by Homer
A silver yoke-pole protrudes from it; and on its end
Hebe secured the golden, splendid yoke, and fitted on the splendid harness730
also of gold; and under the yoke Hera led
the swift-footed horses, eager as she was for strife and battle.
And Athena, daughter of Zeus who wields the aegis,
let fall her rippling robe upon her father’s floor,
elaborate with embroidery, which she herself had made and labored on
with her own hands,
and putting on the cloak of Zeus who gathers clouds,
she armed herself for tearful war.
Around her shoulders she flung the tasseled aegis
a thing of dread, crowned on every side with Panic all around,
and Strife was on it, and Battle Spirit and chilling Flight,740
and on it too the terrible monstrous Gorgon head,
a thing of awe and terror, portent of Zeus who wields the aegis;
and on her head Athena placed her helmet, ridged on both sides,
with four golden bosses, adorned with fighters of a hundred cities;
she made her way on foot toward the flame-bright chariot, and seized her
spear
heavy, massive, powerful, with which she beats down the ranks of warrior
men, with whom she, born of the mighty Father, might be angered.
Hera with her whip swiftly touched the horses;
of their own accord the gates of heaven groaned, which the Seasons guard,
they to whom broad heaven and Olympus are entrusted750
to push back the thick-pressed clouds and also close them over.
Through these they held the goad-sped horses;
they found the son of Cronus sitting apart from other gods
on the topmost peak of ridged Olympus.
There the white-armed goddess Hera, bringing the horses to a stop,
spoke out to Zeus the high son of Cronus and addressed him:
“Father Zeus, do you not find fault with Ares for these violent deeds,
seeing he has destroyed so many and such good Achaean warriors,
heedlessly, without seemliness, to my sorrow? And, untroubled,
Cypris and silver-bowed Apollo, are exultant,760
having let this madman loose, who knows nothing decent.
Father Zeus, would you then be angry with me if I
were to drive Ares, thrashed sorely, from the battle?”
Then in answer Zeus who gathers the clouds addressed her:
“Go to then, set Athena the spoiler at him,
who above all others is practiced in bringing him close to evil pains.”
So he spoke, nor did the goddess of the white arms Hera disobey.
She put whip to the horses, and they two not unwilling flew on
between the earth and star-strewn heaven.
As far as a man can see with his eyes into the haze of distance770
as he sits on a peak, looking on sea as dark as wine,
so far the horses of the gods leapt in one stride, thundering on high.
But when they came to Troy and its two flowing rivers,
where Simoeis and Scamander meet their streams,
there Hera the goddess of the white arms drew up the horses,
released them from the chariot, and around them poured abundant mist;
and Simoeis brought forth for them ambrosia to be grazed.
Like wild doves the two goddesses strutted forth,
in eagerness to defend the Argive men.
And when then they arrived where the most and the best men780
stood massed around strong Diomedes breaker of horses,
like lions who eat flesh,
or wild boars, whose strength is unflagging,
there taking her stand, the goddess of the white arms Hera cried out,
like Stentor, great-hearted and bronze-voiced,
whose shouting cry is as great as that of fifty other men:
“For shame, Argives, cowardly disgraces, admirable only in appearance!
During the time Achilles the godlike came to battle,
never did the Trojans go beyond the Dardanian gates;
for they feared his heavy spear;790
now far from the city, they fight beside the hollow ships.”
So speaking she stirred the strength and spirit of every man.
And the gleaming-eyed goddess Athena rushed to the son of Tydeus.
She found the king beside his horses and chariot
cooling off his wound that Pandaros had struck with his arrow.
For the sweat wore him beneath the broad strap
of his man-surrounding shield; he was worn with it, and his arms were weary;
lifting his shield strap he wiped away the dark-clouded blood.
But the goddess grasped his horse’s yoke and spoke to him:
“Surely Tydeus begot a son only a little like him.800
Tydeus to be sure was small in build, but he was warlike;
even at the time when I forbade him to go to war,
or to rush to the fray, when he went alone without the Achaeans
as messenger to Thebes among many Cadmeians,
and I bade him dine with them peacefully in their halls,
yet keeping his spirit strong, as ever before,
he challenged the young men of Cadmus, and vanquished them entirely—
easily; such an ally to him was I.
And surely I stand by and watch over you,
and gladly bid you do battle with the Trojans;810
but either the weariness of many assaults has entered in your limbs,
or, perhaps, it is spiritless fear that holds you. Not then are you
the child of Tydeus, the brilliant son of Oineus.”
Then answering her, powerful Diomedes spoke:
“I know you, goddess, daughter of Zeus who wields the aegis;
therefore gladly do I speak to you, nor will I hold my thoughts.
Neither any spiritless fear holds me, nor any shirking,
but I am yet mindful of your commands, which you charged;
you did not permit me to engage in head-on battle with the other
blessed gods; but if Aphrodite daughter of Zeus820
came to war, her I could wound with sharp bronze.
