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

been a full disc's throw
behind him. He had soon caught him up again, for Agamemnon's mare Aethe
kept pulling stronger and stronger, so that if the course had been
longer he would have passed him, and there would not even have been a
dead heat. Idomeneus's brave squire Meriones was about a spear's cast
behind Menelaus. His horses were slowest of all, and he was the worst
driver. Last of them all came the son of Admetus, dragging his chariot
and driving his horses on in front. When Achilles saw him he was sorry,
and stood up among the Argives saying, "The best man is coming in last.
Let us give him a prize for it is reasonable. He shall have the second,
but the first must go to the son of Tydeus."

Thus did he speak and the others all of them applauded his saying, and
were for doing as he had said, but Nestor's son Antilochus stood up and
claimed his rights from the son of Peleus. "Achilles," said he, "I
shall take it much amiss if you do this thing; you would rob me of my
prize, because you think Eumelus's chariot and horses were thrown out,
and himself too, good man that he is. He should have prayed duly to the
immortals; he would not have come in last if he had done so. If you are
sorry for him and so choose, you have much gold in your tents, with
bronze, sheep, cattle and horses. Take something from this store if you
would have the Achaeans speak well of you, and give him a better prize
even than that which you have now offered; but I will not give up the
mare, and he that will fight me for her, let him come on."

Achilles smiled as he heard this, and was pleased with Antilochus, who
was one of his dearest comrades. So he said--

"Antilochus, if you would have me find Eumelus another prize, I will
give him the bronze breastplate with a rim of tin running all round it
which I took from Asteropaeus. It will be worth much money to him."

He bade his comrade Automedon bring the breastplate from his tent, and
he did so. Achilles then gave it over to Eumelus, who received it
gladly.

But Menelaus got up in a rage, furiously angry with Antilochus. An
attendant placed his staff in his hands and bade the Argives keep
silence: the hero then addressed them. "Antilochus," said he, "what is
this from you who have been so far blameless? You have made me cut a
poor figure and baulked my horses by flinging your own in front of
them, though yours are much worse than mine are; therefore, O princes
and counsellors of the Argives, judge between us and show no favour,
lest one of the Achaeans say, 'Menelaus has got the mare through lying
and corruption; his horses were far inferior to Antilochus's, but he
has greater weight and influence.' Nay, I will determine the matter
myself, and no man will blame me, for I shall do what is just. Come
here, Antilochus, and stand, as our custom is, whip in hand before your
chariot and horses; lay your hand on your steeds, and swear by
earth-encircling Neptune that you did not purposely and guilefully get
in the way of my horses."

And Antilochus answered, "Forgive me; I am much younger, King Menelaus,
than you are; you stand higher than I do and are the better man of the
two; you know how easily young men are betrayed into indiscretion;
their tempers are more hasty and they have less judgement; make due
allowances therefore, and bear with me; I will of my own accord give up
the mare that I have won, and if you claim any further chattel from my
own possessions, I would rather yield it to you, at once, than fall
from your good graces henceforth, and do wrong in the sight of heaven."

The son of Nestor then took the mare and gave her over to Menelaus,
whose anger was thus appeased; as when dew falls upon a field of
ripening corn, and the lands are bristling with the harvest--even so, O
Menelaus, was your heart made glad within you. He turned to Antilochus
and said, "Now, Antilochus, angry though I have been, I can give way to
you of my own free will; you have never been headstrong nor
ill-disposed hitherto, but this time your youth has got the better of
your judgement; be careful how you outwit your betters in future; no
one else could have brought me round so easily, but your good father,
your brother, and yourself have all of you had infinite trouble on my
behalf; I therefore yield to your entreaty, and will give up the mare
to you, mine though it indeed be; the people will thus see that I am
neither harsh nor vindictive."

With this he gave the mare over to Antilochus's comrade Noemon, and
then took the cauldron. Meriones, who had come in fourth, carried off
the two talents of gold, and the fifth prize, the two-handled urn,
being unawarded, Achilles gave it to Nestor, going up to him among the
assembled Argives and saying, "Take this, my good old friend, as an
heirloom and memorial of the funeral of Patroclus--for you shall see
him no more among the Argives. I give you this prize though you cannot
win one; you can now neither wrestle nor fight, and cannot enter for
the javelin-match nor foot-races, for the hand of age has been laid
heavily upon you."

