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

the earth, while air and sky and clouds were the portion that
fell to Jove; but earth and great Olympus are the common property of
all. Therefore I will not walk as Jove would have me. For all his
strength, let him keep to his own third share and be contented without
threatening to lay hands upon me as though I were nobody. Let him keep
his bragging talk for his own sons and daughters, who must perforce
obey him."

Iris fleet as the wind then answered, "Am I really, Neptune, to take
this daring and unyielding message to Jove, or will you reconsider your
answer? Sensible people are open to argument, and you know that the
Erinyes always range themselves on the side of the older person."

Neptune answered, "Goddess Iris, your words have been spoken in season.
It is well when a messenger shows so much discretion. Nevertheless it
cuts me to the very heart that any one should rebuke so angrily another
who is his own peer, and of like empire with himself. Now, however, I
will give way in spite of my displeasure; furthermore let me tell you,
and I mean what I say--if contrary to the desire of myself, Minerva
driver of the spoil, Juno, Mercury, and King Vulcan, Jove spares steep
Ilius, and will not let the Achaeans have the great triumph of sacking
it, let him understand that he will incur our implacable resentment."

Neptune now left the field to go down under the sea, and sorely did the
Achaeans miss him. Then Jove said to Apollo, "Go, dear Phoebus, to
Hector, for Neptune who holds the earth in his embrace has now gone
down under the sea to avoid the severity of my displeasure. Had he not
done so those gods who are below with Saturn would have come to hear of
the fight between us. It is better for both of us that he should have
curbed his anger and kept out of my reach, for I should have had much
trouble with him. Take, then, your tasselled aegis, and shake it
furiously, so as to set the Achaean heroes in a panic; take, moreover,
brave Hector, O Far-Darter, into your own care, and rouse him to deeds
of daring, till the Achaeans are sent flying back to their ships and to
the Hellespont. From that point I will think it well over, how the
Achaeans may have a respite from their troubles."

Apollo obeyed his father's saying, and left the crests of Ida, flying
like a falcon, bane of doves and swiftest of all birds. He found Hector
no longer lying upon the ground, but sitting up, for he had just come
to himself again. He knew those who were about him, and the sweat and
hard breathing had left him from the moment when the will of
aegis-bearing Jove had revived him. Apollo stood beside him and said,
"Hector son of Priam, why are you so faint, and why are you here away
from the others? Has any mishap befallen you?"

Hector in a weak voice answered, "And which, kind sir, of the gods are
you, who now ask me thus? Do you not know that Ajax struck me on the
chest with a stone as I was killing his comrades at the ships of the
Achaeans, and compelled me to leave off fighting? I made sure that this
very day I should breathe my last and go down into the house of Hades."

Then King Apollo said to him, "Take heart; the son of Saturn has sent
you a mighty helper from Ida to stand by you and defend you, even me,
Phoebus Apollo of the golden sword, who have been guardian hitherto not
only of yourself but of your city. Now, therefore, order your horsemen
to drive their chariots to the ships in great multitudes. I will go
before your horses to smooth the way for them, and will turn the
Achaeans in flight."

As he spoke he infused great strength into the shepherd of his people.
And as a horse, stabled and full-fed, breaks loose and gallops
gloriously over the plain to the place where he is wont to take his
bath in the river--he tosses his head, and his mane streams over his
shoulders as in all the pride of his strength he flies full speed to
the pastures where the mares are feeding--even so Hector, when he heard
what the god said, urged his horsemen on, and sped forward as fast as
his limbs could take him. As country peasants set their hounds on to a
homed stag or wild goat--he has taken shelter under rock or thicket,
and they cannot find him, but, lo, a bearded lion whom their shouts
have roused stands in their path, and they are in no further humour for
the chase--even so the Achaeans were still charging on in a body, using
their swords and spears pointed at both ends, but when they saw Hector
going about among his men they were afraid, and their hearts fell down
into their feet.

Then spoke Thoas son of Andraemon, leader of the Aetolians, a man who
could throw a good throw, and who was staunch also in close fight,
while few could surpass him in debate when opinions were divided. He
then with all sincerity and goodwill addressed them thus: "What, in
heaven's name, do I now see? Is it not Hector come to life again? Every
one made sure he had been killed by Ajax son of Telamon, but it seems
that one of the gods has again rescued him. He has killed many of us
Danaans already, and I take it will yet do so, for the hand of Jove
must be with him or he would never dare show himself so masterful in
the forefront of the battle. Now, therefore, let us all do as I say;
let us order the main body of our forces to fall back upon the ships,
but let those of us who profess to be the flower of the army stand
firm, and see whether we cannot hold Hector back at the point of our
spears as soon as he comes near us; I conceive that he will then think
better of it before he tries to charge into the press of the Danaans."

