by Homer
Like rays of the sun are they!
I am always encountering the Trojans, nor, I say, am I one
to loiter by the ships, old warrior though I am,
but I have never seen nor imagined such horses.550
I suspect some god you encountered gave them to you;
For Zeus who gathers the clouds loves you both,
and the daughter of Zeus who wields the aegis, gleaming-eyed Athena.”
Then answering him resourceful Odysseus addressed him:
“O Nestor, son of Neleus, great pride of the Achaeans,
easily could a god if he so wished give even better
horses than these, since the gods are far mightier than men.
But these horses, old sir, of which you speak, are newly arrived
from Thrace; their master brave Diomedes
killed, and twelve comrades beside him, nobles all.560
The thirteenth was a scout we captured by the ships,
who was dispatched to spy upon our army
by Hector and the other noble Trojans.”
So speaking he drove the single-hoofed horses across the ditch
laughing gleefully; and with him went the other Achaeans rejoicing.
And when they arrived at the well-made shelter of Tydeus’ son,
they secured the horses with fine-cut leather thongs
to the horse manger, where Diomedes’ own swift-footed horses
stood, munching wheat sweet as honey.
And on his ship’s stern Odysseus laid Dolon’s bloodstained war-gear, 570
until they could prepare their dedication to Athena.
They themselves, wading into the sea washed away the copious sweat,
from their shins and neck and thighs.
And when the sea’s swell had washed the dense sweat
from their skin, and their very spirits were refreshed,
then stepping into well-polished baths they bathed;
and when both had been bathed and anointed luxuriantly with oil,
they sat down to a feast, and drawing from the full mixing bowl
they poured libation of honey-sweet wine to Athena.
11.ILIÁDOS Λ
Dawn from her bed arose by the side of good Tithonos,
to bring light of day to deathless gods and mortal men;
and to the swift ships of the Achaeans Zeus sent Strife forth,
the baneful one, who carried in her hands the monstrous battle emblem.
She took her stand upon Odysseus’ dark, great-bellied ship,
which was in the middle so as to call in both directions—
to the shelters of Telamonian Ajax,
and to those of Achilles, for these had drawn their balanced ships
at the ends of the line, confident in their might of hands and manly prowess;
standing there, the goddess shrieked her great and terrible cry,10
and flung great strength in each Achaean’s
heart, to fight on without respite and to do battle;
and suddenly war became more sweet to them than going home
in hollow ships to their beloved fatherland.
And the son of Atreus cried aloud and bade the Argives
gird for action; and he himself among them put on his glittering bronze.
First he strapped the splendid greaves around his shins,
fitted with silver bindings around his ankles;
next he girt about his chest a breastplate,
which in time before Kinyras gave him to be a guest-gift,20
for the great rumor had been heard in Cyprus, that the Achaeans
were about to sail out in their ships to Troy;
for this reason Kinyras gave it to him, seeking favor with the king.
And on it were ten bands of dark enameled blue,
twelve of gold and twenty bands of tin;
snakes of blue enamel reared toward his throat,
three on either side, like bands of a rainbow that the son of Cronus
has propped upon a cloud, a portent in the eyes of mortal men.
And over his shoulders he slung his sword; and on it glittered
studs of gold, and the scabbard round was30
silver, fitted with straps of gold.
Then he took up his man-surrounding, much emblazoned forceful shield,
a thing of beauty, around which ran ten rings of bronze,
and on it twenty pale-shining disks of tin,
and in the very center was one of dark enameled blue.
And crowning this a snake-bristling Gorgon face
stared out with dreadful glare, Terror and Rout about her;
and the shield’s baldric was of silver, and on it
a blue-dark serpent writhed, with three heads
turned in all directions, growing from a single neck.40
Then on his head he placed his helmet, ridged on both sides, with four bosses,
plumed with horsehair; and the crest nodded terribly above.
He took two strong spears, tipped in bronze,
and sharp; and the bronze flashed far from him into heaven;
and in response Hera and Athena cried out,
giving honor to the king of gold-great Mycenae.
Then each man gave orders to his charioteer
to draw his horses up in good array there at the ditch,
and the men themselves on foot and armed with weapons
hurried forward; a quenchless cry of battle rose before the face of morning;50
they marshaled well ahead of the horsemen at the ditch,
but the horsemen followed closely. And the son of Cronus
brought evil tumult on them, and down from on high out of clear air
he rained drops that dripped with blood, since he was about
to hurl many a strong man to Hades.
