drink, since heavy grief hath invaded me; but I will wait entirely till the setting sun, and will endure."
So saying, he dismissed the other kings; but two sons of Atreus remained; and noble Ulysses, Nestor, Idomeneus, and the aged knight Phœnix, constantly endeavoring to delight him sorrowing; nor was he at all delighted, before he should enter the mouth[1] of bloody war. But remembering [Patroclus], he frequently heaved [a sigh], and said:
"Surely once, thou too, O unhappy one! dearest of my companions, wouldst thyself have set before me a plentiful feast, within my tent, speedily and diligently, when the Greeks hastened to make tearful war upon the horse-breaking Trojans. But now thou liest mangled; but my heart is without drink or food, though they are within, from regret for thee; for I could not suffer any thing worse, not even if I were to hear of my father being dead, who now perhaps sheds the tender tear in Phthia from the want of such a son; while I, in a foreign people, wage war aginst the Trojans, for the sake of detested Helen; or him, my beloved son, who is nurtured for me at Scyros, if indeed he still lives, godlike Neoptolemus. For formerly the mind within my bosom hoped that I alone should perish here in Troy, far from steed-nourishing Argos, and that thou shouldst return to Phthia, that thou mightst lead back my son in thy black ship from Scyros, and mightst show him every thing, my property, my servants, and my great, lofty-domed abode. For now I suppose that Peleus is either totally deceased, or that he, barely alive, suffers pain from hateful old age, and that he is continually expecting bad news respecting me, when he shall hear of my being dead."
Thus he spoke, weeping; and the elders also groaned, remembering, each of them, the things which they had left in their dwellings. But the son of Saturn felt compassion, seeing them weeping, and immediately to Minerva addressed winged words:
"O daughter mine, thou entirely now desertest thy valiant hero. Is Achilles then no longer at all a care to thee in thy mind? He himself is sitting before his lofty-beaked ships,
- ↑ So Ennius, p. 128. Hessel.: "Belli ferratos posteis portasque refregit." Virg. Æn. i. 298: "Claudentur belli portæ." Stat. Theb. v. 136: "Movet ostia belli"
