by Homer
the heads of men were falling, and where quenchless cry of battle rose500
around great Nestor and Idomeneus the warlike.
Amid these was Hector doing battle, performing deeds of devastation
with spear and horsemanship, laying waste the ranks of young men.
But still the illustrious Achaeans would not have yielded passage,
had not Alexandros, husband of Helen of the lovely hair,
stopped Machaon shepherd of the people doing feats of valor,
striking him with a three-barbed arrow in the right shoulder.
Then were the Achaeans, breathing fury, greatly afraid for him,
lest by chance, the tide of battle turning, the Trojans seize him,
and at once Idomeneus addressed godlike Nestor:510
“O Nestor, son of Neleus, great pride of the Achaeans,
come, mount your chariot, let Machaon
mount beside you, and to the ships with all speed drive the single-hoofed horses.
For a healer is a man worth many other men,
in cutting out arrows and sprinkling on the soothing medicines.”
So he spoke, and the Gerenian horseman Nestor did not disobey;
straightway he mounted his chariot, and beside him mounted Machaon
the son of Asclepius the blameless healer.
He lashed his whip to start the horses, and they two not unwilling flew on
to the hollow ships; for there their hearts tended.520
And Kebriones saw that the Trojans were routed,
and standing by Hector, he addressed him with a word:
“Hector, we two engage with the Danaans here
on the fringe of grievous battle; but other
Trojans are in a mob of panic, horse and men alike.
Telamonian Ajax is wreaking havoc; well do I know him;
for he holds his broad shield about his shoulders. Come, let us too
drive the chariot and horses straight there, where most of all
horsemen and infantry, hurling forth their evil strife,
are destroying one another, and quenchless cry of battle rises.”530
So speaking Kebriones lashed the splendid-maned horses
with his whistling whip; and hearing the crack they
lightly bore the swift chariot among the Trojans and Achaeans,
trampling underfoot the dead and their shields; and the axle beneath
was all spattered with blood and the rails which ran around the chariot,
struck by droplets from the hooves of the horses
and from the rims of the wheels; and Hector strained to plunge into the throng
of men, rushing to crush them; and he flung upon the Danaans
shameful panic, and it was but a little while he held off from his spear’s work.
He ranged around the ranks of the other men540
with his spear and sword and massive rocks for throwing,
yet avoided battle with Ajax son of Telamon.542
But Zeus the father seated on high stirred fear in Ajax,544
and he stood stunned, and behind him swung his shield of seven-fold oxhide,
and drew back, glancing about him, toward his company of men, like a beast,
turning about him, little by little exchanging knee for knee.
As when a tawny lion from the midst of a pen of cattle
is chased by dogs and rustic men,
who do not suffer him to seize the cream of their herd,550
on alert the whole night long; and he in his lust for meat
makes straight for them, but achieves nothing; for showers of spears
fly against him from the men’s strong hands
and burning torches, which he shrinks from for all his desire,
and at dawn he departs far away, his spirit aggrieved;
so Ajax then aggrieved in heart kept retreating
from the Trojans, much against his will; for he feared greatly for the ships of the Achaeans.
As when a donkey being led beside a field breaks free of young boys,
unhurried, a donkey about whose flanks many sticks have already broken,
and going into a deep stand of corn he starts eating; and the boys560
beat him with their sticks, but their strength is as a child’s,
and with much exertion they drive him out only when he has had his fill of feed;
so did the high-spirited Trojans and their far-flung allies
keep after great Ajax the son of Telamon,
striking with their wooden spears at the middle of his shield.
And now Ajax would recollect his fierce courage,
turning himself about again, and would restrain the ranks
of horse-breaking Trojans; now again he would swerve around to flee.
But he blocked them all from making passage to the swift ships,
he, by himself, running between Trojans and Achaeans570
to take his stand; some spears flung forward
by strong hands stuck in his great shield,
many also falling short, before grazing his white skin,
came to a stop in the earth, straining to have their fill of his flesh.
Then as Euaimon’s splendid son Eurypylos saw him
assailed by the flurry of missiles,
he went and took his stand beside him and took aim with his bright spear,
and struck Apisaon, son of Phausios, shepherd of the people,
in the liver, below the midriff, and at once his knees buckled beneath him.
Eurypylos rushed forward and began to strip the armor from his shoulders;580
and then Alexandros, godlike in beauty, saw him as
he was stripping away Apisaon’s armor, and straightway he drew
his bow on Eurypulos, and struck him in the right thigh
with his arrow; and the arrow shaft was broken off, and weighted his leg with pain,
and he drew back into the band of his companions, shunning death,
and cried out in a piercing voice so as to be heard by the Danaans:
“O friends, leaders and counselors of the Argives,
turn around and take your stand and defend from pitiless fate
Ajax, who is assailed with spears, and I say he will not
escape from this grievous war. Come, take up position facing the foe590
around Ajax the great son of Telamon.”
