whom the Muse hade loved greatly, and gave him both good and evil. She reft him of his eyes, but she gave him the sweet singing art

Odyssey, Demodokos sings about Odysseys at troy

No, stranger, for I do not see that you are like one versed in contests, such as now are practiced much among people, but rather to one who plies his ways in his many-locked vessel, master over mariners who also are men of business, a man who, careful of his cargo and grasping for profits, goes carefully on his way. You do not resemble an athlete

Odyssey, Euryalos to Odysseus

A while ago he seemed an unpromising man to me. Now he even resembles one of the gods, who hold high heaven. If only the man to be called my husband could be like this one, a man living here, if only this one were pleased to stay here

Odyssey, Nausikaa

Then I was aware of your daughter's attendant women playing on the beach, and she, looking like the goddesses, went there among them. I supplicated her, nor did she fail of the right decision; it was as you could never have hoped for a young person, so confronted, to act, for always the younger people are careless. Also she gave me food in plenty to eat, she gave me gleaming wine, and a bath in the river

Odyssey, Odysseus to Arete

Now you have stirred up anger deep in the breast within me by this disorderly speaking, and I am not such new hand at games as you say, abut always, as I think, I have been among the best when I still had trust in youth and hands' strength

Odyssey, Odysseus to Euryalos

And I saw Tantalus also, suffering hard pains, standing in lake water that came up to his chin, and thirsty as he was he tried to drink, stooped over, the water would drain way and disappear...also I saw sisyphus. He was suffering strong pains, and with both arms embracing the monstrous stone, struggling with hands and feet alike, he would try to push the stone upward...after this I was aware of heracles...

Odyssey, Odysseus to Phiakians

There I saw Minos, the glorious son of Zeus, seated, holding a golden scepter and issuing judgments among the dead, who all around the great lord argued their cases, some sitting and some standing, by the wide-gated house of Hades

Odyssey- Odysseus talking to the Phaiakians

dug a pit, of about a cubit in each direction, and poured it full of drink offerings for all the dead, first honey mixed with milk, and the second pouring was sweet wine, and the third, water, and over it all I sprinkled white barley. I promised many times to the strengthless heads of the perished dead that, returning to ithika, I would slaughter a barren cow, my best, in my palace, and pile the pyre with treasures, and to Teiresias apart would dedicate and all black ram....now when, with sacrifices and prayers, I had so entreated the hordes of the dead, I took the sheep and cut their throats over the pit

Odyssey--Odysseus to the Phiakians

not in the ships nor did poseidon, rousing a storm blast of battering winds that none would wish for, prove my destruction, nor on dry land did enemy men destroy me in battle; Aigisthos, working out my death and destruction, invited me to his house, and feasted me, and killed me there, with the help of my sluttish wife, as one cuts down an ox at his manger. So I died a most pitiful death, and my other companions were killed around me without mercy...so by this do not be too easy even with your wife, nor give her an entire account of all you are sure of. Tell her part of it, but let the rest be hidden.

Odyssey-Agamemnon to Odysseus

I ask that you remember me, and do not go and leave me behind unwept, unburied, when you leave, for fear I might become the gods' curse upon you; but burn me there with all my armor that belongs to me, and heap up a grave mound beside the beach of gray sea, for an unhappy man, so that those will come to know me.

Odyssey-Elpenor to Odysseus

Ah me, what are the people whose land I have come to this time, and are they violent and savage, and without justice, or hospitable to strangers, with a godly mind?"

