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

Teuthras, and Orestes the renowned
charioteer, Trechus the Aetolian warrior, Oenomaus, Helenus the son of
Oenops, and Oresbius of the gleaming girdle, who was possessed of great
wealth, and dwelt by the Cephisian lake with the other Boeotians who
lived near him, owners of a fertile country.

Now when the goddess Juno saw the Argives thus falling, she said to
Minerva, "Alas, daughter of aegis-bearing Jove, unweariable, the
promise we made Menelaus that he should not return till he had sacked
the city of Ilius will be of no effect if we let Mars rage thus
furiously. Let us go into the fray at once."

Minerva did not gainsay her. Thereon the august goddess, daughter of
great Saturn, began to harness her gold-bedizened steeds. Hebe with all
speed fitted on the eight-spoked wheels of bronze that were on either
side of the iron axle-tree. The felloes of the wheels were of gold,
imperishable, and over these there was a tire of bronze, wondrous to
behold. The naves of the wheels were silver, turning round the axle
upon either side. The car itself was made with plaited bands of gold
and silver, and it had a double top-rail running all round it. From the
body of the car there went a pole of silver, on to the end of which she
bound the golden yoke, with the bands of gold that were to go under the
necks of the horses Then Juno put her steeds under the yoke, eager for
battle and the war-cry.

Meanwhile Minerva flung her richly embroidered vesture, made with her
own hands, on to her father's threshold, and donned the shirt of Jove,
arming herself for battle. She threw her tasselled aegis about her
shoulders, wreathed round with Rout as with a fringe, and on it were
Strife, and Strength, and Panic whose blood runs cold; moreover there
was the head of the dread monster Gorgon, grim and awful to behold,
portent of aegis-bearing Jove. On her head she set her helmet of gold,
with four plumes, and coming to a peak both in front and behind--decked
with the emblems of a hundred cities; then she stepped into her flaming
chariot and grasped the spear, so stout and sturdy and strong, with
which she quells the ranks of heroes who have displeased her. Juno
lashed the horses on, and the gates of heaven bellowed as they flew
open of their own accord--gates over which the Hours preside, in whose
hands are Heaven and Olympus, either to open the dense cloud that hides
them, or to close it. Through these the goddesses drove their obedient
steeds, and found the son of Saturn sitting all alone on the topmost
ridges of Olympus. There Juno stayed her horses, and spoke to Jove the
son of Saturn, lord of all. "Father Jove," said she, "are you not angry
with Mars for these high doings? how great and goodly a host of the
Achaeans he has destroyed to my great grief, and without either right
or reason, while the Cyprian and Apollo are enjoying it all at their
ease and setting this unrighteous madman on to do further mischief. I
hope, Father Jove, that you will not be angry if I hit Mars hard, and
chase him out of the battle."

And Jove answered, "Set Minerva on to him, for she punishes him more
often than any one else does."

Juno did as he had said. She lashed her horses, and they flew forward
nothing loth midway betwixt earth and sky. As far as a man can see when
he looks out upon the sea from some high beacon, so far can the
loud-neighing horses of the gods spring at a single bound. When they
reached Troy and the place where its two flowing streams Simois and
Scamander meet, there Juno stayed them and took them from the chariot.
She hid them in a thick cloud, and Simois made ambrosia spring up for
them to eat; the two goddesses then went on, flying like turtledoves in
their eagerness to help the Argives. When they came to the part where
the bravest and most in number were gathered about mighty Diomed,
fighting like lions or wild boars of great strength and endurance,
there Juno stood still and raised a shout like that of brazen-voiced
Stentor, whose cry was as loud as that of fifty men together.
"Argives," she cried; "shame on cowardly creatures, brave in semblance
only; as long as Achilles was fighting, if his spear was so deadly that
the Trojans dared not show themselves outside the Dardanian gates, but
now they sally far from the city and fight even at your ships."

With these words she put heart and soul into them all, while Minerva
sprang to the side of the son of Tydeus, whom she found near his
chariot and horses, cooling the wound that Pandarus had given him. For
the sweat caused by the hand that bore the weight of his shield
irritated the hurt: his arm was weary with pain, and he was lifting up
the strap to wipe away the blood. The goddess laid her hand on the yoke
of his horses and said, "The son of Tydeus is not such another as his
father. Tydeus was a little man, but he could fight, and rushed madly
into the fray even when I told him not to do so. When he went all
unattended as envoy to the city of Thebes among the Cadmeans, I bade
him feast in their houses and be at peace; but with that high spirit
which was ever present with him, he challenged the youth of the
Cadmeans, and at once beat them in all that he attempted, so mightily
did I help him. I stand by you too to protect you, and I bid you be
instant in fighting the Trojans; but either you are tired out, or you
are afraid and out of heart, and in that case I say that you are no
true son of Tydeus the son of Oeneus."

