What do we need with wrangling, hurling insults? Cursing each other here like a pair of nagging women boiling over with petty, heartsick squabbles, blustering into the streets to pelt themselves with slander much of it true, much not

What do we need with wrangling, hurling insults?
Cursing each other here like a pair of nagging women
boiling over with petty, heartsick squabbles, blustering
into the streets to pelt themselves with slander
much of it true, much not. Anger stirs up lies.
I blaze for battle – your taunts can’t turn me back,
not until we’re fought it out with bronze. On with it –
taste the bite of each other’s brazen spears!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 20, lines 291-298. As Aeneas and Achilles prepare to fight Achilles taunts his opponent, who makes this reply. Using an epic simile, Aeneas tells Achilles that they should stop trading insults like a pair of nagging women. He also lets the Greek hero know that he is eager for battle and Achilles’s taunts won’t turn him back.

Homer Quotes