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

/> them blamed the son of Saturn for wanting to give victory to the
Trojans, but father Jove heeded them not: he held aloof from all, and
sat apart in his all-glorious majesty, looking down upon the city of
the Trojans, the ships of the Achaeans, the gleam of bronze, and alike
upon the slayers and on the slain.

Now so long as the day waxed and it was still morning, their darts
rained thick on one another and the people perished, but as the hour
drew nigh when a woodman working in some mountain forest will get his
midday meal--for he has felled till his hands are weary; he is tired
out, and must now have food--then the Danaans with a cry that rang
through all their ranks, broke the battalions of the enemy. Agamemnon
led them on, and slew first Bienor, a leader of his people, and
afterwards his comrade and charioteer Oileus, who sprang from his
chariot and was coming full towards him; but Agamemnon struck him on
the forehead with his spear; his bronze visor was of no avail against
the weapon, which pierced both bronze and bone, so that his brains were
battered in and he was killed in full fight.

Agamemnon stripped their shirts from off them and left them with their
breasts all bare to lie where they had fallen. He then went on to kill
Isus and Antiphus two sons of Priam, the one a bastard, the other born
in wedlock; they were in the same chariot--the bastard driving, while
noble Antiphus fought beside him. Achilles had once taken both of them
prisoners in the glades of Ida, and had bound them with fresh withes as
they were shepherding, but he had taken a ransom for them; now,
however, Agamemnon son of Atreus smote Isus in the chest above the
nipple with his spear, while he struck Antiphus hard by the ear and
threw him from his chariot. Forthwith he stripped their goodly armour
from off them and recognized them, for he had already seen them at
ships when Achilles brought them in from Ida. As a lion fastens on the
fawns of a hind and crushes them in his great jaws, robbing them of
their tender life while he on his way back to his lair--the hind can do
nothing for them even though she be close by, for she is in an agony of
fear, and flies through the thick forest, sweating, and at her utmost
speed before the mighty monster--so, no man of the Trojans could help
Isus and Antiphus, for they were themselves flying in panic before the
Argives.

Then King Agamemnon took the two sons of Antimachus, Pisander and brave
Hippolochus. It was Antimachus who had been foremost in preventing
Helen's being restored to Menelaus, for he was largely bribed by
Alexandrus; and now Agamemnon took his two sons, both in the same
chariot, trying to bring their horses to a stand--for they had lost
hold of the reins and the horses were mad with fear. The son of Atreus
sprang upon them like a lion, and the pair besought him from their
chariot. "Take us alive," they cried, "son of Atreus, and you shall
receive a great ransom for us. Our father Antimachus has great store of
gold, bronze, and wrought iron, and from this he will satisfy you with
a very large ransom should he hear of our being alive at the ships of
the Achaeans."

With such piteous words and tears did they beseech the king, but they
heard no pitiful answer in return. "If," said Agamemnon, "you are sons
of Antimachus, who once at a council of Trojans proposed that Menelaus
and Ulysses, who had come to you as envoys, should be killed and not
suffered to return, you shall now pay for the foul iniquity of your
father."

As he spoke he felled Pisander from his chariot to the earth, smiting
him on the chest with his spear, so that he lay face uppermost upon the
ground. Hippolochus fled, but him too did Agamemnon smite; he cut off
his hands and his head--which he sent rolling in among the crowd as
though it were a ball. There he let them both lie, and wherever the
ranks were thickest thither he flew, while the other Achaeans followed.
Foot soldiers drove the foot soldiers of the foe in rout before them,
and slew them; horsemen did the like by horsemen, and the thundering
tramp of the horses raised a cloud of dust from off the plain. King
Agamemnon followed after, ever slaying them and cheering on the
Achaeans. As when some mighty forest is all ablaze--the eddying gusts
whirl fire in all directions till the thickets shrivel and are consumed
before the blast of the flame--even so fell the heads of the flying
Trojans before Agamemnon son of Atreus, and many a noble pair of steeds
drew an empty chariot along the highways of war, for lack of drivers
who were lying on the plain, more useful now to vultures than to their
wives.

Jove drew Hector away from the darts and dust, with the carnage and din
of battle; but the son of Atreus sped onwards, calling out lustily to
the Danaans. They flew on by the tomb of old Ilus, son of Dardanus, in
the middle of the plain, and past the place of the wild fig-tree making
always for the city--the son of Atreus still shouting, and with hands
all bedrabbled in gore; but when they had reached the Scaean gates and
the oak tree, there they halted and waited for the others to come up.
Meanwhile the Trojans kept on flying over the middle of the plain like
a herd of cows maddened with fright when a lion has attacked them in
the dead of night--he springs on one of them, seizes her neck in the
grip of his strong teeth and then laps up her blood and gorges himself
upon her entrails--even so did King Agamemnon son of Atreus pursue the
foe, ever slaughtering the hindmost as they fled pell-mell before him.
Many a man was flung headlong from his chariot by the hand of the son
of Atreus, for he wielded his spear with fury.

