previous next

[560] This sudden outburst on Achilles' part has been adversely criticised on the ground that Priam's words include nothing to account for so sudden a change of tone. The explanation surely is that the terrible struggle which Achilles is going through cannot be more vividly indicated than by his intense sensitiveness to even the most innocent word which can be supposed to imply hurry or doubt. He must work the matter out in his own way and at his own time, if it is to be carried through at all. And it is thoroughly natural that a man should feel some irritation at repeated prayers to do a thing which he has already, under compulsion, decided to do.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: