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

upon all this, but with
what face should I look upon the Trojans, men or women, if I shirked
battle like a coward? I cannot do so: I know nothing save to fight
bravely in the forefront of the Trojan host and win renown alike for my
father and myself. Well do I know that the day will surely come when
mighty Ilius shall be destroyed with Priam and Priam's people, but I
grieve for none of these--not even for Hecuba, nor King Priam, nor for
my brothers many and brave who may fall in the dust before their
foes--for none of these do I grieve as for yourself when the day shall
come on which some one of the Achaeans shall rob you for ever of your
freedom, and bear you weeping away. It may be that you will have to ply
the loom in Argos at the bidding of a mistress, or to fetch water from
the springs Messeis or Hypereia, treated brutally by some cruel
task-master; then will one say who sees you weeping, 'She was wife to
Hector, the bravest warrior among the Trojans during the war before
Ilius.' On this your tears will break forth anew for him who would have
put away the day of captivity from you. May I lie dead under the barrow
that is heaped over my body ere I hear your cry as they carry you into
bondage."

He stretched his arms towards his child, but the boy cried and nestled
in his nurse's bosom, scared at the sight of his father's armour, and
at the horse-hair plume that nodded fiercely from his helmet. His
father and mother laughed to see him, but Hector took the helmet from
his head and laid it all gleaming upon the ground. Then he took his
darling child, kissed him, and dandled him in his arms, praying over
him the while to Jove and to all the gods. "Jove," he cried, "grant
that this my child may be even as myself, chief among the Trojans; let
him be not less excellent in strength, and let him rule Ilius with his
might. Then may one say of him as he comes from battle, 'The son is far
better than the father.' May he bring back the blood-stained spoils of
him whom he has laid low, and let his mother's heart be glad."

With this he laid the child again in the arms of his wife, who took him
to her own soft bosom, smiling through her tears. As her husband
watched her his heart yearned towards her and he caressed her fondly,
saying, "My own wife, do not take these things too bitterly to heart.
No one can hurry me down to Hades before my time, but if a man's hour
is come, be he brave or be he coward, there is no escape for him when
he has once been born. Go, then, within the house, and busy yourself
with your daily duties, your loom, your distaff, and the ordering of
your servants; for war is man's matter, and mine above all others of
them that have been born in Ilius."

He took his plumed helmet from the ground, and his wife went back again
to her house, weeping bitterly and often looking back towards him. When
she reached her home she found her maidens within, and bade them all
join in her lament; so they mourned Hector in his own house though he
was yet alive, for they deemed that they should never see him return
safe from battle, and from the furious hands of the Achaeans.

Paris did not remain long in his house. He donned his goodly armour
overlaid with bronze, and hasted through the city as fast as his feet
could take him. As a horse, stabled and fed, breaks loose and gallops
gloriously over the plain to the place where he is wont to bathe in the
fair-flowing river--he holds his head high, and his mane streams upon
his shoulders as he exults in his strength and flies like the wind to
the haunts and feeding ground of the mares--even so went forth Paris
from high Pergamus, gleaming like sunlight in his armour, and he
laughed aloud as he sped swiftly on his way. Forthwith he came upon his
brother Hector, who was then turning away from the place where he had
held converse with his wife, and he was himself the first to speak.
"Sir," said he, "I fear that I have kept you waiting when you are in
haste, and have not come as quickly as you bade me."

"My good brother," answered Hector, "you fight bravely, and no man with
any justice can make light of your doings in battle. But you are
careless and wilfully remiss. It grieves me to the heart to hear the
ill that the Trojans speak about you, for they have suffered much on
your account. Let us be going, and we will make things right hereafter,
should Jove vouchsafe us to set the cup of our deliverance before
ever-living gods of heaven in our own homes, when we have chased the
Achaeans from Troy."


BOOK VII

Hector and Ajax fight--Hector is getting worsted when night
comes on and parts them--They exchange presents--The
burial of the dead, and the building of a wall round their
ships by the Achaeans--The Achaeans buy their wine of
Agamemnon and Menelaus.

WITH these words Hector passed through the gates, and his brother
Alexandrus with him, both eager for the fray. As when heaven sends a
breeze to sailors who have long looked for one in vain, and have
laboured at their oars till they are faint with toil, even so welcome
was the sight of these two heroes to the Trojans.

