The Iliad

by Robert Fagels

  But Zeus will never accomplish all our best-laid plans.

  Look at us. Both doomed to stain red with our blood

  the same plot of earth, a world away in Troy!

  For not even I will voyage home again. Never.

  No embrace in his halls from the old horseman Peleus

  nor from mother, Thetis—this alien earth I stride

  will hold me down at last.

  But now, Patroclus,

  since I will follow you underneath the ground,

  I shall not bury you, no, not till I drag back here

  the gear and head of Hector, who slaughtered you,

  my friend, greathearted friend ...

  Here in front of your flaming pyre I’ll cut the throats

  of a dozen sons of Troy in all their shining glory,

  venting my rage on them for your destruction!

  Till then you lie as you are beside my beaked ships

  and round you the Trojan women and deep-breasted Dardans

  will mourn you night and day, weeping burning tears,

  women we fought to win—strong hands and heavy lance—

  whenever we sacked rich cities held by mortal men.“

  With that the brilliant Achilles ordered friends

  to set a large three-legged cauldron over the fire

  and wash the clotted blood from Patroclus’ wounds

  with all good speed. Hoisting over the blaze

  a cauldron, filling it brimful with bathing water,

  they piled fresh logs beneath and lit them quickly.

  The fire lapped at the vessel’s belly, the water warmed

  and soon as it reached the boil in the glowing bronze

  they bathed and anointed the body sleek with olive oil,

  closed each wound with a soothing, seasoned unguent

  and then they laid Patroclus on his bier ...

  covered him head to foot in a thin light sheet

  and over his body spread the white linen shroud.

  Then all night long, ringing the great runner Achilles,

  Myrmidon fighters mourned and raised Patroclus’ dirge.

  But Zeus turned to Hera, his wife and sister, saying,

  “So, my ox-eyed Queen, you’ve had your way at last,

  setting the famous runner Achilles on his feet.

  Mother Hera—look, these long-haired Achaeans

  must be sprung of your own immortal loins.”

  But her eyes widening, noble Hera answered,

  “Dread majesty, son of Cronus, what are you saying?

  Even a mortal man will act to help a friend,

  condemned as a mortal always is to death

  and hardly endowed with wisdom deep as ours.

  So how could I, claiming to be the highest goddess—

  both by birth and since I am called your consort

  and you in turn rule all the immortal gods—

  how could I hold back from these, these Trojans,

  men I loathe, and fail to weave their ruin?”

  Now as the King and Queen provoked each other,

  glistening-footed Thetis reached Hephaestus’ house,

  indestructible, bright as stars, shining among the gods,

  built of bronze by the crippled Smith with his own hands.

  There she found him, sweating, wheeling round his bellows,

  pressing the work on twenty three-legged cauldrons,

  an array to ring the walls inside his mansion.

  He’d bolted golden wheels to the legs of each

  so all on their own speed, at a nod from him,

  they could roll to halls where the gods convene

  then roll right home again—a marvel to behold.

  But not quite finished yet ...

  the god had still to attach the inlaid handles.

  These he was just fitting, beating in the rivets.

  As he bent to the work with all his craft and cunning,

  Thetis on her glistening feet drew near the Smith.

  But Charis saw her first, Charis coming forward,

  lithe and lovely in all her glittering headdress,

  the Grace the illustrious crippled Smith had married.

  Approaching Thetis, she caught her hand and spoke her name:

  “Thetis of flowing robes! What brings you to our house?

  A beloved, honored friend—but it’s been so long,

  your visits much too rare. Follow me in, please,

  let me offer you all a guest could want.”

  Welcome words,

  and the radiant goddess Charis led the way inside.

  She seated her on a handsome, well-wrought chair,

  studded with silver, under it slipped a stool

  and called the famous Smith: “Hephaestus, come—

  look who’s here! Thetis would ask a favor of you!”

