Phthia

They have not raided my cattle nor my horses, nor cut down my harvests on the fertile plains of Phthia;

it will be much better for me to return home with my ships, for I will not stay here dishonored to gather gold and substance for you.

If great Poseidon grants me a fair passage, in three days I shall be in Phthia.

or, supposing thou bear no children, will any one endure that sons of mine should rule oer Phthia?

And here I dwell upon the boundaries of Phthia and Pharsalia’s town, where Thetis erst, the goddess of the sea, abode with Peleus apart from the world, avoiding the throng of men;

suppose my daughter has no child, while this woman’s sons grow up, wilt thou set them up to rule the land of Phthia, barbarians born and bred to lord it over Hellenes?

so I wrote in a folded scroll and sent to my wife, bidding her despatch our daughter to me on the pretence of wedding Achilles, at the same time magnifying his exalted rank and saying that he refused to sail with the Achaeans, unless a bride of our lineage should go to Phthia.

He dwells on the banks of the river Apidanus, in the borders of Phthia.

or Sipylus, that frontier town of barbarism, the cradle of those chieftains’ line, will be henceforth a city indeed, while Phthia’s name will nowhere find mention.

Where are you being carried, unhappy wife, mounted on that chariot, side by side with Hector’s brazen arms and Phrygian spoils of war, with which Achilles’ son will deck the shrines of Phthia on his return from Troy?

What man of Argos or Phthia will bear me in sorrow far from Troy, to his home, or to some island fastness?

What city did you say, Thessalian, Phthian, or Cadmean?

For I do not consider you inferior to Peleus, nor would I call Macedonia weaker than Phthia, nor Olympus less renowned than Mount Pelion;

to some haven in the Dorian land, or in Phthia, where men say Apidanus, father of fairest streams, makes fat and rich the soil?

I dreamed that a beautiful, fair woman, clothed in white raiment, came to me and called me and said, Socrates, on the third day thou wouldst come to fertile Phthia.