so the battles fought by both sides were pulled fast and even.
Now by the ships others fought in their various places
415 but Hektor made straight for glorious Aias. These two
were fighting hard for a single ship, and neither was able,
Hektor to drive Aias off the ship, and set fire to it,
nor Aias to beat Hektor back, since the divinity
drove him. Shining Aias struck with the spear Kaletor,
420 Klytios’ son, in the chest as he brought fire to the vessel.
He fell, thunderously, and the torch dropped from his hand. Then
Hektor, when his eyes were aware of his cousin fallen
in the dust in front of the black ship, uplifting
his voice in a great cry called to the Trojans and Lykians:
425 “Trojans, Lykians, Dardanians who fight at close quarters,
do not anywhere in this narrow place give way from the fighting
but stand by the son of Klytios, do not let the Achaians
strip the armor from him, fallen where the ships are assembled.”
So he spoke, and made a cast at Aias with the shining
430 spear, but missed him and struck the son of Mastor, Lykophron,
henchman of Aias from Kythera who had been living
with him; for he had killed a man in sacred Kythera.
Hektor struck him in the head above the ear with the sharp bronze
as he stood next to Aias, so that Lykophron sprawling
435 dropped from the ship’s stern to the ground, and his strength was broken.
And Aias shuddered at the sight, and spoke to his brother:
“See, dear Teukros, our true companion, the son of Mastor,
is killed, who came to us from Kythera and in our household
was one we honored as we honored our beloved parents.
440 Now great-hearted Hektor has killed him. Where are your arrows
of sudden death, and the bow that Phoibos Apollo gave you?”
He spoke, and Teukros heard and came running to stand beside him
holding in his hand the backstrung bow and the quiver
to hold arrows, and let go his hard shots against the Trojans.
445 First he struck down Kleitos, the glorious son of Peisenor
and companion of Poulydamas, proud son of Panthoös.
Now Kleitos held the reins, and gave all his care to the horses,
driving them into that place where the most battalions were shaken,
for the favor of Hektor and the Trojans, but the sudden evil
450 came to him, and none for all their desire could defend him,
for the painful arrow was driven into his neck from behind him.
He fell out of the chariot, and the fast-footed horses
shied away, rattling the empty car; but Poulydamas
their master saw it at once, and ran first to the heads of the horses.
455 He gave them into the hands of Astynoös, Protiaon’s
son, with many orders to be watchful and hold the horses
close; then himself went back into the ranks of the champions.
But Teukros picked up another arrow for bronze-helmed
Hektor, and would have stopped his fighting by the ships of the Achaians
460 had he hit him during his bravery and torn the life from him;
but he was not hidden from the close purpose of Zeus, who was guarding
Hektor, and denied that glory to Telamonian Teukros;
who broke in the unfaulted bow the close-twisted sinew
as Teukros drew it against him, so the bronze-weighted arrow
465 went, as the bow dropped out of his hands, driven crazily sidewise.
And Teukros shuddered at the sight, and spoke to his brother:
“See now, how hard the divinity cuts across the intention
in all our battle, who struck the bow out of my hand, who has broken
the fresh-twisted sinew of the bowstring I bound on
470 this morning, so it would stand the succession of springing arrows.”
Then in turn huge Telamonian Aias answered him:
“Dear brother, then let your bow and your showering arrows
lie, now that the god begrudging the Danaäns wrecked them.
But take a long spear in your hands, a shield on your shoulder,
475 and close with the Trojans, and drive on the rest of your people.
Let them not, though they have beaten us, easily capture
our strong-benched ships. We must remember the frenzy of fighting.”
He spoke, and Teukros put away the bow in his shelter
and threw across his shoulders the shield of the fourfold ox-hide.
480 Over his mighty head he set the well-fashioned helmet
with the horse-hair crest, and the plumes nodded terribly above it.
Then he caught up a powerful spear, edged with sharp bronze,
and went on his way, running fast, and stood beside Aias.
But Hektor, when he saw how the arrows of Teukros were baffled,
485 lifted his voice in a great cry to the Trojans and Lykians:
“Trojans, Lykians, Dardanians who fight at close quarters,
be men now, dear friends, remember your furious valor
along the hollow ships, since I have seen with my own eyes
how by the hand of Zeus their bravest man’s arrows were baffled.
490 Easily seen is the strength that is given from Zeus to mortals
either in those into whose hands he gives the surpassing
glory, or those he diminishes and will not defend them
as now he diminishes the strength of the Argives, and helps us.
Fight on then by the ships together. He who among you
495 finds by spear thrown or spear thrust his death and destiny,
let him die. He has no dishonor when he dies defending
his country, for then his wife shall be saved and his children afterward,
and his house and property shall not be damaged, if the Achaians
must go away with their ships to the beloved land of their fathers.”
