ed, O illustrious Achilles, thou dost now meditate a return
within thy mind, nor art at all willing to repel the destructive fire
from the swift ships, because indignation hath fallen upon thy soul; how
then can I, my dear child, be left here alone by thee? for aged Peleus,
the breaker of steeds, sent me forth with thee on that day, when he
despatched thee from Phthia to Agamemnon, a boy, not yet skilled either
in equally-destroying war, nor in counsels where men also become
illustrious. On which account he sent me forth to teach thee all these
things, that thou mightest become both an orator in words and a
performer in deeds. Thus then, my dear child, I wish not at length to be
left by thee, not even if a god himself, having divested me of old age,
should promise that he would render me a blooming youth, such as I was
when first I quitted fair-damed Hellas, flying the contentions of my
father Amyntor, son of Ormenus; who was enraged with me on account of a
fair-haired concubine whom he himself loved, but dishonoured his wife,
my mother. But she continually would embrace my knees in supplication,
that I should first have connection with the concubine, that she might
loathe the old man. Her I obeyed, and did so; but my father immediately
perceiving it, uttered many execrations, and invoked the hateful
Erinnys, that no dear son, sprung from me, should ever be placed upon
his knees; and the gods ratified his execrations, both infernal Jove and
dread Proserpine. Then my soul within my mind could no longer endure
that I should sojourn in the palace whilst my father was enraged. My
friends, indeed, and relations, being much about me, detained me there
within the halls, entreating [me to stay]. Many fat sheep and
stamping-footed, crooked-horned oxen they slaughtered; many swine
abounding in fat were stretched out to be roasted in the flame of
Vulcan, and much of the old man's wine was drunk out of earthen vessels.
Nine nights did they sleep around me: whilst, taking it in turns, they
kept watch; nor was the fire ever extinguished, one in the portico of
the well-fenced hall, and another in the vestibule, before the
chamber-doors. But when at length the tenth shady night had come upon
me, then indeed I rushed forth, having burst the skilfully-joined doors
of the apartment, and I easily overleaped the fence of the hall,
escaping the notice of the watchmen and the female domestics. Afterwards
I fled thence through spacious Hellas, a