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All the Achaeans roared out their support:

           "Respect the priest. Take the generous ransom."
 

Displeased, Agamemnon dismissed Chryses roughly:

          "Old man,
           don't let me catch you by our hollow ships,
           sneaking back here today or later on.                                 30
           Who cares about Apollo's scarf and staff?
           I'll not release the girl to you, no, not before
           she's grown old with me in Argos, far from home,
           working the loom, sharing my bed. Go away.
           If you want to get home safely, don't anger me."

The old man, afraid, obeyed his words, walked off in silence,
along the shore by the tumbling, crashing surf.
Some distance off, he prayed to Lord Apollo,
Leto's fair-haired child:

       "God with the silver bow,
        protector of Chryse, sacred Cilla,                                         40
        mighty lord of Tenedos, Sminthean Apollo,
        hear my prayer: If I've ever pleased you
        with a holy shrine, or burned bones for you—
        bulls and goats well wrapped in fat—
        grant me my prayer. Force the Danaans
        to pay full price for my tears with your arrows."

So Chryses prayed. Phoebus Apollo heard him.
He came down from Olympus top enraged,
carrying on his shoulders bow and covered quiver,
his arrows rattling in anger against his arm.                                    50
So the god swooped down, descending like the night.
He sat some distance from the ships, shot off an arrow—
the silver bow reverberating ominously.

¹Sminthean is a special epithet given to Apollo. It seems to mean something like "killer of field mice." Chryse is a small coastal town near Troy, where Chryses, the father of Chryseis, is a priest of Apollo.