§3.1Quam legis, a rapta Briseide littera venit, §3.2Vix bene barbarica Graeca notata manu. §3.3Quascumque adspicies, lacrimae fecere lituras; §3.4Sed tamen et lacrimae pondera vocis habent. §3.5Si mihi pauca queri de te dominoque viroque §3.6Fas est, de domino pauca viroque querar. §3.7Non, ego poscenti quod sum cito tradita regi, §3.8Culpa tua est — quamvis haec quoque culpa tua est; §3.9Nam simul Eurybates me Talthybiusque vocarunt, §3.10Eurybati data sum Talthybioque comes. §3.11Alter in alterius iactantes lumina vultum §3.12Quaerebant taciti, noster ubi esset amor. §3.13Differri potui; poenae mora grata fuisset.
The letter you are reading comes from the abducted Briseis, scarcely well-written in Greek by a barbarian hand. Wherever you look, tears have made blots; but nevertheless, even tears have the weight of a voice. If it is permitted for me to complain a little about you, both my master and my husband, I shall complain a little of my master and my husband. That I was quickly handed over to the demanding king is not your fault — although this too is your fault; For as soon as Eurybates and Talthybius called me, I was given as a companion to Eurybates and Talthybius. Casting their eyes each upon the other's face, they asked in silence where our love was. I could have been delayed; the postponement of my punishment would have been welcome.
§3.14Ei mihi! discedens oscula nulla dedi;
Woe is me!
§3.15At lacrimas sine fine dedi rupique capillos — §3.16Infelix iterum sum mihi visa capi! §3.17Saepe ego decepto volui custode reverti, §3.18Sed, me qui timidam prenderet, hostis erat. §3.19Si progressa forem, caperer ne, nocte, timebam, §3.20Quamlibet ad Priami munus itura nurum. §3.21Sed data sim, quia danda fui — tot noctibus absum §3.22Nec repetor; cessas, iraque lenta tua est. §3.23Ipse Menoetiades tum, cum tradebar, in aurem §3.24'Quid fles? hic parvo tempore,' dixit, 'eris.
Departing, I gave no kisses; But I gave tears without end, and tore my hair — unhappy, I seemed to myself to be captured a second time! Often I wanted to return, having deceived my guard, but there was an enemy who would seize me in my fear. If I had gone forward, I was afraid lest I should be captured in the night, destined to go as a gift to any daughter-in-law of Priam. But grant that I was given up, since I had to be given — I am absent for so many nights, and I am not reclaimed; you delay, and your anger is slow. The son of Menoetius himself, at the very time when I was being handed over, whispered in my ear: 'Why do you weep?
' §3.25Nec repetisse parum; pugnas ne reddar, Achille!
You will be here in a short time.' Not to have reclaimed me is too little; you fight, Achilles, lest I be returned!
§3.26I nunc et cupidi nomen amantis habe! §3.27Venerunt ad te Telamone et Amyntore nati — §3.28Ille gradu propior sanguinis, ille comes — §3.29Laertaque satus, per quos comitata redirem §3.30(auxerunt blandas grandia dona preces) §3.31Viginti fulvos operoso ex aere lebetas, §3.32Et tripodas septem pondere et arte pares; §3.33Addita sunt illis auri bis quinque talenta, §3.34Bis sex adsueti vincere semper equi, §3.35Quodque supervacuum est, forma praestante puellae §3.36Lesbides, eversa corpora capta domo, §3.37Cumque tot his — sed non opus est tibi coniuge — coniunx §3.38Ex Agamemnoniis una puella tribus. §3.39Si tibi ab Atride pretio redimenda fuissem, §3.40Quae dare debueras, accipere illa negas! §3.41Qua merui culpa fieri tibi vilis, Achille?
Go now, and hold the name of an eager lover! The sons of Telamon and Amyntor came to you — the one closer in degree of blood, the other your companion — And the son of Laertes, accompanied by whom I might return (great gifts increased their coaxing prayers): Twenty yellow cauldrons of elaborate bronze, and seven tripods equal in weight and skill; Twice five talents of gold were added to them, twice six horses accustomed always to win, And, what is superfluous, Lesbian girls of outstanding beauty, captives from a ruined home; And with all these — though you have no need of a wife — a wife, one girl from Agamemnon's three. If I had had to be ransomed by you from the son of Atreus with a price, those very things which you ought to have given, you refuse to receive! By what fault of mine have I deserved to become cheap to you, Achilles?