500 So he spoke, and stirred the spirit and strength in each man.
But Aias on the other side called to his companions:
“Shame, you Argives; here is the time of decision, whether
we die, or live on still and beat back ruin from our vessels.
Do you expect, if our ships fall to helm-shining Hektor,
505 you will walk each of you back dryshod to the land of your fathers?
Do you not hear how Hektor is stirring up all his people,
how he is raging to set fire to our ships? He is not
inviting you to come to a dance. He invites you to battle.
For us there can be no design, no purpose, better than this one,
510 to close in and fight with the strength of our hands at close quarters.
Better to take in a single time our chances of dying
or living, than go on being squeezed in the stark encounter
right up against our ships, as now, by men worse than we are.”
So he spoke, and stirred the spirit and strength in each man.
515 There Hektor killed the son of Perimedes, Schedios,
lord of the men of Phokis; but Aias killed Laodamas,
leader of the foot-soldiers, and shining son of Antenor.
Then Poulydamas stripped Otos of Kyllene, companion
to Meges, Phyleus’ son, and a lord among the great-hearted
520 Epeians. Meges seeing it lunged at him, but Poulydamas
bent down and away, so that Meges missed him. Apollo
would not let Panthoös’ son go down among the front fighters,
but Meges stabbed with the spear the middle of the chest of Kroismos.
He fell, thunderously, and Meges was stripping the armor
525 from his shoulders,
but meanwhile Dolops lunged at him, Lampos’
son, a man crafty with the spear and strongest of the sons born
to Lampos, Laomedon’s son, one skilled in furious fighting.
He from close up stabbed with his spear at the shield of Phyleides
in the middle, but the corselet he wore defended him, solid
530 and built with curving plates of metal, which in days past Phyleus
had taken home from Ephyra and the river Selleëis.
A guest and friend had given him it, lord of men, Euphetes,
to carry into the fighting and beat off the attack of the enemy,
and now it guarded the body of his son from destruction.
535 But Meges stabbed with the sharp spear at the uttermost summit
of the brazen helmet thick with horse-hair, and tore off
the mane of horse-hair from the helmet, so that it toppled
groundward and lay in the dust in all its new shining of purple.
Yet Dolops stood his ground and fought on, in hope still of winning,
540 but meanwhile warlike Menelaos came to stand beside Meges,
and came from the side and unobserved with his spear, and from behind
threw at his shoulder, so the spear tore through his chest in its fury
to drive on, so that Dolops reeled and went down, face forward.
The two of them swept in to strip away from his shoulders
545 the bronze armor, but Hektor called aloud to his brothers,
the whole lot, but first scolded the son of Hiketaon,
strong Melanippos. He in Perkote had tended his lumbering
cattle, in the days before when the enemy were still far off;
but when the oarswept ships of the Danaäns came, then
550 he returned to Ilion, and was a great man among the Trojans,
and lived with Priam, who honored him as he honored his children.
Now Hektor spoke a word and called him by name and scolded him:
“Shall we give way so, Melanippos? Does it mean nothing
even to you in the inward heart that your cousin is fallen?
555 Do you not see how they are busied over the armor of Dolops?
Come on, then; no longer can we stand far off and fight with
the Argives. Sooner we must kill them, or else sheer Ilion
be stormed utterly by them, and her citizens be killed.”
He spoke, and led the way, and the other followed, a mortal
560 godlike. But huge Telamonian Aias stirred on the Argives:
“Dear friends, be men; let shame be in your hearts, and discipline,
and have consideration for each other in the strong encounters,
since more come through alive when men consider each other,
and there is no glory when they give way, nor warcraft either.”
565 He spoke, and they likewise grew furious in their defense,
and put his word away in their hearts, and fenced in their vessels
in a circle of bronze, but Zeus against them wakened the Trojans.
Then Menelaos of the great war cry stirred on Antilochos:
“Antilochos, no other Achaian is younger than you are,
570 nor faster on his feet, nor strong as you are in fighting.
You could make an outrush and strike down some man of the Trojans.”
So speaking, he hastened back but stirred Antilochos onward,
and he sprang forth from the champions and hefted the shining javelin,
glaring round about him, and the Trojans gave way in the face
575 of the man throwing with the spear. And he made no vain cast
but struck Hiketaon’s son, Melanippos the high-hearted,
in the chest next to the nipple as he swept into the fighting.
He fell, thunderously, and darkness closed over both eyes.
Antilochos sprang forth against him, as a hound rushes
580 against a stricken fawn that as he broke from his covert
a hunter has shot at, and hit, and broken his limbs’ strength.
So Antilochos stubborn in battle sprang, Melanippos,
at you, to strip your armor, but did not escape brilliant Hektor’s
notice, who came on the run through the fighting against him.