But when he was just about to reach the high wall and the city, the
father of gods and men came down from heaven and took his seat,
thunderbolt in hand, upon the crest of many-fountained Ida. He then
told Iris of the golden wings to carry a message for him. "Go," said
he, "fleet Iris, and speak thus to Hector--say that so long as he sees
Agamemnon heading his men and making havoc of the Trojan ranks, he is
to keep aloof and bid the others bear the brunt of the battle, but when
Agamemnon is wounded either by spear or arrow, and takes to his
chariot, then will I vouchsafe him strength to slay till he reach the
ships and night falls at the going down of the sun."

Iris hearkened and obeyed. Down she went to strong Ilius from the
crests of Ida, and found Hector son of Priam standing by his chariot
and horses. Then she said, "Hector son of Priam, peer of gods in
counsel, father Jove has sent me to bear you this message--so long as
you see Agamemnon heading his men and making havoc of the Trojan ranks,
you are to keep aloof and bid the others bear the brunt of the battle,
but when Agamemnon is wounded either by spear or arrow, and takes to
his chariot, then will Jove vouchsafe you strength to slay till you
reach the ships, and till night falls at the going down of the sun."

When she had thus spoken Iris left him, and Hector sprang full armed
from his chariot to the ground, brandishing his spear as he went about
everywhere among the host, cheering his men on to fight, and stirring
the dread strife of battle. The Trojans then wheeled round, and again
met the Achaeans, while the Argives on their part strengthened their
battalions. The battle was now in array and they stood face to face
with one another, Agamemnon ever pressing forward in his eagerness to
be ahead of all others.

Tell me now ye Muses that dwell in the mansions of Olympus, who,
whether of the Trojans or of their allies, was first to face Agamemnon?
It was Iphidamas son of Antenor, a man both brave and of great stature,
who was brought up in fertile Thrace, the mother of sheep. Cisses, his
mother's father, brought him up in his own house when he was a
child--Cisses, father to fair Theano. When he reached manhood, Cisses
would have kept him there, and was for giving him his daughter in
marriage, but as soon as he had married he set out to fight the
Achaeans with twelve ships that followed him: these he had left at
Percote and had come on by land to Ilius. He it was that now met
Agamemnon son of Atreus. When they were close up with one another, the
son of Atreus missed his aim, and Iphidamas hit him on the girdle below
the cuirass and then flung himself upon him, trusting to his strength
of arm; the girdle, however, was not pierced, nor nearly so, for the
point of the spear struck against the silver and was turned aside as
though it had been lead: King Agamemnon caught it from his hand, and
drew it towards him with the fury of a lion; he then drew his sword,
and killed Iphidamas by striking him on the neck. So there the poor
fellow lay, sleeping a sleep as it were of bronze, killed in the
defence of his fellow-citizens, far from his wedded wife, of whom he
had had no joy though he had given much for her: he had given a
hundred-head of cattle down, and had promised later on to give a
thousand sheep and goats mixed, from the countless flocks of which he
was possessed. Agamemnon son of Atreus then despoiled him, and carried
off his armour into the host of the Achaeans.

When noble Coon, Antenor's eldest son, saw this, sore indeed were his
eyes at the sight of his fallen brother. Unseen by Agamemnon he got
beside him, spear in hand, and wounded him in the middle of his arm
below the elbow, the point of the spear going right through the arm.
Agamemnon was convulsed with pain, but still not even for this did he
leave off struggling and fighting, but grasped his spear that flew as
fleet as the wind, and sprang upon Coon who was trying to drag off the
body of his brother--his father's son--by the foot, and was crying for
help to all the bravest of his comrades; but Agamemnon struck him with
a bronze-shod spear and killed him as he was dragging the dead body
through the press of men under cover of his shield: he then cut off his
head, standing over the body of Iphidamas. Thus did the sons of Antenor
meet their fate at the hands of the son of Atreus, and go down into the
house of Hades.

As long as the blood still welled warm from his wound Agamemnon went
about attacking the ranks of the enemy with spear and sword and with
great handfuls of stone, but when the blood had ceased to flow and the
wound grew dry, the pain became great. As the sharp pangs which the
Eilithuiae, goddesses of childbirth, daughters of Juno and dispensers
of cruel pain, send upon a woman when she is in labour--even so sharp
were the pangs of the son of Atreus. He sprang on to his chariot, and
bade his charioteer drive to the ships, for he was in great agony. With
a