The Iliad of Homer

by Richmond Lattimore

  the child into the light, and he looked on the sun’s shining,

  Aktor’s son Echekles in the majesty of his great power

  190 led her to his house, when he had given numberless gifts to win her,

  and the old man Phylas took the child and brought him up kindly

  and cared for him, in affection as if he had been his own son.

  The leader of the third battalion was warlike Peisandros,

  Maimalos’ son, who outshone all the rest of the Myrmidons

  195 in spear-fighting, next to Peleian Achilleus’ henchman.

  The fourth battalion was led by Phoinix, the aged horseman,

  the fifth by Alkimedon, the blameless son of Laërkes.

  But after Achilleus gave them their stations all in good order

  beside their leaders, he laid his stern injunction upon them:

  200 “Myrmidons: not one of you can forget those mutterings,

  those threats that beside the running ships you made at the Trojans

  in all the time of my anger, and it was I you were blaming,

  as: ‘Hard son of Peleus! Your mother nursed you on gall. You have no

  pity, to keep your companions here by the ships unwilling.

  205 We should go back home again, then, in our seafaring vessels

  now that this wretched anger has befallen your spirit.

  ’ Often you would gather in groups and so mutter against me,

  and now is shown a great work of that fighting you longed for.

  Then let each man take heart of strength to fight with the Trojans.”

  210 So he spoke, and stirred the spirit and strength in each man,

  and their ranks, as they listened to the king, pulled closer together.

  And as a man builds solid a wall with stones set close together

  for the rampart of a high house keeping out the force of the winds, so

  close together were the helms and shields massive in the middle.

  215 For shield leaned on shield, helmet on helmet, man against man,

  and the horse-hair crests along the horns of the shining helmets

  touched as they bent their heads, so dense were they formed on each other.

  And before them all were two men in their armor, Patroklos

  and Automedon, both of them in one single fury

  220 to fight in front of the Myrmidons. But meanwhile Achilleus

  went off into his shelter, and lifted the lid from a lovely

  elaborately wrought chest, which Thetis the silver-footed

  had put in his ship to carry, and filled it fairly with tunics

  and mantles to hold the wind from a man, and with fleecy blankets.

  225 Inside this lay a wrought goblet, nor did any other

  man drink the shining wine from it nor did Achilleus

  pour from it to any other god, but only Zeus father.

  He took this now out of the chest, and cleaned it with sulfur

  first, and afterward washed it out in bright-running water,

  230 and washed his own hands, and poured shining wine into the goblet

  and stood in his middle forecourt and prayed, and poured the wine, looking

  into the sky, not unseen by Zeus who delights in the thunder:

  “High Zeus, lord of Dodona, Pelasgian, living afar off,

  brooding over wintry Dodona, your prophets about you

  235 living, the Selloi who sleep on the ground with feet unwashed. Hear me.

  As one time before when I prayed to you, you listened

  and did me honor, and smote strongly the host of the Achaians,

  so one more time bring to pass the wish that I pray for.

  For see, I myself am staying where the ships are assembled,

  240 but I send out my companion and many Myrmidons with him

  to fight. Let glory, Zeus of the wide brows, go forth with him.

  Make brave the heart inside his breast, so that even Hektor

  will find out whether our henchman knows how to fight his battles

  by himself, or whether his hands rage invincible only

  245 those times when I myself go into the grind of the war god.

  But when he has beaten back from the ships their clamorous onset,

  then let him come back to me and the running ships, unwounded,

  with all his armor and with the companions who fight close beside him.”

  So he spoke in prayer, and Zeus of the counsels heard him.

  250 The father granted him one prayer, and denied him the other.

  That Patroklos should beat back the fighting assault on the vessels

  he allowed, but refused to let him come back safe out of the fighting.

  When Achilleus had poured the wine and prayed to Zeus father

  he went back into the shelter, stowed the cup in the chest, and came out

  255 to stand in front of the door, with the desire in his heart still

  to watch the grim encounter of Achaians and Trojans.

  Now they who were armed in the company of great-hearted Patroklos

  went onward, until in high confidence they charged on the Trojans.

  The Myrmidons came streaming out like wasps at the wayside

  260 when little boys have got into the habit of making them angry

  by always teasing them as they live in their house by the roadside;

  silly boys, they do something that hurts many people;

  and if some man who travels on the road happens to pass them

  and stirs them unintentionally, they in heart of fury

  265 come swarming out each one from his place to fight for their children.

  In heart and in fury like these the Myrmidons streaming

  came out from their ships, with a tireless clamor arising,

  and Patroklos called afar in a great voice to his companions:

  “Myrmidons, companions of Peleus’ son, Achilleus,

  270 be men now, dear friends, remember your furious valor;

  we must bring honor to Peleus’ son, far the greatest of the Argives

  by the ships, we, even the henchmen who fight beside him,

  so Atreus’ son wide-ruling Agamemnon may recognize

  his madness, that he did no honor to the best of the Achaians.”

