The Iliad of Homer

by Richmond Lattimore

  scraping the bone, but his father fended destruction away from him.

  But his brilliant companions carried godlike Sarpedon

  out of the fighting, weighted down as he was by the long spear

  665 which dragged, yet not one of them noticed nor took thought,

  in their urgency, to pull out of his thigh the ash spear

  so he might stand, such hard work did they have attending him.

  On the other side the strong-greaved Achaians carried Tlepolemos

  out of the fighting; but brilliant Odysseus, who held a hardy

  670 spirit, saw what had happened, and his heart within was stirred up,

  but now he pondered two ways within, in mind and in spirit,

  whether first to go after the son of Zeus the loud-thundering

  or whether he should strip the life from more of the Lykians.

  Yet, as it was not the destiny of great-hearted Odysseus

  675 to kill with sharp bronze the strong son of Zeus, therefore

  Athene steered his anger against the host of the Lykians.

  And there he killed Koiranos, and Chromios, and Alastor,

  Halios and Alkandros, and Prytanis and Noëmon.

  And now might brilliant Odysseus have killed yet more of the Lykians

  680 had not tall Hektor of the shining helmet sharply perceived him,

  who strode out among the champions helmed in the bright bronze

  bringing terror to the Danaäns; but Zeus’ son, Sarpedon,

  was glad as he saw him come up, and piteously bespoke him:

  “Son of Priam, do not leave me lying for the Danaäns

  685 to prey upon, but protect me, since otherwise in your city

  my life must come to an end, since I could return no longer

  back to my own house and the land of my fathers, bringing

  joy to my own beloved wife and my son, still a baby.”

  He spoke, but Hektor of the shining helm did not answer

  but swept on past him in his eagerness with all speed

  690 to push back the Argives and strip the life out of many.

  Meanwhile his brilliant companions laid godlike Sarpedon

  under a lovely spreading oak of Zeus of the aegis,

  and strong Pelagon, one of his beloved companions,

  pushed perforce through and out of his thigh the shaft of the ash spear.

  695 And the mist mantled over his eyes, and the life left him,

  but he got his breath back again, and the blast of the north wind

  blowing brought back to life the spirit gasped out in agony.

  But the Argives under the strength of Ares and bronze-armored Hektor

  did not ever turn their backs and make for their black ships

  700 nor yet stand up to them in fighting, but always backward

  gave way, as they saw how Ares went with the Trojans.

  Who then was the first and who the last that they slaughtered,

  Hektor, Priams’ son, and Ares the brazen? Godlike

  Teuthras first, and next Orestes, driver of horses,

  705 Trechos the spearman of Aitolia and Oinomaos,

  Helenos son of Oinops and Oresbios of the shining

  guard, who had lived in Hyle much concerned with his property

  in a place hard on the Kephisian mere, and beside him other

  men of Boiotia lived and held the fine fertile country.

  710 Now as the goddess Hera of the white arms perceived how

  the Argives were perishing in the strong encounter,

  immediately she spoke to Pallas Athene her winged words:

  “For shame, now, Atrytone, daughter of Zeus of the aegis:

  nothing then meant the word we promised to Menelaos,

  715 to go home after sacking the strong-walled city of Ilion,

  if we are to let cursed Ares be so furious.

  Come then, let us rather think of our own stark courage.”

  So she spoke, nor did the goddess gray-eyed Athene

  disobey her. But Hera, high goddess, daughter of Kronos

  720 the mighty, went away to harness the gold-bridled horses.

  Then Hebe in speed set about the chariot the curved wheels

  eight-spoked and brazen, with an axle of iron both ways.

  Golden is the wheel’s felly imperishable, and outside it

  725 is joined, a wonder to look upon, the brazen running-rim,

  and the silver naves revolve on either side of the chariot,

  whereas the car itself is lashed fast with plaiting of gold

  and silver, with double chariot rails that circle about it,

  and the pole of the chariot is of silver, to whose extremity

  730 Hebe made fast the golden and splendid yoke, and fastened

  the harness, golden and splendid, and underneath the yoke Hera,

  furious for hate and battle, led the swift-running horses.

  Now in turn Athene, daughter of Zeus of the aegis,

  beside the threshold of her father slipped off her elaborate

  735 dress which she herself had wrought with her hands’ patience,

  and now assuming the war tunic of Zeus who gathers

  the clouds, she armed in her gear for the dismal fighting.

  And across her shoulders she threw the betasseled, terrible

  aegis, all about which Terror hangs like a garland,

  740 and Hatred is there, and Battle Strength, and heart-freezing Onslaught

  and thereon is set the head of the grim gigantic Gorgon,

  a thing of fear and horror, portent of Zeus of the aegis.

  Upon her head she set the golden helm with its four sheets

  and two horns, wrought with the fighting men of a hundred cities.

  745 She set her feet in the blazing chariot and took up a spear

  heavy, huge, thick, wherewith she beats down the battalions of fighting

  men, against whom she of mighty father is angered.

