‘To stay thine anger I came from far Olympus,’ said she. ‘Goodly gifts shall come to thee hereafter, Achilles. Only stay thine hand and listen to me.’
Then said Achilles:
‘Goddess, a man must needs listen to thee and do thy bidding, for the man who obeys the immortal gods will also be heard of them.’
Therewith did he grip his sword by its silver hilt and thrust it back into its sheath; yet again he spoke in wrath to Agamemnon.
‘Thou with face of a dog and heart of a deer,’ he said, ‘never hast thou fought as men should fight for the spoil! Rather dost thou seize the booty for which thy men have risked their lives. Surely these thy warriors are weaklings, else this should have been thy last wrong. But this I swear by my sceptre which was once a tree, but never more shall put forth leaf or twig; as surely as that sceptre shall never again be green, so surely shall the Greeks one day long for Achilles when they fall in heaps dying before the manslaying Hector. Then shalt thou tear thy heart for anger, for that thou didst not honour the bravest of thy warriors.’
So spake Achilles, and dashed on earth his sceptre, studded with golden nails, while near him sat Agamemnon, in furious anger.
With gentle words then spoke Nestor, an old warrior of a hundred years and more, longing to make peace.
But of peace Agamemnon and Achilles would have none.
‘Ye may take back my slave, the fair Briseis,’ said Achilles. ‘The Greeks gave her to me; let the Greeks take her from me again. Yet that moment that thou dost dare to lay hand on aught else of mine, thy dark blood shall gush about my spear.’
Then was the assembly at an end, and on a fleet ship Chryseïs of the fair cheeks was placed, and with her were sent a hundred beasts for a sacrifice to Apollo. With them went Odysseus and a goodly company, and they sailed across the sea to Chryse, to bring back to Chryses the priest his fair daughter, and to offer a worthy sacrifice to the angry god.