Thus did he speak, and they did even as he had said. Those who were
about Ajax and King Idomeneus, the followers moreover of Teucer,
Meriones, and Meges peer of Mars called all their best men about them
and sustained the fight against Hector and the Trojans, but the main
body fell back upon the ships of the Achaeans.

The Trojans pressed forward in a dense body, with Hector striding on at
their head. Before him went Phoebus Apollo shrouded in cloud about his
shoulders. He bore aloft the terrible aegis with its shaggy fringe,
which Vulcan the smith had given Jove to strike terror into the hearts
of men. With this in his hand he led on the Trojans.

The Argives held together and stood their ground. The cry of battle
rose high from either side, and the arrows flew from the bowstrings.
Many a spear sped from strong hands and fastened in the bodies of many
a valiant warrior, while others fell to earth midway, before they could
taste of man's fair flesh and glut themselves with blood. So long as
Phoebus Apollo held his aegis quietly and without shaking it, the
weapons on either side took effect and the people fell, but when he
shook it straight in the face of the Danaans and raised his mighty
battle-cry their hearts fainted within them and they forgot their
former prowess. As when two wild beasts spring in the dead of night on
a herd of cattle or a large flock of sheep when the herdsman is not
there--even so were the Danaans struck helpless, for Apollo filled them
with panic and gave victory to Hector and the Trojans.

The fight then became more scattered and they killed one another where
they best could. Hector killed Stichius and Arcesilaus, the one, leader
of the Boeotians, and the other, friend and comrade of Menestheus.
Aeneas killed Medon and Iasus. The first was bastard son to Oileus, and
brother to Ajax, but he lived in Phylace away from his own country, for
he had killed a man, a kinsman of his stepmother Eriopis whom Oileus
had married. Iasus had become a leader of the Athenians, and was son of
Sphelus the son of Boucolos. Polydamas killed Mecisteus, and Polites
Echius, in the front of the battle, while Agenor slew Clonius. Paris
struck Deiochus from behind in the lower part of the shoulder, as he
was flying among the foremost, and the point of the spear went clean
through him.

While they were spoiling these heroes of their armour, the Achaeans
were flying pell-mell to the trench and the set stakes, and were forced
back within their wall. Hector then cried out to the Trojans, "Forward
to the ships, and let the spoils be. If I see any man keeping back on
the other side the wall away from the ships I will have him killed: his
kinsmen and kinswomen shall not give him his dues of fire, but dogs
shall tear him in pieces in front of our city."

As he spoke he laid his whip about his horses' shoulders and called to
the Trojans throughout their ranks; the Trojans shouted with a cry that
rent the air, and kept their horses neck and neck with his own. Phoebus
Apollo went before, and kicked down the banks of the deep trench into
its middle so as to make a great broad bridge, as broad as the throw of
a spear when a man is trying his strength. The Trojan battalions poured
over the bridge, and Apollo with his redoubtable aegis led the way. He
kicked down the wall of the Achaeans as easily as a child who playing
on the sea-shore has built a house of sand and then kicks it down again
and destroys it--even so did you, O Apollo, shed toil and trouble upon
the Argives, filling them with panic and confusion.

Thus then were the Achaeans hemmed in at their ships, calling out to
one another and raising their hands with loud cries every man to
heaven. Nestor of Gerene, tower of strength to the Achaeans, lifted up
his hands to the starry firmament of heaven, and prayed more fervently
than any of them. "Father Jove," said he, "if ever any one in
wheat-growing Argos burned you fat thigh-bones of sheep or heifer and
prayed that he might return safely home, whereon you bowed your head to
him in assent, bear it in mind now, and suffer not the Trojans to
triumph thus over the Achaeans."

All-counselling Jove thundered loudly in answer to the prayer of the
aged son of Neleus. When they heard Jove thunder they flung themselves
yet more fiercely on the Achaeans. As a wave breaking over the bulwarks
of a ship when the sea runs high before a gale--for it is the force of
the wind that makes the waves so great--even so did the Trojans spring
over the wall with a shout, and drive their chariots onwards. The two
sides fought with their double-pointed spears in hand-to-hand
encounter-the Trojans from their chariots, and the Achaeans climbing up
into their ships and wielding the long pikes that were lying on the
decks ready for use in a sea-fight, jointed and shod with bronze.

Now Patroclus, so long as the Achaeans and Trojans were fighting about
the wall, but were not yet within it and at the ships, remained sitting
in the tent of good Eurypylus, entertaining him with his conversation
and spreading herbs over