Complete Works of Homer

by Homer

  From present rescue, but through all the whizzing spears he passed,

  And came where both were combating; whesn instantly he cast

  A mist before Achilles' eyes, drew from the earth and shield

  His lance, and laid it at his feet, and then took up and held

  Aloft the light Anchises' son, who passed, with Neptune's force,

  Whole orders of heroes' heads, and many a troop of horse

  Leaped over, till the bounds he reached of all the fervent broil

  Where all the Caucons' quarters lay. Thus, far freed from the toil,

  Neptune had time to use these words: " iEneas, who was he

  Of all the Gods, that did so much neglect thy good and thee

  To urge thy fight with Thetis' son, who in immortal rates

  Is better and more dear than thee? Hereafter, lest, past fates,

  Hell be thy headlong home, retire, make bold stand never near

  Where he advanceth. But his fate once satisfied, then bear

  A free and full sail; no Greek else shall end thee." This revealed,

  He left him, and dispersed the cloud that all this act concealed

  From vexed Achilles; who again had clear light from the skies,

  And, much disdaining the escape, said : " O ye Gods, mine eyes

  Discover miracles! My lance submitted, and he gone

  At whom I sent it with desire of his confusion!

  iEneas sure was loved of heaven. I thought his vaunt from thence

  Had flowed from glory. Let him go, no more experience

  Will his mind long for of my hands, he flies them now so clear.

  Cheer then the Greeks, and others try." Thus ranged he everywhere

  The Grecian orders; every man (of which the most looked on

  To see their fresh lord shake his lance) he thus put charge upon :

  “Divine Greeks, stand not thus at gaze, but' man to man apply

  Your several valours. 'Tis a task laid too unequally

  On me left to so many men, one man opposed to all.

  Not Mars, immortal and a God, not war's she-General,

  A field of so much fight could chase, and work it out with blows.

  But what a man may execute, that all limbs will expose,

  And all their strength to th' utmost nerve (though now I lost some play

  By some strange miracle) no more shall burn in vain the day

  To any least beam. All this host I'll ransack, and have hope,

  Of all not one again will 'scape, whoever gives such scope

  To his adventure, and so near dares tempt my angry lance."

  Thus he excited. Hector then as much strives to advance

  The hearts of his men, adding threats, affirming he would stand

  In combat with Aeacides: " Give fear," said he, " no hand

  Of your great hearts, brave Ilians, for Peleus' talking son.

  I'll fight with any God with words: but when their spears put on,

  The work runs high, their strength exceeds mortality so far,

  And they may make works crown their words, which hold not in the war

  Achilles makes; his hands have bounds; this word he shall make good,

  And leave another to the field. His worst shall be withstood

  With sole objection of myself, though in his hands he bear

  A rage like fire, though fire itself his raging fingers were,

  And burning steel flew in his strength." Thus he incited his;

  And they raised lances, and to work with mixed courages;

  And up flew Clamour. But the heat in Hector Phoebus gave

  This temper : " Do not meet," said he, " in any single brave

  The man thou threaten'st, but in press, and in thy strength impeach

  His violence, for far off, or near, his sword or dart will reach."

  The God's voice made a difference in Hector's own conceit

  Betwixt his and Achilles' words, and gave such overweight

  As weighed him back into his strength, and curbed his flying out.

  At all threw fierce Aeacides, and gave a horrid shout.

  The first of all he put to dart was fierce Iphition,

  Surnamed Otryntides, whom Nais the water-nymph made son

  To town-destroyer Otrynteus. Beneath the snowy hill

  Of Tmolus, in the wealthy town of Hyda, at his will

  Were many able men at arms. He, rushing in, took full

  Pelides' lance in his head's midst, that cleft in two his skull.

  Achilles knew him one much famed, and thus insulted then :

  “Thou'rt dead, Otryntides, though called the terriblest of men.

  Thy race runs at Gygseus'1 lake, there thy inheritance lay,

  Near fishy Hyllus and the gulfs of Hermus, but this day

  Removes it to the fields of Troy." Thus left he night to seize

  His closed eyes, his body laid in course of all the prease,

  Which Grecian horse broke with the strakes nailed to their chariot wheels.

  Next, through the temples, the burst eyes, his deadly javelin steels

  Of great^in-Troy Antenor's son, renowned Demoleon,

  A mighty turner of a field. His overthrow set gone

  Hippodamas, who leaped from horse, and, as he fled before

  Aeacides his turned back, he made fell Pelias gore,

  And forth he puffed his flying soul. And as a tortured bull,

  To Neptune brought for sacrifice, a troop of youngsters pull

  Down to the earth, and drag him round about the hallowed shore

  To please the wat'ry deity with forcing him to roar,

  And forth he pours his utmost throat; so bellowed this slain friend

  Of flying Ilion with the breath that gave his being end.

  Then rushed he on, and in his eye had heavenly Polydore,

  Old Priam's son, whom last of all his fruitful princess bore,

  And for his youth, being dear to him, the king forbade to fight.

