Homer

c.800 BC

THE ILIAD

translated by Samuel Butler

BOOK XIV

NESTOR was sitting over his wine, but the cry of battle did
not escape him, and he said to the son of Aesculapius, “What, noble Machaon, is
the meaning of all this? The shouts of men fighting by our ships grow stronger
and stronger; stay here, therefore, and sit over your wine, while fair Hecamede
heats you a bath and washes the clotted blood from off you. I will go at once to
the look-out station and see what it is all about.”

As he spoke he took up the shield of his son Thrasymedes
that was lying in his tent, all gleaming with bronze, for Thrasymedes had taken
his father’s shield; he grasped his redoubtable bronze-shod spear, and as soon
as he was outside saw the disastrous rout of the Achaeans who, now that their
wall was overthrown, were flying pell-mell before the Trojans. As when there is
a heavy swell upon the sea, but the waves are dumb–they keep their eyes on the
watch for the quarter whence the fierce winds may spring upon them, but they
stay where they are and set neither this way nor that, till some particular wind
sweeps down from heaven to determine them–even so did the old man ponder
whether to make for the crowd of Danaans, or go in search of Agamemnon. In the
end he deemed it best to go to the son of Atreus; but meanwhile the hosts were
fighting and killing one another, and the hard bronze rattled on their bodies,
as they thrust at one another with their swords and spears.

The wounded kings, the son of Tydeus, Ulysses, and
Agamemnon son of Atreus, fell in Nestor as they were coming up from their
ships–for theirs were drawn up some way from where the fighting was going on,
being on the shore itself inasmuch as they had been beached first, while the
wall had been built behind the hindermost. The stretch of the shore, wide though
it was, did not afford room for all the ships, and the host was cramped for
space, therefore they had placed the ships in rows one behind the other, and had
filled the whole opening of the bay between the two points that formed it. The
kings, leaning on their spears, were coming out to survey the fight, being in
great anxiety, and when old Nestor met them they were filled with dismay. Then
King Agamemnon said to him, “Nestor son of Neleus, honour to the Achaean name,
why have you left the battle to come hither? I fear that what dread Hector said
will come true, when he vaunted among the Trojans saying that he would not
return to Ilius till he had fired our ships and killed us; this is what he said,
and now it is all coming true. Alas! others of the Achaeans, like Achilles, are
in anger with me that they refuse to fight by the sterns of our ships.”

Then Nestor knight of Gerene, answered, “It is indeed as
you say; it is all coming true at this moment, and even Jove who thunders from
on high cannot prevent it. Fallen is the wall on which we relied as an
impregnable bulwark both for us and our fleet. The Trojans are fighting
stubbornly and without ceasing at the ships; look where you may you cannot see
from what quarter the rout of the Achaeans is coming; they are being killed in a
confused mass and the battle-cry ascends to heaven; let us think, if counsel can
be of any use, what we had better do; but I do not advise our going into battle
ourselves, for a man cannot fight when he is wounded.”

And King Agamemnon answered, “Nestor, if the Trojans are
indeed fighting at the rear of our ships, and neither the wall nor the trench
has served us–over which the Danaans toiled so hard, and which they deemed
would be an impregnable bulwark both for us and our fleet–I see it must be the
will of Jove that the Achaeans should perish ingloriously here, far from Argos.
I knew when Jove was willing to defend us, and I know now that he is raising the
Trojans to like honour with the gods, while us, on the other hand, he bas bound
hand and foot. Now, therefore, let us all do as I say; let us bring down the
ships that are on the beach and draw them into the water; let us make them fast
to their mooring-stones a little way out, against the fall of night–if even by
night the Trojans will desist from fighting; we may then draw down the rest of
the fleet. There is nothing wrong in flying ruin even by night. It is better for
a man that he should fly and be saved than be caught and killed.”