For this reason now I have withdrawn and ordered
the other Argives all to mass together here.
For I know it is Ares who lords it across the battlefield.”
Then the gleaming-eyed goddess Athena answered him:
“Son of Tydeus, Diomedes, delighting my heart,
do not fear Ares on this account nor any other
of the immortals; such an ally to you am I.
But come, hold your single-hoofed horses straight for Ares,
strike at close quarters, do not stand in awe of furious Ares,830
this madman, created for evil, double-faced,
who only yesterday to myself and Hera declaiming aloud pledged
to fight the Trojans, and defend the Argives,
and now he bands with the Trojans, and has no thought of this.”
So speaking she pulled Sthenelos from the chariot to the ground,
drawing him backward with her hand, and he quickly sprang away;
and she the goddess mounted into the chariot beside brilliant Diomedes
in eager haste; and the oaken axle groaned mightily
with weight; for it bore a dread goddess and a noble man.
And Pallas Athena seized the whip and reins;840
straightway she held the single-hoofed horses straight for Ares.
He was just stripping huge Periphas,
the best by far of the Aetolians, the splendid son of Ochesios;
this man murderous Ares was stripping; but Athena
put on the cap of Hades, so that massive Ares would not see her.
And when Ares, ruinous to mortals,
saw brilliant Diomedes,
he let huge Periphas lie flat on the spot
where he first had stripped his life and killed him,
and then made straight for Diomedes breaker of horses.
And when they had advanced almost upon each other,850
Ares lunged first over the yoke and the reins of the horses
with his bronze spear, bent on stripping away his life;
but the gleaming-eyed goddess Athena taking the spear with her hand
thrust it up and away from the chariot to fly in vain.
Then Diomedes of the war cry charged
with his bronze spear; and Pallas Athena pressed it
in low beneath the ribs, where Ares was girt by his war-belt.
Striking there she wounded him and ripped through his splendid skin,
and drew the spear out again. And brazen Ares roared,
as loud as nine thousand men shout, or ten thousand860
men in battle joined in strife of war;
and at this trembling took hold of both Achaeans and Trojans
in their fear; so loud did he roar, Ares insatiate of war.
As darkling mist appears from the clouds
after the heat of weather, and a violent wind is stirred,
so did Ares the bronze god appear to Diomedes son of Tydeus
among the clouds, as he rose up to broad heaven.
Swiftly he came to the seat of the gods, steep Olympus,
and seated himself at the side of Zeus the son of Cronus grieving in his heart,
and he showed the ambrosial blood flowing from his wounds,870
and making lament spoke winged words:
“Father Zeus, do you not find fault seeing these violent deeds?
We gods always are undergoing the most chilling evils
by each other’s will, as we bear our service to mankind.
And we are all at war with you; for you bore this witless, accursed
girl, whose concern is always unseemly deeds.
All the others, as many as are gods on Olympus,
are obedient to you and each of us is your subject,
but this one you rebuke neither with word nor any deed,
but you incite her, since you yourself begot this ruinous child.880
Now she has incited the son of Tydeus, prideful Diomedes,
to rage like a madman against the immortal gods;
first he wounded Cypris at close quarters on the wrist of her hand,
and then he rushed at even me like something more than human.
But my swift feet bore me away; else I assure you for some long time
I would have suffered pain there among the terrible piles of dead.
Or I would have been alive but powerless, through the blows of his bronze spear.”
Then looking at him from under his brows Zeus who gathers the clouds addressed him:
“Do not, you double-faced, sit beside me whimpering complaint.
You are to me most hateful of the gods who hold Olympus;890
always contention is dear to you, and fighting and battles.
The rage of your mother Hera is uncontainable, unyielding;
and I with difficulty control her with my words.
Therefore I think that you will suffer for her promptings.
Yet I will not allow you to bear your pain for long;
for you are born of me, and your mother bore you to me.
But had you been born so ruinous of any other god,
you would long ago have been made even lower than the fallen Titans.”
So he spoke, and bade Paiëon heal him;
and Paiëon sprinkled medicines that kill pain on the wound.900
As when fig juice hastens the curdling of white milk,902
which is liquid, but instantly thickens as one stirs,
so then he instantly healed furious Ares.
And Hebe bathed him, and put fine clothes on him;
and he seated himself beside Zeus the son Cronus, exulting in his glory.
And they returned back to the house of great Zeus,
Hera of Argos and Athena who stands guardian in Boeotia,
having stopped Ares, ruinous to mortals, of his man-slaughtering.
6.ILIÁDOS Z
So left to itself was the grim battle of Trojans and Achaeans.
Back and forth, the fighting pressed on across the plain,
as they sent their bronze-fitted spears straight at one another,
between the flowing waters of Xanthos and Simoeis.
