Complete Works of Homer

by Homer

  Afflicts it not thy honoured heart to see rude spoil devour

  These Greeks that have in Helice, and Aege, off'red thee

  So many and such wealthy gifts? Let them the victors be.

  If we, that are the aids of Greece, would beat home these of Troy,

  And hinder broad-eyed Jove's proud will, it would abate his joy."

  He, angry, told her she was rash, and he would not be one,

  Of all the rest, should strive with Jove, whose power was matched by none.

  Whiles they conferred thus, all the space the trench contained before

  (From that part of the fort that flanked the navy-anchoring shore)

  Was filled with horse and targeteers, who there for refuge came,

  By Mars-swift Hector's power engaged; Jove gave his strength the fame;

  And he with spoilful fire had burned the fleet, if Juno's grace

  Had not inspired the king himself to run from place to place,

  And stir up every soldier's power to some illustrious deed.

  First visiting their leaders' tents, his ample purple weed

  He wore, to show all who he was, and did his station take

  At wise Ulysses' sable barks that did the battle make

  Of all the fleet; from whence his speech might with more ease be driven

  To Ajax' and Achilles' ships, to whose chief charge were given

  The vanguard and the rearguard both, both for their force of hand,

  And trusty bosoms. There arrived, thus urged he to withstand

  Th' insulting Trojans : " O what shame, ye empty-hearted lords,

  Is this to your admired forms! Where are your glorious words

  In Lemnos vaunting you the best of all the Grecian host?

  ' We are the strongest men,' ye said, ' we will command the most,

  Eating most flesh of high-horned beeves, and drinking cups full crowned,

  And every man a hundred foes, two hundred, will confound;

  Now all our strength, dared to our worst, one Hector cannot tame,'

  Who presently with horrid fire will all our fleet inflame.

  O Father Jove, hath ever yet thy most unsuffered hand

  Afflicted with such spoil of souls the king of any land,

  And taken so much fame from him, when I did never fail,

  Since under most unhappy stars this fleet was under sail,

  Thy glorious altars, I protest, but, above all the Gods,

  Have burnt fat thighs of beeves to thee, and prayed to raze th' abodes

  Of rape-defending Ilion? Yet grant, almighty Jove,

  One favour; — that we may at least with life from hence remove,

  Not under such inglorious hands the hands of death employ,

  And, where Troy should be stooped by Greece, let Greece fall under Troy."

  To this even weeping king did Jove remorseful audience give,

  And shook great heaven to him, for sign his men and he should live.

  Then quickly cast he off his hawk, the eagle prince of air,

  That perfects his unspotted vows; who seized in her repair

  A sucking hind calf, which she trussed in her enforcive seres,

  And by Jove's altar let it fall, amongst th' amazed peers,

  Where the religious Achive kings with sacrifice did please

  The author of all oracles, divine Saturnides.

  Now, when they knew the bird of Jove, they turned courageous head.

  When none, though many kings put on, could make his vaunt, he led

  Tydides to renewed assault, or issued first the dike,

  Or first did fight; but, far the first, stone dead his lance did strike

  Armed Agelaus, by descent surnamed Phradmonides;

  He turned his ready horse to flight, and Diomed's lance did seize

  His back betwixt his shoulder-blades, and looked out at his hreast:

  He fell, and his arms rang his fall. Th' Atrides next addressed

  Themselves to fight; th' Ajaces next, with vehement strength endued;

  Idomeneus, and his friend, stout Merion, next pursued;

  And after these Eurypylus, Evemon's honoured race;

  The nihth, with backward-wreathed bow, had little Teucer place.

  He still fought under Ajax' shield, who sometimes held it by,

  And then he looked his object out, and let his arrow fly,

  And, whomsover in the press he wounded, him he slew,

  Then under Ajax' sevenfold shield he presently withdrew.

  He fared like an unhappy child, that doth to mother run

  For succour, when he knows full well he some shrewd turn hath done.