  Hera laid the lash swiftly on the horses; and moving

  of themselves groaned the gates of the sky that the Hours guarded,

  750 those Hours to whose charge is given the huge sky and Olympos,

  to open up the dense darkness or again to close it.

  Through the way between they held the speed of their goaded horses.

  They found the son of Kronos sitting apart from the other

  gods, upon the highest peak of rugged Olympos.

  755 There the goddess of the white arms, Hera, stopping her horses,

  spoke to Zeus, high son of Kronos, and asked him a question:

  “Father Zeus, are you not angry with Ares for his violent

  acts, for killing so many and such good Achaian warriors

  for no reason, and out of due order, to grieve me? And meanwhile

  760 Kypris and Apollo of the silver bow take their ease and their pleasure

  having let loose this maniac who knows nothing of justice.

  Father Zeus, would you be angry with me if I were

  to smite Ares with painful strokes and drive him out of the fighting?”

  Then in turn the father of gods and men made answer:

  “Go to it then, and set against him the spoiler Athene,

  765 who beyond all others is the one to visit harsh pains upon him.”

  So he spoke, nor did the goddess of the white arms, Hera,

  disobey, but lashed on the horses, and they winged their way unreluctant

  through the space between the earth and the starry heaven.

  As far as into the hazing distance a man can see with

  770 his eyes, who sits in his aerie gazing on the wine-blue water,

  as far as this is the stride of the gods’ proud neighing horses.

  Now as they came to Troy land and the two running rivers

  where Simoeis and Skamandros dash their waters together,

  there the goddess of the white arms, Hera, stayed her horses,


  775 slipping them from the chariot, and drifting close mist about them,

  and Simoeis grew as grass ambrosia for them to graze on.

  Now these two walked forward in little steps like shivering

  doves, in their eagerness to stand by the men of Argos,

  780 after they had come to the place where the most and the bravest

  stood close huddled about the great strength of the breaker of horses,

  Diomedes; in the likeness of lions who rend their meat raw,

  or wild pigs, boars, in whom the strength diminishes never,

  there standing the goddess of the white arms, Hera, shouted,

  likening herself to high-hearted, bronze-voiced Stentor,

  785 who could cry out in as great a voice as fifty other men:

  ““Shame, you Argives, poor nonentities splendid to look on.

  In those days when brilliant Achilleus came into the fighting,

  never would the Trojans venture beyond the Dardanian

  gates, so much did they dread the heavy spear of that man.

  790 Now they fight by the hollow ships and far from the city.”

  So she spoke, and stirred the spirit and strength in each man.

  But the goddess gray-eyed Athene made straight for Tydeus’

  son, and found the king standing by his horses and chariot,

  cooling the wound that Pandaros made with the cast of his arrow.

  795 For the sweat made him sore underneath the broad strap of the circled

  shield; this made him sore, and his arm was tired. He held up

  the shield-strap, and wiped the dark blot of blood away from it.

  The goddess laid hold of the harnessed horses and spoke to him:

  800 “Tydeus got him a son who is little enough like him,

  since Tydeus was a small man for stature, but he was a fighter.

  Even on that time when I would not consent to his fighting

  nor drawing men’s eyes, when he went by himself without the Achaians

  as a messenger to Thebe among all the Kadmeians,

  805 then I invited him to feast at his ease in their great halls;

  even so, keeping that heart of strength that was always within him

  he challenged the young men of the Kadmeians, and defeated all of them

  easily; such a helper was I who stood then beside him.

  Now beside you also I stand and ever watch over you,

  810 and urge you to fight confidently with the Trojans. And yet

  the weariness has entered your limbs from many encounters,

  or else it is some poor-spirited fear that holds you. If so,

  you are no issue then of the son of wise Oineus, Tydeus.”

  Then in answer powerful Diomedes spoke to her:

  815 “Daughter of Zeus who holds the aegis, goddess, I know you,

  and therefore will speak confidently to you, and hide nothing.

  It is no poor-spirited fear nor shrinking that holds me.

  Rather I remember the orders you yourself gave me

  when you would not let me fight in the face of the blessed immortals—the

  820 rest of them, except only if Aphrodite, Zeus’ daughter,

  went into the fighting, I might stab at her with the sharp bronze.

  Therefore now have I myself given way, and I ordered

  the rest of the Argives all to be gathered in this place beside me,

  since I see that this who is lord of the fighting is Ares.”

  825 Then in turn the goddess gray-eyed Athene answered him:

  “Son of Tydeus, you who delight my heart, Diomedes,

  no longer be thus afraid of Ares, nor of any other

  immortal; such a helper shall I be standing beside you.

  Come then, first against Ares steer your single-foot horses,

  830 and strike him from close. Be not afraid of violent Ares,

  that thing of fury, evil-wrought, that double-faced liar

  who even now protested to Hera and me, promising

  that he would fight against the Trojans and stand by the Argives.

  Now, all promises forgotten, he stands by the Trojans.”