  Yet (hot of unexperienced blood, to show how exquisite

  He was of foot, for which of all the fifty sons he held

  The special name) he flew before the first heat of the field,

  Even till he flew out breath and soul, which, through the back, the lance

  Of swift Achilles put in air, and did his head advance

  Out at his navel. On his knees the poor prince crying fell,

  And gathered with his tender hands his entrails that did swell

  Quite through the wide wound, till a cloud as black as death -concealed

  Their sight, and all the world from him. When Hector had beheld

  His brother tumbled so to earth, his entrails still in hand,

  Dark sorrow overcast his eyes, nor far off could he stand

  A minute longer, but like fire he brake out of the throng,

  Shook his long lance at Thetis' son; and then came he along

  To feed th' encounter : "O," said he, " here comes the man that most

  Of all the world destroys my mind, the man by whom I lost

  My dear Patroclus. Now not long the crooked paths of war

  Can yield us any privy 'scapes. ' Come, keep not off so far,' v

  He cried to Hector, ' make the pain of thy sure death as short

  As one so desperate of his life hath reason.'" In no sort

  This frighted Hector, who bore close, and said: " Aeacides,

  Leave threats for children. I have pow'r to thunder calumnies

  As well as others, and well know thy strength superior far

  To that my nerves hold; but the Gods, not nerves, determine -war.

  And yet, for nerves, there will be found a strength of pow'r in mine

  To drive a lance home to thy life. My lance as well as thine

  Hath point and sharpness, and 'tis this." Thus, brandishing his spear,.

  He set it flying, which a breath of Pallas back did bear

  From Thetis' son to Hector's
self, and at his feet it fell.

  Achilles used no dart, but close flew in, and thought to deal

  With no strokes but of sure dispatch, but, what with all his blood

  He laboured, Phoebus cleared with ease, £is being a God, and stood

  For Hector's guard, as Pallas did, Aeacides, for thine.

  He rapt him from him, and a cloud of much night cast between

  His person and the point opposed. Achilles then exclaimed :

  “O see, yet more Gods are at work. Apollo's hand hath framed,

  Dog that thou art, thy rescue now; to whom go pay thy vows

  Thy safety owes him, I shall vent in time those fatal blows

  That yet beat in my heart on thine, if any God remain

  My equal fautor. In mean time my anger must maintain

  His fire on other Ilians." Then laid he at his feet

  Great Demuchus, Philetor's son; and Dryope did greet

  With like encounter. Dardanus and strong Laogonus,

  Wise Bias' sons, he hurled from horse, of one victorious

  With his close sword, the other's life he conquered with his lance.

  Then Tros, Alastor's son, made in, and sought to 'scape their chance

  With free submission. Down he fell, and prayed about his knees

  He would not kill him, but take ruth, as one that destinies

  Made to that purpose, being a man born in the self-same year

  That he himself was. O poor fool, to sue to him to bear

  A ruthful mind! He well might know he could not fashion him

  In ruth's soft mould, he had no spirit to brook that interim

  In his hot fury, he was none of these remorseful men,

  Gentle and affable, but fierce at all times, and mad then.

  He gladly would have made a prayer, and still so hugged his knee

  He could not quit him; till at last his sword was fain to free

  His fettered knees, that made a vent for his white liver's blood

  That caused such pitiful affects, of which it poured a flood

  About his bosom, which it filled, even till it drowned his eyes,

  And all sense failed him. Forth then flew this prince of tragedies,

  Who next stooped Mulius even to death with his insatiate spear;

  One ear it entered, and made good his pass to th' other ear.

  Echeclus then, Agenor's son, he struck betwixt the brows,

  Whose blood set fire upon his sword, that cooled it till the throes

  Of his then labouring brain let out his soul to fixed fate,

  And gave cold entry to blaclp death. Deucalion then had state

  In these men's beings, where the nerves about the elbow knit,

  Down to his hand his' spear's steel pierced, and brought such pain to it

  As led death jointly, whom he saw before his fainting eyes,

  And in his neck felt with a stroke laid on so that off flies

  His head. One of the twice twelve bones that all the backbone make

  Let out his marrow, when the head he, helm and all, did take,

  And hurled amongst the Ilians; the body stretched on earth.

  Rhigmus of fruitful Thrace next fell. He was the famous birth

  Of Pireus; his belly's midst the lance took, whose stern force

  Quite tumbled him from chariot. In turning back the horse,

  Their guider Areithous received another lance

  That threw him to his lord. No end was put to the mischancc

  Achilles entered. But as fire, fall'n in a flash from heaven,

  Inflames the high woods of dry hills, and with a storm is driven

  Through all the sylvan deeps, and raves, till down goes everywhere

  The smothered hill; so every way Achilles and his spear

  Consumed the champain, the black earth flowed with the veins he tore.

  And look how oxen, yoked and driven about the circular floor

  Of some fair barn, tread suddenly the thick sheaves thin of corn,

  And all the corn consumed with chaff; so mixed and overborne,

  Beneath Achilles' one-hooved horse, shields, spears, and men, lay trod,

  His axle-trees and chariot wheels all spattered with the blood

  Hurled from the steeds' hooves and the strakes. Thus, to be magnified,

  His most inaccessible hands in human blood he dyed.

