The Iliad of Homer
Page 37
For we had come to the strong-established house of Peleus
assembling fighting men all through generous Achaia. We came
770 there, and found the hero Menoitios inside, and you,
Achilleus beside you, and Peleus the aged horseman was burning
the fat thigh pieces of an ox to Zeus who delights in the thunder
in the garth of the courtyard. He was holding a golden beaker
and pouring the bright wine over the burning dedications. You two
775 were over the meat of the ox attending to it, and we came
and stood in the forecourt, and Achilleus sprang up wondering
and took us by the hand and led us in, and told us to sit down,
and set hospitality properly before us, as is the stranger’s
right. Now when we had taken our pleasure of eating and drinking
780 I began to talk, and invited you both to come with us,
and you were altogether willing, and your fathers spoke to you.
And Peleus the aged was telling his own son, Achilleus,
to be always best in battle and pre-eminent beyond all others,
but for you, Menoitios, Aktor’s son, had this to say to you:
785 ‘My child, by right of blood Achilleus is higher than you are,
but you are the elder. Yet in strength he is far the greater.
You must speak solid words to him, and give him good counsel,
and point his way. If he listens to you it will be for his own good.’
This is what the old man told you, you have forgotten. Yet even
790 now you might speak to wise Achilleus, he might be persuaded.
Who knows if, with God helping, you might trouble his spirit
by entreaty, since the persuasion of a friend is a strong thing.
But if he is drawing back from some prophecy known in his own heart
and by Zeus’ will his honored mother has told him of something,
795 let him send you out, at least, and the rest of the Myrmidon people
follow you, and you may be a light given to the Danaäns.
And let him give you his splendid armor to wear to the fighting,
if perhaps the Trojans might think you are he, and give way
from their attack, and the fighting sons of the Achaians get wind
800 again after hard work. There is little breathing space in the fighting.
You, unwearied, might with a mere cry pile men wearied
back upon their city, and away from the ships and the shelters.”
So he spoke, and stirred the feeling in the breast of Patroklos,
and he went on the run along the ships to the son of Aiakos,
805 Achilleus. But as Patroklos came in his running to the ships
of great Odysseus, where the Achaians had their assembly and dealt out
rights, and where were established their altars to the immortals,
there Eurypylos, who had been wounded in the thigh with an arrow,
met him, the illustrious son of Euaimon, limping
810 away from the battle, and the watery sweat was running
down his shoulders and face, and from the sore wound dark blood
continued to drip, and yet the will stayed steady within him.
And the strong son of Menoitios looked on him in pity
and was sorrowful over him, and addressed him in winged words:
815 “Poor wretches, you leaders and men of counsel among the Danaäns,
was it your fate then, far from your friends and the land of your fathers,
to glut with your shining fat the running dogs here in Troy land
But tell me this, my lord Eurypylos grown under God’s hand:
will the Achaians somehow be able to hold huge Hektor
820 or must they now perish beaten down under his spear?”
Then Eurypylos who was wounded answered him in turn:
“No longer, illustrious Patroklos, can the Achaians
defend themselves, but they will be piled back into their black ships.
For all of these who were before the bravest in battle
825 are lying up among the ships with arrow or spear wounds
under the hands of the Trojans whose strength is forever on the uprise.
But help save me now at least, leading me away to my black ship,
and cut the arrow out of my thigh, wash the dark blood running
out of it with warm water, and put kind medicines on it,
830 good ones, which they say you have been told of by Achilleus,
since Cheiron, most righteous of the Centaurs, told him about them.
As for Machaon and Podaleirios, who are healers,
I think Machaon has got a wound, and is in the shelters
lying there, and himself is in need of a blameless healer,
835 while the other in the plain is standing the bitter attack of the Trojans.”
Then in turn the strong son of Menoitios spoke to him:
“But how shall this be, my lord Eurypylos, how shall we do it?
I am on my way carrying a message to wise Achilleus
given me by Gerenian Nestor, the Achaians’ watcher.
840 But even so I will not leave you in your affliction.”
He spoke, and holding the shepherd of the host under the arms led him
to his shelter, and a henchman seeing them spread out some ox-hides,
and Patroklos laid him there and with a knife cut the sharp tearing
arrow out of his thigh, and washed the black blood running from it
845 with warm water, and, pounding it up in his hands, laid on
a bitter root to make pain disappear, one which stayed
all kinds of pain. And the wound dried, and the flow of blood stopped.