  And the famous crippled Smith exclaimed warmly,

  “Thetis—here? Ah then a wondrous, honored goddess

  comes to grace our house! Thetis saved my life

  when the mortal pain came on me after my great fall,

  thanks to my mother’s will, that brazen bitch,

  she wanted to hide me—because I was a cripple.

  What shattering anguish I’d have suffered then

  if Thetis had not taken me to her breast, Eurynome too,

  the daughter of Ocean’s stream that runs around the world.

  Nine years I lived with both, forging bronze by the trove,

  elegant brooches, whorled pins, necklaces, chokers, chains—

  there in the vaulted cave—and round us Ocean’s currents

  swirled in a foaming, roaring rush that never died.

  And no one knew. Not a single god or mortal,

  only Thetis and Eurynome knew—they saved me.

  And here is Thetis now, in our own house!

  So I must do all I can to pay her back,

  the price for the life she saved ...

  the nymph of the sea with sleek and lustrous locks.

  Quickly, set before her stranger’s generous fare

  while I put away my bellows and all my tools.”

  With that

  he heaved up from the anvil block—his immense hulk

  hobbling along but his shrunken legs moved nimbly.

  He swung the bellows aside and off the fires,

  gathered the tools he’d used to weld the cauldrons

  and packed them all in a sturdy silver strongbox.

  Then he sponged off his brow and both burly arms,

  his massive neck and shaggy chest, pulled on a shirt

  and grasping a heavy staff, Hephaestus left his forge

  and hobbled on. Handmaids ran to attend their master,

  all cast in gold but a match for living, breathing girls.

  Intelligence fills their hearts, voice and strength their frames,

  from the deathless gods they’ve learned their works of hand.

  They rushed to support their lord as he went bustling on

  and lurching nearer to Thetis, took his polished seat,

  reached over to clutch her hand and spoke her name:

  “Thetis of flowing robes! What brings you to our house?

  A beloved, honored friend—but it’s been so long,

  your visits much too rare.

  Tell me what’s on your mind. I am eager to do it—

  whatever I can do ... whatever can be done.”

  But Thetis burst into tears, her voice welling:

  “Oh Hephaestus—who of all the goddesses on Olympus,

  who has borne such withering sorrows in her heart?

  Such pain as Zeus has given me, above all others!

  Me out of all the daughters of the sea he chose

  to yoke to a mortal man, Peleus, son of Aeacus,

  and I endured his bed, a mortal’s bed, resisting

  with all my will. And now he lies in the halls,

  broken with grisly age, but now my
griefs are worse.

  Remember? Zeus also gave me a son to bear and breed,

  the splendor of heroes, and he shot up like a young branch,

  like a fine tree I reared him—the orchard’s crowning glory—

  but only to send him off in the beaked ships to Troy

  to battle Trojans! Never again will I embrace him

  striding home through the doors of Peleus’ house.

  And long as I have him with me, still alive,

  looking into the sunlight, he is racked with anguish.

  I go to his side—nothing I do can help him. Nothing.

  That girl the sons of Achaea picked out for his prize—

  right from his grasp the mighty Agamemnon tore her,

  and grief for her has been gnawing at his heart.

  But then the Trojans pinned the Achaeans tight

  against their sterns, they gave them no way out,

  and the Argive warlords begged my son to help,

  they named in full the troves of glittering gifts

  they’d send his way. But at that point he refused

  to beat disaster off—refused himself, that is—

  but he buckled his own armor round Patroclus,

  sent him into battle with an army at his back.

  And all day long they fought at the Scaean Gates,

  that very day they would have stormed the city too,

  if Apollo had not killed Menoetius’ gallant son

  as he laid the Trojans low—Apollo cut him down

  among the champions there and handed Hector glory.

  So now I come, I throw myself at your knees,

  please help me! Give my son—he won’t live long—

  a shield and helmet and tooled greaves with ankle-straps

  and armor for his chest. All that he had was lost,

  lost when the Trojans killed his steadfast friend.

  Now he lies on the ground—his heart is breaking.”