  835 So speaking she pushed Sthenelos to the ground from the chariot,

  driving him back with her hand, and he leapt away from it lightly,

  and she herself, a goddess in her anger, stepped into the chariot

  beside brilliant Diomedes, and the oaken axle groaned aloud

  under the weight, carrying a dread goddess and a great man.

  840 Pallas Athene then took up the whip and the reins, steering

  first of all straight on against Ares the single-foot horses.

  Ares was in the act of stripping gigantic Periphas,

  shining son of Ochesios, far the best of the men of Aitolia.

  Blood-stained Ares was in the act of stripping him. But Athene

  845 put on the helm of Death, that stark Ares might not discern her.

  Now as manslaughtering Ares caught sight of Diomedes

  the brilliant, he let gigantic Periphas lie in the place where

  he had first cut him down and taken the life away from him,

  and made straight against Diomedes, breaker of horses.

  850 Now as they in their advance had come close together,

  Ares lunged first over the yoke and the reins of his horses

  with the bronze spear, furious to take the life from him.

  But the goddess gray-eyed Athene in her hand catching

  the spear pushed it away from the car, so he missed and stabbed vainly.

  855 After him Diomedes of the great war cry drove forward

  with the bronze spear; and Pallas Athene, leaning in on it,

  drove it into the depth of the belly where the war belt girt him.

  Picking this place she stabbed and driving it deep in the fair flesh

  wrenched the spear out again. Then Ares the brazen bellowed

  860 with a sound as great as nine thousand men make, or ten thousand,

  when they cry as they carry into the fighting the fury of the war god.

  And a shivering seized hold alike on Achaians and Trojans

  in their fear at the bellowing of battle-insatiate Ares.

  As when out of the thunderhead the air shows darkening

  865 after a day’s heat when the stormy wind uprises,

  thus to Tydeus’ son Diomedes Ares the brazen

  showed as he went up with the clouds into the wide heaven.

  Lightly he came to the gods’ citadel, headlong Olympos,

  and sat down beside Kronian Zeus, grieving in his spirit,

  870 and showed him the immortal blood dripping from the spear cut.

  So in sorrow for himself he addressed him in winged words:

  “Father Zeus, are you not angry looking on these acts of violence?

  We who are gods forever have to endure the most horrible

  hurts, by each other’s hatred, as we try to give favor to mortals.

  875 It is your fault we fight, since you brought forth this maniac daughter

  accursed, whose mind is fixed forever on unjust action.

  For all the rest, as many as are gods on Olympos,

  are obedient to you, and we all have rendered ourselves submissive.

  Yet you say nothing and you do nothing to check this girl, letting

  880 her go free, since yourself you begot this child of perdition.

  See now, the son of Tydeus, Diomedes the haughty,

  she has egged on to lash out in fury against the immortal

  gods. First he stabbed the Kyprian in the arm by the wrist. Then

  like something more than human he swept on even against me.

  885 But my swift feet took me out of the way. Otherwise I should

  long be lying there in pain among the stark dead men,

  or go living without strength because of the strokes of the bronze spear.”
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br />   Then looking at him darkly Zeus who gathers the clouds spoke to him:

  “Do not sit beside me and whine, you double-faced liar.

  890 To me you are most hateful of all gods who hold Olympos.

  Forever quarreling is dear to your heart, wars and battles.

  Truly the anger of Hera your mother is grown out of all hand

  nor gives ground; and try as I may I am broken by her arguments,

  and it is by her impulse, I think, you are suffering all this.

  895 And yet I will not long endure to see you in pain, since

  you are my child, and it was to me that your mother bore you.

  But were you born of some other god and proved so ruinous

  long since you would have been dropped beneath the gods of the bright sky.”

  So he spoke, and told Paiëon to heal him; and scattering

  900 medicines to still pain upon him Paiëon rendered him

  well again, since he was not made to be one of the mortals.

  As when the juice of the fig in white milk rapidly fixes

  that which was fluid before and curdles quickly for one who

  stirs it; in such speed as this he healed violent Ares;

  905 and Hebe washed him clean and put delicate clothing upon him.

  And rejoicing in the glory of his strength he sat down beside Kronion.

  Meanwhile, the two went back again to the house of great Zeus,

  Hera of Argos, with Athene who stands by her people,

  after they stopped the murderous work of manslaughtering Ares.

  BOOK SIX

  So the grim encounter of Achaians and Trojans was left

  to itself, and the battle veered greatly now one way, now in another,

  over the plain as they guided their bronze spears at each other

  in the space between the waters of Xanthos and Simoeis.

  5 First Telamonian Aias, that bastion of the Achaians,

  broke the Trojan battalions and brought light to his own company,

  striking down the man who was far the best of the Thracians,

  Akamas, the huge and mighty, the son of Eussoros.

  Throwing first, he struck the horn of the horse-haired helmet

  10 and the bronze spear-point fixed in his forehead and drove inward

  through the bone; and a mist of darkness clouded both eyes.

  Diomedes of the great war cry cut down Axylos,

  Teuthras’ son, who had been a dweller in strong-founded Arisbe,

  a man rich in substance and a friend to all humanity