Friday, December 18, 2015

Iliad 1 DEmnds Sacred Haralds



The army thus in sacred rites engaged,
Atrides still with deep resentment raged.
To wait his will two sacred heralds stood,
Talthybius and Eurybates the good.
"Haste to the fierce Achilles' tent (he cries),
Thence bear Briseis as our royal prize:
Submit he must; or if they will not part,
Ourself in arms shall tear her from his heart."
The unwilling heralds act their lord's commands;
Pensive they walk along the barren sands:
Arrived, the hero in his tent they find,
With gloomy aspect on his arm reclined.
At awful distance long they silent stand,
Loth to advance, and speak their hard command;
[pg 013]
Decent confusion! This the godlike man
Perceived, and thus with accent mild began:


The army had retird to sacred not war maneuvers. Thus they were peacefully in prayer.     Atrtedes was still chrged up as  Briseis leaves.  The people heralding teh return keep pensive vigil demanding teh prize return and the king bow his authority to thiers, these not teh first seem the enemies that are trying to undermine the ancient Greeks victory and prize, submit to thy, I do not think so, you should have nothing to do wirthis...
We have already comented that Briseis’ people not her were part of the biological warfare.
I have a suspicion there are going to be fetalities later amongst these people, we will seee later in the tale what is going on. 
“Submit he must; or if they will not part,
Ourself in arms shall tear her from his heart."
They really declare power over the ruler as if they have the strength to force the issue.
Though sacred Talthybius and Eurybates are reflecting the sentiments of those they represent ( though you might not bevel this the work has edited itself twice to point this out)
They two heralds are reflecting sentiments that get a lot of people connected to teh rpize in trouble, the prize is more than the female but teh authority of teh victory that caused the attempt to court her, sje is on teh rulers side though obedient to teh necessity to try to stop the desease plagueing teh Ancient Greeks.
The rulers heralds are reluctant to act as they empathise with teh plight of teh ruler, Atredes, and those heart broken by events, including those suffering teh plagues.  They are with proper propriety towards the ruler and act slow allowing proper semblance and propriety to rule the authority of their hands and what they need to do.\
For the ruler is holy and divine and a good one, thus this extra heartache and sacrifice to save his people is felt and appreciated with the solemn grace of admirers and friends who feel for him and everyone else respectfully.  Godlike was substituted by teh spirit of this tale to explain, that they did not see him as  a God but more godlike like a saint, goodly some might say, they spoke mildly rather than harshly as what he did was appropriate to his commission.

from : https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6130/6130-h/6130-h.html#toc5

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