The Iliad (Trans. Caroline Alexander)

by Homer

  And the son of Peleus led their impassioned lament,

  placing his man-slaughtering hands on the breast of his companion,

  groaning without ceasing, as a full-maned lion,

  whose cubs a hunting man has stolen away

  out from the dense forest, and who returning too late is stricken with grief,320

  and many is the valley he traverses, following after the footprints of the man,

  in the hope he would find him in some quarter; for very bitter anger holds him;

  so groaning deeply Achilles addressed the Myrmidons:

  “Alas, alas, empty were the words I let fall that day

  as I encouraged the warrior Menoetius within his walls;

  I said to him that I would bring his son back to Opoeis surrounded in glory

  after sacking Ilion and receiving a share of the spoils.

  But Zeus does not fulfill men’s every wish;

  for it was fated that we both stain the same earth

  here in Troy, since I will not be returning home330

  to be received by old Peleus, the horseman, in his halls,

  nor by Thetis my mother, but the earth will cover me here.

  But now, Patroclus, since I am following you beneath the earth,

  I shall not honor you with funeral rites, until I lay here

  the armaments and head of Hector, your slayer, great-hearted one;

  and before your pyre I shall cut the throats of twelve

  noble sons of Troy, in anger for your killing.

  In the meanwhile you will lie as you are by my curved ships,

  and around you women of Troy and deep-breasted Dardan women

  shall wail for you night and day as they shed their tears,340

  those women whom we ourselves toiled to win by force and the long spear

  when we two sacked the rich cities of earth-born men.”

  So speaking godlike Achilles ordered his companions

  to set a great cauldron on its three-legged stand astride the fire, so that with all speed

  they could wash away the clotted blood from Patroclus;

  and they set a bathwater cauldron on the blazing fire,

  then poured water in it, and took sticks of wood and kindled them beneath it.

  And the fire caught the belly of the cauldron, and heated the water.

  Then when the water had come to boil in the bright bronze,

  they washed him and anointed him luxuriantly with oil,350

  and filled in his wounds with seasoned unguents;

  and placing him on the bier, they covered him with soft linen

  from his head to his feet, and over this with a shining mantle.

  Then nightlong the Myrmidons groaned aloud as around Achilles

  of the swift feet they mourned Patroclus.

  But Zeus addressed Hera, his sister and his wife:

  “So once more, you have accomplished things your way, after all, my brown-eyed lady Hera,

  having roused to action swift-footed Achilles. Surely the long-haired Achaeans

  must be your own offspring!”

  Then answered him ox-eyed lady Hera:360

  “Most dread son of Cronus, what sort of word have you spoken?

  Surely, even a human tries to do what he can for another man,

  one who is only mortal, and who does not know so many arts as we;

  how then should not I—who claim to be the highest of the goddesses,

  both by birth and because I am called your wife,

  and you are lord of all the immortal gods—

  how should I not contrive evil for the Trojans whom I hate?”

  Thus they were speaking such things to one another.

  But silver-footed Thetis arrived at the home of Hephaestus

  imperishable, strewn with stars, conspicuous amongst the homes of the immortals,370

  made of bronze, which the crippled god had built himself.

  And she found him dripping with sweat, twisting back and forth about his bellows,

  hard at work; for he was forging fully twenty tripods

  to stand round the inside wall of his well-built palace.

  He placed golden wheels beneath the legs of each,

  so that of their own accord they might go into the divine assembly for him

  and then return back to his house again, a wonder to behold.

  And they were so far finished, but the elaborate handles were not

  affixed; these he was fitting and striking the rivets.

  And while he toiled at these things with his skilled understanding,380

  the goddess Thetis of the silver feet approached him;

  and Charis of the shining headdress saw her as she was coming forward,

  lovely Charis, whom the famed bent-legged god had wed,

  and she clasped her hand, and spoke to her and said her name:

  “Why, Thetis of the flowing robe, have you come to our house?

  You are honored and beloved, but you have not come frequently before.

  But follow me in, so that I can set all hospitality before you.”

  So speaking she, shining among goddesses, led Thetis forward.

  Then she settled her on a beautiful elaborate silver chair,

  and placed a stool beneath her feet;390

  and she called Hephaestus famed for his art and spoke a word to him:

  “Hephaestus, come this way; Thetis has need of something from you.”

  Then the renowned god of the crooked legs answered her:

  “Then surely in our house is a goddess whom I hold in awe and revere.

  She saved me, that time I suffered bodily pain when I was made to fall a long way

  by the efforts of my dog-faced mother, who wanted

  to hide me away for being lame. At that time I would have suffered many cares at heart,

  had not Thetis taken me to her bosom,

  and Eurynome the daughter of Ocean of the shifting tide.