Odyssey-Odysseus

Demodokos, above all morals beside I prize you. Surely the Muse, Zeus' daughter or else Apollo has taught you, for all too right following the tale you sing the Achaians' venture, all they did and had done to them, all the sufferings of these Achaians, as if you had been there yourself or heard it from one who was

Odyssey-Odysseus to Demokodos

So blandishingly and full of craft he began to address her: "I am at your knees, O queen. But are you mortal or goddess? If indeed you are one of the gods who hold wide heaven, then I must find you in nearest likeness to Artemis...you are the first I have come to after much much suffering, there is no one else that I know of here among the people who hold this land and this city. Show me the way to town and give me some rag to wrap me in

Odyssey-Odysseus to Nausikaa

So she spoke, but I, pondering in my heart, yet wished to take the soul of my dear mother in my arms. Three times I started towards her, and my heart was urgent to hold her, and three times she fluttered out of my hands like a shadow or a dream

Odyssey-Odysseus to the Phiakians

I think you will not escape the Shaker of the Earth, who holds a grudge against you in his hair, and because you blinded his dear son, hates you. But even so and still you might come back, after much suffering, if you can contain your own desire, and contain your companions', at that time when you first put in your well made vessel at the island Thrinakia...there you will discover the cattle of Helios who sees all things, and listens to all things

Odyssey-Teiresias to Odysseus

Go on, stranger, and feel safe. That stone will tell of your thefts sooner than I"; and he pointed out a stone. The son of Jove pretended to go away, but soon came back with changed voice and form, and said: "My good fellow, if you have seen any cattle going along this way, help me out, and don't refuse to tell about it, for they were stolen. I'll give you a cow and a bull into the bargain if you'll tell." The old man, tempted by the double reward, said: "You'll find them over there at the foot of that mountain." And there, true enough, they were.

Ovid Metamorphoses-Book 2

his horns were twisted, but perfect in shape as if carved by an artist's hand, cleaner and more clear than pearls. His brow and eyes would inspire no fear, and his whole expression was peaceful. Agenor's daughter looked at him in wondering admiration, because he was so beautiful and friendly. But, although he seemed so gentle, she was afraid at first to touch him. Presently she drew near, and held out flowers to his snow-white lips.

Ovid, Metamorphoses

Why do I weep? My rival will rejoice at my tears. But since she is on her way hither I must make haste and devise some plan while I may, and while as yet another woman has not usurped my couch. Shall I complain or shall I grieve in silence? Shall I go back to Calydon or tarry here? Shall I leave my house or, if I can nothing more, stay and oppose her? What if, O Meleager, remembering that I am your sister, I make bold to plan some dreadful deed, and by killing my rival prove how much a woman's humiliation and grief can do

Ovid, Metamorphoses Book IX-Deianara

While he could, with his habitual manly courage he held back his groans. But when his endurance was conquered by his pain, he overthrew the altar and filled woody Oeta with his cries. At once he tries to tear off the deadly tunic; but where it is torn away, it tears the skin with it and, ghastly to relate, it either sticks to his limbs, from which he vainly tries to tear it, or else lays bare his torn muscles and huge bones. His very blood hisses and boils with the burning poison, as when a piece of red-hot metal is plunged into a pool. Without limit the greedy flames devour his vitals; the dark sweat pours from his whole body; his burnt sinews crackle and, while his very marrow melts with the hidden, deadly fire,

Ovid, Metamorphoses Book IX-Heracles

This he tore out, and spurting forth from both wounds came the blood mixed with the deadly poison of the Lernaean hydra. Nessus caught this, and muttering, "I shall not die unavenged," he gave his tunic, soaked with his blood, to Deianira as a gift, potent to revive waning love.

Ovid, Metamorphoses book IX-Heracles

The fresh weed twigs, but now alive and porous to the core, absorb the power of the monster and hardens at its touch and take a strange stiffness in their stems and leaves. And the sea-nymphs test the wonder on more twigs and are delighted to find the same thing happening to them all; and, by scattering these twigs as seeds, propagate the wondrous thing throughout their waters. And even till this day the same nature has remained in coral so that they harden when exposed to air, and what was a pliant twig beneath the sea is turned to stone above

