Complete Works of Homer

by Homer

  Of sandy Pylos, seated where Alpheus' flood doth run,

  And called Thryessa; this they sieged, and gladly would have won,

  But, having passed through all our fields, Minerva as our spy

  Fell from Olympus in the night, and armed us instantly;

  Nor mustered she unwilling men, nor unprepared for force.

  My sire yet would not let me arm, but hid away my horse,

  Esteeming me no soldier yet; yet shined I nothing less

  Amongst our gallants, though on foot; Minerva's mightiness

  Led me to fight, and made me hear a soldier's worthy name.

  There is a flood falls into sea, and his crooked course doth frame

  Close to Arena, and is called bright Minyseus' stream.

  There made we halt, and there the sun cast many a glorious beam

  On our bright armours, horse and foot insea'd together there.

  Then marched we on. By fiery noou we saw the sacred clear

  Of great Alphseus, where to Jove we did fair sacrifice;

  And to the azure God, that rules the under-liquid skies,

  We offered up a solemn bull; a bull t' Alpheeus' name;

  And to the blue-eyed Maid we burned a heifer never tame.

  Now was it night; we supped and slept, about the flood, in arms.

  The foe laid hard siege to our town, and shook it with alarms,

  But, for prevention of their spleens, a mighty work of war

  Appeared behind them; for as soon as Phoebus' fiery car

  Cast night's foul darkness from his wheels (invoking reverend Jove,

  And the unconquered Maid his birth) we did th' event approve,

  And gave them battle. First of all, I slew (the army saw)

  The mighty soldier Mulius, Augeas' son-in-law,

  And spoiled him of his one-hooved horse; his eldest daughter was

  Bright Agamede, that for skill in simples did surpass,

  And knew as many kind of drugs as earth's broad centre bred.

  Him charged I with my brass-armed lance, the dust received him dead.

  I, leaping to his chariot, amongst the foremost pressed,

  And the great-hearted Elians fled frighted, seeing their best

  And loftiest soldier taken down, the general of their horse.

  I followed like a black whirlwind, and did for prize enforce

  Full fifty chariots, every one furnished with two armed men,

  Who ate the earth, slain with my lance. And I had slaughtered then

  The two young boys, Moliones, if their world-circling sire,

  Great Neptune, had not saft their lives, and covered their retire

  With unpierced clouds. Then Jove bestowed a haughty victory

  Upon us Pylians; for so long we did the chase apply,

  Slaughtering and making spoil of arms, till sweet Buprasius' soil,

  Alesius, and Olenia, were famed with our recoil;

  For there Minerva turned our power, and there the last I slew

  As, when our battle joined, the first. The Pylians then withdrew

  To Pylos from Buprasius. Of all the Immortals then

  They most thanked Jove for victory; Nestor the most of men.

  Such was I ever, if I were employed with other peers,

  And I had honour of my youth which dies not in my years,

  But great Achilles only joys hability of act

  In his brave prime, and doth not deign t' impart it where 'tis lacked.

  No doubt he will extremely mourn long after that black hour

  Wherein our ruin shall be wrought, and rue his ruthless power.

  O friend! my memory revives the charge Mencetius gave

  Thy toward'nSss, when thou sett'st forth, to keep out of the grave

  Our wounded honour. I myself and wise Ulysses were

  Within the room, where every word then spoken we did hear,

  For we were come to Peleus' court, as we did mustering pass

  Through rich Achaia, where thy sire, renowned Menoetius, was,

  Thyself and great Aeacides, when Peleus the king

  To thunder-loving Jove did burn an ox for offering,

  In his court-yard. A cup of gold, crowned with red wine, he held

  On th' holy incensory poured. You, when the ox was felled,

  Were dressing his divided limbs. We in the portal stood.

  Achilles seeing us come so near, his honourable blood

  Was struck with a respective shame, rose, took us by the hands,

  Brought us both in, and made us sit,.and used his kind commands

  For seemly hospitable rights, which quickly were apposed.

  Then, after needfulness of food, I first of all disclosed

  The royal cause of our repair; moved you and your great friend

  To consort our renowned designs; both straight did condescend.

  Your fathers knew it, gave consent, and grave instruction

  To both your valours. Peleus charged his most unequalled son

  To govern his victorious strength, and shine past all the rest

  In honour as in mere main force. Then were thy partings blest

  With dear advices from thy sire; 1 My loved son,' said he,

  ' Achilles, by his grace of birth, superior is to thee,

  And for his force more excellent, yet thou more ripe in years;

  Then with sound counsels, age's fruits, employ his honoured years,

  Command and overrule his moods; his nature will obey

  la any charge discreetly given, that doth his good assay.'

  “Thus charged thy sire, which thou forgett'st. Yet now at last approve,

  With forced reference of these, th' attraction of his love;

  Who knows if sacred influence may bless thy good intent,

  And enter with thy gracious words, even to his full consent?

  The admonition of a friend is sweet and vehement.

