100 until it has gone through a man’s body. But if the god only
would pull out even the issue of war, he would not so easily
win, not even though he claims to be made all of bronze.”
In turn the lord the son of Zeus Apollo spoke to him:
“Hero, then make your prayer, you also, to the everlasting
105 gods, since they say that you yourself are born of Zeus’ daughter
Aphrodite, but Achilleus was born of a lesser goddess,
Aphrodite being daughter of Zeus, Thetis of the sea’s ancient.
Carry your weariless bronze straight against him, let him by no means
turn you back by blustering words and his threats of terror.”
110 So speaking, he inspired enormous strength in the shepherd of the people,
who strode on his way among the champions helmed in the bright bronze,
nor did Hera of the white arms fail to see the son of Anchises
as he went through the thronging men to face the son of Peleus,
and drew the other immortals about her and spoke to them, saying:
115 “Poseidon and Athene, now take counsel between you
and within your hearts as to how these matters shall be accomplished.
Here is Aineias gone helmed in the shining bronze against
Peleus’ son, and it was Phoibos Apollo who sent him.
Come then, we must even go down ourselves and turn him
120 back from here, or else one of us must stand by Achilleus
and put enormous strength upon him, and let him not come short
in courage, but let him know that they love him who are the highest
of the immortals, but those who before now fended the fury
of war, as now, from the Trojans are as wind and nothing.
125 For all of us have come down from Olympos to take our part
in this battle, so nothing may be done to him by the Trojans
on this day. Afterward he shall suffer such things as Destiny
wove with the strand of his birth that day he was born to his mother.
But if Achilleus does not hear all this from gods’ voices
130 he will be afraid, when a god puts out his strength against him
in the fighting. It is hard for gods to be shown in their true shape.”
In turn Poseidon the shaker of the earth answered her:
“Hera, do not be angry without purpose. It does not
become you, since I at least would not have the rest of us gods
135 encounter in battle, since indeed we are far too strong for them.
Let us then go away and sit down together off the path
at a viewing place, and let the men take care of their fighting.
Only if Ares begins to fight, or Phoibos Apollo,
or if they hold Achilleus back and will not let him fight,
140 then at once they will have a quarrel with us on their hands
in open battle. But soon, I think, when they have fought with us
they will get back to Olympos and the throng of the other gods
beaten back by the overmastering strength of our hands.”
So he spoke, Poseidon of the dark hair, and led the way
145 to the stronghold of godlike Herakles, earth-piled on both sides,
a high place, which the Trojans and Pallas Athene had built him
as a place of escape where he could get away from the Sea Beast
when the charging monster drove him away to the plain from the seashore.
There Poseidon and the gods who were with him sat down
150 and gathered a breakless wall of cloud to darken their shoulders;
while they of the other side sat down on the brows of the sweet bluffs
around you, lord Apollo, and Ares sacker of cities.
So they on either side took their places, deliberating
counsels, reluctant on both sides to open the sorrowful
155 attack. But Zeus sitting on high above urged them on.
But all the plain was filled and shining with bronze of the mortals,
their men and horses, and underneath their feet the earth staggered
as they swept together. Two men far greater than all the others
were coming to encounter, furious to fight with each other,
160 Aineias, the son of Anchises, and brilliant Achilleus.
First of the two Aineias had strode forth in menace, tossing
his head beneath the heavy helm, and he held the stark shield
in front of his chest, and shook the brazen spear. From the other
side the son of Peleus rose like a lion against him,
165 the baleful beast, when men have been straining to kill him, the county
all in the hunt, and he at the first pays them no attention
but goes his way, only when some one of the impetuous young men
has hit him with the spear he whirls, jaws open, over his teeth foam
breaks out, and in the depth of his chest the powerful heart groans;
170 he lashes his own ribs with his tail and the flanks on both sides
as he rouses himself to fury for the fight, eyes glaring,
and hurls himself straight onward on the chance of killing some one
of the men, or else being killed himself in the first onrush.
So the proud heart and fighting fury stirred on Achilleus
175 to go forward in the face of great-hearted Aineias.
Now as these in their advance had come close to each other
first of the two to speak was swift-footed brilliant Achilleus:
“Aineias, why have you stood so far forth from the multitude
against me? Does the desire in your heart drive you to combat
180 in hope you will be lord of the Trojans, breakers of horses,
and of Priam’s honor? And yet even if you were to kill me
Priam would not because of that rest such honor on your hand.
He has sons, and he himself is sound, not weakened.
Or have the men of Troy promised you a piece of land, surpassing
185 all others, fine ploughland and orchard for you to administer
if you kill me? But I think that killing will not be easy.