Ulysses looked fiercely at him and said, “Son of Atreus,
what are you talking about? Wretch, you should have commanded some other and
baser army, and not been ruler over us to whom Jove has allotted a life of hard
fighting from youth to old age, till we every one of us perish. Is it thus that
you would quit the city of Troy, to win which we have suffered so much hardship?
Hold your peace, lest some other of the Achaeans hear you say what no man who
knows how to give good counsel, no king over so great a host as that of the
Argives should ever have let fall from his lips. I despise your judgement
utterly for what you have been saying. Would you, then, have us draw down our
ships into the water while the battle is raging, and thus play further into the
hands of the conquering Trojans? It would be ruin; the Achaeans will not go on
fighting when they see the ships being drawn into the water, but will cease
attacking and keep turning their eyes towards them; your counsel, therefore, sir
captain, would be our destruction.”

Agamemnon answered, “Ulysses, your rebuke has stung me to
the heart. I am not, however, ordering the Achaeans to draw their ships into the
sea whether they will or no. Someone, it may be, old or young, can offer us
better counsel which I shall rejoice to hear.”

Then said Diomed, “Such an one is at hand; he is not far to
seek, if you will listen to me and not resent my speaking though I am younger
than any of you. I am by lineage son to a noble sire, Tydeus, who lies buried at
Thebes. For Portheus had three noble sons, two of whom, Agrius and Melas, abode
in Pleuron and rocky Calydon. The third was the knight Oeneus, my father’s
father, and he was the most valiant of them all. Oeneus remained in his own
country, but my father (as Jove and the other gods ordained it) migrated to
Argos. He married into the family of Adrastus, and his house was one of great
abundance, for he had large estates of rich corn-growing land, with much orchard
ground as well, and he had many sheep; moreover he excelled all the Argives in
the use of the spear. You must yourselves have heard whether these things are
true or no; therefore when I say well despise not my words as though I were a
coward or of ignoble birth. I say, then, let us go to the fight as we needs
must, wounded though we be. When there, we may keep out of the battle and beyond
the range of the spears lest we get fresh wounds in addition to what we have
already, but we can spur on others, who have been indulging their spleen and
holding aloof from battle hitherto.”

Thus did he speak; whereon they did even as he had said and
set out, King Agamemnon leading the way.

Meanwhile Neptune had kept no blind look-out, and came up
to them in the semblance of an old man. He took Agamemnon’s right hand in his
own and said, “Son of Atreus, I take it Achilles is glad now that he sees the
Achaeans routed and slain, for he is utterly without remorse–may he come to a
bad end and heaven confound him. As for yourself, the blessed gods are not yet
so bitterly angry with you but that the princes and counsellors of the Trojans
shall again raise the dust upon the plain, and you shall see them flying from
the ships and tents towards their city.”

With this he raised a mighty cry of battle, and sped
forward to the plain. The voice that came from his deep chest was as that of
nine or ten thousand men when they are shouting in the thick of a fight, and it
put fresh courage into the hearts of the Achaeans to wage war and do battle
without ceasing.

Juno of the golden throne looked down as she stood upon a
peak of Olympus and her heart was gladdened at the sight of him who was at once
her brother and her brother-in-law, hurrying hither and thither amid the
fighting. Then she turned her eyes to Jove as he sat on the topmost crests of
many-fountained Ida, and loathed him. She set herself to think how she might
hoodwink him, and in the end she deemed that it would be best for her to go to
Ida and array herself in rich attire, in the hope that Jove might become
enamoured of her, and wish to embrace her. While he was thus engaged a sweet and
careless sleep might be made to steal over his eyes and senses.