BOOK TWELVE
So within the shelter the warlike son of Menoitios
tended stricken Eurypylos, and meanwhile the Argives
and Trojans fought on in massed battle, nor was the Danaäns’
ditch going to hold them back nor the wide wall above it
5 they had built for the sake of their ships, and driven a deep ditch
about it, and had not given to the gods grand sacrifices
so that it might guard their running ships and their masses
of spoil within it. It had been built in despite of the immortal
gods, and therefore it was not to stand firm for a long time.
10 So long as Hektor was still alive, and Achilleus was angry,
so long as the citadel of lord Priam was a city untaken,
for this time the great wall of the Achaians stood firm. But afterward
when all the bravest among the Trojans had died in the fighting,
and many of the Argives had been beaten down, and some left,
15 when in the tenth year the city of Priam was taken
and the Argives gone in their ships to the beloved land of their fathers,
then at last Poseidon and Apollo took counsel
to wreck the wall, letting loose the strength of rivers upon it,
all the rivers that run to the sea from the mountains of Ida,
20 Rhesos and Heptaporos, Karesos and Rhodios,
Grenikos and Aisepos, and immortal Skamandros,
and Simoeis, where much ox-hide armor and helmets were tumbled
in the river mud, and many of the race of the half-god mortals.
Phoibos Apollo turned the mouths of these waters together
25 and nine days long threw the flood against the wall, and Zeus rained
incessantly, to break the wall faster and wash it seaward.
And the shaker of the earth himself holding in his hands the trident
guided them, and hurled into the waves all the bastions’ strengthening
of logs and stones the toiling Achaians had set in position
30 and made all smooth again by the hard-running passage of Helle
and once again piled the great beach under sand, having wrecked
the wall, and turned the rivers again to make their way down
the same channel where before they had run the bright stream of their water.
Thus, afterward, Poseidon and Apollo were minded
35 to put things in place, but at this time battle and clamor were blazing
about the strong-founded wall and the bastion timbers were thundering
as they were struck, as the Argives broken under Zeus’ lashing
were crowded back on their hollow ships, and struggled to get clear
in dread of Hektor, the strong one who drove men to thoughts of panic.
40 But Hektor, as he had before, fought on like a whirlwind.
As when among a pack of hounds and huntsmen assembled
a wild boar or lion turns at bay in the strength of his fury,
and the men, closing themselves into a wall about him,
stand up to face him, and cast at him with the volleying spears thrown
45 from their hands, and in spite of this the proud heart feels not
terror, nor turns to run, and it is his own courage that kills him;
and again and again he turns on them trying to break the massed men
and wherever he charges the masses of men break away in front of him;
such was Hektor as he went through the battle and rallied his companions
50 and drove them on to cross over the ditch, but now the fast-footed
horses balked at the edge of the lip, and dared not cross, whinnying
loud, since the ditch in its great width frightened them from it,
being not easy for them to overleap, nor to walk through,
since along the whole length the jut of the overhangs stood
55 on both sides, and the surface of the floor was thickset with pointed
palisades, which the sons of the Achaians had paled there
dense and huge, so as to hold off the rage of attackers.
And a horse straining at the strong-wheeled chariot might not easily
enter there, but the dismounted were strong in their effort.
60 And now Poulydamas stood beside bold Hektor, and spoke to him:
“Hektor, and other lords of the Trojans and companions in battle,
we are senseless trying to drive our fast-footed horses over
this ditch. It is hard indeed to cross, and sharp stakes are planted
inside it, and across from these the wall of the Achaians.
65 There, there is no way to get down, no way again to do battle
from horses, for the passage is narrow and I think they must be hurt there.
For now if Zeus who thunders on high in evil intention
toward these is destroying them utterly, sending aid to the Trojans,
this is the way I would wish it, may it happen immediately
70 that the Achaians be destroyed here forgotten and far from
Argos; but if they turn again and a backrush comes on us
out of the ships, and we are driven against the deep ditch,
then I think no longer could one man to carry a message
get clear to the city, once the Achaians have turned back upon us.
75 Come then, do as I say, let us all be persuaded; let us
tell our henchmen to check our horses here by the ditch, then
let ourselves, all of us dismounted and armed in our war gear,
follow Hektor in mass formation. As for the Achaians,
they will not hold, if the bonds of death are fastened upon them.”
80 So spoke Poulydamas, and this counsel of safety pleased Hektor
And at once in all his armor he leapt to the ground from his chariot,
and the rest of the Trojans assembled, not mounted behind their horses,
but all sprang to the ground, when they saw brilliant Hektor had done it.
Then each man gave orders to his own charioteer
85 to check the horses in good order at the edge of the ditch,
and the fighters formed apart into groups, then closing together
into five well-ordered battalions followed their leaders.
