The Iliad Chryses Quotes

The girl – I won’t give up the girl. Long before that,
old age will overtake her in my house, in Argos,
far from her fatherland, slaving back and forth
at the loom, forced to share my bed!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 33-36. Agamemnon says this to Chryses about his daughter Chryseis, whom Agamemnon has enslaved. He will not give up the girl, he says, and indeed is going to force her to sleep with him. Despite pleas from his own military to accept the Chryseis’ offer of ransom for the return of his daughter, the proud and selfish Agamemnon refuses. Chryses is the priest of Apollo at Chryse and this dishonor shown to him will have have serious consequences for the Greeks.

Down he strode from Olympus’ peaks, storming at heart
with his bow and hooded quiver slung across his shoulders…
First he went for the mules and circling dogs but then,
launching a piercing shaft at the men themselves,
he cut them down in droves.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 51-59. Apollo, a god of healing, sends a plague to the Greek camp which kills many soldiers. He has been angered by Agamemnon’s offense to Apollo’s priest Chryses in refusing a ransom to free the priest’s daughter Chryseis.

But I am willing to give her back, even so,
if that is best for all. What I really want
is to keep my people safe, not see them dying.
But fetch me another prize, and straight off too,
else I alone of the Argives go without my honor.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 135-139. The proud Agamemnon is a very selfish king. He is willing to give back his spoil of war, the enslaved daughter of Apollo’s priest Chryses. But he will only do so if he is given another "prize," because otherwise he would be left without honor.

if our generous Argives will give me a prize,
a match for my desires, equal to what I’ve lost,
well and good. But if they give me nothing
I will take a prize myself – your own, or Ajax’
or Odysseus’ prize – I’ll commandeer her myself
and let that man I go to visit choke with rage!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 159-165. To repair his pride, Argamemnon agrees to give up the Trojan woman Chryseis, daughter of Chryses, if he gets a new prize of war. Fuelling his fight with Achilles further, he threatens to take the Greek hero’s war prize Briseis or Great Ajax’s, even if they choke with rage.
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