The Iliad of Homer

by Richmond Lattimore

  15 since in his house by the wayside he entertained all comers.

  Yet there was none of these now to stand before him and keep off

  the sad destruction, and Diomedes stripped life from both of them,

  Axylos and his henchman Kalesios, who was the driver

  guiding his horses; so down to the underworld went both men.

  20 Now Euryalos slaughtered Opheltios and Dresos,

  and went in pursuit of Aisepos and Pedasos, those whom the naiad

  nymph Abarbare had borne to blameless Boukolion.

  Boukolion himself was the son of haughty Laomedon,

  eldest born, but his mother conceived him in darkness and secrecy.

  25 While shepherding his flocks he lay with the nymph and loved her,

  and she conceiving bore him twin boys. But now Mekistios’

  son unstrung the strength of these and the limbs in their glory,

  Euryalos, and stripped the armor away from their shoulders.

  Polypoites the stubborn in battle cut down Astyalos,

  30 while Odysseus slaughtered one from Perkote, Pidytes,

  with the bronze spear, and great Aretaon was killed by Teukros.

  Nestor’s son Antilochos with the shining shaft killed

  Ableros; the lord of men, Agamemnon, brought death to Elatos,

  whose home had been on the shores of Satnioeis’ lovely waters,

  35 sheer Pedasos. And Leïtos the fighter caught Phylakos

  as he ran away; and Eurypylos made an end of Melanthios.

  Now Menelaos of the great war cry captured Adrestos

  alive; for his two horses bolting over the level land

  got entangled in a tamarisk growth, and shattered the curving

  40 chariot at the tip of the pole; so they broken free went

  on toward the city, where many beside stampeded in terror.

  So Adrestos was whirled beside the wheel from the chariot

  headlong into the dust on his face; and the son of Atreus,

  Menelaos, with the far-shadowed spear in his hand, stood over him.

  45 But Adrestos, catching him by the knees, supplicated:

  “Take me alive, son of Atreus, and take appropriate ransom.

  In my rich father’s house the treasures lie piled in abundance;

  bronze is there, and gold, and difficultly wrought iron,

  and my father would make you glad with abundant repayment

  50 were he to hear that I am alive by the ships of the Achaians.”

  So he spoke, and moved the spirit inside Menelaos.

  And now he was on the point of handing him to a henchman

  to lead back to the fast Achaian ships; but Agamemnon

  came on the run to join him and spoke his word of argument:

  55 “Dear brother, O Menelaos, are you concerned so tenderly

  with these people? Did you in your house get the best of treatment

  from the Trojans? No, let not one of them go free of sudden

  death and our hands; not the young man child that the mother carries

  still in her body, not even he, but let all of Ilion’s

  60 people perish, utterly blotted out and unmourned for.”

  The hero spoke like this, and bent the heart of his brother

  since he urged justice. Menelaos shoved with his hand Adrestos

  the warrior back from him, and powerful Agamemnon

  stabbed him in the side and, as he writhed over, Atreides,

  65 setting his heel upon the midriff, wrenched out the ash spear.

  Nestor in a great voice cried out to the men of Argos:

  “O beloved Danaän fighters, henchmen of Ares,

  let no man anymore hang back with his eye on the plunder

  designing to take all the spoil he can gather back to the vessels;

  70 let us kill the men now, and afterward at your leisure

  all along the plain you can plunder the perished corpses.”

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

  Then once more would the Trojans have climbed back into Ilion’s

  wall, subdued by terror before the warlike Achaians,

  75 had not Priam’s son, Helenos, best by far of the augurs,

  stood beside Aineias and Hektor and spoken a word to them:

  “Hektor and Aineias, on you beyond others is leaning

  the battle-work of Trojans and Lykians, since you are our greatest

  in every course we take, whether it be in thought or in fighting:

  80 stand your ground here; visit your people everywhere; hold them

  fast by the gates, before they tumble into their women’s

  arms, and become to our enemies a thing to take joy in.

  Afterward, when you have set all the battalions in motion,

  the rest of us will stand fast here and fight with the Danaäns

  85 though we are very hard hit indeed; necessity forces us;

  but you, Hektor, go back again to the city, and there tell

  your mother and mine to assemble all the ladies of honor

  at the temple of gray-eyed Athene high on the citadel;

  there opening with a key the door to the sacred chamber

  90 let her take a robe, which seems to her the largest and loveliest

  in the great house, and that which is far her dearest possession,

  and lay it along the knees of Athene the lovely haired. Let her

  promise to dedicate within the shrine twelve heifers,

  yearlings, never broken, if only she will have pity

  95 on the town of Troy, and the Trojan wives, and their innocent children.

  So she might hold back from sacred Ilion the son of Tydeus,

  that wild spear-fighter, the strong one who drives men to thoughts of terror,

  who I say now is become the strongest of all the Achaians.

  For never did we so fear Achilleus even, that leader

  100 of men, who they say was born of a goddess. This man has gone clean

  berserk, so that no one can match his warcraft against him.”

  So he spoke, and Hektor did not disobey his brother,

  but at once in all his armor leapt to the ground from his chariot

  and shaking two sharp spears in his hands ranged over the whole host

  105 stirring them up to fight and waking the ghastly warfare.

  So they whirled about and stood their ground against the Achaians,

  and the Argives gave way backward and stopped their slaughtering,

  and thought some one of the immortals must have descended

  from the starry sky to stand by the Trojans, the way they rallied.

  110 But Hektor lifted his voice and cried aloud to the Trojans:

  “You high-hearted Trojans and far-renowned companions,

  be men now, dear friends, and remember your furious valor

  until I can go back again to Ilion, and there tell

  the elder men who sit as counselors, and our own wives,

  115 to make their prayer to the immortals and promise them hecatombs.”

  So spoke Hektor of the shining helm, and departed;

  and against his ankles as against his neck clashed the dark ox-hide,

  the rim running round the edge of the great shield massive in the middle.

  Now Glaukos, sprung of Hippolochos, and the son of Tydeus

  120 came together in the space between the two armies, battle-bent.

  Now as these advancing came to one place and encountered,

  first to speak was Diomedes of the great war cry:

  “Who among mortal men are you, good friend?

  Since never before have I seen you in the fighting where men win glory,

  125 yet now you have come striding far out in front of all others

  in your great heart, who have dared stand up to my spear far-shadowing.

  Yet unhappy are those whose sons match warcraft against
me.

  But if you are some one of the immortals come down from the bright sky,

  know that I will not fight against any god of the heaven,

  130 since even the son of Dryas, Lykourgos the powerful, did not

  live long; he who tried to fight with the gods of the bright sky,

  who once drove the fosterers of rapturous Dionysos

  headlong down the sacred Nyseian hill, and all of them

  shed and scattered their wands on the ground, stricken with an ox-goad

  135 by murderous Lykourgos, while Dionysos in terror

  dived into the salt surf, and Thetis took him to her bosom,

  frightened, with the strong shivers upon him at the man’s blustering.

  But the gods who live at their ease were angered with Lykourgos,

  and the son of Kronos struck him to blindness, nor did he live long

  140 afterward, since he was hated by all the immortals.

  Therefore neither would I be willing to fight with the blessed

  gods; but if you are one of those mortals who eat what the soil yields,

  come nearer, so that sooner you may reach your appointed destruction.”

  Then in turn the shining son of Hippolochos answered:

  145 “High-hearted son of Tydeus, why ask of my generation?

  As is the generation of leaves, so is that of humanity.

  The wind scatters the leaves on the ground, but the live timber

  burgeons with leaves again in the season of spring returning.

  So one generation of men will grow while another

  150 dies. Yet if you wish to learn all this and be certain

  of my genealogy: there are plenty of men who know it.

  There is a city, Ephyrē, in the corner of horse-pasturing

  Argos; there lived Sisyphos, that sharpest of all men,

  Sisyphos, Aiolos’ son, and he had a son named Glaukos,

  155 and Glaukos in turn sired Bellerophontes the blameless.

  To Bellerophontes the gods granted beauty and desirable

  manhood; but Proitos in anger devised evil things against him,

  and drove him out of his own domain, since he was far greater,

  from the Argive country Zeus had broken to the sway of his scepter.

  160 Beautiful Anteia the wife of Proitos was stricken

  with passion to lie in love with him, and yet she could not

  beguile valiant Bellerophontes, whose will was virtuous.

  So she went to Proitos the king and uttered her falsehood:

  ‘Would you be killed, O Proitos? Then murder Bellerophontes

  165 who tried to lie with me in love, though I was unwilling’.

  So she spoke, and anger took hold of the king at her story.

  He shrank from killing him, since his heart was awed by such action,

  but sent him away to Lykia, and handed him murderous symbols,

  which he inscribed in a folding tablet, enough to destroy life,

  170 and told him to show it to his wife’s father, that he might perish.

  Bellerophontes went to Lykia in the blameless convoy

  of the gods; when he came to the running stream of Xanthos, and Lykia,

  the lord of wide Lykia tendered him full-hearted honor.

  Nine days he entertained him with sacrifice of nine oxen,

  175 but afterward when the rose fingers of the tenth dawn showed, then

  he began to question him, and asked to be shown the symbols,

  whatever he might be carrying from his son-in-law’, Proitos.

  Then after he had been given his son-in-laws wicked symbols

  first he sent him away with orders to kill the Chimaira

  180 none might approach; a thing of immortal make, not human,

  lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle,

  and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire.

  He killed the Chimaira, obeying the portents of the immortals.

  Next after this he fought against the glorious Solymoi,

  185 and this he thought was the strongest battle with men that he entered;

  but third he slaughtered the Amazons, who fight men in battle.

  Now as he came back the king spun another entangling

  treachery; for choosing the bravest men in wide Lykia

  he laid a trap, but these men never came home thereafter

  190 since all of them were killed by blameless Bellerophontes.

  Then when the king knew him for the powerful stock of the god,

  he detained him there, and offered him the hand of his daughter,

  and gave him half of all the kingly privilege. Thereto

  the men of Lykia cut out a piece of land, surpassing

  195 all others, fine ploughland and orchard for him to administer.

  His bride bore three children to valiant Bellerophontes,

  Isandros and Hippolochos and Laodameia.

  Laodameia lay in love beside Zeus of the counsels

  and bore him godlike Sarpedon of the brazen helmet.

  200 But after Bellerophontes was hated by all the immortals,

  he wandered alone about the plain of Aleios, eating

  his heart out, skulking aside from the trodden track of humanity.

  As for Isandros his son, Ares the insatiate of fighting

  killed him in close battle against the glorious Solymoi,

  205 while Artemis of the golden reins killed the daughter in anger.

  But Hippolochos begot me, and I claim that he is my father;

  he sent me to Troy, and urged upon me repeated injunctions,

  to be always among the bravest, and hold my head above others,

  not shaming the generation of my fathers, who were

  210 the greatest men in Ephyrē and again in wide Lykia.

  Such is my generation and the blood I claim to be born from.”

  He spoke, and Diomedes of the great war cry was gladdened.

  He drove his spear deep into the prospering earth, and in winning

  words of friendliness he spoke to the shepherd of the people:

  215 “See now, you are my guest friend from far in the time of our fathers.

  Brilliant Oineus once was host to Bellerophontes

  the blameless, in his halls, and twenty days he detained him,

  and these two gave to each other fine gifts in token of friendship.

  Oineus gave his guest a war belt bright with the red dye,

  220 Bellerophontes a golden and double-handled drinking-cup,

  a thing I left behind in my house when I came on my journey.

  Tydeus, though, I cannot remember, since I was little

  when he left me, that time the people of the Achaians perished

  in Thebe. Therefore I am your friend and host in the heart of Argos;

  225 you are mine in Lykia, when I come to your country.

  Let us avoid each other’s spears, even in the close fighting.

  There are plenty of Trojans and famed companions in battle for me

  to kill, whom the god sends me, or those I run down with my swift feet,

  many Achaians for you to slaughter, if you can do it.

  230 But let us exchange our armor, so that these others may know

  how we claim to be guests and friends from the days of our fathers.”

  So they spoke, and both springing down from behind their horses

  gripped each other’s hands and exchanged the promise of friendship;

  but Zeus the son of Kronos stole away the wits of Glaukos

  235 who exchanged with Diomedes the son of Tydeus armor

  of gold for bronze, for nine oxen’s worth the worth of a hundred.

  Now as Hektor had come to the Skaian gates and the oak tree,

  all the wives of the Trojans and their daughters came running about him

  to ask after their sons, after their brothers and neighbors,

  240
their husbands; and he told them to pray to the immortals,

  all, in turn; but there were sorrows in store for many.

  Now he entered the wonderfully built palace of Priam.

  This was fashioned with smooth-stone cloister walks, and within it

  were embodied fifty sleeping chambers of smoothed stone

  245 built so as to connect with each other; and within these slept

  each beside his own wedded wife, the sons of Priam.

  In the same inner court on the opposite side, to face these,

  lay the twelve close smooth-stone sleeping chambers of his daughters

  built so as to connect with each other; and within these slept,

  250 each by his own modest wife, the lords of the daughters of Priam.

  There, there came to meet Hektor his bountiful mother

  with Laodikē, the loveliest looking of all her daughters.

  She clung to his hand and called him by name and spoke to him: “Why then,

  child, have you come here and left behind the bold battle?

  255 Surely it is these accursed sons of the Achaians who wear you

  out, as they fight close to the city, and the spirit stirred you

  to return, and from the peak of the citadel lift your hands, praying

  to Zeus. But stay while I bring you honey-sweet wine, to pour out

  a libation to father Zeus and the other immortals

  260 first, and afterward if you will drink yourself, be strengthened.

  In a tired man, wine will bring back his strength to its bigness,

  in a man tired as you are tired, defending your neighbors.”

  Tall Hektor of the shining helm spoke to her answering:

  “My honored mother, lift not to me the kindly sweet wine,

  265 for fear you stagger my strength and make me forget my courage;

  and with hands unwashed I would take shame to pour the glittering

  wine to Zeus; there is no means for a man to pray to the dark-misted

  son of Kronos, with blood and muck all spattered upon him.

  But go yourself to the temple of the spoiler Athene,

  270 assembling the ladies of honor, and with things to be sacrificed,

  and take a robe, which seems to you the largest and loveliest

  in the great house, and that which is far your dearest possession.

  Lay this along the knees of Athene the lovely haired. Also

  promise to dedicate within the shrine twelve heifers,

  275 yearlings, never broken, if only she will have pity

  on the town of Troy, and the Trojan wives, and their innocent children,

  if she will hold back from sacred Ilion the son of Tydeus,