He took the sons of Nestor, Meges, Thoas, Meriones, Lycomedes, and Melanippus, and went to Agamemnon's tent. At once they brought out the seven tripods, twenty cauldrons, twelve horses, and seven women skilled in work, with Briseis making eight. Odysseus weighed ten talents of gold and led the way back while the young men carried the rest and set them in the middle of the assembly.
Agamemnon rose. Talthybius brought the boar. The son of Atreus drew the knife by his sword and cut bristles from the beast, lifting his hands in prayer. The Achaeans sat silent. He looked into the vault of heaven and called Zeus first and greatest, Earth, Sun, and the Erinyes who punish false oaths below, to witness that he had never laid hand on the girl Briseis, neither to bed her nor for any other cause, but that she had stayed untouched in his shelters. If he swore falsely, may the gods give him many pains.
He cut the boar's throat. Talthybius whirled the body and flung it into the wide sea for the fishes. Achilles rose and said that Father Zeus truly blinds men's eyes. Otherwise the son of Atreus would not have stirred him to such anger or taken Briseis so stubbornly against his will. Zeus must have meant the ruin of many Argives. Go now, he said, and take your food, that we may begin fighting.
He broke up the assembly, and each man went to his own ship. The Myrmidons carried the presents to Achilles's ship and stored them in his tents; the stablemen drove the horses in among the others.
When Briseis, fair as a goddess, saw Patroclus mangled, she flung herself on him and cried aloud, tearing breast, neck, and face. Patroclus, she wept, when I went from here I left you living; I return and find you dead. Fresh sorrows pile on me. I saw the man my father and mother gave me cut down before our city, and my three brothers died the same day; yet when Achilles killed my husband and sacked the city of godlike Mynes, you would not let me weep. You said you would make me Achilles's wedded wife and take me in the ships to Phthia, and feast among the Myrmidons. So I mourn you forever gentle.
She wept, and the women joined her lament as if for Patroclus, though each cried for her own pain. The elders of the Achaeans gathered round Achilles and begged him to eat, but he groaned and would not. Bid me neither eat nor drink, he said, if any comrade will hear; I am in heavy grief and will fast until the sun goes down.