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Perseus

Thrice did he see the cold Bears, and thrice the Crab's spreading claws; time and again to the west, and as often back to the east was he carried. And now, as daylight was fading, fearing to trust himself to flight by night, he alighted on the borders of the West, in the realm of Atlas. Here he sought a little rest until the morning star should wake the fires of dawn and the dawn lead out the fiery car of day. Here, far surpassing all men in huge bulk of body, was Atlas, of the stock of Iapetus. He ruled this edge of the world and the sea which spread its waters to receive the Sun's panting horses and his weary car. A thousand flocks he had, and as many herds, wandering at will over the grassy plains; and no other realm was near to hem in his land. A tree he had whose leaves were of gleaming gold, concealing golden branches and golden fruits.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Perseus

When the monster saw the hero's shadow on the surface of the sea, he savagely attacked the shadow. And as the bird of Jove, when it has seen in an open field a serpent sunning its mottled body, swoops down upon him from behind; and, lest the serpent twist back his deadly fangs, the bird buries deep his sharp claws in the creature's scaly neck

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Perseus

Well, since so small a favour you will not grant to me, let me give you a boon"; and, himself turning his back, he held out from his left hand the ghastly Medusa-head. Straightway Atlas became a mountain huge, as the giant had been; his beard and hair were changed to trees, his shoulders and arms to spreading ridges; what had been his head was now the mountain's top, and his bones were changed to stones. Then he grew to monstrous size in all his parts—for so, O gods, ye had willed it—and the whole heaven with all its stars rested upon his head

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Perseus to Atlas

O Cadmus, stay, unhappy man, and put off this monstrous form! Cadmus, what does this mean? Where are your feet? Where are your shoulders and your hands, your colour, face, and, while I speak, your—everything? Why, O ye gods of heaven, do you not change me also into the same serpent form?" She spoke; he licked his wife's face and glided into her dear breasts as if familiar there, embraced her, and sought his wonted place about her neck. All who were there—for they had comrades with them—were filled with horror. But she only stroked the sleek neck of the crested dragon, and suddenly there were two serpents there with intertwining folds, which after a little while crawled off and hid in the neighbouring woods.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, in the telling of Perseus

Do you not see that Pallas and huntress Diana have revolted against me? And Ceres' daughter, too, will remain a virgin if we suffer it; for she aspires to be like them. But do you, in behalf of our joint sovereignty, if you take any pride in that, join the goddess to her uncle in the bonds of love.

Ovid, Metamorphoses-Aphrodite to Eros

Oh! those are not the chains you deserve to wear, but rather those that link fond lovers together! Tell me, for I would know, your country's name and yours, and why you are chained here

Ovid, Metamorphoses-Perseus to Andromeda

Since what you ask is a tale well worth the telling, hear then the cause. She was once most beautiful in form, and the jealous hope of many suitors. Of all her beauties, her hair was the most beautiful—for so I learned from one who said he had seen her. 'Tis said that in Minerva's temple Neptune, lord of the Ocean, ravished her. Jove's daughter turned away and hid her chaste eyes behind her aegis. And, that the deed might be punished as was due, she changed the Gorgon's locks to ugly snakes. And now to frighten her fear-numbed foes, she still wears upon her breast the snakes which she has made

Ovid, Metamorphoses-Perseus to Andromeda and fam

In this labyrinth Minos shut up the monster of the bull-man form and twice he fed him on Athenian blood; but the third tribute, demanded after each nine years, brought the creature's overthrow. And when, by the virgin Ariadne's help, the difficult entrance, which no former adventurer had ever reached again, was found by winding up the thread, straightway the son of Aegeus, taking Minos' daughter, spread his sails for Dia; and on that shore he cruelly abandoned his companion. To her, deserted and bewailing bitterly, Bacchus brought love and help. And, that she might shine among the deathless stars, he sent the crown she wore up to the skies. Through the thin air it flew; and as it flew its gems were changed to gleaming fires and, still keeping the appearance of a crown, it took its place between

Ovid, Metamorphoses-Theseus