So spoke Eurypylos, wounded; and the men took their stand by him
in a body, inclining their shields against their shoulders,
holding aloft their spears; and Ajax came to join them;
and wheeled around and took his stand, since he had reached the band of his companions.
So they fought like blazing fire;
and from out of the battle the sweating horses of Neleus
were carrying Nestor, and bringing Machaon the shepherd of the people.
And swift-footed brilliant Achilles took notice as he saw him;
for he stood upon the stern of his cavernous ship600
looking upon the sheer toil of war and heartbreaking rout.
And at once he addressed his companion Patroclus,
calling from the ship; and the other hearing from within the shelter
came out, like to the war god; and this was for him the beginning of evil.
And the brave son of Menoetius addressed him first:
“Why have you called for me, Achilles? What is your need of me?”
Then answering him spoke Achilles of the swift feet:
“Illustrious son of Menoetius, you who please my heart,
now I think the Achaeans will stand about my knees
in supplication; for a need has come that can no longer be borne.610
Come, go now, Patroclus beloved of Zeus, ask of Nestor,
who is that man he brings wounded from battle.
Surely, from behind he is like Machaon in all respects,
the son of As
clepius, but I did not see the face of the man;
for the horses flew past me, speeding forward.”
So he spoke; and Patroclus obeyed his beloved companion,
and set out running along the shelters and tents of the Achaeans.
Now when the others reached the son of Neleus’ shelter,
they descended to the nourishing earth,
and his henchman Eurymedon released the old man’s horses620
from the chariot; and the men dried the sweat from their tunics,
standing to face the breath of wind by the shore of the salt sea;
then going into the shelter they seated themselves on divans;
and for them Hekamede with the lovely hair made a porridge,
Hekamede whom the old man got from Tenedos, when Achilles sacked it,
the daughter of great-hearted Arsinoös, she whom the Achaeans
picked out for him, because he surpassed all men in counsel;
she first pushed forward a table for them
a beautiful one, well polished with legs of blue enamel, then on it
a bronze basket for bread, and also an onion as relish for the drink630
and pale yellow honey, beside sacred barley meal,
and near it a cup of surpassing beauty, which the old man had taken from his home,
studded with gold rivets; it had four handles,
and on either side of each two doves
of gold were feeding, and below them were two flanges.
Any other man would labor to lift it from the table
when it was full, but Nestor, the old man, raised it with ease.
It was in this the woman resembling goddesses made a mix for them
with Pramnian wine, and on it grated goat-milk cheese
with a bronze grater, and sprinkled gleaming barley over;640
and she summoned them to drink, when she had prepared the porridge.
Then when they had both drunk and slaked their parching thirst,
they took pleasure in words, talking each to the other;
and Patroclus came and stood in the entrance, a man like a god.
And seeing him, the old man rose from his shining chair,
and led the other in, taking his hand, and urged him to be seated;
but Patroclus standing opposite declined and spoke a word:
“There is no sitting for me, old one, Zeus-cherished, you will not persuade me.
Honored, quick to anger, is he who sent me to find out
who that man was you brought back wounded; but I myself650
know, for I see Machaon shepherd of the people.
And now I go back to make report as messenger to Achilles.
Well do you know, old one, Zeus-cherished, the kind of man that one is;
a man to be dreaded; swift would he be to blame even the blameless.”
Then answered him the Gerenian horseman Nestor:
“Why now does Achilles so pity the sons of the Achaeans,
all those who have been wounded by hurled arrows and spears? He knows nothing
of grief, such grief as has risen throughout the army; for our best men
are lying in the ships wounded by arrows and cut by spears.
The son of Tydeus, powerful Diomedes, is wounded,660
Odysseus has been struck by a spear, and spear-famed Agamemnon;
and Eurypylos has been wounded in the thigh by an arrow;
this other one I just now brought from battle,
struck with an arrow from a bowstring; but Achilles
noble as he is, does not trouble himself for the Danaans nor pity them.
Is he waiting until that moment when the swift ships near the sea,
despite the Argives’ efforts, are burned with consuming fire,
and we ourselves slain, one by one? Well, my strength is not
as once it used to be in my supple limbs.
“Would that I were young as then, and my strength unfailing,670
as when dispute broke out between me and the Eleans
concerning raiding of cattle, when I killed Itymoneus,
the noble son of Hypeirochos, who used to live in Elis,
when I was driving cattle in reprisal; protecting his herd
he was struck at the front of the fray by a spear from my hands,
and he dropped; his men, rustics, fled on all sides.