  What Trojans then were to their deaths by Teucer's shafts impressed?

  Hapless Orsilochus was first, Ormenus, Ophelest,

  Dsetor, and hardy Cronius, and Lycophon divine,

  And Amopaon that did spring from Polysemon's line,

  And Menalippus; all, on heaps, he tumbled to the ground.

  The king rejoiced to see his shafts the Phrygian ranks confound,

  Who straight came near, and spake to him: " O Teucer, lovely man,

  Strike still so sure, and be a grace to every Grecian,

  And to thy father Telamon, who took thee kindly home

  (Although not by his wife his son) and gave thee foster room,

  Even from thy childhood; then to him, though far from hence removed,

  Make good fame reach; and to thyself I vow what shall be proved :

  If he that dreadful iEgis bears, and Pallas, grant to me

  Th' expugnance of well-builded Troy, I first will honour thee

  Next to myself with some rich gift, and put it in thy hand :

  A three foot vessel, that, for grace, in sacred fanes doth stand;

  Or two horse and a chariot; or else a lovely dame

  That may ascend on bed with thee, and amplify thy name."

  Teucer right nobly answered him: " Why, most illustrate king,

  I being thus forward of myself, dost thou adjoin a sting?

  Without which all the power I have I cease not to employ,

  For, from the place where we repulsed the Trojans towards Troy,

  I all the purple field have strewed with one or other slain.

  Eight shafts I shot, with long steel heads, of which not one in vain,

  All were in youthful bodies fixed, well skilled in war's constraint;

  Yet this wild dog, with all my aim, I have no power to taint.''

  This said, another arrow from his stiff string he sent

  At Hector, whom he longed to wound, but still amiss it went.

  His shaft smit fair Gorgythion, of Priam's princely race,

  Who in vEpina was brought forth, a famous town in Thrace,

  By Castianira, that for form was like celestial breed;

  And, as a crimson poppy flower, surcharged with his seed,

  And vernal humours falling thick, declines his heavy brow,

  So, of one side, his helmet's weight his fainting head did bow.

  Yet Teucer would another shaft at Hector's life dispose,

  So fain he such a mark would hit, but still beside it goes;

  Apollo did avert the shaft; but Hector's charioteer,

  Bold Archeptolemus, he smit, as he was rushing near

  To make the fight; to earth he fell, his swift horse back did fly,

  And there were both his strength and soul exiled eternally.

  Huge grief for Hector's slaughtered friend pinched in his mighty mind,

  Yet was he forced to leave him there, and his void place resigned

  To his sad brother, that was by, Cebriones; whose ear

  Receiving Hector's charge, he straight the weighty reins did bear;

  And Hector from his shining coach, with horrid voice, leaped on,

  To wreak his friend on Teucer's hand; and up he took a stone,

  With which he at the archer ran, who from his quiver drew

  A sharp
-piled shaft, and nocked it sure, but in great Hector flew

  With such fell speed, that, in his draught, he his right shoulder strook

  Where, 'twixt his neck and breast, the joint his native closure took.

  The wound was wondrous full of death, his string in sunder flees,

  His numbed hand fell strengthless down, and he upon his knees.

  Ajax neglected not to aid his brother thus depressed,

  But came and saft him with his shield; and two more friends, addressed

  To be his aid, took him to fleet, Mecisteus, Echius' son,

  And gay Alastor. Teucer sighed, for all his service done.

  Then did Olympus, with fresh strength, the Trojan powers revive

  Who to their trenches once again the troubled Greeks did drive.

  Hector brought terror with his strength, and ever fought before'.

  As when some highly-stomached hound, that hunts a sylvan boar,

  Or kingly lion, loves the haunch, and pincheth oft behind,

  Bold of his feet, and still observes the game to turn inclined,

  Not utterly dissolved in flight; so Hector did pursue,

  And whosoever was the last he ever did subdue.

  They fled, but, when they had their dike and palisadoes passed,

  (A number of them put to sword) at ships they stayed at last.

