“In free debate, my friends, your sentence speak; For me, I move, before the morning break, To raise our camp: too dangerous here our post, Far from Troy walls, and on a naked coast. I deem’d not Greece so dreadful, while engaged In mutual feuds her king and hero raged; Then, while we hoped our armies might prevail We boldly camp’d beside a thousand sail. I dread Pelides now: his rage of mind Not long continues to the shores confined, Nor to the fields, where long in equal fray Contending nations won and lost the day; For Troy, for Troy, shall henceforth be the strife, And the hard contest not for fame, but life. Haste then to Ilion, while the favouring night Detains these terrors, keeps that arm from fight. If but the morrow’s sun behold us here, That arm, those terrors, we shall feel, not fear; And hearts that now disdain, shall leap with joy, If heaven permit them then to enter Troy. Let not my fatal prophecy be true, Nor what I tremble but to think, ensue. Whatever be our fate, yet let us try What force of thought and reason can supply; Let us on counsel for our guard depend; The town her gates and bulwarks shall defend. When morning dawns, our well-appointed powers, Array’d in arms, shall line the lofty towers. Let the fierce hero, then, when fury calls, Vent his mad vengeance on our rocky walls, Or fetch a thousand circles round the plain, Till his spent coursers seek the fleet again: So may his rage be tired, and labour’d down! And dogs shall tear him ere he sack the town.”Iliad 18.23 · Iliad · 18
Iliad 18.23
Iliad · translated by Alexander Pope
Themes in this passage
AngerFearWarThe DivineFriendshipHopeJoyLeadership
Anger in other traditions
The same theme, as Hinduism and Christianity address it.
Yudhishthira said, ‘Anger is the slayer of men and is again their prosperor. Know this, O thou possessed of great wisdom, that anger is the root of all prosperity and all adversity. O thou beautiful one, he that suppresseth his anger earneth prosperity. That man, again, who always giveth way to anger, reapeth adversity from his fierce anger. It is seen in this world that anger is the cause of destruction of every creature. How then can one like me indulge his anger which is so destructive of the world? The angry man commiteth sin. The angry man killeth even his preceptors. The angry man insulteth even his superiors in harsh words. The man that is angry faileth to distinguish between what should be said and what should not. There is no act that an angry man may not do, no word that an angry man may not utter. From anger a man may slay one that deserveth not to be slain, and may worship one that deserveth to be slain. The angry man may even send his own soul to the regions of Yama. Beholding all these faults, the wise control their anger, desirous of obtaining high prosperity both in this and the other world. It is for this that they of tranquil souls have banished wrath. How can one like us indulge in it then? O daughter of Drupada, reflecting upon all this, my anger is not excited One that acteth not against a man whose wrath hath been up, rescueth himself as also others from great fear. In fact, he may be regarded to be the physician of the two (viz., himself and angry man). If a weak man, persecuted by others, foolishly becometh angry towards men that are mightier than he, he then becometh himself the cause of his own destruction. And in respect of one who thus deliberately throweth away his life, there are no regions hereafter to gain. Therefore, O daughter of Drupada, it hath been said that a weak man should always suppress his wrath.Mbh 3.29.1a · Mahabharata · VANA PARVA
Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.Psalms 69:24 · Bible · Psalms
Then Dadhimukh with fury viewed The intoxicated multitude. He looked upon the rifled shade, And all the ruin they had made; Then called with angry voice, and strove To save the remnant of the grove. But warning cries and words were spurned, And angry taunt and threat returned. Then fierce and wild contention rose: With furious words he mingled blows. They by no shame or fear withheld, By drunken mood and ire impelled, Used claws, and teeth, and hands, and beat The keeper under trampling feet.Ramayana 5.169 · Ramayana · 5
1. As the bowstring from the bow, thus do I take off thy anger from thy heart, so that, having become of the same mind, we shall associate like friends! 2. Like friends we shall associate-I take off thy anger. Under a stone that is heavy do we cast thy anger. 3. I step upon thy anger with my heel and my fore-foot, so that, bereft of will, thou shalt not speak, shalt come up to my wish!AV 6.43 · Atharva Veda · 6
See what all six traditions say about anger →
Search every tradition at once
Ask a question in your own words and see how six traditions answer it.