The Trojans there on the other side, where the plain rose,
were marshaled about great Hector and blameless Poulydamas
and Aeneas, who was honored like a god by the Trojans in their land,
and three sons of Antenor, Polybos and shining Agenor
and youthful Akamas, like to the immortal gods.60
And Hector bore the circle of his shield among the front ranks;
as Aulios, the shining star of shepherds, appears from clouds,
then ducks again into the clouded shadows,
so Hector would appear now among the front ranks,
and now urging on the rear; and all in bronze
he shone like a lightning bolt of father Zeus who wields the aegis.
And the men, like reapers who face each other
as they work their lines down a rich man’s field
of wheat or barley, and the swathes fall and fall in succession,
so the Trojans and Achaeans, surging toward each other,70
cut their enemy down, nor did either have thought of disastrous flight,
but head to head the combat gripped them; they lunged like wolves;
and Strife who causes groaning sorrow rejoiced as she looked on,
for she alone of gods was present at their fighting;
the other gods were not there with her, but uninvolved
sat idly in their own homes, where for each
beautiful houses had been built along the folds of Olympus;
and all gave blame to the dark-clouded son of Cronus,
because he planned to make a gift of glory to the Trojans.
But the father had no regard for them; and having slipped away at a distance from80
the others, he sat apart exulting in his glory,
looking down upon the city of the Trojans and the ships of the Achaeans,
and the flash of bronze, and on men killing and men being killed.
As long as it was dawn and the heaven-sent day was rising,
so long the missiles of both sides reached their marks, and the people fell;
but at the time when a woodcutting m
an prepares his morning meal
in the wooded hollows of a mountain, when his arms have grown weary
from felling great trees, and his heart is filled with weariness,
and the longing for food and its pleasure grips him round his senses,
then did the Danaans in their valor smash through the lines,90
calling to each other across the ranks. And Agamemnon,
first to rush into their midst, killed a man, Bienor shepherd of his people,
and then his companion Oïleus, driver of horses.
For leaping from the chariot, Oïleus had stood to face him,
but Agamemnon struck him in the face as he charged straight for him with his sharp spear;
and his helmet did not hold off the bronze-weighted spear,
but through it and through bone it went, and the brains
were all spattered within it; so Agamemnon beat him down for all his fury.
And Agamemnon lord of men left them there,
their bare chests gleaming, since he had stripped the tunics round them,100
and he went to kill and strip Isos and Antiphos,
two sons of Priam, bastard and lawful son both
in one chariot; the bastard was charioteer,
and illustrious Antiphos in his turn was the chariot fighter; these two Achilles,
in the foothills of Ida, once bound with willow shoots
after seizing them as they shepherded their sheep, but he released them for ransom;
but now this time Atreus’ son wide-ruling Agamemnon
struck the one with his spear on the chest above his breast,
and smote Antiphos with his sword beside his ear, and sent him flying from his chariot.
And with no loss of time he stripped them of their splendid armor,110
recognizing them; for he had seen them that time before, beside the fast ships,
when swift-footed Achilles had led them down from Ida.
And as a lion easily rips to shreds the tender offspring of a swift deer,
taking hold of them with its powerful teeth,
coming into their place of hiding, and strips from them their tender life;
and the mother even should she be close by is not able to defend them,
for a dreadful trembling comes upon even her,
and with all speed she flies through dense thickets and the woods
striving, sweating before the onslaught of the powerful beast;
so then no one of the Trojans was able to ward off destruction120
from them, but they too were fleeing before the Argives.
Then Agamemnon slew Peisandros and battle-steady Hippolochos,
sons of skilled Antimachos, who expectant of gold,
of splendid gifts, from Alexandros,
loudly spoke against handing Helen to fair-haired Menelaos—
now his two sons it was lord Agamemnon slew
as they were in a single chariot; together they were trying to hold their swift horses;
for the shining reins had slipped their hands,
and the horses were thrown into panic. And like a lion the son of Atreus
sprang to face them; and they two from the chariot made supplication:130
“Take us alive, son of Atreus, take the worthy ransom!
Many valuables lie in the house of Antimachos,
bronze and gold and iron wrought with labor;
from these our father would satisfy you with priceless ransom,
were he to know that we two were alive by the ships of the Achaeans.”
So weeping they addressed the king
with placating words; but the voice they heard was implacable:
“If indeed you are sons of skilled Antimachos,
who once in assembly of the Trojans urged them to kill Menelaos,
who had come as ambassador with godlike Odysseus,140
on the spot, nor let him go back to the Achaeans,
you now will pay for your father’s indecent outrage.”
He spoke, and shoved Peisandros from his chariot to the ground
with a spear stroke to the chest; and he was thrust on his back to the bare earth;
Hippolochos sprang down; but Agamemnon slew him on the ground,
smiting away his hands with his sword and cleaving off his neck;
then like a log sent him rolling through the throng.