  Then mutual exhortations flew, then, all with hands and eyes

  Advanced to all the Gods, their plagues wrung from them open cries.

  Hector, with his four rich-maned horse, assaulting always rode,

  The eyes of Gorgon burnt in him, and war's vermilion God.

  The Goddess that all Goddesses, for snowy arms, outshined,

  Thus spake to Pallas, to the Greeks with gracious ruth inclined :

  “O Pallas, what a grief is this! Is all our succour past

  To these our perishing Grecian friends? At least withheld at last,

  Even now, when one man's violence must make them perish all

  In satisfaction of a fate so full of funeral?

  Hector Priamides now raves, no more to be endured,

  That hath already on the Greeks so many harms inured."

  The azure Goddess answered her: " This man hath surely found

  His fortitude and life dissolved, even on his father's ground,

  By Grecian valour, if my sire, infested with ill moods,

  Did not so dote on these of Troy, too jealous of their bloods,

  And ever an unjust repulse stands to my willing powers,

  Little rememb'ring what I did in all the desperate hours

  Of his affected Hercules; I ever rescued him,

  In labours of Eurystheus, untouched in life or limb,

  When he, heaven knows, with drowned eyes looked up for help to heaven,

  Which ever, at command of Jove, was by my suppliance given.

  But had my wisdom reached so far, to know of this event,

  When to the solid-ported depths of hell his son was sent

  To hale out hateful Pluto's dog from darksome Erebus,

  He had not 'scaped the streams of Styx, so deep and dangerous.

  Yet Jove hates me, and shows his love in doing Thetis' will,

  That kissed his knees, and stroked his chin, prayed, and importuned still,

  That he would honour with his aid her city-razing son,

  Displeased Achilles; and for him our friends are thus undone.

  But time shall come again, when he, to do his friends some aid,

  Will call me his Glaucopides, his sweet and blue-eyed Maid.

  Then harness thou thy horse for me, that his bright palace gates

  I soon may enter, arming me, to order these debates;

  And I will try if Priam's son will still maintain his cheer,

  When in the crimson paths of war I dreadfully appear;

  For some proud Trojans shall he sure to nourish dogs and fowls,

  And pave the shore with fat and flesh, deprived of lives and souls."

  Juno prepared her horse, whose manes ribands of gold enlaced.

  Pallas her parti-coloured robe on her bright shoulders cast,

  Divinely wrought with her own hands in th' entry of her sire,

  Then put she on her ample breast her under-arming tire,

  And on it her celestial arms. The chariot straight she takes,

  With her huge, heavy, violent lance, with which she slaughter makes

  Of armies fatal to her wrath. Saturnia whipped her horse,

  And heaven-gates, guarded by the Hours, op'd by their proper force.

  Through which they flew. Whom when Jove saw (set near th' Idalian springs)

  Highly displeased, he Iris called, that hath the golden wings,

  And said : " Fly, Iris, turn them back, let them not come at me,

  Our meetings, severally disposed, will nothing gracious be.

  Beneath their o'erthrown chariot I'll shiver their proud steeds,

  Hurl down themselves, their waggon break, and, for their stubborn deeds,

  In ten whole years they shall not heal the wounds I will impress

  With horrid thunder; that my maid may know when to address

  Arms 'gainst her father. For my wife, she doth not so offend,

  'Tis but her use to interrupt whatever I intend."

  Iris, with this, left Ida's hills, and up t' Olympus flew,

  Met near heaven-gates the Goddesses, and thus their haste withdrew :

  “What course intend you? Why are you wrapped with your fancies' storm?

  Jove likes not ye should aid the Greeks, but threats, and will perform,

  To crush in pieces your swift horse beneath their glorious yokes,

  Hurl down yourselves, your chariot break, and, those empoisoned strokes

  His wounding thunder shall imprint in your celestial parts,

  In ten full springs ye shall not cure; that She that tames proud hearts

  (Thyself, Minerva) may be taught to know for what, and when,

  Thou dost against thy father fight; for sometimes childeren

  May with discretion plant themselves against their fathers' wills,

  But not, where humours only rule, in works beyond their skills.

