The Iliad, Homer [big screen ebook reader .txt] 📗

death itself. Then Agamemnon, king of men, spoke,
saying, "Hear me, Trojans, Dardanians, and allies. The victory has been
with Menelaus; therefore give back Helen with all her wealth, and pay
such fine as shall be agreed upon, in testimony among them that shall
be born hereafter."

Thus spoke the son of Atreus, and the Achaeans shouted in applause.


BOOK IV

A quarrel in Olympus--Minerva goes down and persuades Fandarus
to violate the oaths by wounding Menelaus with an arrow--Agamemnon
makes a speech and sends for Machaon--He then
goes about among his captains and upbraids Ulysses and
Sthenelus, who each of them retort fiercely--Diomed checks
Sthenelus, and the two hosts then engage, with great slaughter
on either side.

Now the gods were sitting with Jove in council upon the golden floor
while Hebe went round pouring out nectar for them to drink, and as they
pledged one another in their cups of gold they looked down upon the
town of Troy. The son of Saturn then began to tease Juno, talking at
her so as to provoke her. "Menelaus," said he, "has two good friends
among the goddesses, Juno of Argos, and Minerva of Alalcomene, but they
only sit still and look on, while Venus keeps ever by Alexandrus' side
to defend him in any danger; indeed she has just rescued him when he
made sure that it was all over with him--for the victory really did lie
with Menelaus. We must consider what we shall do about all this; shall
we set them fighting anew or make peace between them? If you will agree
to this last Menelaus can take back Helen and the city of Priam may
remain still inhabited."

Minerva and Juno muttered their discontent as they sat side by side
hatching mischief for the Trojans. Minerva scowled at her father, for
she was in a furious passion with him, and said nothing, but Juno could
not contain herself. "Dread son of Saturn," said she, "what, pray, is
the meaning of all this? Is my trouble, then, to go for nothing, and
the sweat that I have sweated, to say nothing of my horses, while
getting the people together against Priam and his children? Do as you
will, but we other gods shall not all of us approve your counsel."

Jove was angry and answered, "My dear, what harm have Priam and his
sons done you that you are so hotly bent on sacking the city of Ilius?
Will nothing do for you but you must within their walls and eat Priam
raw, with his sons and all the other Trojans to boot? Have it your own
way then; for I would not have this matter become a bone of contention
between us. I say further, and lay my saying to your heart, if ever I
want to sack a city belonging to friends of yours, you must not try to
stop me; you will have to let me do it, for I am giving in to you
sorely against my will. Of all inhabited cities under the sun and stars
of heaven, there was none that I so much respected as Ilius with Priam
and his whole people. Equitable feasts were never wanting about my
altar, nor the savour of burning fat, which is honour due to ourselves."

"My own three favourite cities," answered Juno, "are Argos, Sparta, and
Mycenae. Sack them whenever you may be displeased with them. I shall
not defend them and I shall not care. Even if I did, and tried to stay
you, I should take nothing by it, for you are much stronger than I am,
but I will not have my own work wasted. I too am a god and of the same
race with yourself. I am Saturn's eldest daughter, and am honourable
not on this ground only, but also because I am your wife, and you are
king over the gods. Let it be a case, then, of give-and-take between
us, and the rest of the gods will follow our lead. Tell Minerva to go
and take part in the fight at once, and let her contrive that the
Trojans shall be the first to break their oaths and set upon the
Achaeans."

The sire of gods and men heeded her words, and said to Minerva, "Go at
once into the Trojan and Achaean hosts, and contrive that the Trojans
shall be the first to break their oaths and set upon the Achaeans."

This was what Minerva was already eager to do, so down she darted from
the topmost summits of Olympus. She shot through the sky as some
brilliant meteor which the son of scheming Saturn has sent as a sign to
mariners or to some great army, and a fiery train of light follows in
its wake. The Trojans and Achaeans were struck with awe as they beheld,
and one would turn to his neighbour, saying, "Either we shall again
have war and din of combat, or Jove the lord of battle will now make
peace between us."

Thus did they converse. Then Minerva took the form of Laodocus, son of
Antenor, and went through the ranks of the Trojans to find Pandarus,
the redoubtable son of Lycaon. She found him standing among the
stalwart heroes who had followed him from the banks of the Aesopus, so
she went close up to him and said, "Brave son of Lycaon, will you do as
I tell you? If you dare send an arrow at Menelaus you will win honour
and thanks from all the Trojans, and especially from prince
Alexandrus--he would be the first to requite you very handsomely if he
could see Menelaus mount his funeral pyre, slain by an arrow from your
hand. Take your home aim then, and pray to Lycian Apollo, the famous
archer; vow that when you get home to your strong city of Zelea you
will offer a hecatomb of firstling lambs in his honour."

