Quotes from work
Iliad

Homér Original 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.


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

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

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“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)

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

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

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“It is the god who accomplishes all things.”

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

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“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)

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

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

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“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)

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

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

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“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)

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

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

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“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)

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

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

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“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)

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“Glory to him, but to us a sorrow.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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