The Iliad of Homer

by Richmond Lattimore

  but missed his man, and struck down instead a strong son of Priam,

  Gorgythion the blameless, hit in the chest by an arrow;

  Gorgythion whose mother was lovely Kastianeira,

  305 Priam’s bride from Aisyme, with the form of a goddess.

  He bent drooping his head to one side, as a garden poppy

  bends beneath the weight of its yield and the rains of springtime;

  so his head bent slack to one side beneath the helm’s weight.

  But Teukros now let fly another shaft from the bowstring,

  310 straight for Hektor, and all his heart was straining to hit him,

  yet missed his man once again as Apollo faltered his arrow,

  and struck Archeptolemos, bold charioteer of Hektor,

  in the chest next to the nipple as he charged into the fighting.

  He fell out of the chariot, and the fast-footed horses

  315 shied away. And there his life and his strength were scattered.

  And bitter sorrow closed over Hektor’s heart for his driver,

  yet grieving as he did for his friend he left him to lie there,

  and called to his brother Kebriones who stood near to take up

  the reins of the horses, nor did he disobey him. But Hektor

  320 himself vaulted down to the ground from the shining chariot

  crying a terrible cry and in his hand caught up a great stone,

  and went straight for Teukros, heart urgent to hit him. Now Teukros

  had drawn a bitter arrow out of his quiver, and laid it

  along the bowstring, but as he drew the shaft by his shoulder,

  325 there where between neck and chest the collar-bone interposes,

  and this is a spot most mortal; in this place shining-helmed Hektor

  struck him in all his fury with the jagged boulder, smashing

  the sinew, and all his arm at the wrist was deadened.

  He dropped to one knee and stayed, and the bow fell from his hand. Aias

  330 was not forgetful of his fallen brother, but running

  stood bestriding him and covered him under the great shield.

  Thereon Mekisteus, son of Echios, and brilliant Alastor,

  two staunch companions, stooping beneath it, caught up Teukros

  and carried him, groaning heavily, to the hollow vessels.

  335 Now once again the Olympian filled the Trojans with fury

  and they piled the Achaians straight backward against the deep ditch,

  as Hektor ranged in their foremost ranks in the pride of his great strength.

  As when some hunting hound in the speed of his feet pursuing

  a wild boar or a lion snaps from behind at his quarters

  340 or flanks, but watches for the beast to turn upon him, so Hektor

  followed close on the heels of the flowing-haired Achaians,

  killing ever the last of the men; and they fled in terror.

  But after they had crossed back over the ditch and the sharp stakes

  in flight, and many had gone down under the hands of the Trojans,

  345 they reined in and stood fast again beside their ships, calling

  aloud upon each other, and to all of the gods uplifting

  their hands each man of them cried out his prayers in a great voice,

  while Hektor, wearing the stark eyes of a Gorgon, or murderous

  Ares, wheeled about at the edge his bright-maned horses.

  350 Now seeing them the goddess of the white arms, Hera, took pity

  and immediately she spoke to Pallas Athene her winged words:

  “For shame, daughter of Zeus who wears the aegis! No longer

  shall we care for the Danaäns in their uttermost hour of destruction?

  These must then fill out an evil destiny, and perish

  355 in the wind of one man’s fury where none can stand now against him,

  Hektor, Priam’s son, who has wrought so much evil already.”

  Then in turn the goddess gray-eyed Athene answered her:

  “Yet even this man would have his life and strength taken from him,

  dying under the hands of the Argives in his own country;

  360 but it is my father who is so furious in his heart of evil.

  He is hard, and forever wicked; he crosses my high hopes,

  nor remembers at all those many times I rescued his own son,

  Herakles, when the tasks of Eurystheus were too much for his strength.

  And time and again he would cry out aloud to the heavens,

  365 and Zeus would send me down in speed from the sky to help him.

  If in the wiliness of my heart I had had thoughts like his,

  when Herakles was sent down to Hades of the Gates, to hale back

  from the Kingdom of the Dark the hound of the grisly death god,

  never would he have got clear of the steep-dripping Stygian water.

  370 Yet now Zeus hates me, and is bent to the wishes of Thetis

  who kissed his knees and stroked his chin in her hand, and entreated

  that he give honor to Achilleus, the sacker of cities.

  Yet time shall be when he calls me again his dear girl of the gray eyes.

  So then: do you put under their harness our single-foot horses

  375 while I go back into the house of Zeus, the lord of the aegis,

  and arm me in my weapons of war. So shall I discover

  whether the son of Priam, Hektor of the shining helmet,

  will feel joy to see us apparent on the outworks of battle,

  or see if some Trojan give the dogs and the birds their desire

  380 with fat and flesh, struck down beside the ships of the Achaians.”

  She spoke, nor failed to persuade the goddess Hera of the white arms.

  And she, Hera, exalted goddess, daughter of Kronos

  the mighty, went away to harness the gold-bridled horses.

