Quotes from work
Iliad

HomérOriginal title Ἰλιάς

The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles.

“No more entreating of me, you dog, by knees or parents.”

XXII. 345 (tr. R. Lattimore); Achilles to Hector.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“And uncontrollable laughter broke from the happy gods
as they watched the god of fire breathing hard
and bustling through the halls.”

I. 599–600 (tr. Robert Fagles); hence the expression "Homeric laughter".
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Be both a speaker of words and a doer of deeds.”

IX. 443 (tr. Andrew Lang).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“It is the god who accomplishes all things.”

XIX. 90 (tr. R. Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“There shall be a dawn or an afternoon or a noontime
when some man in the fighting will take the life from me also
either with a spearcast or an arrow flown from the bowstring.”

XXI. 110 (tr. R. Lattimore); spoken by Achilles.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“To some the powers of bloody war belong,
To some, sweet music, and the charm of song;
To few, and wondrous few, has Jove assigned
A wise, extensive, all-considering mind.”

XIII. 730–733 (tr. Alexander Pope).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Victory passes back and forth between men.”

VI. 339 (tr. R. Lattimore); Paris contemplates the fickleness of victory as he prepares to go into battle.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Life and death are balanced as it were on the edge of a razor.”

X. 173–174 (tr. Samuel Butler).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“In form of Stentor of the brazen voice,
Whose shout was as the shout of fifty men.”

V. 785–786 (tr. Lord Derby).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“But the gods give to mortals not everything at the same time.”

IV. 320 (tr. R. Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Now down in the Ocean sank the fiery light of day,
drawing the dark night across the grain-giving earth.”

VIII. 485–486 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“She who is only a little thing at the first, but thereafter
grows until she strides on the earth with her head striking heaven.”

IV. 442–443 (tr. R. Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Once a thing has been done, the fool sees it.”

XVII. 32 (tr. R. Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“If I hold out here and I lay siege to Troy,
my journey home is gone, but my glory never dies.”

IX. 413 (tr. Robert Fagles); spoken by Achilles.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Helios, Sun above us, you who see all, hear all things!”

III. 277 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Among all creatures that breathe on earth and crawl on it
there is not anywhere a thing more dismal than man is.”

XVII. 446–447 (tr. R. Lattimore); Zeus.
Robert Fagles's translation:
: There is nothing alive more agonized than man
of all that breathe and crawl across the earth.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Glory to him, but to us a sorrow.”

IV. 197 (tr. R. Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“I'll fling a spear myself and leave the rest to Zeus.”

XVII. 515 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“He in the turning dust lay
mightily in his might, his horsemanship all forgotten.”

XVI. 775–776 (tr. R. Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“The proof of battle is action, proof of words, debate.”

XVI. 630 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

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