Briseis

Nestor says no one will offer a better plan than this, the plan I still retain and I've been forming, well, for a good long while now.

From the very day that you, my illustrious king, infuriated Achilles, you went and took from his tents the girl Briseis.

and not with any applause from us, far from it.

I, for one, urged you against it strenuously.

Danny Dyer.

But anyway, Agamemnon refuses to give the girl back unless Icarus gives him his prize, a girl called Briseis.

Was her

dad called Bruce? No.

You will then abandon me.

O barbarous man, what misery are you preparing for hapless Briseis? What solace can I expect in my forlorn state? Sooner may the gaping earth swallow me up, or the missile-bolts of Jove overwhelm me, than I, abandoned, be doomed to behold the sea foaming after your Thessalian oars, and your ships deserting my distracted view.

if you are determined to return and visit again your native fields i can be no very cumbersome load to your fleet i submit to follow you as a captive subject to her conqueror not as a spouse accompanying her husband my hand will not disdain the meanest office May the fairest of the Grecian dames become the happy partner of your bed, one worthy of such a father-in-law as the grandson of Jupiter and Aegina, to whom old Nereus will not disdain to be related.

I, her humble handmaid, will diligently ply my tusk, and the twisted thread shall lessen the loaded distuff.

Should any one ask why you so obstinately refuse to fight, you say, War is become hateful, only night, love, and music charm.

It is safer to be content with domestic pleasures, to cherish a beloved mistress, and exercise the fingers upon a Thracian harp, than to grasp a target, and sharp-pointed spear, and load the head with a weighty helmet.

heretofore you preferred the glory of illustrious actions to ease and the fame acquired in war was all your aim could martial deeds then only please till i was made captive is your thirst of praise extinguished by the fall of my country heaven forbid may the pelian spear urged by your victorious arm pierce the loins of hector send me o ye greeks as your ambassador to solicit my lord i will enforce your requests with a thousand melting kisses trust me i can do more with him than phoenix more than the brother of teucer even more than eloquent ulysses There is rhetoric in throwing my once familiar arms round his neck, and putting him in mind that it is his Briseis who urges the request.

Though you are cruel and more obdurate than the waves of the sea, my silence and tears must prevail.