  Now in turn Athene, daughter of Zeus of the aegis,

  385 beside the threshold of her father slipped off her elaborate

  dress which she herself had wrought with her hands’ patience,

  and now assuming the war tunic of Zeus who gathers

  the clouds, she armed herself in her gear for the dismal fighting.

  She set her feet in the blazing chariot, and took up a spear,

  390 heavy, huge, thick, wherewith she beats down the battalions of fighting

  men, against whom she of the mighty father is angered.

  Hera laid the lash swiftly on the horses; and moving

  of themselves groaned the gates of the sky that the Hours guarded,

  those Hours to whose charge is given the huge sky and Olympos

  395 to open up the dense darkness or again to close it.

  Through the way between they held the speed of their goaded horses.

  But Zeus father, watching from Ida, was angered terribly

  and stirred Iris of the golden wings to run with his message:

  “Go forth, Iris the swift, turn them back again, let them not reach me,

  400 since we would close in fighting thus that would be unseemly.

  For I will say this straight out, and it will be a thing accomplished:

  I will lame beneath the harness their fast-running horses,

  and hurl the gods from the driver’s place, and smash their chariot;

  and not in the circle of ten returning years shall they be whole

  405 of the wounds where the stroke of the lightning hits them; so that

  the gray-eyed goddess may know when it is her father she fights with.

  Yet with Hera I am not so angry, neither indignant,

  since it is ever her way to cross the commands that I give her.”

  He spoke, and Iris, storm-footed, rose with his message

  410 and took her way from the peaks of Ida to tall Olympos,

  and at the utmost gates of many-folded Olympos

  met and stayed
them, and spoke the word that Zeus had given her:

  “Where so furious? How can your hearts so storm within you?

  The son of Kronos will not let you stand by the Argives.

  415 Since Zeus has uttered this threat and will make it a thing accomplished:

  that he will lame beneath the harness your fast-running horses,

  and hurl yourselves from the driver’s place, and smash your chariot;

  and not in the circle of ten returning years would you be whole

  of the wounds where the stroke of the lightning hits you; so that

  420 you may know, gray-eyed goddess, when it is your father you fight with.

  Yes, you, bold brazen wench, are audacious indeed, if truly

  you dare to lift up your gigantic spear in the face of your father.

  Yet with Hera he is not so angry, neither indignant,

  since it is ever her way to cross the commands he gives her.”

  425 So Iris the swift-footed spoke and went away from them,

  and now Hera spoke a word to Pallas Athene:

  “Alas, daughter of Zeus of the aegis: I can no longer

  let us fight in the face of Zeus for the sake of mortals.

  Let one of them perish then, let another live, as their fortune

  430 wills; let him, as is his right and as his heart pleases,

  work out whatever decrees he will on Danaäns and Trojans.”

  So she spoke, and turned back again her single-foot horses,

  and the Hours set free their flowing-maned horses from the harness,

  and tethered them at their mangers that were piled with ambrosia

  435 and leaned the chariot against the shining inward wall. Meanwhile

  the goddesses themselves took their place on the golden couches

  among the other immortals, their hearts deep grieving within them.

  Now father Zeus steered back from Ida his strong-wheeled chariot

  and horses to Olympos, and came among the gods’ sessions,

  440 while for him the famed shaker of the earth set free his horses,

  and put the chariot on its stand, with a cloth spread over it.

  Then Zeus himself of the wide brows took his place on the golden

  throne, as underneath his feet tall Olympos was shaken.

  These two alone, Hera and Athene, stayed seated apart aside

  445 from Zeus, and would not speak to him, nor ask him a question;

  but he knew the whole matter within his heart, and spoke to them.

  “Why then are you two sorrowful, Athene and Hera?

  Surely in the battle where men win glory you were not wearied

  out, destroying those Trojans on whom you have set your grim wrath.

  450 In the whole account, such is my strength and my hand so invincible,

  not all the gods who are on Olympos could turn me backward,

  but before this the trembling took hold of your shining bodies,

  before you could look upon the fighting and war’s work of sorrow;

  for I will say straight out, and it would now be a thing accomplished:

  455 once hit in your car by the lightning stroke you could never

  have come back to Olympos, where is the place of the immortals.”

  So he spoke; and Athene and Hera muttered, since they were

  sitting close to each other, devising evil for the Trojans.

  Still Athene stayed silent and said nothing, but only

  460 sulked at Zeus her father, and savage anger took hold of her.

  But the heart of Hera could not contain her anger, and she spoke forth:

  “Majesty, son of Kronos, what sort of thing have you spoken?

  We know well already your strength, how it is no small thing.

  Yet even so we are sorrowful for the Danaän spearmen

  465 who must fill out an unhappy destiny, and perish.

  Still we shall keep out of the fighting, as you command us;

  yet we will put good counsel in the Argives, if it may help them;

  so that not all of them will die because of your anger.”

  Zeus who gathers the clouds spoke to her again in answer:

  470 “Tomorrow at the dawning, lady Hera of the ox eyes,

  you will see, if you have the heart, a still mightier son of Kronos

  perishing the ranged numbers of Argive spearmen.

