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

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