Another time before this, I tell you, you ran from my spear.
Or do you not remember when, apart from your cattle, I caught you
alone, and chased you in the speed of your feet down the hills of Ida
190 headlong, and that time as you ran you did not turn to look back.
Then you got away into Lyrnessos, but I went after you
and stormed that place, with the help of Athene and of Zeus father,
and took the day of liberty away from their women
and led them as spoil, but Zeus and the other gods saved you.
195 I think they will not save you now, as your expectation
tells you they will. No, but I myself urge you to get back
into the multitude, not stand to face me, before you
take some harm. Once a thing has been done, the fool sees it.”
Then in turn Aineias spoke to him and made his answer:
200 “Son of Peleus, never hope by words to frighten me
as if I were a baby. I myself understand well enough
how to speak in vituperation and how to make insults.
You and I know each other’s birth, we both know our parents
since we have heard the lines of their fame from mortal men; only
205 I have never with my eyes seen your parents, nor have you seen mine.
For you, they say you are the issue of blameless Peleus
and that your mother was Thetis of the lovely hair, the sea’s lady;
I in turn claim I am the son of great-hearted Anchises
but that my mother was Aphrodite; and that of these parents
210 one group or the other will have a dea
r son to mourn for
this day. Since I believe we will not in mere words, like children,
meet, and separate and go home again out of the fighting.
Even so, if you wish to learn all this and be certain
of my genealogy: there are plenty of men who know it.
215 First of all Zeus who gathers the clouds had a son, Dardanos
who founded Dardania, since there was yet no sacred Ilion
made a city in the plain to be a center of peoples,
but they lived yet in the underhills of Ida with all her waters.
Dardanos in turn had a son, the king, Erichthonios,
220 who became the richest of mortal men, and in his possession
were three thousand horses who pastured along the low grasslands,
mares in their pride with their young colts; and with these the North Wind
fell in love as they pastured there, and took on upon him
the likeness of a dark-maned stallion, and coupled with them,
225 and the mares conceiving of him bore to him twelve young horses.
Those, when they would play along the grain-giving tilled land
would pass along the tassels of corn and not break the divine yield,
but again, when they played across the sea’s wide ridges
they would run the edge of the wave where it breaks on the gray salt water.
230 Erichthonios had a son, Tros, who was lord of the Trojans,
and to Tros in turn there were born three sons unfaulted,
Ilos and Assarakos and godlike Ganymedes
who was the loveliest born of the race of mortals, and therefore
the gods caught him away to themselves, to be Zeus’ wine-pourer,
235 for the sake of his beauty, so he might be among the immortals.
Ilos in turn was given a son, the blameless Laomedon,
and Laomedon had sons in turn, Tithonos and Priam,
Lampos, Klytios and Hiketaon, scion of Ares;
but Assarakos had Kapys, and Kapys’ son was Anchises,
240 and I am Anchises’ son, and Priam’s is Hektor the brilliant.
Such is the generation and blood I claim to be born from.
Zeus builds up and Zeus diminishes the strength in men,
the way he pleases, since his power is beyond all others’.
But come, let us no longer stand here talking of these things
245 like children, here in the space between the advancing armies.
For there are harsh things enough that could be spoken against us
both, a ship of a hundred locks could not carry the burden.
The tongue of man is a twisty thing, there are plenty of words there
of every kind, the range of words is wide, and their variance.
250 The sort of thing you say is the thing that will be said to you.
But what have you and I to do with the need for squabbling
and hurling insults at each other, as if we were two wives
who when they have fallen upon a heart-perishing quarrel
go out in the street and say abusive things to each other,
255 much true, and much that is not, and it is their rage that drives them.
You will not by talking turn me back from the strain of my warcraft,
not till you have fought to my face with the bronze. Come on then
and let us try each other’s strength with the bronze of our spearheads.”
He spoke, and on the terrible grim shield drove the ponderous
260 pike, so that the great shield moaned as it took the spearhead.
The son of Peleus with his heavy hand held the shield away
from him, in fright, since he thought the far-shadowing spear
of great-hearted Aineias would lightly be driven through it.
Fool, and the heart and spirit in him could not understand
265 how the glorious gifts of the gods are not easily broken
by mortal men, how such gifts will not give way before them.
Nor this time could the ponderous spear of war-wise Aineias
smash the shield, since the gold stayed it, the god’s gift. Indeed
he did drive the spear through two folds, but there were three left
270 still, since the god of the dragging feet had made five folds on it,
two of bronze on the outside and on the inside two of tin
and between them the single gold, and in this the ash spear was held fast.
