[391] Undoubtedly, he said, these are not sentiments which can be approved.
Loving Homer as I do[29], I hardly like to say that in attributing these feelings to Achilles, or in believing that they are truly attributed to him, he is guilty of downright impiety. As little can I believe the narrative of his insolence to Apollo, where he says,
‘Thou hast wronged me, O far-darter, most abominable of deities. Verily I would be even with thee, if I had only the power[30];’
[B] or his insubordination to the river-god[31], The impious behaviour of Achilles to Apollo and the river-gods; his cruelty. on whose divinity he is ready to lay hands; or his offering to the dead Patroclus 75 of his own hair[32], which had been previously dedicated to the other river-god Spercheius, and that he actually performed this vow; or that he dragged Hector round the tomb of Patroclus[33], and slaughtered the captives at the pyre[34]; of all this I cannot believe that he was guilty, any more than I can [C]allow our citizens to believe that he, the wise Cheiron’s pupil, the son of a goddess and of Peleus who was the gentlest of men and third in descent from Zeus, was so disordered in his wits as to be at one time the slave of two seemingly inconsistent passions, meanness, not untainted by avarice, combined with overweening contempt of gods and men.
[30] Il. xxii. 15 sq.
[31] Ib. xxi. 130, 223 sq.
[32] Il. xxiii. 151.
[33] Ib. xxii. 394.
[34] Ib. xxiii. 175.