  And the famous crippled Smith replied, “Courage!

  Anguish for all that armor—sweep it from your mind.

  If only I could hide him away from pain and death,

  that day his grim destiny comes to take Achilles,

  as surely as glorious armor shall be his, armor

  that any man in the world of men will marvel at

  through all the years to come—whoever sees its splendor.”

  With that he left her there and made for his bellows,

  turning them on the fire, commanding, “Work—to work!”

  And the bellows, all twenty, blew on the crucibles,

  breathing with all degrees of shooting, fiery heat

  as the god hurried on—a blast for the heavy work,

  a quick breath for the light, all precisely gauged

  to the god of fire’s wish and the pace of the work in hand.

  Bronze he flung in the blaze, tough, durable bronze

  and tin and priceless gold and silver, and then,

  planting the huge anvil upon its block, he gripped

  his mighty hammer in one hand, the other gripped his tongs.

  And first Hephaestus makes a great and massive shield,

  blazoning well-wrought emblems all across its surface,

  raising a rim around it, glittering, triple-ply

  with a silver shield-strap run from edge to edge

  and five layers of metal to build the shield itself,

  and across its vast expanse with all his craft and cunning

  the god creates a world of gorgeous immortal work.

  There he made the earth and there the sky and the sea

  and the inexhaustible blazing sun and the moon rounding full

  and there the constellations, all that crown the heavens,

  the Pleiades and the Hyades, Orion in all his power too

  and the Great Bear that mankind also calls the Wagon:

  she wheels on her axis always fixed, watching the Hunter,

  and she alone is denied a plunge in the Ocean’s baths.

  And he forged on the shield two noble cities filled

  with mortal men. With weddings and wedding feasts in one

  and under glowing torches they brought forth the brides

  from the women’s chambers, marching through the streets

  while choir on choir the wedding song rose high

  and the young men came dancing, whirling round in rings

  and among them flutes and harps kept up their stirring call—

  women rushed to the doors and each stood moved with wonder.

  And the people massed, streaming into the marketplace

  where a quarrel had broken out and two men struggled

  over the blood-price for a kinsman just murdered.

  One declaimed in public, vowing payment in full—

  the other spurned him, he would not take a thing—

  so both men pressed for a judge to cut the knot.

  The crowd cheered on both, they took both sides,

  but heralds held them back as the city elders sat

  on polished stone benches, forming the sacred circle,

  grasping in hand the staffs of clear-voiced heralds,

  and each leapt to his feet to plead the case in turn.

  Two bars of solid gold shone on the ground before them,

  a prize for the judge who’d speak the straightest verdict.

  But circling the other city camped a divided army

  gleaming in battle-gear, and two plans split their ranks:

  to plunder the city or share the riches with its people,

  hoards the handsome citadel stored within its depths.

  But the people were not surrendering, not at all.

  They armed for a raid, hoping to break the siege—

  loving wives and innocent children standing guard

  on the ramparts, flanked by elders bent with age

  as men marched out to war. Ares and Pallas led them,

  both burnished gold, gold the attire they donned, and great,

  magnificent in their armor—gods for all the world,

  looming up in their brilliance, towering over troops.

  And once they reached the perfect spot for attack,

  a watering place where all the herds collected,

  there they crouched, wrapped in glowing bronze.

  Detached from the ranks, two scouts took up their posts,

  the eyes of the army waiting to spot a convoy,

  the enemy’s flocks and crook-horned cattle coming...

  Come they did, quickly, two shepherds behind them,

  playing their hearts out on their pipes—treachery

  never crossed their minds. But the soldiers saw them,

  rushed them, cut off at a stroke the herds of oxen

  and sleek sheep-flocks glistening silver-gray

  and killed the herdsmen too. Now the besiegers,

  soon as they heard the uproar burst from the cattle

  as they debated, huddled in council, mounted at once

  behind their racing teams, rode hard to the rescue,

  arrived at once, and lining up for assault