Rage! Boundless and beautiful, guide my dory

Sing! Those who’re Stygian-bound! Sing, the song of my glory!

Scream your eternal laments and ready yourselves for Hades’ embrace

Your corpses creating a banquet for canine and crow

Oh my thanks to you Calchas for freeing me from my prison on Skyros

The Aegean ocean air fills my lungs as I stand amidst other Achaeans

My Hephaestus-forged armaments clenched, ready like reeds to etch my name in history

My mother tells me, the immortal goddеss Thetis

That two fates will bear mе on to the day of death

If I hold out here and I lay siege to Troy, my journey home is gone, but my glory will never die…

But if I voyage back to the fatherland I love, my pride, my repute, my glory dies…

The Moirai have fated my decision decided, a grander trophy: immortality in aristeia

Nine years have passed… and many have fallen beneath my blades

Twelve cities razed by the Achaean army

The Trojan efforts crushed before our coalition

Our victories unabated until routed by hierarchical hubris

Apollo punished us with plagues and maladies

A sacrifice was made, and my confidence betrayed: Chryseis for Briseis

Bastard! The disrespect, the folly, the myopia!

If Agamemnon cannot see, my absence shall be his and others’ misery

Patroclus, my empathic friend, couldn’t bear witness or acquiesce

Donning my linothorax he impersonated me and was met with fatality

Even Olympus heard my howls of rage

In an instant everything was taken from me…

I herded my friend and Mymidon kin to Hades…

Then suddenly, my Mother appeared tearful with new armor and shield in hand

Moirai be damned, I’ll take Hector’s life with my own two hands

My Hephaestus-forged armaments clenched, ready like reeds to etch my name in history

My rage beckons me, deserving Trojan-culprits…

That their blood and pain echo well after their deaths

Fodder discarded and Scamander incensed

I standing before the murderer and exclaim

I only wish my fury would compel me, to cut away your flesh and eat it raw

For what you’ve done, no one can keep the dogs off of your head…

The battle now over, Hector was slain yet my rage remained

Aghast, Troy watched as I tethered their champion behind my chariot

Triumphantly circling its walls dragging desecrated corpse in tow

The peace of Elysium this man will never know

His cunning father crept his way into our camp

Priam tearfully pleaded for his son’s body’s return

He explained Peleus will one day come to mourn me too…

Crestfallen father, you’re permitted to leave with your son’s remains

Hector and I are both preordained to doom

We men are wretched things…