  For nine years with them I forged many intricate objects,400

  brooches and curving spirals for the hair, buds of rosettes and necklaces

  in their hollow cave; and all around the boundless currents of the Ocean

  with its foam flowed murmuring; nor did any other being

  know of this, neither of gods nor of mortal men,

  but Thetis and Eurynome knew, they who saved me.

  Now she has come to our house; therefore I must surely

  repay to Thetis of the lovely hair all the value of my life.

  But you now set before her fitting hospitality,

  while I put away my bellows and all my tools.”

  He spoke, and the huge craftsman rose from the anvil block410

  limping, but his shrunken legs moved nimbly beneath him.

  He put the bellows aside from the fire, and all the tools

  with which he worked he gathered into a silver box.

  And with a sponge he wiped around his face and both his arms

  and powerful neck and shaggy chest,

  and he put on a tunic, took up his thick staff, and went out the door,

  limping; and supporting their master were attendants

  made of gold, which seemed like living maidens.

  In their hearts there is intelligence, and they have voice

  and vigor, and from the immortal gods they have learned skills.420

  These bustled about supporting their master; and making his halting way

  to where Thetis was, he took his seat upon a shining chair,

  and clasped her hand, and spoke to her and said her name:

  “Why, Thetis of the flowing robe, have you come to our house?

  You are honored and beloved, but you have not come frequently before.

  Speak what you will; my heart compels me to accomplish it,

  if I am able to accomplish it, and if it can be accomplished.”

  Then Thetis answered him as she let her tears fall:

 
; “Hephaestus—who of all the goddesses on Olympus,

  endures in her heart so many bitter cares,430

  as the griefs Zeus the son of Cronus has given to me beyond all?

  Out of all the other goddesses of the sea he made me subject to a mortal husband,

  Peleus son of Aeacus, and I endured the bed of a mortal man

  very much unwilling; he now worn out with bitter age

  lies in his halls, but there are other troubles now for me;

  for he gave me a son to bear and to raise

  outstanding among warriors, who shot up like a young shoot,

  and having nurtured him like a growing tree on the high ground of an orchard

  I sent him forth with the curved ships to Ilion,

  to go to battle against the Trojans; him I shall not welcome again440

  returned home into the house of Peleus.

  So long as he lives and sees the sun’s light

  he has sorrow, nor can I help him at all by going to him.

  The girl, whom the sons of the Achaeans picked out as prize for him,

  she it was, from his hands, lord Agamemnon took back;

  and he has been consuming his heart in grief for her, while the Trojans

  pinned the Achaeans against the sterns of their ships, nor

  let them go forth from that place; and the Argive elders

  beseeched him, and promised many splendid gifts.

  At this he refused to ward off their destruction,450

  but then put his own armor about Patroclus,

  and sent him to the fighting, and gave a great host with him.

  All the day they battled around the Scaean gates;

  and surely that same day he would have sacked the city, had not Apollo

  killed the brave son of Menoetius as he was wreaking much destruction

  among the front fighters, and gave glory to Hector.

  And it is for this reason I have now come to your knees, to see if you would be willing

  to give to my short-lived son a shield and crested helmet

  and fine greaves with silver fastenings

  and a breastplate; for those that were his, his trusted comrade lost460

  when he was beaten down by the Trojans; and my son lies upon the ground grieving at heart.”

  Then answered her the famous crook-legged god:

  “Have courage; do not let these matters be a care to your heart.

  Would that I were so surely able to hide him away from death and its hard sorrow,

  when dread fate comes upon him,

  as he will have his splendid armor, such as many a man

  of the many men to come shall hold in wonder, whoever sees it.”

  So speaking he left her there, and went to his bellows;

  and he turned them to the fire and gave them their commands to get to work.

  And all twenty bellows began to blow into the crucibles,470

  from every angle blasting up and forth their strong-blown gusts

  for him as he hurried to be now in this place, now again in that,

  in whatever manner Hephaestus wished, and accomplished the job.

  And he cast on the fire weariless bronze, and tin

  and treasured gold and silver; and then

  he placed his great anvil on his anvil block, and with one hand grasped

  his mighty hammer, and with the other grasped his tongs.

  And first of all he made a great and mighty shield,

  working it intricately throughout, and cast around it a shining rim

  of triple thickness, glittering, and from it a silver shield-strap.480

  Five were the layers of the shield itself; and on it

  he wrought with knowing genius many intricate designs.

  On it he formed the earth, and the heaven, and the sea

  and the weariless sun and waxing moon,

  and on it were all the wonders with which the heaven is ringed,

  the Pleiades and Hyades and the might of Orion,

  and Arctos the Bear, which men name the Wagon,

  and which always revolves in the same place, watchful for Orion,

  and alone has no part in the baths of Ocean.