They who went with Hektor and Poulydamas the blameless,
these were most numerous, and bravest, and beyond others furious
90 to smash the wall and fight their way among the hollow ships,
and Kebriones went with them as third man, while by the chariots
Hektor had left another man, not so good as Kebriones.
Paris led the next group with Alkaïthoös and Agenor,
and Helenos, with godlike Deïphobos, led the third group,
95 sons both of Priam, and Asios was with them as third man,
Asios, son of Hyrtakos, whom his tall shining horses
had carried over from Arisbe and beside the river Selleëis.
The leader of the fourth group was the strong son of Anchises,
Aineias, and with him were the two sons of Antenor,
100 Archelochos and Akamas, both skilled in all fighting.
Sarpedon led the far-renowned companions in battle,
and had chosen to go with him Glaukos and warlike Asteropaios
since these seemed to him to be marked out as the bravest
of the rest, after himself, but among all he was pre-eminent.
105 Now when these had closed their wrought ox-hide shields together
they charged straight for the Danaäns, eagerly, with no thought longer
of being held, but rather to hurl themselves on the black ships.
Then the rest of the Trojans and renowned companions in battle
were willing to follow the order of blameless Poulydamas. Only
110 Asios, Hyrtakos’ son, lord of men, was unwilling
to leave his horses there and a charioteer to attend them
but kept them with him, and so drove on at the fast-running vessels,
poor fool, who by the ships in the pride of his horses and chariot
was not destined to evade the evil spirits of destruction
115 nor ever to make his way back again to windy Ilion.
Before this the dark-named destiny had shrouded about him
through the spear of Idomeneus, proud son of Deukalion.
For he sent his horses to the left of the ships, where the Achaians
were streaming back from the level ground with horses and chariots,
120 and this way he drove his chariot and horses, and found there
the leaves not yet pushed home in the gates, nor the long door-bar,
but men were holding them wide apart, on the chance of rescuing
some one of their companions running for the ships from the battle.
Of a purpose he steered his horses straight there, and his men followed
125 screaming aloud, since they thought the Achaians no longer
would hold, but that they would be driven back on their dark ships.
Fools! since in the gates they found two men of the bravest,
high-hearted sons of the spear-fighting Lapithai, one
the son of Peirithoös, powerful Polypoites,
130 and one Leonteus, a man like the murderous god of battles.
Now these two, who had taken their place in front of the high gates,
stood there like two oaks who rear their crests in the mountains
and through day upon day stand up to the wind and the rainbeat
since their great roots reach far and are gripped in the ground. So
135 these two, in the confidence of their strength and their hands’ work,
stood up to tall Asios advancing upon them, nor gave way.
But these, holding up high the tanned leather of their shields, moved
straight in on the strong-built wall with enormous clamor
around Asios their lord and Iamenos and Orestes,
140 and Asios’ son Adamas, and O
inomaos and Thoön.
In this time the Lapithai still inside the wall were striving
to stir up the strong-greaved Achaians to defend the vessels,
but among the Danaäns, when they saw the Trojans sweeping
on against the wall, a clamor arose, and they gave way;
145 and the two bursting through the gates fought on in front of them.
They were in the likeness of two wild boars who in the mountains
await a rabble of men and dogs advancing upon them
and as they go tearing slantwise and rip the timber about them
to pieces at the stock, the grinding scream of their teeth sounds
150 high, until some man hits them with his throw and takes the life from them;
such was the grinding scream from the bright bronze covering their chests
struck hard on by spears, for they fought a very strong battle
in the confidence of their own strength and the people above them.
These flung about them with great stones torn from the strong-founded
155 bastions, as they fought in defense of themselves, and the shelters,
and the fast-running vessels, so that the flung stones dropped to the ground
like snowflakes which the winds’ blast whirling the shadowy clouds
drifts in their abundance along the prospering earth. So
the missiles flung from the hands of Achaians, and Trojans also,
160 went showering, and the helms and shields massive in the middle
crashed hollow underneath the impact of rocks like millstones.
And now Asios, Hyrtakos’ son, groaned aloud and beat on
both thighs with his hands, and spoke aloud in his agony:
“Zeus father, now even you are made utterly a lover
165 of deception. For I never thought the fighting Achaians
would be able to hold our strength and our hands invincible.
But they, as wasps quick-bending in the middle, or as bees
will make their homes at the side of the rocky way, and will not
abandon the hollow house they have made, but stand up to
170 men who come to destroy them, and fight for the sake of their children,
so these, though they are only two, are unwilling to give back
from the gates, until they have killed their men, or are taken.”
He spoke, but by such talk did not persuade the heart of Zeus
whose desire it was to extend the glory to Hektor.
175 And now at the various gates various men fought each other.