  275 So he spoke, and stirred the spirit and strength in each man.

  They fell upon the Trojans in a pack, and about them

  the ships echoed terribly to the roaring Achaians.

  But the Trojans, when they saw the powerful son of Menoitios

  himself and his henchman with him in the glare of their war gear,

  280 the heart was stirred in all of them, the battalions were shaken

  in the expectation that by the ships swift-footed Peleion

  had thrown away his anger and chosen the way of friendship.

  Then each man looked about him for a way to escape the sheer death.

  Patroklos was the first man to make a cast with the shining

  285 spear, straight through the middle fighting, where most men were stricken,

  beside the stern on the ship of great-hearted Protesilaos,

  and struck Pyraichmes, who had led the lords of Paionian

  horses from Amydon and the wide waters of Axios.

  He struck him in the right shoulder, so he dropped in the dust groaning,

  290 on his back, and his Paionian companions about him

  scattered; for Patroklos drove the fear into all of them

  when he cut down their leader, the best of them all in battle.

  He drove them from the ships and put out the fire that was blazing,

  and that ship was left half-burnt as it was, as the Trojans scattered

  295 in terror and unearthly noise, and the Danaäns streamed back

  along the hollow ships, and clamor incessant rose up.

  And as when from the towering height of a great mountain Zeus

  who gathers the
thunderflash stirs the cloud dense upon it,

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

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

  so when the Danaäns had beaten from their ships the ravening

  fire, they got breath for a little, but there was no check in the fighting;

  for the Trojans under the attack of the warlike Achaians

  had not yet turned their faces to run away from the black ships.

  305 They stood yet against them, but gave way from the ships under pressure.

  There man killed man all along the scattered encounter

  of the leaders, and first among them, the strong son of Menoitios,

  threw and struck Areïlykos in the thigh, as he turned

  back, with the sharp point of the spear, and drove the bronze clean through.

  310 The spear smashed in the bone and he fell to the ground headlong

  on his face. Meanwhile warlike Menelaos stabbed Thoas

  in the chest where it was left bare by the shield, and unstrung his limbs’ strength.

  Meges, Phyleus’ son, watched Amphiklos as he came on

  and was too quick with a stab at the base of the leg, where the muscle

  315 of a man grows thickest, so that on the spearhead the sinew

  was torn apart, and a mist of darkness closed over both eyes.

  Of the sons of Nestor one, Antilochos, stabbed Atymnios

  with the sharp spear, and drove the bronze head clean through his flank, so

  that he fell forward; but Maris with the spear from close up

  320 made a lunge at Antilochos in rage for his brother

  standing in front of the corpse, but before him godlike Thrasymedes

  was in with a thrust before he could stab, nor missed his quick stroke

  into the shoulder, and the spearhead shore off the arm’s base

  clear away from the muscles and torn from the bone utterly.

  325 He fell, thunderously, and darkness closed over both eyes.

  So these two, beaten down under the hands of two brothers,

  descended to the dark place, Sarpedon’s noble companions

  and spear-throwing sons of Amisodaros, the one who had nourished

  the furious Chimaira to be an evil to many.

  330 Aias, Oïleus’ son, in an outrush caught Kleoboulos

  alive, where he was fouled in the running confusion, and there

  unstrung his strength, hewing with the hilted sword at the neck,

  so all the sword was smoking with blood and over both eyes

  closed the red death and the strong destiny. Then Peneleos

  335 and Lykon ran up close together, since these with their spear-throws

  had gone wide of each other, and each had made a cast vainly.

  So now the two of them ran together with swords. There Lykon

  hacked at the horn of the horse-hair crested helm, but the sword blade

  broke at the socket; Peneleos cut at the neck underneath

  340 the ear, and the sword sank clean inside, with only skin left

  to hold it, and the head slumped aside, and the limbs were loosened.

  Meriones on his light feet overtaking Akamas

  stabbed him in the right shoulder as he climbed up behind his horses

  and the darkness drifted over his eyes as he crashed from the chariot.

  345 Idomeneus stabbed Erymas in the mouth with the pitiless

  bronze, so that the brazen spearhead smashed its way clean through

  below the brain in an upward stroke, and the white bones splintered,

  and the teeth were shaken out with the stroke and both eyes filled up

  with blood, and gaping he blew a spray of blood through the nostrils

  350 and through his mouth, and death in a dark mist closed in about him.

  So these lords of the Danaäns killed each his own man.

  They as wolves make havoc among lambs or young goats in their fury,

  catching them out of the flocks, when the sheep separate in the mountains

  through the thoughtlessness of the shepherd, and the wolves seeing them

  355 suddenly snatch them away, and they have no heart for fighting;

  so the Danaäns ravaged the Trojans, and these remembered

  the bitter sound of terror, and forgot their furious valor.