  For Juno, she offends him not, nor vexeth him so much,

  For 'tis her use to cross his will, her impudence is such,

  The habit of offence in this she only doth contract,

  And so grieves or incenseth less, though ne'er the less her fact.

  But thou most griev'st him, dogged dame, whom he rebukes in time,

  Lest silence should pervert thy will, and pride too highly climb

  In thy bold bosom, desperate girl, if seriously thou dare

  Lift thy unwieldy lance 'gainst Jove, as thy pretences are."

  She left them, and Saturnia said : "Ah me! Thou seed of Jove,

  By my advice we will no more unfit contention move

  With Jupiter, for mortal men; of whom, let this man die,

  And that man live, whoever he pursues with destiny;

  And let him, plotting all events, dispose of either host,

  As he thinks fittest for them both, and may become us most."

  Thus turned she back, and to the Hours her rich-maned horse resigned,

  Who them t' immortal mangers bound; the chariot they inclined

  Beneath the crystal walls of heaven; and they in golden thrones

  Consorted other Deities, replete with passions.

  Jove, in his bright-wheeled chariot, his fiery horse now beats

  Up to Olympus, and aspired the Gods' eternal seats.

  Great Neptune loosed his horse, his car upon the altar placed,

  And heavenly-linen coverings did round about it cast.

  The Far-seer used his throne of gold. The vast Olympus shook

  Beneath his feet. His wife, and maid, apart their places took,

  Nor any word afforded him. He knew their thoughts, and said :

  “
Why do you thus torment yourselves? You need not sit dismayed

  With the long labours you have used in your victorious fight,

  Destroying Trojans, 'gainst whose lives you heap such high despite.

  Ye should have held your glorious course; for, be assured, as far

  As all my powers, by all means urged, could have sustained the war,

  Not all the host of Deities should have retired my hand

  From vowed inflictions on the Greeks, much less you two withstand.

  But you, before you saw the fight, much less the slaughter there,

  Had all your goodly lineaments possessed with shaking fear,

  And never had your chariot borne their charge to heaven again,

  But thunder should have smit you both, had you one Trojan slain."

  Both Goddesses let fall their chins upon their ivory breasts,

  Set next to Jove, contriving still afflicted Troy's unrests.

  Pallas for anger could not speak; Saturnia, contrary,

  Could not for anger hold her peace, but made this bold reply :

  '' Not-to-be-suffered Jupiter, what need'st thou still enforce

  Thy matchless power? We know it well; but we must yield remorse

  To them that yield us sacrifice. Nor need'st thou thus deride

  Our kind obedience, nor our griefs, bat bear our powers applied

  To just protection of the Greeks, that anger tomb not all

  In Troy's foul gulf of perjury, and let them stand should fall."

  “Grieve not," said Jove, " at all done yet; for, if thy fair eyes please,

  This next red morning they shall see the great Saturnides

  Bring more destruction to the Greeks; and Hector shall not cease,

  Till he have roused from the fleet swift-foot Aeacides,

  In that day, when before their ships, for his Patroclus slain,

  The Greeks in great distress shall fight; for so the Fates ordain.

  I weigh not thy displeased spleen, though to th' extremest bounds

  Of earth and seas it carry thee, where endless night confounds

  Japet, and my dejected Sire, who sit so far beneath,

  They never see the flying sun, nor hear the winds that breathe,

  Near to profoundest Tartarus. Nor, thither if thou went,

  Would I take pity of thy moods, since none more impudent."

  To this she nothing did reply. Aild now Sol's glorious light

  Fell to the sea, and to the land drew up the drowsy night.

  The Trojans grieved at Phoebus' fall, which all the Greeks desired,

  And sable night, so often wished, to earth's firm throne aspired.

  Hector, intending to consult, near to the gulfy flood,