The Iliad 19.216–237
wherefore let thine heart endure to hearken to my words. Quickly have men surfeit of battle, wherein the bronze streweth most straw upon the ground, albeit the harvest is scantiest, whenso Zeus inclineth his balance, he that is for men the dispenser of battle. But with the belly may it nowise be that the Achaeans should mourn a corpse, for full many are ever falling one after another day by day; when then could one find respite from toil?2 Nay, it behoveth to bury him that is slain, steeling our hearts and weeping but the one day's space; but all they that are left alive from hateful war must needs bethink them of drink and of food, to the end that yet the more we may fight with the foemen ever incessantly, clothed about with stubborn bronze. And let no man of all the host hold back awaiting other summons beside, for the summons is this: Ill shall it be for him whoso is left at the ships of the Argives. Nay, setting out in one throng let us rouse keen battle against the horse-taming Trojans.
ὦ Ἀχιλεῦ Πηλῆος υἱὲ μέγα φέρτατʼ Ἀχαιῶν,
κρείσσων εἰς ἐμέθεν καὶ φέρτερος οὐκ ὀλίγον περ
ἔγχει, ἐγὼ δέ κε σεῖο νοήματί γε προβαλοίμην
πολλόν, ἐπεὶ πρότερος γενόμην καὶ πλείονα οἶδα.
τώ τοι ἐπιτλήτω κραδίη μύθοισιν ἐμοῖσιν.
αἶψά τε φυλόπιδος πέλεται κόρος ἀνθρώποισιν,
ἧς τε πλείστην μὲν καλάμην χθονὶ χαλκὸς ἔχευεν,
ἄμητος δʼ ὀλίγιστος, ἐπὴν κλίνῃσι τάλαντα
Ζεύς, ὅς τʼ ἀνθρώπων ταμίης πολέμοιο τέτυκται.
γαστέρι δʼ οὔ πως ἔστι νέκυν πενθῆσαι Ἀχαιούς·
λίην γὰρ πολλοὶ καὶ ἐπήτριμοι ἤματα πάντα
πίπτουσιν· πότε κέν τις ἀναπνεύσειε πόνοιο;
ἀλλὰ χρὴ τὸν μὲν καταθάπτειν ὅς κε θάνῃσι
νηλέα θυμὸν ἔχοντας ἐπʼ ἤματι δακρύσαντας·
ὅσσοι δʼ ἂν πολέμοιο περὶ στυγεροῖο λίπωνται
μεμνῆσθαι πόσιος καὶ ἐδητύος, ὄφρʼ ἔτι μᾶλλον
ἀνδράσι δυσμενέεσσι μαχώμεθα νωλεμὲς αἰεὶ
ἑσσάμενοι χροῒ χαλκὸν ἀτειρέα. μηδέ τις ἄλλην
λαῶν ὀτρυντὺν ποτιδέγμενος ἰσχαναάσθω·
ἥδε γὰρ ὀτρυντὺς κακὸν ἔσσεται ὅς κε λίπηται
νηυσὶν ἐπʼ Ἀργείων· ἀλλʼ ἀθρόοι ὁρμηθέντες
Τρωσὶν ἐφʼ ἱπποδάμοισιν ἐγείρομεν ὀξὺν Ἄρηα.