The Iliad of Homer
Page 34
they stepped into the bathtubs smooth-polished, and bathed there,
and after they had bathed and anointed themselves with olive oil
they sat down to dine, and from the full mixing bowl drawing
the sweet-hearted wine poured out an offering to Athene.
BOOK ELEVEN
Now Dawn rose from her bed, where she lay by haughty Tithonos,
to carry her light to men and to immortals. Zeus sent down
in speed to the fast ships of the Achaians the wearisome goddess
of Hate, holding in her hands the portent of battle.
5 She took her place on the huge-hollowed black ship of Odysseus
which lay in the middle, so that she could cry out to both flanks,
either as far as the shelters of Telamonian Aias
or to those of Achilleus; since these had hauled their balanced ships up
at the ends, certain of their manhood and their hands’ strength.
10 There the goddess took her place, and cried out a great cry
and terrible and loud, and put strength in all the Achaians’
hearts, to go on tirelessly with their fighting of battles.
And now battle became sweeter to them than to go back
in their hollow ships to the beloved land of their fathers.
15 And Atreus’ son cried out aloud and drove the Achaians
to gird them, while he himself put the shining bronze upon him.
First he placed along his legs the beautiful greaves linked
with silver fastenings to hold the greaves at the ankles.
Afterward he girt on about his chest the corselet
20 that Kinyras had given him once, to be a guest present
For the great fame and rumor of war had carried to Kypros
how the Achaians were to sail against Troy in their vessels.
Therefore he gave the king as a gift of grace this corselet.
Now there were ten circles of deep cobalt upon it,
25 and twelve of gold and twenty of tin. And toward the opening
at the throat there were rearing up three serpents of cobalt
on either side, like rainbows, which the son of Kronos
has marked upon the clouds, to be a portent to mortals.
Across his shoulders he slung the sword, and the nails upon it
30 were golden and glittered, and closing about it the scabbard
was silver, and gold was upon the swordstraps that held it.
And he took up the man-enclosing elaborate stark shield,
a thing of splendor. There were ten circles of bronze upon it,
and set about it were twenty knobs of tin, pale-shining,
35 and in the very center another knob of dark cobalt.
And circled in the midst of all was the blank-eyed face of the Gorgon
with her stare of horror, and Fear was inscribed upon it, and Terror.
The strap of the shield had silver upon it, and there also on it
was coiled a cobalt snake, and there were three heads upon him
40 twisted to look backward and grown from a single neck, all three.
Upon his head he set the helmet, two-horned, four-sheeted,
with the horse-hair crest, and the plumes nodded terribly above it.
Then he caught up two strong spears edged with sharp bronze
and the brazen heads flashed far from him deep into heaven.
45 And Hera and Athene caused a crash of thunder about him,
doing honor to the lord of deep-golden Mykenai.
Thereupon each man gave orders to his charioteer
to rein in the horses once again by the ditch, in good order,
while they themselves, dismounted and armed in their war gear, swept onward
50 to the ditch, and their incessant clamor rose up in the morning.
In battle array they came to the ditch well ahead of the horseman
and the horseman followed a little behind. And the son of Kronos
drove down the evil turmoil upon them, and from aloft cast
down dews dripping blood from the sky, since he was minded
55 to hurl down a multitude of strong heads to the house of Hades.
On the other side of the ditch at the break of the plain the Trojans
gathered about tall Hektor and stately Poulydamas
and Aineias, honored by Trojans in their countryside as a god is,
and the three sons of Antenor, Polybos, and brilliant Agenor,
60 and Akamas, a young man still, in the likeness of the immortals.
And Hektor carried the perfect circle of his shield in the foremost,
as among the darkened clouds the bale star shows forth
in all shining, then merges again in the clouds and the darkness.
So Hektor would at one time be shining among the foremost,
65 and then once more urging on the last, and complete in bronze armor
glittered like the thunder-flash of Zeus of the aegis, our father.
And the men, like two lines of reapers who, facing each other,
drive their course all down the field of wheat or of barley
for a man blessed in substance, and the cut swathes drop showering,
70 so Trojans and Achaians driving in against one another
cut men down, nor did either side think of disastrous panic.
The pressure held their heads on a line, and they whirled and fought like
wolves, and Hate, the Lady of Sorrow, was gladdened to watch them.
She alone of all the immortals attended this action
75 but the other immortals were not there, but sat quietly
remote and apart in their palaces, where for each one of them
a house had been built in splendor along the folds of Olympos.
All were blaming the son of Kronos, Zeus of the dark mists,
because his will was to give glory to the Trojans. To these gods
80 the father gave no attention at all, but withdrawn from them
and rejoicing in the pride of his strength sat apart from the others
looking out over the city of Troy and the ships of the Achaians,
watching the flash of the bronze, and men killing and men killed.
So long as it was early morning and the sacred daylight increasing,
85 so long the thrown weapons of both took hold and men dropped under them.
But at that time when the woodcutter makes ready his supper
in the wooded glens of the mountains, when his arms and hands have grown weary
from cutting down the tall trees, and his heart has had enough of it,
and longing for food and for sweet wine takes hold of his senses;
90 at that time the Danaäns by their manhood broke the battalions
calling across the ranks to each other. First Agamemnon
drove on, and killed a man, Bienor, shepherd of the people,
himself, then his companion Oïleus, lasher of horses;
who, springing down from behind his horses, stood forth to face him,
95 but Agamemnon stabbed straight at his face as he came on in fury
with the sharp spear, nor did helm’s bronze-heavy edge hold it,
but the spearhead passed through this and the bone, and the inward
brain was all spattered forth. So he beat him down in his fury,
and Agamemnon the lord of men left them lying there
100 and their white bodies showing, since he had stripped off their tunics.
Then he went on to kill and strip Isos and Antiphos,
two sons of Priam, bastard one and one lawful, both riding
in a single chariot. The bastard, Isos, was charioteer
and renowned Antiphos rode beside him. Before this Achilleus
105 had caught these two at the knees of Ida, and bound them in pliant
willows as they watched by their sheep, and released them for ransom.
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This time the son of Atreus, wide-powerful Agamemnon,
struck Isos with the thrown spear in the chest above the nipple
and hit Antiphos by the ear with the sword and hurled him from his horses,
110 and in eager haste he stripped off from these their glorious armor
which he knew; he had seen these two before by the fast ships
when Achilleus of the swift feet had brought them in from Ida.
And as a lion seizes the innocent young of the running
deer, and easily crunches and breaks them caught in the strong teeth
115 when he has invaded their lair, and rips out the soft heart from them,
and even if the doe be very near, still she has no strength
to help, for the ghastly shivers of fear are upon her also
and suddenly she dashes away through the glades and the timber
sweating in her speed away from the pounce of the strong beast;
120 so there was no one of the Trojans who could save these two
from death, but they themselves were running in fear from the Argives.
Next he caught Peisandros and Hippolochos stubborn in battle,
sons of Antimachos the wise, who beyond all others
had taken the gold of Alexandros, glorious gifts, so that
125 he had opposed the return of Helen to fair-haired Menelaos.
Powerful Agamemnon caught his two sons riding
in one chariot, who together guided the running horses.
Now the glittering reins escaped from the hands of both of them
and they were stunned with fear, for against them rose like a lion
130 Atreus’ son, and they supplicated him out of the chariot:
“Take us alive, son of Atreus, and take appropriate ransom.
In the house of Antimachos the treasures lie piled in abundance,
bronze is there, and gold, and difficultly wrought iron,
and our father would make you glad with abundant repayment
135 were he to hear we were alive by the ships of the Achaians.”
Thus these two cried out upon the king, lamenting
and in pitiful phrase, but they heard the voice that was without pity:
“If in truth you are the sons of wise Antimachos,
that man who once among the Trojans assembled advised them
140 that Menelaos, who came as envoy with godlike Odysseus,
should be murdered on the spot nor let go back to the Achaians,
so now your mutilation shall punish the shame of your father.”
He spoke, and spurned Peisandros to the ground from the chariot
with a spear-stroke in the chest, and he crashed on his back to the ground. Then
145 Hippolochos sprang away, but Atreides killed him dismounted,
cutting away his arms with a sword-stroke, free of the shoulder,
and sent him spinning like a log down the battle. Thereafter
he left them, and toward that place where the most battalions were shaken
drove, and beside him drove the rest of the strong-greaved Achaians,
150 and footmen killed footmen who fled under strong compulsion
and riders killed riders, and a storm of dust rose up under them
out of the plain uplifted by the thundering feet of their horses.
They killed with the bronze, and among them powerful Agamemnon
went onward always slaying and urged on the rest of the Argives.
155 As when obliterating fire comes down on the timbered forest
and the roll of the wind carries it everywhere, and bushes
leaning under the force of the fire’s rush tumble uprooted,
so before Atreus’ son Agamemnon went down the high heads
of the running Trojans, and in many places the strong-necked horses
160 rattled their empty chariots along the causeways of battle,
and longed for their haughty charioteers, who were lying
along the ground, to delight no longer their wives, but the vultures.
But Zeus drew Hektor out from under the dust and the missiles,
out of the place where men were killed, the blood and confusion,
165 while Atreides followed urging the Danaäns forever onward.
The Trojans swept in their flight past the barrow of ancient Ilos
Dardanos’ son, to the center of the level ground and the fig tree,
as they made for the city, and he followed them always, screaming,
Atreus’ son, his invincible hands spattered with bloody filth.
170 But when they had made their way to the Skaian gates and the oak tree
the Trojans stood their ground, and each side endured the other,
the Trojans stood their ground, and each side endured the other,
while others still in the middle plain stampeded like cattle
when a lion, coming upon them in the dim night, has terrified
the whole herd, while for a single one sheer death is emerging.
175 First the lion breaks her neck caught fast in the strong teeth,
then gulps down the blood and all the guts that are inward;
so Atreus’ son, powerful Agamemnon, went after them
killing ever the last of the men; and they fled in terror.
Many were hurled from behind their horses, face downward or sprawling
180 under the hands of Atreides who raged with his spear in the forefront.
But when he was on the point of making his way to the city
and the steep wall, the father of gods and of men descending
out of the sky took his place along the ridges of Ida
of the fountains, and held fast in his hands the thunderbolt.
185 He sent on her way Iris of the golden wings with a message:
“Go on your way, swift Iris, and carry my word to Hektor:
as long as he beholds Agamemnon, shepherd of the people,
raging among the champions and cutting down the ranged fighters,
so long let him hold back and urge on the rest of his people
190 to fight against the enemy through this strong encounter.
But when, either struck with a spear or hit by a flying arrow,
he springs up behind his horses, then I guarantee power to Hektor
to kill men, till he makes his way to the strong-benched vessels,
until the sun goes down and the blessed darkness comes over.”
195 He spoke, and swift wind-footed Iris did not disobey him,
but went down along the hills of Ida to sacred Ilion,
and found the son of wise Priam, Hektor the brilliant,
standing among the compacted chariots and by the horses.
Iris the swift of foot came close beside and spoke to him:
200 “Hektor, O son of Priam and equal of Zeus in counsel,
Zeus my father has sent me down to tell you this message.
As long as you behold Agamemnon, shepherd of the people,
raging among the champions and cutting down the ranged fighters,
so long hold back from the fighting,
but urge on the rest of your people
205 to fight against the enemy through this strong encounter.
But when, either struck with a spear or hit by a flying arrow,
he springs up behind his horses, then Zeus guarantees power to you
to kill men, till you make your way to the strong-benched vessels,
until the sun goes down and the blessed darkness comes over.”
210 Swift-foot Iris spoke to him thus and went away from him,
and Hektor in all his armor leapt to the ground from his chariot
and shaking two sharp spears in his hand ranged over the whole host
stirring them up to fight and waking the ghastly warfare.
So they whirled about and stood their ground against the Achaians,
215 and the Ar
gives against them pulled together their battle lines.
So the fighting grew close and they faced each other, and foremost
Agamemnon drove on, trying to fight far ahead of all others.
Tell me now, you Muses who have your homes on Olympos,
who was the first to come forth and stand against Agamemnon
220 of the very Trojans, or their renowned companions in battle.
Iphidamas, Antenor’s son, the huge and stalwart
who had been reared in generous Thrace, the mother of sheepflocks.
Kisseus had raised him in his own house when he was little,
his mother’s father, whose child was Theano, the girl of the fair cheeks.
225 But when he had arrived at the stature of powerful manhood
Kisseus detained him there and gave him his daughter. Married
he went away from the bride chamber, looking for glory
from the Achaians, with twelve curved ships that followed with him.
These balanced vessels he had left behind in Perkote
230 and gone himself to fight on foot at Ilion; and there
he came face to face with Atreus’ son, Agamemnon.
Now when these in their advance were close to each other
the son of Atreus missed with his throw, and the spear was turned past him,
but Iphidamas stabbed to the belt underneath the corselet
235 and leaned in on the stroke in the confidence of his strong hand
but could not get clean through the bright war belt, far sooner
the spearpoint pushed against the silver bent back, like softlead.
And in his hand wide-powerful Agamemnon catching it
dragged it against him, raging like a lion, and tore it
240 out of his hand, then struck the neck with his sword, and unstrung him.
So Iphidamas fell there and went into the brazen slumber,
unhappy, who came to help his own people, and left his young wife
a bride, and had known no delight from her yet, and given much for her.
First he had given a hundred oxen, then promised a thousand
245 head of goats and sheep, which were herded for him in abundance.
Now Agamemnon, son of Atreus, stripped him and went back
to the throng of the Achaians bearing the splendid armor.
When Koön, conspicuous among the fighters, perceived him,
he who was Antenor’s eldest born, the strong sorrow
250 misted about his eyes for the sake of his fallen brother.
He came from the side and unobserved at great Agamemnon
and stabbed with his spear at the middle arm, underneath the elbow,