  But the great Aias was trying forever to make a spearcast

  at bronze-helmed Hektor, but he in his experience of fighting

  360 with his broad shoulders huddled under the bull’s-hide shield kept

  watching always the whistle of arrows, the crash of spears thrown.

  He knew well how the strength of the fighting shifted against him,

  but even so stood his ground to save his steadfast companions.

  As when a cloud goes deep into the sky from Olympos

  365 through the bright upper air when Zeus brings on the hurricane,

  so rose from beside the ships their outcry, the noise of their terror.

  In no good order they went back, while his fast-running horses

  carried Hektor away in his armor; he abandoned the people

  of the Trojans, who were trapped by the deep-dug ditch unwilling,

  370 and in the ditch many fast horses who pulled the chariots

  left, broken short at the joining of the pole, their masters’ chariots

  while Patroklos was on them, calling hard and loud to the Danaäns

  with evil intention for the Trojans, who, in clamorous terror,

  choked all the ways where they were cut off; from under their feet stirred

  375 the dust-storm scattered in clouds, their single-foot horses were straining

  to get back to the city away from the ships and the shelters.

  But Patroklos, where he saw the stirring of most people,

  steered there, shouting, and men went down under the axles

  headlong from chariots as the empty cars rattled onward.

  380 Straight across the ditch overleapt those swift and immortal

  horses the gods had given as shining gifts to Peleus,

  hurtling onward, as Patroklos’ rage stirred him against Hektor,

  whom he tried to strike, but his fast horses carried him out of it.

  As underneath the hurricane all the black earth is burdened

  385 on an autumn day, when Zeus sends down the most violent waters

  in deep rage against mortals after they stir him to anger

  because in violent assembly they pass decrees that are crooked,

  and drive righteousness from among them and care nothing for what the gods think,

  and all the rivers of these men swell current to full spate

  390 and in the ravines of their water-courses rip all the hillsides

  and dash whirling in huge noise down to the blue sea, out of

  the mountains headlong, so that the works of men are diminished;

  so huge rose the noise from the horses of Troy in their running.

  But Patroklos, when he had cut away their first battalions,

  395 turned back to pin them against the ships, and would not allow them

  to climb back into their city though they strained for it, but sweeping

  through the space between the ships, the high wall, and the river,

  made havoc and exacted from them the blood price for many.

  There first of all he struck with the shining spear Pronoös

  400 in the chest where it was left bare by the shield, and unstrung his limbs’ strength.

  He fell, thunderously, and Patroklos in his next outrush

  at Thestor, Enops’ son, who huddled inside his chariot,

  shrunk back, he had lost all his nerve, and from his hands the reins

  slipped—Patroklos coming close up to him stabbed with a spear-thrust

  405 at the right side of the jaw and drove
it on through the teeth, then

  hooked and dragged him with the spear over the rail, as a fisherman

  who sits out on the jut of a rock with line and glittering

  bronze hook drags a fish, who is thus doomed, out of the water.

  So he hauled him, mouth open to the bright spear, out of the chariot,

  410 and shoved him over on his face, and as he fell the life left him.

  Next he struck Erylaos, as he swept in, with a great stone

  in the middle of the head, and all the head broke into two pieces

  inside the heavy helmet, and he in the dust face downward

  dropped while death breaking the spirit drifted about him.

  415 Afterward with Erymas, Amphoteros, and Epaltes,

  Tlepolemos Damastor’s son, Echios and Pyris,

  Ipheus and Euippos, and Argeas’ son Polymelos,

  all these he felled to the bountiful earth in rapid succession.

  But Sarpedon, when he saw his free-girt companions going

  420 down underneath the hands of Menoitios’ son Patroklos,

  called aloud in entreaty upon the godlike Lykians:

  “Shame, you Lykians, where are you running to? You must be fierce now,

  for I myself will encounter this man, so I may find out

  who this is who has so much strength and has done so much evil

  425 to the Trojans, since many and brave are those whose knees he has unstrung.”

  He spoke, and sprang to the ground in all his arms from the chariot,

  and on the other side Patroklos when he saw him leapt down

  from his chariot. They as two hook-clawed beak-bent vultures

  above a tall rock face, high-screaming, go for each other,

  430 so now these two, crying aloud, encountered together.

  And watching them the son of devious-devising Kronos

  was pitiful, and spoke to Hera, his wife and his sister:

  “Ah me, that it is destined that the dearest of men, Sarpedon,

  must go down under the hands of Menoitios’ son Patroklos.

  435 The heart in my breast is balanced between two ways as I ponder,

  whether I should snatch him out of the sorrowful battle

  and set him down still alive in the rich country of Lykia,

  or beat him under at the hands of the son of Menoitios.”

  In turn the lady Hera of the ox eyes answered him:

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

  Do you wish to bring back a man who is mortal, one long since

  doomed by his destiny, from ill-sounding death and release him?