  If any oracle he shun, or if his mother-queen

  Hath brought him some instinct from Jove that fortifies his spleen,

  Let him resign command' to thee of all his Myrmidons,

  And yield by that means some repulse to our confusions,

  Adorning thee in his bright arms, that his resembled form

  May haply make thee thought himself, and calm this hostile storm;

  That so a little we may ease our overcharged hands,

  Draw some breath, not expire it all. The foe but faintly stands

  Beneath his labours; and your charge being fierce, and freshly given,

  They easily from our tents and fleet may to their walls be driven."

  This moved the good Patroclus' mind, who made his utmost haste

  T' inform his friend; and as the fleet of Ithacus he past,

  (At which their markets were disposed, counsels, and martial courts,

  And where to th' altars of the Gods they made divine resorts)

  He met renowned Eurypylus, Evemon's noble son,

  Halting, his thigh hurt with a shaft, the liquid sweat did run

  Down from his shoulders and his brows, and from his raging wound

  Forth flowed his melancholy blood, yet still his mind was sound.

  His sight in kind Patroclus' breast to sacred pity turned,

  And (nothing more immartial for true ruth) thus he mourned:

  “Ah wretched progeny of Greece, princes, dejected kings,

  Was it your fates to nourish beasts, and serve the outcast wings

  Of savage vultures here in Troy? Tell me, Evemon's fame,

  Do yet the Greeks withstand his force whom yet no force can tame?

  Or are they hopeless thrown to death by his resistless lance?"

  “Divine Patroclus," he replied, " no more can Greece advance

  Defensive weapons, hut to fleet they headlong must retire,

  For those that to this hour have held our fleet from hostile fire,

  And are the bulwarks of our host, lie wounded at their tents,


  And Troy's unvanquishable power, still as it toils, augments.

  But take me to thy black-sterned ship, save me, and from my thigh

  Cut out this arrow, and the blood, that is ingored and dry,

  Wash with warm water from the wound; then gentle salves apply,

  Which thou knowest best, thy princely friend hath taught thee surgery,

  Whom, of all Centaurs the most just, Chiron did institute.

  Thus to thy honourable hands my ease I prosecute,

  Since our physicians cannot help. Machaon at his tent

  Needs a physician himself, being leech and patient;

  And Podalirius, in the field, the sharp conflict sustains."

  Strong Menoetiades replied : " How shall I ease thy pains?

  What shall we do, Eurypylus? I am to use all haste

  To signify to Thetis' son occurrents that have past

  At Nestor's honourable suit. But be that work achieved

  When this is done, I will not leave thy torments unrelieved."

  This said, athwart his back he cast, beneath his breast, his arm,

  And nobly helped him to his tent. His servants, seeing his harm,

  Dispread ox-hides upon the earth, whereon Machaon lay.

  Patroclus cut out the sharp shaft, and clearly washed away

  With lukewarm water the black blood; then 'twixt his hands he bruised

  A sharp and mitigatory root, which when he had infused'

  Into the green, well-cleansed, wound, the pains he felt before

  Were well, and instantly allayed, the wound- did bleed no-more.

  BOOK XII.

  ARGUMENT.

  The Trojans at the trench their pow'rs engage,

  Though greeted by a bird of had presage.

  In five parts they divide their pow' r to scale,

  And Prince Sarpedon forceth down the pale.

  Great Hector from the ports tears out a stone,

  And with so dead a strength he sets it gone

  At those broad gates the Grecians made to guard

  Their tents and ships, that, broken, and unbarred,

  They yield way to his power; when all contend

  To reach the ships; which all at last ascend.

  ANOTHER ARGUMENT.

  Mu works the Trojans all the grace,

  And doth the Grecian fort deface.

  PATROCLUS thus employed in cure of hurt Eurypylus,

  Both hosts are all for other wounds doubly contentious,

  One always labouring to expel, the other to invade.

  Nor could the broad dike of the Greeks, nor that strong wall

  they made

  To guard their fleet, be long unrac't, becausc it was not raised

  By grave direction of the Gods, nor were their Deities praised

  (When they begun) with hecatombs, that then they might be sure

  Their strength being seasoned well with heaven's) it should have force t' endure,

  And so, the safeguard of their fleet, and all their treasure there,

  Infallibly had been confirmed; when, now, their bulwarks were

  Not only without power of check to their assaulting foe

  (Even now, as soon as they were built) but apt to overthrow;

  Such as, in very little time, shall bury all their sight

  And thought that ever they were made. As long as the despight

  Of great Aeacides held up, and Hector went not down,

  And that by thosg two means stood safe king Priam's sacred town,

  So long their rampire had some use, though now it gave some way;

  Rut when Troy's best men suffered fate, and many Greeks did pay

  .Dear for their sufferance, then the rest home to their country turned,

  The tenth year of their wars at Troy, and Troy was sacked and burned.

  And then the Gods fell to their fort; then they their powers employ

  To ruin their work, and left less of that than they of Troy.

