The Illiad - Book Two - 59

by Homer

Pharis, Sparta, with Messe the haunt of doves; Bryseae, Augeae,
Amyclae, and Helos upon the sea; Laas, moreover, and Oetylus;
these were led by Menelaus of the loud battle-cry, brother to
Agamemnon, and of them there were sixty ships, drawn up apart
from the others. Among them went Menelaus himself, strong in
zeal, urging his men to fight; for he longed to avenge the toil
and sorrow that he had suffered for the sake of Helen.

The men of Pylos and Arene, and Thryum where is the ford of the
river Alpheus; strong Aipy, Cyparisseis, and Amphigenea; Pteleum,
Helos, and Dorium, where the Muses met Thamyris, and stilled his
minstrelsy for ever. He was returning from Oechalia, where
Eurytus lived and reigned, and boasted that he would surpass even
the Muses, daughters of aegis-bearing Jove, if they should sing
against him; whereon they were angry, and maimed him. They robbed
him of his divine power of song, and thenceforth he could strike
the lyre no more. These were commanded by Nestor, knight of
Gerene, and with him there came ninety ships.

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Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.

More About This Book

From the earliest days of Ancient Greece, the author(s) of this poem were contemporaries of the writers of the Bible's Old Testament.

Summary of Second Book: Jove sends a lying dream to Agamemnon, who thereon calls the chiefs in assembly, and proposes to sound the mind of his
army--In the end they march to fight--Catalogue of the Achaean and Trojan forces.

Painting: The Wrath of Achilles by Michael Drolling, 1819.

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