She went, therefore, to the room which her son Vulcan had
made her, and the doors of which he had cunningly fastened by means of a secret
key so that no other god could open them. Here she entered and closed the doors
behind her. She cleansed all the dirt from her fair body with ambrosia, then she
anointed herself with olive oil, ambrosial, very soft, and scented specially for
herself–if it were so much as shaken in the bronze-floored house of Jove, the
scent pervaded the universe of heaven and earth. With this she anointed her
delicate skin, and then she plaited the fair ambrosial locks that flowed in a
stream of golden tresses from her immortal head. She put on the wondrous robe
which Minerva had worked for her with consummate art, and had embroidered with
manifold devices; she fastened it about her bosom with golden clasps, and she
girded herself with a girdle that had a hundred tassels: then she fastened her
earrings, three brilliant pendants that glistened most beautifully, through the
pierced lobes of her ears, and threw a lovely new veil over her head. She bound
her sandals on to her feet, and when she had arrayed herself perfectly to her
satisfaction, she left her room and called Venus to come aside and speak to her.
“My dear child,” said she, “will you do what I am going to ask of you, or will
refuse me because you are angry at my being on the Danaan side, while you are on
the Trojan?”

Jove’s daughter Venus answered, “Juno, august queen of
goddesses, daughter of mighty Saturn, say what you want, and I will do it for
you at once, if I can, and if it can be done at all.”

Then Juno told her a lying tale and said, “I want you to
endow me with some of those fascinating charms, the spells of which bring all
things mortal and immortal to your feet. I am going to the world’s end to visit
Oceanus (from whom all we gods proceed) and mother Tethys: they received me in
their house, took care of me, and brought me up, having taken me over from Rhaea
when Jove imprisoned great Saturn in the depths that are under earth and sea. I
must go and see them that I may make peace between them; they have been
quarrelling, and are so angry that they have not slept with one another this
long while; if I can bring them round and restore them to one another’s
embraces, they will be grateful to me and love me for ever afterwards.”

Thereon laughter-loving Venus said, “I cannot and must not
refuse you, for you sleep in the arms of Jove who is our king.”

As she spoke she loosed from her bosom the curiously
embroidered girdle into which all her charms had been wrought–love, desire, and
that sweet flattery which steals the judgement even of the most prudent. She
gave the girdle to Juno and said, “Take this girdle wherein all my charms reside
and lay it in your bosom. If you will wear it I promise you that your errand, be
it what it may, will not be bootless.”

When she heard this Juno smiled, and still smiling she laid
the girdle in her bosom.

Venus now went back into the house of Jove, while Juno
darted down from the summits of Olympus. She passed over Pieria and fair Emathia,
and went on and on till she came to the snowy ranges of the Thracian horsemen,
over whose topmost crests she sped without ever setting foot to ground. When she
came to Athos she went on over the, waves of the sea till she reached Lemnos,
the city of noble Thoas. There she met Sleep, own brother to Death, and caught
him by the hand, saying, “Sleep, you who lord it alike over mortals and
immortals, if you ever did me a service in times past, do one for me now, and I
shall be grateful to you ever after. Close Jove’s keen eyes for me in slumber
while I hold him clasped in my embrace, and I will give you a beautiful golden
seat, that can never fall to pieces; my clubfooted son Vulcan shall make it for
you, and he shall give it a footstool for you to rest your fair feet upon when
you are at table.”

Then Sleep answered, “Juno, great queen of goddesses,
daughter of mighty Saturn, I would lull any other of the gods to sleep without
compunction, not even excepting the waters of Oceanus from whom all of them
proceed, but I dare not go near Jove, nor send him to sleep unless he bids me. I
have had one lesson already through doing what you asked me, on the day when
Jove’s mighty son Hercules set sail from Ilius after having sacked the city of
the Trojans. At your bidding I suffused my sweet self over the mind of
aegis-bearing Jove, and laid him to rest; meanwhile you hatched a plot against
Hercules, and set the blasts of the angry winds beating upon the sea, till you
took him to the goodly city of Cos, away from all his friends. Jove was furious
when he awoke, and began hurling the gods about all over the house; he was
looking more particularly for myself, and would have flung me down through space
into the sea where I should never have been heard of any more, had not Night who
cows both men and gods protected me. I fled to her and Jove left off looking for
me in spite of his being so angry, for he did not dare do anything to displease
Night. And now you are again asking me to do something on which I cannot
venture.”

And Juno said, “Sleep, why do you take such notions as
those into your head? Do you think Jove will be as anxious to help the Trojans,
as he was about his own son? Come, I will marry you to one of the youngest of
the Graces, and she shall be your own– Pasithea, whom you have always wanted to
marry.”