  BOOK XXL

  ARGUMENT.

  In two parts Troy's host parted; Thetis' son

  One to Scamander, one to Ilion,

  Pursues. Twelve lords he takes alive, to end

  In sacrifice for vengeance to his friend.

  A steropceus dies by his fierce hand,

  And Priam's son, Lycaon. Over land

  The flood breaks where Achilles being engaged,

  Vulcan preserves him, and with spirit enraged

  Sets all the champain and the flood on fire.

  Contention then doth all the Gods inspire.

  Apollo in Agenor's shape doth stay

  Achilles' fury, and, by giving way,

  Makes him pursue, till the deceit gives leave

  That Troy in safety might her friends receive.

  ANOTHER ARGUMENT.

  Phy at the floods shore doth express

  The labours of Aeacides.

  AND now they reached the goodly swelling channel of the flood,

  Gulf-eating Xanthus, whom Jove mixed with his immortal brood;

  And there Achilles cleft the host of Ilion. One side fell

  On Xanthus, th' other on the town, and that did he impel

  The same way that the last day's rage put all the Greeks in

  rout,

  When Hector's fury reigned; these now Achilles poured about

  The scattered field: To stay the flight, Saturnia cast before

  Their hasty feet a standing fog, and then flight's violence bore

  The other half full on the flood. The silver-gulfed deep

  Received them with a mighty cry, the billows vast and steep

  Roared at their armours, which the shores did round about resound.

  This way and that they swum, and shrieked, as in the gulfs they drowned.

  And as in fired fields locusts rise, as the unwearied blaze

  Plies still their rising, till in swarms all rush as in amaze

  For 'scape into some neighbour flood; so th' Achilleian stroke

  Here drave the foe, the gulfy flood with men and horse did choke.

  Then on the shore the worthy hid and left his horrid lance

  Amids the tamarisks, and sprite-like did with his sword advance

  Up to the river; ill affairs took up his furious brain

  For Troy's engagements; every way he doubled.slain on slain.

  A most unmanly noise was made, with those he put to sword,

  Of groans and outcries. The flood blushed to be so much engored

  With such base souls. And as small fish the swift-finned dolphin fly,

  Filling the deep pits in the ports, on whose close strength they lie,

  And there he swallows them in shoals; so here, to rocks and holes

  About the flood, the Trojans fled, and there most lost their souls,

  Even till he tired his slaught'rous arm. Twelve fair young princes then

  He chose of all to take alive, to have them freshly slain

  On that most solemn day of wreak resolved on for his friend.

  These led he trembling forth the flood, as fearful of their end

  As any hind calves. All their hands he pinioned behind

  With their own girdles worn upon their rich weeds, and resigned

  Their persons to,his Myrmidons to bear to fleet; and he

  Plunged in the stream again to take more work of tragedy.

  He met, then issuing the flood with all intent of flight,

  Lycaon, Dardan Priam's son, whom lately in the night

  He had surprised as in a wood of Priam's he had cut
/>   The green arms of a wild fig-tree, to make him spokes to put

  In naves of his new chariot. An ill then, all unthought,

  Stole on him in Achilles' shape, who took him thence, and brought

  To well-built Lemnos, selling him to famous Jason's son.

  From whom a guest then in his house, Imbrius Eetion,

  Redeemed at high rate, and sent home t' Arisba, whence he fled,

  And saw again his father's court; eleven days banqueted

  Amongst his friends; the twelfth God thrust his hapless head again

  In t' hands of stern .Aeacides, who now must send him slain

  To Pluto's court, and gainst his will. Him, when Achilles knew,

  Naked of helmet, shield, sword, lance, all which for ease he threw

  To earth, being overcome with sweat, and labour wearying

  His flying knees, he stormed, and said . " O heaven, a wondrous thing

  Invades mine eyes! Those Ilians that heretofore I slew

  Rise from the dark dead quick again. This man Fate makes eschew

  Her own steel fingers. He was sold in Lemnos, and the deep

  Of all seas 'twixt this Troy, and that (that many a man doth keep

  From his loved country) bars not him. Come then, he now shall taste

  The head of Pelias, and try if steel will down as fast

  As other fortunes, or kind earth can any surer seize

  On his sly person, whose strong arms have held down Hercules."

  His thoughts thus moved while he stood firm; to see if he, he spied,

  Would offer flight (which first he thought) but when he had descried

  He was descried and flight was vain, fearful, he made more nigh,

  With purpose to embrace his knees, and now longed much to fly

  His black fate and abhorred death by coming in. His foe

  Observed all this, and up he raised his lance as he would throw;

  And then Lycaon close ran in, fell on his breast, and took

  Achilles' knees, whose lance, on earth now staid, did overlook

  His still turned back, with thirst to glut his shaip point with the blood

  That lay so ready. But that thirst Lycaon's thirst withstood

  To save his blood; Achilles' knee in his one hand he knit,

  His other held the long lance hard, and would not part with it,

  But thus besought: " I kiss thy knees, divine .Aeacides!

  Respect me, and my fortunes rue. I now present th' access

  Of a poor suppliant for thy ruth; and I am one that is