So saying he gave the urn over to Nestor, who received it gladly and
answered, "My son, all that you have said is true; there is no strength
now in my legs and feet, nor can I hit out with my hands from either
shoulder. Would that I were still young and strong as when the Epeans
were burying King Amarynceus in Buprasium, and his sons offered prizes
in his honour. There was then none that could vie with me neither of
the Epeans nor the Pylians themselves nor the Aetolians. In boxing I
overcame Clytomedes son of Enops, and in wrestling, Ancaeus of Pleuron
who had come forward against me. Iphiclus was a good runner, but I beat
him, and threw farther with my spear than either Phyleus or Polydorus.
In chariot-racing alone did the two sons of Actor surpass me by
crowding their horses in front of me, for they were angry at the way
victory had gone, and at the greater part of the prizes remaining in
the place in which they had been offered. They were twins, and the one
kept on holding the reins, and holding the reins, while the other plied
the whip. Such was I then, but now I must leave these matters to
younger men; I must bow before the weight of years, but in those days I
was eminent among heroes. And now, sir, go on with the funeral contests
in honour of your comrade: gladly do I accept this urn, and my heart
rejoices that you do not forget me but are ever mindful of my goodwill
towards you, and of the respect due to me from the Achaeans. For all
which may the grace of heaven be vouchsafed you in great abundance."

Thereon the son of Peleus, when he had listened to all the thanks of
Nestor, went about among the concourse of the Achaeans, and presently
offered prizes for skill in the painful art of boxing. He brought out a
strong mule, and made it fast in the middle of the crowd--a she-mule
never yet broken, but six years old--when it is hardest of all to break
them: this was for the victor, and for the vanquished he offered a
double cup. Then he stood up and said among the Argives, "Son of
Atreus, and all other Achaeans, I invite our two champion boxers to lay
about them lustily and compete for these prizes. He to whom Apollo
vouchsafes the greater endurance, and whom the Achaeans acknowledge as
victor, shall take the mule back with him to his own tent, while he
that is vanquished shall have the double cup."

As he spoke there stood up a champion both brave and of great stature,
a skilful boxer, Epeus, son of Panopeus. He laid his hand on the mule
and said, "Let the man who is to have the cup come hither, for none but
myself will take the mule. I am the best boxer of all here present, and
none can beat me. Is it not enough that I should fall short of you in
actual fighting? Still, no man can be good at everything. I tell you
plainly, and it shall come true; if any man will box with me I will
bruise his body and break his bones; therefore let his friends stay
here in a body and be at hand to take him away when I have done with
him."

They all held their peace, and no man rose save Euryalus son of
Mecisteus, who was son of Talaus. Mecisteus went once to Thebes after
the fall of Oedipus, to attend his funeral, and he beat all the people
of Cadmus. The son of Tydeus was Euryalus's second, cheering him on and
hoping heartily that he would win. First he put a waistband round him
and then he gave him some well-cut thongs of ox-hide; the two men being
now girt went into the middle of the ring, and immediately fell to;
heavily indeed did they punish one another and lay about them with
their brawny fists. One could hear the horrid crashing of their jaws,
and they sweated from every pore of their skin. Presently Epeus came on
and gave Euryalus a blow on the jaw as he was looking round; Euryalus
could not keep his legs; they gave way under him in a moment and he
sprang up with a bound, as a fish leaps into the air near some shore
that is all bestrewn with sea-wrack, when Boreas furs the top of the
waves, and then falls back into deep water. But noble Epeus caught hold
of him and raised him up; his comrades also came round him and led him
from the ring, unsteady in his gait, his head hanging on one side, and
spitting great clots of gore. They set him down in a swoon and then
went to fetch the double cup.

The son of Peleus now brought out the prizes for the third contest and
showed them to the Argives. These were for the painful art of
wrestling. For the winner there was a great tripod ready for setting
upon the fire, and the Achaeans valued it among themselves at twelve
oxen. For the loser he brought out a woman skilled in all manner of
arts, and they valued her at four oxen. He rose and said among the
Argives, "Stand forward, you who will essay this contest."

Forthwith uprose great Ajax the son of Telamon, and crafty Ulysses,
full of wiles, rose also. The two girded themselves and went into the
middle of the ring. They gripped each other in their strong hands like
the rafters which some master-builder frames for the roof of a high
house to keep the wind out. Their backbones cracked as they tugged at
one another with their mighty arms--and sweat rained from them in
torrents. Many a bloody weal sprang up on their sides and shoulders,
but they kept on striving with might and main for victory and to win
the tripod. Ulysses could not throw Ajax, nor Ajax him; Ulysses was too
strong for him; but when the Achaeans began to tire of watching them,
Ajax said to Ulysses, "Ulysses, noble son of Laertes,