Sleep was pleased when he heard this, and answered, “Then
swear it to me by the dread waters of the river Styx; lay one hand on the
bounteous earth, and the other on the sheen of the sea, so that all the gods who
dwell down below with Saturn may be our witnesses, and see that you really do
give me one of the youngest of the Graces–Pasithea, whom I have always wanted
to marry.”

Juno did as he had said. She swore, and invoked all the
gods of the nether world, who are called Titans, to witness. When she had
completed her oath, the two enshrouded themselves in a thick mist and sped
lightly forward, leaving Lemnos and Imbrus behind them. Presently they reached
many-fountained Ida, mother of wild beasts, and Lectum where they left the sea
to go on by land, and the tops of the trees of the forest soughed under the
going of their feet. Here Sleep halted, and ere Jove caught sight of him he
climbed a lofty pine-tree–the tallest that reared its head towards heaven on
all Ida. He hid himself behind the branches and sat there in the semblance of
the sweet-singing bird that haunts the mountains and is called Chalcis by the
gods, but men call it Cymindis. Juno then went to Gargarus, the topmost peak of
Ida, and Jove, driver of the clouds, set eyes upon her. As soon as he did so he
became inflamed with the same passionate desire for her that he had felt when
they had first enjoyed each other’s embraces, and slept with one another without
their dear parents knowing anything about it. He went up to her and said, “What
do you want that you have come hither from Olympus–and that too with neither
chariot nor horses to convey you?”

Then Juno told him a lying tale and said, “I am going to
the world’s end, to visit Oceanus, from whom all we gods proceed, and mother
Tethys; they received me into their house, took care of me, and brought me up. I
must go and see them that I may make peace between them: they have been
quarrelling, and are so angry that they have not slept with one another this
long time. The horses that will take me over land and sea are stationed on the
lowermost spurs of many-fountained Ida, and I have come here from Olympus on
purpose to consult you. I was afraid you might be angry with me later on, if I
went to the house of Oceanus without letting you know.”

And Jove said, “Juno, you can choose some other time for
paying your visit to Oceanus–for the present let us devote ourselves to love
and to the enjoyment of one another. Never yet have I been so overpowered by
passion neither for goddess nor mortal woman as I am at this moment for
yourself–not even when I was in love with the wife of Ixion who bore me
Pirithous, peer of gods in counsel, nor yet with Danae the daintily-ancled
daughter of Acrisius, who bore me the famed hero Perseus. Then there was the
daughter of Phoenix, who bore me Minos and Rhadamanthus: there was Semele, and
Alcmena in Thebes by whom I begot my lion-hearted son Hercules, while Semele
became mother to Bacchus the comforter of mankind. There was queen Ceres again,
and lovely Leto, and yourself–but with none of these was I ever so much
enamoured as I now am with you.”

Juno again answered him with a lying tale. “Most dread son
of Saturn,” she exclaimed, “what are you talking about? Would you have us enjoy
one another here on the top of Mount Ida, where everything can be seen? What if
one of the ever-living gods should see us sleeping together, and tell the
others? It would be such a scandal that when I had risen from your embraces I
could never show myself inside your house again; but if you are so minded, there
is a room which your son Vulcan has made me, and he has given it good strong
doors; if you would so have it, let us go thither and lie down.”

And Jove answered, “Juno, you need not be afraid that
either god or man will see you, for I will enshroud both of us in such a dense
golden cloud, that the very sun for all his bright piercing beams shall not see
through it.”

With this the son of Saturn caught his wife in his embrace;
whereon the earth sprouted them a cushion of young grass, with dew-bespangled
lotus, crocus, and hyacinth, so soft and thick that it raised them well above
the ground. Here they laid themselves down and overhead they were covered by a
fair cloud of gold, from which there fell glittering dew-drops.