He left them, and where the most battle ranks were roiled,
there he charged, along with the other strong-greaved Achaeans.
And soldiers on foot killed those compelled to flee on foot,150
and horsemen killed horsemen—dust rose beneath them
from the plain, which the far-thundering feet of the horses raised—
cutting them down with bronze. But powerful Agamemnon,
killing always, followed with the Argives, urging them on.
As when obliterating fire falls on a thick-wooded forest,
and the wind carries it barreling along in every direction, and the small trees
fall uprooted, assailed by the blast of fire,
so then at the hands of Atreus’ son Agamemnon the heads fell
of fleeing Trojans; and many high-necked horses
rattled empty chariots after them between the lines of battle,160
at a loss without their blameless charioteers; for they upon the earth
were lying, for dearer to the vultures than to their wives.
But Zeus led Hector out from under the flying shafts and dust,
out of the man-slaughtering and the blood, and out of the throng of battle;
and the son of Atreus followed, strenuously urging the Danaans.
Past the tomb of Ilos, son of Dardanos long ago,
right across the plain, past the wild fig tree, the Trojans sped
intent on getting to the city; but he, the son of Atreus, screaming, followed always,
and his invincible hands were spattered with gore.
And when they reached the Scaean gates and oak tree,170
there both sides stood their ground and awaited each the other.
And those Trojans who still fled across the open plain like cattle
that a lion scatters coming in the milky murk of night,
all of them, but on one alone there comes her sheer destruction—
her neck he shatters utterly taking her in his powerful teeth
first, then her blood and entrails he devours entirely;
so the son of Atreus lord Agamemnon drove the Trojans before him,
killing always the hindmost man; and they fled.
And face down and on their backs they were hurled in numbers from their chariots
at the hands of Atreus’ son; for he raged ever onward with his spear.180
But when he was about to reach the sheer city and its wall,
then it was that the father of men and gods,
coming down from heaven, seated himself on the peaks of Ida
with its many springs; and in his hands he held his lightning bolt.
And he summoned Iris of the golden wings to take a message:
“Come here, swift Iris, tell this word to Hector;
so long as he sees Agamemnon shepherd of the people
running in the front lines, killing ranks of men,
so long let him draw back, and urge the rest of his people
to engage the enemy throughout the mighty combat;190
but when, struck by a spear or wounded by an arrow,
Agamemnon leaps into his chariot, then to Hector will be handed the power
to kill, until that time he arrives at the well-benched ships
and the sun goes down and night’s holy shadow comes upon him.”
So he spoke, and swift Iris with feet like the wind did not disobey,
and went down from the peaks of Ida into sacred Ilion.
She found the son of wise Priam, shining Hector,
standing amid his horses a
nd bolted chariots,
and standing close Iris of the swift feet addressed him:
“Hector, son of Priam, Zeus’ match in counsel,200
Zeus the father sent me to speak these words to you:
as long as you see Agamemnon shepherd of the people
running in the front lines, killing ranks of men,
so long you must withdraw from battle, and urge the rest of your people
to engage the enemy throughout the mighty combat;
but when, struck by a spear or wounded by an arrow,
Agamemnon leaps into his chariot, then to you will be handed the power
to kill, until that time you arrive at the well-benched ships
and the sun goes down and night’s holy shadow comes upon you.”
Then having so spoken, Iris of the swift feet departed,210
and Hector sprang from his chariot in his armor to the ground,
and brandishing his sharp spears he made his way to every place throughout the army,
rallying his men to fight, and he stirred up the dread battle.
They wheeled around and stood facing the Achaeans;
on the other side the Argives pulled their ranks together,
and the battle was prepared, and face-to-face they took their stand; and in their midst Agamemnon
was first to attack, since he desired to advance far beyond all others.
Tell me now Muses, who have your homes on Olympus,
what man came first against Agamemnon
of either Trojans or their famous allies.220
Iphidamas the great and good son of Antenor,
who was raised in Thrace where the soil is rich, the mother of flocks.
Kisseus raised him in his house when he was a child,
the father of his mother Theano of the lovely cheeks;
and when he achieved the measure of glorious young manhood,
then Kisseus tried to detain him, making offer to him of his own daughter;
But once wed he set out from the marriage chamber following the news of the Achaeans
with twelve curved ships that accompanied him.
These balanced ships he then left in Percote,
and going on foot he came to Ilion;230
then it was he came face-to-face with Agamemnon son of Atreus.
When they both had advanced almost upon each other,
the son of Atreus missed his throw, and his spear was turned aside;
then Iphidamas struck his blow down across the belt beneath Agamemnon’s breast plate
and put his strength behind it, trusting his mighty hand;
he did not pierce the shimmering war-belt, but long before