585 Antilochos did not hold his ground, although a swift fighter,
but fled away like a wild beast who has done some bad thing,
one who has killed a hound or an ox-herd tending his cattle
and escapes, before a gang of men has assembled against him;
so Nestor’s son ran away, and after him the Trojans and Hektor
590 with unearthly clamor showered their groaning weapons against him.
He turned and stood when he got into the swarm of his own companions.
But the Trojans in the likeness of ravening lions swept on
against the ships, and were bringing to accomplishment Zeus’ orders,
who wakened always the huge strength in them, dazed the courage
595 of the Argives, and denied their glory, and stirred on the others.
Zeus’ desire was to give glory to the son of Priam,
Hektor, that he might throw on the curved ships the inhuman
weariless strength of fire, and so make completely accomplished
the prayer of Thetis. Therefore Zeus of the counsels waited
600 the sight before his eyes of the flare, when a single ship burned.
From thereon he would make the attack of the Trojans
surge back again from the ships, and give the Danaäns glory.
With this in mind he drove on against the hollow ships Hektor,
Priam’s son, though Hektor without the god was in fury
605 and raged, as when destructive fire or spear-shaking Ares
rages among the mountains and dense places of the deep forest.
A slaver came out around his mouth, and under the lowering
brows his eyes were glittering, the helm on his temples
was shaken and thundered horribly to the fighting of Hektor.
610 Out of the bright sky Zeus himself was working to help him
and among men so numerous he honored this one man
and glorified him, since Hektor was to have only a short life
and already the day of his death was being driven upon him
by Pallas Athene through the strength of Achilleus. And now
615 he was probing the ranks of men, and trying to smash them,
and made for where there were most men together, and the best armor.
But even so he could not break them, for all his fury,
for they closed into a wall and held him, like some towering
huge sea-cliff that lies close along the gray salt water
620 and stands up against the screaming winds and their sudden directions
and against the waves that grow to bigness and burst up against it.
So the Danaäns stood steady against the Trojans, nor gave way.
But he, lit about with flame on all sides, charged on their numbers
and descended upon them as descends on a fast ship the battering
625 wave storm-bred from beneath the clouds, and the ship goes utterly
hidden under the foam, and the dangerous blast of the hurricane
thunders against the sail, and the hearts of the seamen are shaken
with fear, as they are carried only a little way out of death’s reach.
So the heart in the breast of each Achaian was troubled.
630 Hektor came on against them, as a murderous lion on cattle
who in the low-lying meadow of a great marsh pasture
by hundreds, and among them a herdsman who does not quite know
how to fight a wild beast off from killing a horn-curved
ox, and keeps pace with the first and the last of the cattle
635 always, but the lion making his spring at the mid
dle
eats an ox as the rest stampede; so now the Achaians
fled in unearthly terror before father Zeus and Hektor,
all, but he got one only, Periphetes of Mykenai,
beloved son of Kopreus, who for the lord Eurystheus
640 had gone often with messages to powerful Herakles.
To him, a meaner father, was born a son who was better
for all talents, in the speed of his feet and in battle
and for intelligence counted among the first in Mykenai.
Thereby now higher was the glory he granted to Hektor.
645 For as he whirled about to get back, he fell over the out-rim
of the shield he carried, which reached to his feet to keep the spears from him.
Stumbling on this he went over on his back, and the helmet
that circled his temples clashed horribly as he went down.
Hektor saw it sharply, and ran up and stood beside him,
650 and stuck the spear into his chest and killed him before the eyes
of his dear friends, who for all their sorrowing could do nothing
to help their companion, being themselves afraid of great Hektor.
Now they had got among the ships, and the ends were about them
of the ships hauled up in the first line, but the Trojans swarmed
655 on them. The Argives under force gave back from the first line
of their ships, but along the actual shelters they rallied
in a group, and did not scatter along the encampment. Shame held them
and fear. They kept up a continuous call to each other,
and beyond others Gerenian Nestor, the Achaians’ watcher,
660 supplicated each man by the knees for the sake of his parents.
“Dear friends, be men; let shame be in your hearts and discipline
in the sight of other men, and each one of you remember
his children and his wife, his property and his parents,
whether a man’s father and mother live or have died. Here now
665 I supplicate your knees for the sake of those who are absent
to stand strongly and not be turned to the terror of panic.”
So he spoke, and stirred the spirit and heart in each man,
and from their eyes Athene pushed the darkness immortal
of mist, and the light came out hard against them on both sides
670 whether they looked from the ships or from the closing of battle.
They knew Hektor of the great war cry, they knew his companions
whether they stood away behind and out of the fighting
or whether alongside the fast ships they fought in the battle.
The Iliad of Homer Page 46