Thus, then, did the sire of all things repose peacefully on
the crest of Ida, overcome at once by sleep and love, and he held his spouse in
his arms. Meanwhile Sleep made off to the ships of the Achaeans, to tell
earth-encircling Neptune, lord of the earthquake. When he had found him he said,
“Now, Neptune, you can help the Danaans with a will, and give them victory
though it be only for a short time while Jove is still sleeping. I have sent him
into a sweet slumber, and Juno has beguiled him into going to bed with her.”

Sleep now departed and went his ways to and fro among
mankind, leaving Neptune more eager than ever to help the Danaans. He darted
forward among the first ranks and shouted saying, “Argives, shall we let Hector
son of Priam have the triumph of taking our ships and covering himself with
glory? This is what he says that he shall now do, seeing that Achilles is still
in dudgeon at his ship; we shall get on very well without him if we keep each
other in heart and stand by one another. Now, therefore, let us all do as I say.
Let us each take the best and largest shield we can lay hold of, put on our
helmets, and sally forth with our longest spears in our hands; I will lead you
on, and Hector son of Priam, rage as he may, will not dare to hold out against
us. If any good staunch soldier has only a small shield, let him hand it over to
a worse man, and take a larger one for himself.”

Thus did he speak, and they did even as he had said. The
son of Tydeus, Ulysses, and Agamemnon, wounded though they were, set the others
in array, and went about everywhere effecting the exchanges of armour; the most
valiant took the best armour, and gave the worse to the worse man. When they had
donned their bronze armour they marched on with Neptune at their head. In his
strong hand he grasped his terrible sword, keen of edge and flashing like
lightning; woe to him who comes across it in the day of battle; all men quake
for fear and keep away from it.

Hector on the other side set the Trojans in array. Thereon
Neptune and Hector waged fierce war on one another–Hector on the Trojan and
Neptune on the Argive side. Mighty was the uproar as the two forces met; the sea
came rolling in towards the ships and tents of the Achaeans, but waves do not
thunder on the shore more loudly when driven before the blast of Boreas, nor do
the flames of a forest fire roar more fiercely when it is well alight upon the
mountains, nor does the wind bellow with ruder music as it tears on through the
tops of when it is blowing its hardest, than the terrible shout which the
Trojans and Achaeans raised as they sprang upon one another.

Hector first aimed his spear at Ajax, who was turned full
towards him, nor did he miss his aim. The spear struck him where two bands
passed over his chest–the band of his shield and that of his silver-studded
sword–and these protected his body. Hector was angry that his spear should have
been hurled in vain, and withdrew under cover of his men. As he was thus
retreating, Ajax son of Telamon, struck him with a stone, of which there were
many lying about under the men’s feet as they fought–brought there to give
support to the ships’ sides as they lay on the shore. Ajax caught up one of them
and struck Hector above the rim of his shield close to his neck; the blow made
him spin round like a top and reel in all directions. As an oak falls headlong
when uprooted by the lightning flash of father Jove, and there is a terrible
smell of brimstone–no man can help being dismayed if he is standing near it,
for a thunderbolt is a very awful thing– even so did Hector fall to earth and
bite the dust. His spear fell from his hand, but his shield and helmet were made
fast about his body, and his bronze armour rang about him.

The sons of the Achaeans came running with a loud cry
towards him, hoping to drag him away, and they showered their darts on the
Trojans, but none of them could wound him before he was surrounded and covered
by the princes Polydamas, Aeneas, Agenor, Sarpedon captain of the Lycians, and
noble Glaucus. Of the others, too, there was not one who was unmindful of him,
and they held their round shields over him to cover him. His comrades then
lifted him off the ground and bore him away from the battle to the place where
his horses stood waiting for him at the rear of the fight with their driver and
the chariot; these then took him towards the city groaning and in great pain.
When they reached the ford of the fair stream of Xanthus, begotten of Immortal
Jove, they took him from off his chariot and laid him down on the ground; they
poured water over him, and as they did so he breathed again and opened his eyes.
Then kneeling on his knees he vomited blood, but soon fell back on to the
ground, and his eyes were again closed in darkness for he was still stunned by
the blow.