His fool's heart was persuaded, and he took his bow from its case. This
bow was made from the horns of a wild ibex which he had killed as it
was bounding from a rock; he had stalked it, and it had fallen as the
arrow struck it to the heart. Its horns were sixteen palms long, and a
worker in horn had made them into a bow, smoothing them well down, and
giving them tips of gold. When Pandarus had strung his bow he laid it
carefully on the ground, and his brave followers held their shields
before him lest the Achaeans should set upon him before he had shot
Menelaus. Then he opened the lid of his quiver and took out a winged
arrow that had not yet been shot, fraught with the pangs of death. He
laid the arrow on the string and prayed to Lycian Apollo, the famous
archer, vowing that when he got home to his strong city of Zelea he
would offer a hecatomb of firstling lambs in his honour. He laid the
notch of the arrow on the oxhide bowstring, and drew both notch and
string to his breast till the arrow-head was near the bow; then when
the bow was arched into a half-circle he let fly, and the bow twanged,
and the string sang as the arrow flew gladly on over the heads of the
throng.

But the blessed gods did not forget thee, O Menelaus, and Jove's
daughter, driver of the spoil, was the first to stand before thee and
ward off the piercing arrow. She turned it from his skin as a mother
whisks a fly from off her child when it is sleeping sweetly; she guided
it to the part where the golden buckles of the belt that passed over
his double cuirass were fastened, so the arrow struck the belt that
went tightly round him. It went right through this and through the
cuirass of cunning workmanship; it also pierced the belt beneath it,
which he wore next his skin to keep out darts or arrows; it was this
that served him in the best stead, nevertheless the arrow went through
it and grazed the top of the skin, so that blood began flowing from the
wound.

As when some woman of Meonia or Caria strains purple dye on to a piece
of ivory that is to be the cheek-piece of a horse, and is to be laid up
in a treasure house--many a knight is fain to bear it, but the king
keeps it as an ornament of which both horse and driver may be
proud--even so, O Menelaus, were your shapely thighs and your legs down
to your fair ancles stained with blood.

When King Agamemnon saw the blood flowing from the wound he was afraid,
and so was brave Menelaus himself till he saw that the barbs of the
arrow and the thread that bound the arrow-head to the shaft were still
outside the wound. Then he took heart, but Agamemnon heaved a deep sigh
as he held Menelaus's hand in his own, and his comrades made moan in
concert. "Dear brother," he cried, "I have been the death of you in
pledging this covenant and letting you come forward as our champion.
The Trojans have trampled on their oaths and have wounded you;
nevertheless the oath, the blood of lambs, the drink-offerings and the
right hands of fellowship in which we have put our trust shall not be
vain. If he that rules Olympus fulfil it not here and now, he will yet
fulfil it hereafter, and they shall pay dearly with their lives and
with their wives and children. The day will surely come when mighty
Ilius shall be laid low, with Priam and Priam's people, when the son of
Saturn from his high throne shall overshadow them with his awful aegis
in punishment of their present treachery. This shall surely be; but
how, Menelaus, shall I mourn you, if it be your lot now to die? I
should return to Argos as a by-word, for the Achaeans will at once go
home. We shall leave Priam and the Trojans the glory of still keeping
Helen, and the earth will rot your bones as you lie here at Troy with
your purpose not fulfilled. Then shall some braggart Trojan leap upon
your tomb and say, 'Ever thus may Agamemnon wreak his vengeance; he
brought his army in vain; he is gone home to his own land with empty
ships, and has left Menelaus behind him.' Thus will one of them say,
and may the earth then swallow me."

But Menelaus reassured him and said, "Take heart, and do not alarm the
people; the arrow has not struck me in a mortal part, for my outer belt
of burnished metal first stayed it, and under this my cuirass and the
belt of mail which the bronze-smiths made me."

And Agamemnon answered, "I trust, dear Menelaus, that it may be even
so, but the surgeon shall examine your wound and lay herbs upon it to
relieve your pain."

He then said to Talthybius, "Talthybius, tell Machaon, son to the great
physician, Aesculapius, to come and see Menelaus immediately. Some
Trojan or Lycian archer has wounded him with an arrow to our dismay,
and to his own great glory."

Talthybius did as he was told, and went about the host trying to find
Machaon. Presently he found standing amid the brave warriors who had
followed him from Tricca; thereon he went up to him and said, "Son of
Aesculapius, King Agamemnon says you are to come and see Menelaus
immediately. Some Trojan or Lycian archer has wounded him with an arrow
to our dismay and to his own great glory."

Thus did he speak, and Machaon