User:Caro de Segeda/Literature

Iliad

Goddess, sing me the anger, of Achilles, Peleus' son. That deadly anger that brought huge sadness on the Greeks, and sent many brave souls of warriors down to Hades. It left their bodies as spoil for dogs and birds: for this way was the will of Zeus brought to fulfilment. Sing of it from the moment when Agamemnon, Atreus' son, that king of men, separated in anger with the noble Achilles.

Which of the gods set these two to argue? Apollo, the son of Leto and Zeus, was angry with the king because the son of Atreus had dishonored Chryses the priest. So he brought an evil disease on the army, so that the men were dying. Chryses was who came to the fast Achaean ships, to free his daughter. To to so, he brought a big ransom, carrying a golden staff decorated with the ribbons of Apollo, who strikes from far. He called out to the Achaeans, above all to the two leaders of armies, those sons of Atreus: ‘Atreides, and all you Achaeans wearing bronze greaves , may the gods who live on Olympus grant you to sack Priam’s city, and sail back home in safety. But take this ransom, and free my darling child; show reverence for Zeus’s son, far-striking Apollo.’

Quixote

In a village of La Mancha, whose name I don't want to remember, there lived not long ago one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old shield, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing. A pot of some more beef than mutton, a salad on most nights, scraps on Saturdays, lentils on Fridays, and a pigeon or so extra on Sundays, made away with three-quarters of his income. The rest of it went in a doublet of fine cloth and velvet pants and shoes to match for holidays, while on week-days he made a brave figure in his best home-made. He had in his house a housekeeper past forty, a niece under twenty, and a young man for the field and market-place, who used to saddle the hack as well as handle the bill-hook. Our gentleman was near fify; he was of a hardy habit, spare, gaunt-featured, a very early riser and a great sportsman. They will have it his surname was Quixada or Quesada (for here there is some difference of opinion among the authors who write on the subject), although from reasonable guesses it seems plain that he was called Quexana. This, however, is of but little importance to our tale; it will be enough not to stray a bit from the truth when telling it.

You must know, then, that the abovementioned gentleman, whenever he had free time (which was most of the year) read books of chivalry. He did so with such passion that he almost forgot about his field-sports, and even the management of his property. And he was so obssessed that he sold many an acre of farmland to buy books of chivalry to read, and brought home as many of them as he could get.

Chapter VI: Of the amusing and great scrutiny which the priest and the barber made in the library of our ingenious gentleman

He was still sleeping; so the priest asked the niece for the keys of the room where the books, the authors of all the mischief, were. Right willingly she gave them. They all went in, the housekeeper with them. They found more than a hundred volumes of big books very well bound, and some other small ones. The moment the housekeeper saw them she turned about and ran out of the room. She came back immediately with a saucer of holy water and a sprinkler. and she said, "Here, your worship, senor licentiate, sprinkle this room. Don't leave any magician of the many there are in these books to bewitch us in revenge for our design of banishing them from the world."