Diomed answered, "I know you, goddess, daughter of aegis-bearing Jove,
and will hide nothing from you. I am not afraid nor out of heart, nor
is there any slackness in me. I am only following your own
instructions; you told me not to fight any of the blessed gods; but if
Jove's daughter Venus came into battle I was to wound her with my
spear. Therefore I am retreating, and bidding the other Argives gather
in this place, for I know that Mars is now lording it in the field."

"Diomed, son of Tydeus," replied Minerva, "man after my own heart, fear
neither Mars nor any other of the immortals, for I will befriend you.
Nay, drive straight at Mars, and smite him in close combat; fear not
this raging madman, villain incarnate, first on one side and then on
the other. But now he was holding talk with Juno and myself, saying he
would help the Argives and attack the Trojans; nevertheless he is with
the Trojans, and has forgotten the Argives."

With this she caught hold of Sthenelus and lifted him off the chariot
on to the ground. In a second he was on the ground, whereupon the
goddess mounted the car and placed herself by the side of Diomed. The
oaken axle groaned aloud under the burden of the awful goddess and the
hero; Pallas Minerva took the whip and reins, and drove straight at
Mars. He was in the act of stripping huge Periphas, son of Ochesius and
bravest of the Aetolians. Bloody Mars was stripping him of his armour,
and Minerva donned the helmet of Hades, that he might not see her;
when, therefore, he saw Diomed, he made straight for him and let
Periphas lie where he had fallen. As soon as they were at close
quarters he let fly with his bronze spear over the reins and yoke,
thinking to take Diomed's life, but Minerva caught the spear in her
hand and made it fly harmlessly over the chariot. Diomed then threw,
and Pallas Minerva drove the spear into the pit of Mars's stomach where
his under-girdle went round him. There Diomed wounded him, tearing his
fair flesh and then drawing his spear out again. Mars roared as loudly
as nine or ten thousand men in the thick of a fight, and the Achaeans
and Trojans were struck with panic, so terrible was the cry he raised.

As a dark cloud in the sky when it comes on to blow after heat, even so
did Diomed son of Tydeus see Mars ascend into the broad heavens. With
all speed he reached high Olympus, home of the gods, and in great pain
sat down beside Jove the son of Saturn. He showed Jove the immortal
blood that was flowing from his wound, and spoke piteously, saying,
"Father Jove, are you not angered by such doings? We gods are
continually suffering in the most cruel manner at one another's hands
while helping mortals; and we all owe you a grudge for having begotten
that mad termagant of a daughter, who is always committing outrage of
some kind. We other gods must all do as you bid us, but her you neither
scold nor punish; you encourage her because the pestilent creature is
your daughter. See how she has been inciting proud Diomed to vent his
rage on the immortal gods. First he went up to the Cyprian and wounded
her in the hand near her wrist, and then he sprang upon me too as
though he were a god. Had I not run for it I must either have lain
there for long enough in torments among the ghastly corpses, or have
been eaten alive with spears till I had no more strength left in me."

Jove looked angrily at him and said, "Do not come whining here, Sir
Facing-both-ways. I hate you worst of all the gods in Olympus, for you
are ever fighting and making mischief. You have the intolerable and
stubborn spirit of your mother Juno: it is all I can do to manage her,
and it is her doing that you are now in this plight: still, I cannot
let you remain longer in such great pain; you are my own offspring, and
it was by me that your mother conceived you; if, however, you had been
the son of any other god, you are so destructive that by this time you
should have been lying lower than the Titans."

He then bade Paeeon heal him, whereon Paeeon spread pain-killing herbs
upon his wound and cured him, for he was not of mortal mould. As the
juice of the fig-tree curdles milk, and thickens it in a moment though
it is liquid, even so instantly did Paeeon cure fierce Mars. Then Hebe
washed him, and clothed him in goodly raiment, and he took his seat by
his father Jove all glorious to behold.

But Juno of Argos and Minerva of Alalcomene, now that they had put a
stop to the murderous doings of Mars, went back again to the house of
Jove.


BOOK VI

Glaucus and Diomed--The story of Bellerophon--Hector
and Andromache.

THE fight between Trojans and Achaeans was now left to rage as it
would, and the tide of war surged hither and thither over the plain as
they aimed their bronze-shod spears at one another between the streams
of Simois and Xanthus.

First, Ajax son of Telamon, tower of strength to the Achaeans, broke a
phalanx of the Trojans, and came to the assistance of his comrades by
killing Acamas son of Eussorus, the best man among the Thracians, being
both brave and of great stature. The spear struck the projecting peak
of his helmet: its bronze point then went through his forehead into the