  Neptune and Phoebus tumbled down from the Idalian hills

  An inundation of all floods that thence the broad sea fills

  On their huge rampire; in one glut, all these together roared,

  Rhesus, Heptaporus, Rhodius, Scamander the adored,

  Caresus, Simois, Grenicus, iEsepus; of them all

  Apollo opened the rough mouths, and made their lusty fall

  Ravish the dusty champian, where many a helm and shield,

  And half-god race of men, were strewed. And, that all these might yield

  Full tribute to the heavenly work, Neptune and Phoebus won

  Jove to unburthen the black wombs of clouds, filled by the sun,

  And pour them into all their streams, that quickly they might send

  The huge wall swimming to the sea. Nine days their lights did spend

  To nights in tempests; and when all their utmost depth had made,

  Jove, Phoebus, Neptune, all came down, and all in state did wade

  To ruin of that impious fort. Great Neptune went before,

  Wrought with his trident, and the stones, trunks, roots of trees, he tore

  Out of the rampire, tossed them all into the Hellespont,

  Even all the proud toil of the Greeks with which they durst confront

  The to-be-shunned Deities, and not a stone remained

  Of all their huge foundations, all with the earth were plained.

  Which done, again the Gods turned back the silver-flowing floods

  By that vast channel through whose vaults they poured abroad their broods,

  And covered all the ample shore again with dusty sand.

  And this the end was of that wall, where now so many a hand

  Was emptied of stones and darts, contending to invade,

  Where Clamour spent so high a throat, and where the fell blows made

  The new-built wooden turrets groan. And here the Greeks were pent,

  Tamed with the iron whip of Jove that terrors vehement

  Shook over them by Hector's hand, who was in every thought

  The terror-master of the field, and like a whirlwind fought,

  As fresh as in his morn's first charge. And as a savage boar,'

  Or lion, hunted long, at last, with hounds' and hunters' store

  Is compassed round; they charge him close, and stand (as in a tower

  They had inchased him) pouring on of darts an iron shower;

  His glorious heart yet nought appalled, and forcing forth his way,

  Here overthrows a troop, and there a running ring doth stay

  His utter passage; when, again, that stay he overthrows,

  And then the whole field frees his rage; so Hector wearies blows,

  Runs out his charge upon the fort, and all his force would force

  To pass the dike; which, being so deep, they could not get their horse

  To venture on, but trample, snore, and on the very brink

  To neigh with spirit, yet still stand off. Nor would a human think

  The passage safe; or, if it were, 'twas less safe for retreat;

  The dike being everywhere so deep, and, where 'twas least deep, set

  With stakes exceeding thick, sharp, strong, that horse could never pass,

  Much less their chariots after them; yet for the foot there was

  Some hopeful service, which they wished. Polydamas then spake :

  “Hector, and all our friends of Troy, we indiscreetly make

  Offer of passage with our horse; ye see the stakes, the wall,

  Impossible for horse to take'; nor can men fight at all,

  The place being strait, and much more apt to let us take our bane

  Than give the enemy. And yet, if Jove decree the wane

  Of Grecian glory utterly, and so bereave their hearts

  That we may freely charge them thus, and then will take our parts,

  I would with all speed wish th' assault, that ugly shame might shed

  (Thus far from
home) these Grecians' bloods. But, if they once turn head

  And sally on us from their fleet, when in so deep a dike

  We shall he straggling, not a man of all our host is like

  To live and carry back the news. And therefore be it thus :

  Here leave we horse kept by our men, and all on foot let us

  Hold close together, and attend the grace of Hector's guide,

  And then they shall not bear our charge, our conquest shall be dyed

  In their lives' purples." This advice pleased Hector, for 'twas sound;

  Who first obeyed it, and full armed betook him to the ground.

  And then all left their chariots when he was seen to lead,

  Rushing about him, and gave up each chariot and steed

  To their directors to be kept, in all procinct of war,

  There, and on that side of the dike. And thus the rest prepare

  Their onset: In five regiments they all their power divide, ,>

  Each regiment allowed three chiefs. Of all which even the pride

  Served in great Hector's regiment; for all were set on fire

  (Their passage beaten through the wall) with hazardous desire

  That they might once but fight at fleet. With Hector captains were

  Polydamas, and Cebriones, who was his charioteer.

  But Hector found that place a worse. Chiefs of the second band

  Were Paris, and Alcathous, Agenor. The command

  The third strong phalanx had was given to th' augur Helenus,

  Deiphobus, that god-like man, and mighty Asius,

  Even Asius Hyrtacides, that from Arisba rode

  The huge bay horse, and had his house where river Sellees flowed.

  The fourth charge good iEneas led, and with him were combined

  Archelochus, and Acamas, Antenor's dearest kind,

  And excellent at every fight. The fifth brave company

  Sarpedon had to charge, who chose, for his command's supply,

  Asteropaeus great in arms, and Glaucus; for both these

  Were best of all men but himself, but he was fellowless.

  Thus fitted with their well-wrought shields, down the steep dike they go,

  And (thirsty of the wall's assault) believe in overthrow,

  Not doubting but with headlong falls to tumble down the Greeks

  From their black navy. In which trust, all on; and no man seeks

  To cross Polydamas' advice with any other course,

  But Asius Hyrtacides, who (proud of his bay horse)

  Would not forsake them, nor his man, that was their manager,