dos: O Sminthius,[1] if ever I have roofed[2] thy graceful temple, or if, moreover, at any time I have burned to thee the fat thighs of bulls or of goats, accomplish this entreaty for me. Let the Greeks pay for my tears, by their arrows."
Thus he spoke praying: but to him Phœbus Apollo hearkened. And he descended from the summits of Olympus, enraged in heart, having upon his shoulders his bow and quiver covered on all sides. But as he moved, the shafts rattled forthwith[3] upon the shoulders of him enraged; but he went along like unto the night. Then he sat down apart from the ships, and sent among them an arrow, and terrible arose the clang of the silver bow. First he attacked the mules, and the swift[4] dogs; but afterward dispatching a pointed arrow against [the Greeks] themselves, he smote them, and frequent funeral-piles of the dead were continually burning. Nine days through the army went the arrows of the god; but on the tenth, Achilles called the people to an assembly; for to his mind the white-armed goddess Juno had suggested it; for she was anxious concerning the Greeks, because she saw them perishing. But when they accordingly were assembled, and were met together, swift-footed Achilles, rising up amid them, [thus] spoke:
"O son of Atreus! now do I think that we would consent to return, having been defeated in our purpose, if we should but escape death, since at the same time[5] war and pestilence subdue the Greeks. But come now, let us consult some prophet, or priest, or even one who is informed by dreams (for dream also is from Jove),[6] who would tell us on what account Phœbus Apollo is so much enraged with
- ↑ An epithet derived from σμίνθος, the Phrygian name for a mouse; either because Apollo had put an end to a plague of mice among that people, or because a mouse was thought emblematical of augury.—Grote. Hist. of Greece, vol. i. p. 68, observes that this "worship of Sminthian Apollo, in various parts of the Troad and its neighboring territory, dates before the earliest period of Æolic colonization. On the Homeric description of Apollo, see Müller, Dorians, vol i. p. 315.
- ↑ Not "crowned," as Heyne says; for this was a later custom.—See Anthon and Arnold.
- ↑ The force of ἄρα is noticed by Nägelsbach.
- ↑ Or "white." Hesych. ταχεῑς, λευκούς.
- ↑ Ammonius, p. 14, foolishly supposes that ὁμοῦ here denotes place, ἐν Τροία. Valckenaer justly supports the ordinary interpretation.
- ↑ Cf. Plin. Ep. i. 18, and Duport, Gnom. Hom. p 3, sq.