§3.42Quo levis a nobis tam cito fugit amor? §3.43An miseros tristis fortuna tenaciter urget, §3.44Nec venit inceptis mollior hora malis? §3.45Diruta Marte tuo Lyrnesia moenia vidi — §3.46Et fueram patriae pars ego magna meae; §3.47Vidi consortes pariter generisque necisque §3.48Tres cecidisse, quibus, quae mihi, mater erat; §3.49Vidi, quantus erat, fusum tellure cruenta §3.50Pectora iactantem sanguinolenta virum. §3.51Tot tamen amissis te conpensavimus unum; §3.52Tu dominus, tu vir, tu mihi frater eras. §3.53Tu mihi, iuratus per numina matris aquosae, §3.54Utile dicebas ipse fuisse capi — §3.55Scilicet ut, quamvis veniam dotata, repellas §3.56Et mecum fugias quae tibi dantur opes! §3.57Quin etiam fama est, cum crastina fulserit Eos, §3.58Te dare nubiferis lintea velle Notis. §3.59Quod scelus ut pavidas miserae mihi contigit aures, §3.60Sanguinis atque animi pectus inane fuit. §3.61Ibis et — o miseram! — cui me, violente, relinquis?
Whither has your light love fled from us so quickly? Or does a harsh fortune press tenaciously upon the miserable, and does no gentler hour come to evils that have begun? I saw the walls of Lyrnesus destroyed by your warfare — and I had been a great part of my fatherland; I saw three fall, sharers alike of birth and of death, who had the same mother as I; I saw my great husband stretched on the bloody earth, tossing his bleeding breast. Yet for so many lost things we compensated with you alone; you were my master, you my husband, you my brother. You yourself, having sworn by the divinity of your watery mother, used to tell me that it was useful for me to have been captured — Doubtless so that, although I come with a dowry, you may reject me, and flee from the riches that are given to you along with me! Nay, there is even a rumor that when tomorrow's Dawn shines, you wish to give your sails to the cloud-bearing South winds. When this crime reached the trembling ears of miserable me, my breast was empty of blood and of spirit. You will go and — oh, miserable me! — to whom do you leave me, violent man?
§3.62Quis mihi desertae mite levamen erit? §3.63Devorer ante, precor, subito telluris hiatu §3.64Aut rutilo missi fulminis igne cremer, §3.65Quam sine me Pthiis canescant aequora remis, §3.66Et videam puppes ire relicta tuas! §3.67Si tibi iam reditusque placent patriique Penates, §3.68Non ego sum classi sarcina magna tuae. §3.69Victorem captiva sequar, non nupta maritum; §3.70Est mihi, quae lanas molliat, apta manus. §3.71Inter Achaeiadas longe pulcherrima matres §3.72In thalamos coniunx ibit eatque tuos, §3.73Digna nurus socero, Iovis Aeginaeque nepote, §3.74Cuique senex Nereus prosocer esse velit. §3.75Nos humiles famulaeque tuae data pensa trahemus, §3.76Et minuent plenas stamina nostra colos. §3.77Exagitet ne me tantum tua, deprecor, uxor —
Who will be a gentle consolation to me, deserted as I am? I pray that I may be devoured beforehand by a sudden gaping of the earth, or be burned by the red fire of a sent lightning bolt, Rather than the seas grow white with Phthian oars without me, and I, left behind, see your ships depart! If return and your ancestral Penates now please you, I am not a great burden to your fleet. I, a captive, shall follow the victor, not as a bride her husband; I have a hand suited to soften wool. Far the most beautiful among Achian mothers, a wife will go, and let her go, into your bridal chambers, A daughter-in-law worthy of her father-in-law, the grandson of Jupiter and Aegina, and one to whom old Nereus would wish to be a great-father-in-law. We, humble and your handmaids, shall spin the assigned tasks, and our threads will diminish the full distaffs. Only, I pray, let your wife not torment me —