We collected our booty from the plain, a great deal of it,
fifty herds of cattle, as many flocks of sheep,
as many droves of pigs, as many wide-ranging herds of goats,
and a hundred and fifty tawny horses,680
all mares, with foals under many.
And these we drove into Neleian Pylos
during the night, to the city; and the heart of Neleus was rejoiced,
because so much had fallen to me, young as I was going to war.
“With the showing of dawn the heralds sang out
for those to come, to whom debt was owed in shining Elis;
and the leading men of Pylos assembled
to make division of the spoils. For the Epeans of Elis owed debt to many,
and we few in Pylos had suffered outrage;
for coming here mighty Heracles had committed outrages690
years before, and all who were our best men had been killed;
we were twelve sons of blameless Neleus,
of whom I alone was left, and the others, all of them, were destroyed.
Made arrogant by these events, the bronze-clad Epeans
with wanton aggression had contrived against us reckless deeds.
So now old Neleus chose a herd of cattle and a great flock of sheep,
selecting three hundred of them and their shepherds.
For a great debt was owed to him in shining Elis, one for
four prizewinning horses with their chariot
setting out to join the races; for they were to run700
for a tripod; but Augeias, lord of men, seized them there,
and sent away their charioteer in anguish for his horses.
So old Neleus angered over those things said and done
now chose for himself an immense amount; and the rest he gave to his people
to divide, lest anyone leave deprived of his fair portion.
“We then were settling all of these things, and round about the city
were making sacrifices to the gods; and on the third day the Epeans all
came, many men and single-hoofed horses alike
in full force. And with them the two Moliones came under arms,
still boys, not yet experienced at all in furious deeds of war.710
There is a town, Thryoessa, a steep hill town,
far off beside the Alpheus river, on the boundary of sandy Pylos;
This they besieged, eager to smash it,
and in addition they had scoured the whole plain; but Athena
came as messenger to us, racing from Olympus in the night
with word to arm; nor was it an unwilling host she raised in Pylos,
but rather men urgent to go to war. Neleus did not
permit me to arm myself, and he hid away my horses;
for he said that I knew nothing at all of the work of war;
but even so I distinguished myself among our horsemen,720
on foot though I was, since this was how Athena led the battle.
“There is a river Minyeïos, emptying into the sea
near to Arene, where we horsemen of Pylos
awaited the shining dawn, and bands of soldiers on foot kept streaming up;
then after arming ourselves with our weapons with all haste,
in full light we arrived at the sacred waters of Alpheus.
There, after offering splendid sacrifices to almighty Zeus,
and a bull to Alpheus, a bull to Poseidon,
and to Athena of the gleaming eyes a cow from the herd,
then through the host we took our ev
ening meal at our posts,730
and lay down to sleep, each man in his armor
about the flowing waters of the river. And the great-hearted Epeans
took their stand around the city, spoiling to sack it.
But before that came to be, a mighty work of war loomed for them,
for when the shining sun held himself above the earth,
we joined in battle, making prayers to Zeus and to Athena.
And when the battle came about of Pylians and Epeans,
I was first to kill a man—and carried off his single-hoofed horses—
Moulios the spearman; he was the son-in-law of king Augeias,
and had wed his eldest daughter, fair-haired Agamede,740
who knew as many healing herbs as the broad earth brings forth.
I struck him as he came for me with my bronze-tipped spear,
and he fell in the dust; and I springing into his chariot
took my place among the front fighters; and the great-hearted Epeans
fled from fear this way and that when they saw the man fall,
the leader of their horsemen, who used to be the best in waging battle.
Then I sprang upon them like a dark windstorm,
and I seized fifty chariots, and from each
two men caught the earth in their teeth, broken by my spear.
And now I would have slain the Moliones boys from the line of Aktor,750
had not their father, the wide-ruling Earth-Shaker Poseidon,
saved them from battle, enfolding them in dense mist.
Then Zeus put great power into the hands of the Pylians;
for I declare we chased the Epeans across the broad plain,
killing them and picking up their fine armor,
till we brought our steeds to a stand in Bouprasion, fertile in wheat,
at the Olenian Rock, where is the hill called Alesion;
from there Athena turned our people back.
And there having killed my last man, I left; and the Achaeans
drove their swift horses back from Bouprasion toward Pylos.760
And all men gave glory to Zeus among the gods, but among men to Nestor.
“Thus was I among men, if this ever happened. But Achilles
alone will have benefit of his prowess; although I think that he
will weep much after, when his people have perished.
O my friend, surely Menoetius so instructed you
on that day, when he sent you forth from Phthia to Agamemnon;
for we two were inside, myself and brilliant Odysseus,
and we heard everything in those halls, as he instructed;
for we had come to the well-placed house of Peleus