Ajax son of Telamon, a wall of defense for the Achaeans, first
broke the Trojan lines, and brought light to his companions,
striking a man who was best among the Thracians,
the son of Eüssoros, Akamas, a good man and mighty.
Ajax struck him first, on the ridge of his horsehair-crested helmet,
and fixed him between the eyes; into the bone the brazen point10
passed, and darkness enclosed his eyes.
Then Diomedes of the war cry killed Axylos,
the son of Teuthras, who lived in strong-built Arisbe,
a rich man, he was a friend to mankind;
for he welcomed all men, dwelling as he did in a house by the wayside;
but no man now warded off his sorrowful destruction
coming out to defend him, and Diomedes stripped both of life,
Axylos himself and his attendant Kalesios, who was driver
of his horses; and both went down to the realm beneath the earth.
And Euryalos, son of Mekisteus, killed Dresos and Opheltios;20
and then went after Aisepos and Pedasos, whom in time past the water nymph
Abarbarea bore to blameless Boukolion.
Boukolion was the son of noble Laomedon,
the eldest in birth, whom his mother bore in secret darkness.
While tending his sheep, Boukolion lay with the nymph in love and sex;
and she conceived and bore twin sons.
But the son of Mekisteus undid the strength of their shining limbs
and stripped the armor from their shoulders.
Then Polypoites, steadfast in battle, slew Astyalos;
and Odysseus killed Pidytes from Perkote30
with his bronze spear, and Teucer killed noble Aretaon;
and Antilochos son of Nestor dispatched Ableros
with his shining spear-shaft, and lord of men Agamemnon dispatched Elatos;
he had lived by the banks of lovely flowing Satnioeis
in steep Pedasos; and the warrior Leïtos slew Phylakos
as he fled; and Eurypylos killed Melanthios.
And then Menelaos of the war cry took Adrestos
alive; for his two horses bolting in panic across the plain
were caught on a branch of tamarisk, and shattering
the curved chariot at the yoke-pole’s end, they made for40
the city, where others bolting in panic had fled,
and Adrestos was spun out of his chariot headfirst in the dust upon his face
beside the wheel; and standing there beside him was
the son of Atreus, Menelaos, holding his long-shadowed spear.
Then Adrestos, grasping his knees, beseeched him:
“Take me alive, son of Atreus, take the worthy ransom.
Many valuables lie in the house of my rich father,
bronze and gold and iron wrought with labor;
from these my father would satisfy you with priceless ransom,
were he to know that I am alive by the ships of the Achaeans.”50
So he spoke, and was persuading the spirit in Menelaos’ breast;
and he was about to give Adrestos forthwith to his attendant
to lead down to the Achaeans’ swift ships; but Agamemnon
came running toward him, and shouting out he spoke his word:
“O soft one, O Menelaos, why are you so caring
of these men? I suppose o
nly the noblest things were done in your house
by the Trojans? Let not a man of them escape sheer destruction
and our hands, not even he whom the mother carries in her womb,
the male child, may even he not escape, but together, all of them,
may they be expunged from Ilion, without burial and without a trace.”60
So speaking the noble warrior turned his brother’s heart,
urging what was justified; and Menelaos with his hand shoved
the warrior Adrestos from him. Lord Agamemnon struck him
beneath the ribs; he fell back face upward, and the son of Atreus
stepping with his foot upon the dead man’s chest drew out his ash-spear.
Then Nestor, shouting aloud, called to the Argives:
“O friends, Danaan warriors, companions of Ares,
let no man now tarry behind to throw himself upon the
spoils, in order to reach the ships with the biggest haul,
but rather let us kill men; then at your leisure these things too70
you can plunder from the bodies of those who died all along the plain.”
So speaking he rallied the strength and spirit of each man.
Then once more would the Trojans have gone up into Ilion,
defeated by their lack of spirit before the warlike Achaeans,
had not Priam’s son Helenos, far the best auger of birds,
spoken to Aeneas and Hector as he stood beside them:
“Aeneas and you too Hector, since on you both above all rests
the Trojans’ and Lycians’ toil of war, because you are the best
in every course, both fighting and strategy—
take your stand here, check your people before the gates,80
patrol in every direction, before they fall, fleeing back
into the arms of their women, and become a source of joy to our enemies.
Then when you both have roused all lines of battle,
we will fight with the Danaans, standing firm here,
hard pressed though we surely be; for necessity propels us;
but Hector, you make your way to the city, and speak to
your mother and mine; let her summon the elder women
to the temple of gleaming-eyed Athena on the city height,
and open with her key the doors of the sacred shrine,
and place a robe, one which seems to her to be the loveliest and most ample90
in her house, and which is most precious to her,
let her place this upon the knees of the statue of Athena of the lovely hair;
and pledge to sacrifice to her in the temple twelve young cows,
yearlings, unbroken, if she would have mercy