After him Achilleus let go his spear far shadowing
and struck the shield of Aineias along its perfect circle
275 at the utter rim where the circle of bronze ran thinnest about it
and the oxhide was laid thinnest there. The Pelian ash spear
crashed clean through it there, and the shield cried out as it went through.
Aineias shrank down and held the shield away and above him
in fright, and the spear went over his back and crashed its way
280 to the ground, and fixed there, after tearing apart two circles
of the man-covering shield. But Aineias, free of the long spear,
stood still, and around his eyes gathered the enormous emotion
and fear, that the weapon had fixed so close to him. Now Achilleus
drew his tearing sword and swept in fury upon him
285 crying a terrible cry, but Aineias now in his hand caught
up a stone, a huge thing which no two men could carry
such as men are now, but by himself he lightly hefted it.
And there Aineias would have hit him with the stone as he swept in,
on helm or shield, which would have fended the bitter death from him,
290 and Peleus’ son would have closed with the sword and stripped the life from him,
had not the shaker of the earth Poseidon sharply perceived all
and immediately spoken his word out among the immortals:
“Ah me; I am full of sorrow for great-hearted Aineias
who must presently go down to death, overpowered by Achilleus,
295 because he believed the words of Apollo, the far ranging;
poor fool, since Apollo will do nothing to keep grim death from him.
But why does this man, who is guiltless, suffer his sorrows
for no reason, for the sake of others’ unhappiness, and always
he gives gifts that please them to the gods who hold the wide heaven.
300 But come, let us ourselves get him away from death, for fear
the son of Kronos may be angered if now Achilleus
kills this man. It is destined that he shall be the survivor,
that the generation of Dardanos shall not die, without seed
obliterated, since Dardanos was dearest to Kronides
305 of all his sons that have been born to him from mortal women.
For Kronos’ son has cursed the generation of Priam,
and now the might of Aineias shall be lord over the Trojans,
and his sons’ sons, and those who are born of their seed hereafter.”
In turn the lady of the ox eyes, Hera, answered him:
310 “Shaker of the earth, you yourself must decide in your own heart
about Aineias, whether to rescue him or to let him
go down, for all his strength, before Peleus’ son, Achilleus.
For we two, Pallas Athene and I, have taken
numerous oaths and sworn them in the sight of all the immortals
315 never to drive the day of evil away from the Trojans,
not even when all the city of Troy is burned in the ravening
fire, on that day when the warlike sons of the Achaians burn it.”
When he had heard this, the shaker of the earth Poseidon
went on his way through the confusion of spears and the fighting,
320 and came to where Aineias was, and renowned Achilleus.
There quickly he drifte
d a mist across the eyes of one fighter,
Achilleus, Peleus’ son, and from the shield of Aineias
of the great heart pulled loose the strong bronze-headed ash spear
and laid it down again before the feet of Achilleus;
325 but Aineias he lifted high from the ground, and slung him through the air
so that many ranks of fighting men, many ranks of horses,
were overvaulted by Aineias, hurled by the god’s hand.
He landed at the uttermost edge of the tossing battle
330 where the Kaukonians were arming them for the order of fighting.
And Poseidon, shaker of the earth, came and stood very near him
and spoke to him and addressed him in winged words: “Aineias,
which one of the gods is it who urges you to such madness
that you fight in the face of Peleus’ son, against his high courage
335 though he is both stronger than you and dearer to the immortals?
Give back rather, whenever you find yourself thrown against him,
lest beyond your fate you go down into the house of the death god.
But once Achilleus has fulfilled his death and his destiny,
then take courage, and go on, and fight with their foremost,
340 since there shall be no other Achaian able to kill you.”
He spoke, and left him there, when he had told him all this,
and at once scattered the mist away from the eyes of Achilleus
that the gods had sent, and now he looked with his eyes, and saw largely,
and in disgust spoke then to his own great-hearted spirit:
345 “Can this be? Here is a strange thing I see with my own eyes.
Here is my spear lying on the ground, but I can no longer
see the man, whom I was charging in fury to kill him.
Aineias was then one beloved of the immortal
gods. I thought what he said was ineffectual boasting.
350 Let him go. He will not again have daring to try me
in battle, since even now he was glad to escape my onset.
Come! I must urge on the Danaäns whose delight is in battle
and go on to face the rest of the Trojans, and see what they can do.”
He spoke, and leapt back into the ranks, and urged each man on:
355 “No longer stand away from the Trojans, O great Achaians,
but let each one go to face his man, furious to fight him.
It is a hard thing for me, for all my great strength, to harry
the flight of men in such numbers or to fight with all of them.
Not Ares, who is a god immortal, not even Athene
The Iliad of Homer Page 58