  For Hektor the huge will not sooner be stayed from his fighting

  until there stirs by the ships the swift-footed son of Peleus

  475 on that day when they shall fight by the sterns of the beached ships

  in the narrow place of necessity over fallen Patroklos.

  This is the way it is fated to be; and for you and your anger

  I care not; not if you stray apart to the undermost limits

  of earth and sea, where Iapetos and Kronos seated

  480 have no shining of the sun god Hyperion to delight them

  nor winds’ delight, but Tartaros stands deeply about them;

  not even if you reach that place in your wandering shall I

  care for your sulks; since there is nothing more shameless than you are.”

  So he spoke, and Hera of the white arms gave him no answer.

  485 And now the shining light of the sun was dipped in the Ocean

  trailing black night across the grain-giving land. For the Trojans

  the daylight sank against their will, but for the Achaians

  sweet and thrice-supplicated was the coming on of the dark night.

  Now glorious Hektor held an assembly of all the Trojans,

  490 taking them aside from the ships, by a swirling river

  on clean ground, where there showed a space not cumbered with corpses.

  They stepped to the ground from behind their horses and listened to Hektor

  the loved of Zeus, and the words he spoke to them. He in his hand held

  the eleven-cubit-long spear, whose shaft was tipped with a shining

  495 bronze spearhead, and a ring of gold was hooped to hold it.

  Leaning upon this spear he spoke his words to the Trojans:

  “Trojans and Dardanians and companions in arms: hear me.

  Now I had thought that, destroying the ships and all the Achaians,

  we might take our way back once more to windy Ilion,

  500 but the darkness came too soon, and this beyond all else rescued

  the Argives and their vessels along the beach where the sea breaks.

  But now let us give way to black night’s persuasion; let us

  make ready our evening meal, and as for your flowing-maned horses,

  set them free from their harness, and cast down fodder before them.

  505 And lead forth also out of the city oxen and fat sheep

  in all speed, and convey out also the kindly sweet wine

  with food out of our houses. And heap many piles of firewood,

  so that all night long and until the young dawn appears

  we may burn many fires, and the glare go up into heaven;

  510 so that not in the night-time the flowing-haired Achaians

  may set out to run for home over the sea’s wide ridges.

  No: not thus in their own good time must they take to their vessels,

  but in such a way that a man of them at home will still nurse

  his wound, the place where he has been hit with an arrow or sharp spear

  515 springing to his ship; so that another may shrink hereafter

  from bringing down fearful war on the Trojans, breakers of horses.

  And let the heralds Zeus loves give orders about the city

  for the boys who are in their first youth and the gray-browed elders

  to take stations on the god-founded bastions that circle the city;

  520 and as for the women, have our wives, each one in her own house,

  kindle a great fire; let there be a watch kept steadily

&nb
sp; lest a sudden attack get into the town when the fighters have left it.

  Let it be thus, high-hearted men of Troy, as I tell you.

  Let that word that has been spoken now be a strong one,

  525 with that which I speak at dawn to the Trojans, breakers of horses.

  For in good hope I pray to Zeus and the other immortals

  that we may drive from our place these dogs swept into destruction

  whom the spirits of death have carried here on their black ships.

  Now for the night we shall keep watch on ourselves, and tomorrow

  530 early, before dawn shows, shall arm ourselves in our weapons

  and beside their hollow vessels waken the bitter war god;

  and I shall know if the son of Tydeus, strong Diomedes,

  will force me back from the ships against the wall, or whether I

  shall cut him down with the bronze and take home the blooded war-spoils.

  535 Tomorrow he will learn his own strength, if he can stand up to

  my spear’s advance; but sooner than this, I think, in the foremost

  he will go down under the stroke, and many companions about him

  as the sun goes up into tomorrow. Oh, if I only

  could be as this in all my days immortal and ageless

  540 and be held in honor as Athene and Apollo are honored

  as surely as this oncoming day brings evil to the Argives.”

  So Hektor spoke among them, and the Trojans shouted approval.

  And they set free their sweating horses from under the harness

  and tethered them by the reins, each one by his own chariot.

  545 They led forth also out of the city oxen and fat sheep

  in all speed, and conveyed out also the kindly sweet wine,

  with food out of their houses, and heaped many piles of firewood.

  They accomplished likewise full sacrifices before the immortals,

  and the winds wafted the savor aloft from the plain to the heavens

  550 in its fragrance; and yet the blessed gods took no part of it.

  They would not; so hateful to them was sacred Ilion,

  and Priam, and the city of Priam of the strong ash spear.

  So with hearts made high these sat night-long by the outworks

  of battle, and their watchfires blazed numerous about them.

  555 As when in the sky the stars about the moon’s shining

  are seen in all their glory, when the air has fallen to stillness,

  and all the high places of the hills are clear, and the shoulders out-jutting,

  and the deep ravines, as endless bright air spills from the heavens

  and all the stars are seen, to make glad the heart of the shepherd;