Heraklees

They all held their peace except King Alkinoos, who began, "Sir, we have had much pleasure in hearing all that you have told us, from which I understand that you are willing to show your prowess [ aretê ], as having been displeased with some insolent remarks that have been made to you by one of our athletes, and which could never have been uttered by any one who knows how to talk with propriety. I hope you will apprehend my meaning, and will explain to any one of your chief men who may be dining with yourself and your family when you get home, that we have an hereditary aptitude [ aretê ] for accomplishments of all kinds. We are not particularly remarkable for our boxing, nor yet as wrestlers, but we are singularly fleet of foot and are excellent sailors. We are extremely fond of good dinners, music, and dancing [ khoros ]; we also like frequent changes of linen, warm baths, and good beds; so now, please, some of you who are the best dancers set about dancing, that our guest on his return home may be able to tell his friends how much we surpass all other nations as sailors, runners, dancers, minstrels. Demodokos has left his lyre at my house, so run some one or other of you and fetch it for him."

Odysseia ·Kitap 8 ·221-240 ·machine translation (native)

Hera again answered him with a lying tale. "Most dread son of Kronos," she exclaimed, "what are you talking about? Would you have us enjoy one another here on the top of Mount Ida , where everything can be seen? What if one of the ever-living gods should see us sleeping together, and tell the others? It would be such a scandal that when I had risen from your embraces I could never show myself inside your house again; but if you are so minded, there is a room which your son Hephaistos has made me, and he has given it good strong doors; if you would so have it, let us go thither and lie down." And Zeus answered, "Hera, you need not be afraid that either god or man will see you, for I will enshroud both of us in such a dense golden cloud, that the very sun for all his bright piercing beams shall not see through it." With this the son of Kronos caught his wife in his embrace; whereon the earth sprouted them a cushion of young grass, with dew-bespangled lotus, crocus, and hyacinth, so soft and thick that it raised them well above the ground. Here they laid themselves down and overhead they were covered by a fair cloud of gold, from which there fell glittering dew-drops.

İlyada ·Kitap 14 ·322-341 ·machine translation (native)

Thus, then, did the battle rage between them. Presently the strong hand of fate impelled Tlepolemos, the son of Herakles, a man both brave and of great stature, to fight Sarpedon; so the two, son and grandson of great Zeus, drew near to one another, and Tlepolemos spoke first. "Sarpedon," said he, "councilor of the Lycians, why should you come skulking here you who are a man of peace? They lie who call you son of aegis-bearing Zeus, for you are little like those who were of old his children. Far other was Herakles, my own brave and lion-hearted father, who came here for the horses of Laomedon, and though he had six ships only, and few men to follow him, sacked the city of Ilion and made a wilderness of her highways. You are a coward, and your people are falling from you. For all your strength, and all your coming from Lycia , you will be no help to the Trojans but will pass the gates of Hades vanquished by my hand."

İlyada ·Kitap 5 ·621-640 ·machine translation (native)

With these words the dark-haired god led the way to the high earth-barrow of Herakles, built round solid masonry, and made by the Trojans and Pallas Athena for him flee to when the sea-monster was chasing him from the shore on to the plain. Here Poseidon and those that were with him took their seats, wrapped in a thick cloud of darkness; but the other gods seated themselves on the brow of Kallikolone round you, O Phoebus, and Ares the waster of cities. Thus did the gods sit apart and form their plans, but neither side was willing to begin battle with the other, and Zeus from his seat on high was in command over them all. Meanwhile the whole plain was alive with men and horses, and blazing with the gleam of armor. The earth rang again under the tramp of their feet as they rushed towards each other, and two champions, by far the foremost of them all, met between the hosts to fight - to wit, Aeneas son of Anchises, and noble Achilles. Aeneas was first to stride forward in attack, his doughty helmet tossing defiance as he came on. He held his strong shield before his breast, and brandished his bronze spear. The son of Peleus from the other side sprang forth to meet him, like some fierce lion that the whole population [ dêmos ] has met to hunt and kill - at first he bodes no ill, but when some daring youth has struck him with a spear, he crouches openmouthed, his jaws foam, he roars with fury, he lashes his tail from side to side about his ribs and loins, and glares as he springs straight before him, to find out whether he is to slay, or be slain among the foremost of his foes - even with such fury did Achilles burn to spring upon Aeneas.

İlyada ·Kitap 20 ·141-160 ·machine translation (native)

Penelope presently reached the oak threshold of the store room; the carpenter had planed this duly, and had drawn a line on it so as to get it quite straight; he had then set the door posts into it and hung the doors. She loosed the strap from the handle of the door, put in the key, and drove it straight home to shoot back the bolts that held the doors; these flew open with a noise like a bull bellowing in a meadow, and Penelope stepped upon the raised platform, where the chests stood in which the fair linen and clothes were laid by along with fragrant herbs: reaching thence, she took down the bow with its bow case from the peg on which it hung. She sat down with it on her knees, weeping bitterly as she took the bow out of its case, and when her tears had relieved her, she went to the room where the suitors were, carrying the bow and the quiver, with the many deadly arrows that were inside it. Along with her came her maidens, bearing a chest that contained much iron and bronze which her husband had won as prizes. When she reached the suitors, she stood by one of the bearing-posts supporting the roof of the room, holding a veil before her face, and with a maid on either side of her. Then she said:

Odysseia ·Kitap 21 ·21-40 ·machine translation (native)

"Then I saw Alkmene, the wife of Amphitryon, who also bore to Zeus indomitable Herakles; and Megara who was daughter to great King Kreon, and married the redoubtable son of Amphitryon. "I also saw fair Epikaste mother of king Oedipus whose awful lot it was to marry her own son without suspecting it in her noos . He married her after having killed his father, but the gods proclaimed the whole story to the world; whereon he remained king of Thebes , in great grief for the spite the gods had borne him; but Epikaste went to the house of the mighty gatekeeper Hades, having hanged herself for grief, and the avenging spirits haunted him as for an outraged mother - to his ruing bitterly thereafter. "Then I saw Chloris, whom Neleus married for her beauty, having given priceless presents for her. She was youngest daughter to Amphion son of Iasos and king of Minyan Orkhomenos, and was Queen in Pylos . She bore Nestor, Chromios, and Periklymenos, and she also bore that marvelously lovely woman Pero, who was wooed by all the country round; but Neleus would only give her to him who should raid the cattle of Iphikles from the grazing grounds of Phylake, and this was a hard task. The only man who would undertake to raid them was a certain excellent seer [ mantis ], but the will of heaven was against him, for the rangers of the cattle caught him and put him in prison; nevertheless when a full year had passed and the same season [ hôra ] came round again, Iphikles set him at liberty, after he had expounded all the oracles of heaven. Thus, then, was the will of Zeus accomplished.

Odysseia ·Kitap 11 ·261-280 ·machine translation (native)

which I felt about noble Herakles whom you and Boreas had spitefully conveyed beyond the seas [ pontos ] to Cos, after suborning the tempests; but I rescued him, and notwithstanding all his mighty labors I brought him back again to Argos . I would remind you of this that you may learn to leave off being so deceitful, and discover how much you are likely to gain by the embraces out of which you have come here to trick me." Hera trembled as he spoke, and said, "May heaven above and earth below be my witnesses, with the waters of the river Styx - and this is the most solemn oath that a blessed god can take - nay, I swear also by your own almighty head and by our bridal bed - things over which I could never possibly perjure myself - that Poseidon is not punishing Hektor and the Trojans and helping the Achaeans through any doing of mine; it is all of his own mere motion because he was sorry to see the Achaeans hard pressed at their ships: if I were advising him, I should tell him to do as you bid him."

İlyada ·Kitap 15 ·21-40 ·machine translation (native)

Therefore, perish strife both from among gods and men, and anger, wherein even a righteous man will harden his heart - which rises up in the soul of a man like smoke, and the taste thereof is sweeter than drops of honey. Even so has Agamemnon angered me. And yet - so be it, for it is over; I will force my soul into subjection as I needs must; I will go; I will pursue Hektor who has slain him whom I loved so dearly, and will then abide my doom when it may please Zeus and the other gods to send it. Even Herakles, the best beloved of Zeus - even he could not escape the hand of death, but fate and Hera's fierce anger laid him low, as I too shall lie when I am dead if a like doom awaits me. Till then I will win fame [ kleos ], and will bid Trojan and Dardanian women wring tears from their tender cheeks with both their hands in the grievousness of their great sorrow; thus shall they know that he who has held aloof so long will hold aloof no longer. Hold me not back, therefore, in the love you bear me, for you shall not move me."

İlyada ·Kitap 18 ·101-120 ·machine translation (native)

And Hera said, "Sleep, why do you take such notions as those into your head? Do you think Zeus will be as anxious to help the Trojans, as he was about his own son? Come, I will marry you to one of the youngest of the Graces [ kharites ], and she shall be your own - Pasithea, whom you have always wanted to marry." Sleep was pleased when he heard this, and answered, "Then swear it to me by the dread waters of the river Styx; lay one hand on the bounteous earth, and the other on the sheen of the sea, so that all the gods who dwell down below with Kronos may be our witnesses, and see that you really do give me one of the youngest of the Graces [ kharites ] - Pasithea, whom I have always wanted to marry." Hera did as he had said. She swore, and invoked all the gods of the nether world, who are called Titans, to witness. When she had completed her oath, the two enshrouded themselves in a thick mist and sped lightly forward, leaving Lemnos and Imbros behind them. Presently they reached many-fountained Ida, mother of wild beasts, and Lectum where they left the sea to go on by land, and the tops of the trees of the forest soughed under the going of their feet. Here Sleep halted, and ere Zeus caught sight of him he climbed a lofty pine-tree - the tallest that reared its head towards heaven on all Ida. He hid himself behind the branches and sat there in the semblance of the sweet-singing bird that haunts the mountains and is called Khalkis by the gods, but men call it Kymindis. Hera then went to Gargaros, the topmost peak of Ida, and Zeus, driver of the clouds, set eyes upon her. As soon as he did so he became inflamed with the same passionate desire for her that he had felt when they had first enjoyed each other's embraces, and slept with one another without their dear parents knowing anything about it.

İlyada ·Kitap 14 ·261-281 ·machine translation (native)