  And on it he made two cities of mortal men,490

  both beautiful; and in one there were weddings and wedding feasts,

  and they were leading the brides from their chambers beneath the gleam of torches

  through the city, and loud rose the bridal song;

  and the young men whirled in dance, and in their midst

  the flutes and lyres raised their hubbub; and the women

  standing in their doorways each watched in admiration.

  And the people were thronged into the place of meeting; and there a dispute

  had arisen, and two men were contending about the blood price

  for a man who had been killed. The one was promising to pay all,

  declaring so to the people, but the other refused to accept a thing;500

  and both desired the resolution be taken to a judge;

  the people spoke out for both sides, favoring one or the other,

  and heralds were holding the people in check. The elders

  were sitting upon seats of polished stone in a sacred circle,

  and holding in their hands the staves of the heralds with their ringing voices;

  to these the two sides next rushed, and in turn the elders each gave judgment.

  And there lay in their midst two talents of gold,

  to give to him who might speak the straightest judgment among them.

  But around the other city lay two armies of men,

  shining in their armor. And they were torn between two plans,510

  either to sack the city, or to divide everything equally with its people,

  as much wealth as the lovely town held within.

  But the city was not yielding, and the men were secretly arming for ambush.

  And their beloved wives and little children stood guard upon the ramparts

  with those men whom old age held,

  but the other men set forth; and Ares led them and Pallas Athena,

  both made in gold, and the clothing on them was golden,

  magnificent and mighty with their armor, like very gods,

  standing out apart; and beneath them the people were smaller.

  And when these arrived at the place where it seemed to them good for ambush,520

  on the river, at the watering place for all the grazing herds,

  there they sat down, covered in their gleaming bronze.

  And at a distance from them, their two lookouts were in position

  waiting for when they might see sheep and twist-horned cattle;

  and these soon came in sight, with two herdsmen following with them

  taking pleasure in their flute, and did not at all foresee the plot.

  And catching sight of them ahead, the men in ambush ran toward them,

  and swiftly, on both sides, cut off the herds of cattle and splendid flocks

  of white-wooled sheep, and killed the shepherds for good measure.

  But the other men, when they heard the great uproar from the cattle530

  as they were sitting before the place of meeting, they at once mounted behind their high-stepping

  horses and went after them in pursuit. They reached the place swiftly,

  and having arrayed the battle, began fighting by the riverbanks,

  smiting one another with their bronze-headed spears.

  And Strife was joining the throng of battle, and Tumult, and painful Death,

  holding now a living man new-wounded, now one unharmed,

  now dragging a man who had died by his feet through the press of battle;

  and Death wore around her shoulders a cape crimsoned with the blood of men.

  And they clashed in battle and fought like living men,

  dragging away the bodies of those slain by one another.540


  And on the shield he made a soft fallow field—fertile worked land

  broad and thrice-plowed; and on it many plowmen

  were driving their yoked teams of oxen turning up and down the field.

  And when they came to the furrow end, after turning around,

  then would a man come up to give into their hands a cup of

  honey-sweet wine; and they would turn back along the row,

  eager to reach the turning place of the deep fallow field.

  And the earth darkened behind them, like land that has been plowed,

  made of gold though it was; a wonder indeed was that which was wrought.

  And on the shield he placed a royal estate; and there the laborers 550

  were reaping, sharp sickles in their hands.

  Some sheaths were thickly falling to the ground along the row,

  others the sheaf binders bundled with bands.

  Three binders stood by; but behind them

  children were gathering handfuls, carrying them in their arms,

  constantly nearby. And among them the king, in silence,

  staff in hand, stood near the line rejoicing in his heart.

  And to one side heralds were readying a feast beneath an oak,

  dressing the great ox they had slaughtered. And the women

  were scattering quantities of white barley for the workers as a meal. 560

  And on the shield he put a great vineyard heavy with clumps of grapes,

  a thing of beauty, all in gold, and the dark clusters were along it.

  And it was set up on vine poles of solid silver;

  and on either side he drove a ditch of blue enamel, and around it a fence

  of tin. One path alone was on it,

  on which grape bearers made their way, when they gathered in the vineyard.

  Maidens and young men with the giddy hearts of youth

  carried the honey-sweet crop in woven baskets;

  and in their midst a boy played his clear-sounding lyre

  with enchantment, and beautifully sang to it the mournful harvest song570

  in his soft voice. And the others beating time all together

  with song and cries followed, skipping with their feet.

  And on it he made a herd of straight-horned cattle,

  and the cows were made of gold and tin,

  and lowing they hastened from the farmyard to their pasture,

  beside a rushing river, beside the waving reeds.

  Golden herdsmen accompanied the cattle,

  four in all, and nine sleek dogs followed at their feet;

  but two dread lions held a bellowing bull

  among the foremost cattle; and he lowing loudly580