Thereon Alexandrus killed Menesthius the son of Areithous; he lived in
Arne, and was son of Areithous the Mace-man, and of Phylomedusa. Hector
threw a spear at Eioneus and struck him dead with a wound in the neck
under the bronze rim of his helmet. Glaucus, moreover, son of
Hippolochus, captain of the Lycians, in hard hand-to-hand fight smote
Iphinous son of Dexius on the shoulder, as he was springing on to his
chariot behind his fleet mares; so he fell to earth from the car, and
there was no life left in him.

When, therefore, Minerva saw these men making havoc of the Argives, she
darted down to Ilius from the summits of Olympus, and Apollo, who was
looking on from Pergamus, went out to meet her; for he wanted the
Trojans to be victorious. The pair met by the oak tree, and King Apollo
son of Jove was first to speak. "What would you have," said he,
"daughter of great Jove, that your proud spirit has sent you hither
from Olympus? Have you no pity upon the Trojans, and would you incline
the scales of victory in favour of the Danaans? Let me persuade
you--for it will be better thus--stay the combat for to-day, but let
them renew the fight hereafter till they compass the doom of Ilius,
since you goddesses have made up your minds to destroy the city."

And Minerva answered, "So be it, Far-Darter; it was in this mind that I
came down from Olympus to the Trojans and Achaeans. Tell me, then, how
do you propose to end this present fighting?"

Apollo, son of Jove, replied, "Let us incite great Hector to challenge
some one of the Danaans in single combat; on this the Achaeans will be
shamed into finding a man who will fight him."

Minerva assented, and Helenus son of Priam divined the counsel of the
gods; he therefore went up to Hector and said, "Hector son of Priam,
peer of gods in counsel, I am your brother, let me then persuade you.
Bid the other Trojans and Achaeans all of them take their seats, and
challenge the best man among the Achaeans to meet you in single combat.
I have heard the voice of the ever-living gods, and the hour of your
doom is not yet come."

Hector was glad when he heard this saying, and went in among the
Trojans, grasping his spear by the middle to hold them back, and they
all sat down. Agamemnon also bade the Achaeans be seated. But Minerva
and Apollo, in the likeness of vultures, perched on father Jove's high
oak tree, proud of their men; and the ranks sat close ranged together,
bristling with shield and helmet and spear. As when the rising west
wind furs the face of the sea and the waters grow dark beneath it, so
sat the companies of Trojans and Achaeans upon the plain. And Hector
spoke thus:--

"Hear me, Trojans and Achaeans, that I may speak even as I am minded;
Jove on his high throne has brought our oaths and covenants to nothing,
and foreshadows ill for both of us, till you either take the towers of
Troy, or are yourselves vanquished at your ships. The princes of the
Achaeans are here present in the midst of you; let him, then, that will
fight me stand forward as your champion against Hector. Thus I say, and
may Jove be witness between us. If your champion slay me, let him strip
me of my armour and take it to your ships, but let him send my body
home that the Trojans and their wives may give me my dues of fire when
I am dead. In like manner, if Apollo vouchsafe me glory and I slay your
champion, I will strip him of his armour and take it to the city of
Ilius, where I will hang it in the temple of Apollo, but I will give up
his body, that the Achaeans may bury him at their ships, and the build
him a mound by the wide waters of the Hellespont. Then will one say
hereafter as he sails his ship over the sea, 'This is the monument of
one who died long since a champion who was slain by mighty Hector.'
Thus will one say, and my fame shall not be lost."

Thus did he speak, but they all held their peace, ashamed to decline
the challenge, yet fearing to accept it, till at last Menelaus rose and
rebuked them, for he was angry. "Alas," he cried, "vain braggarts,
women forsooth not men, double-dyed indeed will be the stain upon us if
no man of the Danaans will now face Hector. May you be turned every man
of you into earth and water as you sit spiritless and inglorious in
your places. I will myself go out against this man, but the upshot of
the fight will be from on high in the hands of the immortal gods."

With these words he put on his armour; and then, O Menelaus, your life
would have come to an end at the hands of hands of Hector, for he was
far better the man, had not the princes of the Achaeans sprung upon you
and checked you. King Agamemnon caught him by the right hand and said,
"Menelaus, you are mad; a truce to this folly. Be patient in spite of
passion, do not think of fighting a man so much stronger than yourself
as Hector son of Priam, who is feared by many another as well as you.
Even Achilles, who is far more doughty than you are, shrank from
meeting him in battle. Sit down your own people, and the Achaeans will
send some other champion to fight Hector; fearless and fond of battle
though he be, I ween his knees will bend gladly under him if he comes
out alive from the hurly-burly of this fight."

With these words of reasonable counsel he persuaded his brother,
whereon his squires