To him lord Agamemnon made answer and said: "Not in this wise, strong as
thou art, O godlike Achilles, beguile thou me by craft; thou shalt not
outwit me nor persuade me. Dost thou wish, that thou mayest keep thy
meed of honour, for me to sit idle in bereavement, and biddest me give
her back? Nay, if the great-hearted Achaians will give me a meed suited
to my mind, that the recompense be equal--but if they give it not, then
I myself will go and take a meed of honour, thine be it or Aias', or
Odysseus' that I will take unto me; wroth shall he be to whomsoever I
come. But for this we will take counsel hereafter; now let us launch a
black ship on the great sea, and gather picked oarsmen, and set therein
a hecatomb, and embark Chryseis of the fair cheeks herself, and let one
of our counsellors be captain, Aias or Idomeneus or goodly Odysseus, or
thou, Peleides, most redoubtable of men, to do sacrifice for us and
propitiate the Far-darter."

Then Achilles fleet of foot looked at him scowling and said: "Ah me,
thou clothed in shamelessness, thou of crafty mind, how shall any
Achaian hearken to thy bidding with all his heart, be it to go a journey
or to fight the foe amain? Not by reason of the Trojan spearmen came I
hither to fight, for they have not wronged me; never did they harry mine
oxen nor my horses, nor ever waste my harvest in deep-soiled Phthia, the
nurse of men; seeing there lieth between us long space of shadowy
mountains and sounding sea; but thee, thou shameless one, followed we
hither to make thee glad, by earning recompense at the Trojans' hands
for Menelaos and for thee, thou dog-face! All this thou threatenest
thyself to take my meed of honour, wherefor I travailed much, and the
sons of the Achaians gave it me. Never win I meed like unto thine, when
the Achaians sack any populous citadel of Trojan men; my hands bear the
brunt of furious war, but when the apportioning cometh then is thy meed
far ampler, and I betake me to the ships with some small thing, yet my