When the Argives saw Hector leaving the field, they took
heart and set upon the Trojans yet more furiously. Ajax fleet son of Oileus
began by springing on Satnius son of Enops, and wounding him with his spear: a
fair naiad nymph had borne him to Enops as he was herding cattle by the banks of
the river Satnioeis. The son of Oileus came up to him and struck him in the
flank so that he fell, and a fierce fight between Trojans and Danaans raged
round his body. Polydamas son of Panthous drew near to avenge him, and wounded
Prothoenor son of Areilycus on the right shoulder; the terrible spear went right
through his shoulder, and he clutched the earth as he fell in the dust.
Polydamas vaunted loudly over him saying, “Again I take it that the spear has
not sped in vain from the strong hand of the son of Panthous; an Argive has
caught it in his body, and it will serve him for a staff as he goes down into
the house of Hades.”

The Argives were maddened by this boasting. Ajax son of
Telamon was more angry than any, for the man had fallen close beside him; so he
aimed at Polydamas as he was retreating, but Polydamas saved himself by swerving
aside and the spear struck Archelochus son of Antenor, for heaven counselled his
destruction; it struck him where the head springs from the neck at the top joint
of the spine, and severed both the tendons at the back of the head. His head,
mouth, and nostrils reached the ground long before his legs and knees could do
so, and Ajax shouted to Polydamas saying, “Think, Polydamas, and tell me truly
whether this man is not as well worth killing as Prothoenor was: he seems rich,
and of rich family, a brother, it may be, or son of the knight Antenor, for he
is very like him.”

But he knew well who it was, and the Trojans were greatly
angered. Acamas then bestrode his brother’s body and wounded Promachus the
Boeotian with his spear, for he was trying to drag his brother’s body away.
Acamas vaunted loudly over him saying, “Argive archers, braggarts that you are,
toil and suffering shall not be for us only, but some of you too shall fall here
as well as ourselves. See how Promachus now sleeps, vanquished by my spear;
payment for my brother’s blood has not been long delayed; a man, therefore, may
well be thankful if he leaves a kinsman in his house behind him to avenge his
fall.”

His taunts infuriated the Argives, and Peneleos was more
enraged than any of them. He sprang towards Acamas, but Acamas did not stand his
ground, and he killed Ilioneus son of the rich flock-master Phorbas, whom
Mercury had favoured and endowed with greater wealth than any other of the
Trojans. Ilioneus was his only son, and Peneleos now wounded him in the eye
under his eyebrows, tearing the eye-ball from its socket: the spear went right
through the eye into the nape of the neck, and he fell, stretching out both
hands before him. Peneleos then drew his sword and smote him on the neck, so
that both head and helmet came tumbling down to the ground with the spear still
sticking in the eye; he then held up the head, as though it had been a
poppy-head, and showed it to the Trojans, vaunting over them as he did so.
“Trojans,” he cried, “bid the father and mother of noble Ilioneus make moan for
him in their house, for the wife also of Promachus son of Alegenor will never be
gladdened by the coming of her dear husband–when we Argives return with our
ships from Troy.”

As he spoke fear fell upon them, and every man looked round
about to see whither he might fly for safety.

Tell me now, O Muses that dwell on Olympus, who was the
first of the Argives to bear away blood-stained spoils after Neptune lord of the
earthquake had turned the fortune of war. Ajax son of Telamon was first to wound
Hyrtius son of Gyrtius, captain of the staunch Mysians. Antilochus killed
Phalces and Mermerus, while Meriones slew Morys and Hippotion, Teucer also
killed Prothoon and Periphetes. The son of Atreus then wounded Hyperenor
shepherd of his people, in the flank, and the bronze point made his entrails
gush out as it tore in among them; on this his life came hurrying out of him at
the place where he had been wounded, and his eyes were closed in darkness. Ajax
son of Oileus killed more than any other, for there was no man so fleet as he to
pursue flying foes when Jove had spread panic among them.