The Iliad

Sing, goddess, the wrath of Achilles son of Peleus,
the accursed wrath, which set countless griefs upon the Achaeans
and hurled down to Hades many strong spirits
of heroes, and made their bodies spoil for the dogs
and for all the birds — and the will of Zeus was being accomplished —
from that time when first the two stood apart in strife,
the son of Atreus, lord of men, and noble Achilles.
Which of the gods, then, set the two of them to fight in quarrel?
The son of Leto and Zeus. For he, angered at the king,
roused an evil plague through the camp, and the host was perishing,
because Chryses his priest had been dishonoured by
the son of Atreus. For he had come to the swift ships of the Achaeans
to ransom his daughter, bringing a boundless ransom,
holding in his hands the fillets of Apollo the far-shooter
on a golden staff, and he entreated all the Achaeans,
and above all the two sons of Atreus, marshals of the host:
"Sons of Atreus, and you other well-greaved Achaeans,
may the gods who hold the halls of Olympus grant you
to sack the city of Priam and to come home safe;
but set free my dear daughter for me, and take the ransom,
in awe of the son of Zeus, Apollo the far-shooter."
Then all the rest of the Achaeans shouted assent,
that the priest be respected and the splendid ransom taken;
but it did not please the spirit of Agamemnon son of Atreus,
and he sent him away harshly, and laid on him a harsh command:

"Let me not find you, old man, beside the hollow ships,
either lingering now or coming back again later,
or the staff and the fillet of the god will not protect you.
Her I will not set free. Sooner shall old age come upon her
in my house in Argos, far from her own country,
as she walks to and fro at the loom and shares my bed.
Now go, do not provoke me, so that you may return the safer."

So he spoke, and the old man was afraid and obeyed his word.
He went in silence along the shore of the loud-roaring sea,
and then, going far apart, the old man prayed long
to the lord Apollo, whom Leto of the lovely hair bore:
"Hear me, god of the silver bow, you who stand over Chryse
and holy Cilla, and rule Tenedos with power,
Smintheus: if ever I roofed a pleasing temple for you,
or if ever I burned for you the fat thigh-pieces
of bulls and goats, then fulfil this desire of mine:
let the Danaans pay for my tears with your arrows."

So he spoke in prayer, and Phoebus Apollo heard him,
and came down from the peaks of Olympus, angered at heart,
with his bow on his shoulders and the close-covered quiver.
The arrows clashed on the shoulders of the angry god
as he moved; and he came on like the night.
Then he sat down apart from the ships and let fly an arrow,
and terrible was the twang of the silver bow.
First he went after the mules and the swift dogs,
but then, letting fly the bitter shaft against the men themselves,
he struck; and the corpse-fires burned thick and did not cease.
Nine days the shafts of the god ranged through the camp,
and on the tenth Achilles called the host to assembly.
The goddess white-armed Hera had put it in his mind,
for she cared for the Danaans, since she saw them dying.
And when they were gathered and come together,
swift-footed Achilles rose among them and spoke:

"Son of Atreus, now I think we shall be driven back
and go home again, if indeed we escape death,
since war and plague together are breaking the Achaeans.
Come then, let us ask some seer or priest,
or a reader of dreams — for a dream too is from Zeus —
who might tell us why Phoebus Apollo is so angered,
whether he finds fault with a vow or with a hecatomb,
in case he might be willing, meeting the savour of lambs and full-grown goats,
to ward off the destruction from us."
So he spoke, and sat down; and there rose among them
Calchas son of Thestor, far the best of the readers of birds,
who knew the things that are, and that shall be, and that were before,
and who had guided the ships of the Achaeans to Ilium
by that prophetic art of his which Phoebus Apollo gave him.
He with good intent toward them addressed the assembly and spoke:

"Achilles, dear to Zeus, you bid me declare
the wrath of Apollo, the far-darting lord.
Then I will speak; but mark me, and swear to me
that you will readily defend me with words and with hands.
For I think I shall anger a man who rules with great power
over all the Argives, and whom the Achaeans obey.
For a king is the stronger when he is angry with a lesser man;
even if he swallows down his anger for that one day,
still afterwards he keeps the grudge, until he brings it to pass,
there in his breast. So consider whether you will keep me safe."
Then swift-footed Achilles answered him and said:

"Take courage and speak out whatever oracle you know.
For by Apollo dear to Zeus, to whom you, Calchas,
pray when you reveal the oracles to the Danaans —
while I live and look upon the earth, no man
shall lay heavy hands on you beside the hollow ships,
not one of all the Danaans, not even if you name Agamemnon,
who now claims to be far the best of the Achaeans."
Then the blameless seer took courage and spoke:

"It is not for a vow that he finds fault, nor for a hecatomb,
but for the sake of the priest whom Agamemnon dishonoured,
and did not set free his daughter nor accept the ransom.
For this the far-shooter has given us griefs, and will give more.
Nor will he thrust the shameful destruction from the Danaans
until the bright-eyed girl is given back to her own father,
unbought, unransomed, and a holy hecatomb led
to Chryse. Then we might appease him and persuade him."
So he spoke, and sat down; and there rose among them
the hero, son of Atreus, wide-ruling Agamemnon,
in grief; and his mind, dark all about, was greatly filled
with fury, and his two eyes were like blazing fire.
First of all he spoke to Calchas, glaring evil at him:

"Seer of evil, never yet have you told me a good thing.
Always the evil is what your mind loves to prophesy;
no good word have you ever spoken, nor brought to pass.
And now among the Danaans you prophesy in assembly
that it is for this that the far-shooter makes them suffer:
because I would not accept the splendid ransom
for the girl Chryseis, since I would far rather keep her
in my own house. Indeed I prefer her to Clytemnestra,
my wedded wife, since she is in no way her inferior,
not in body, not in stature, not in mind, not in handiwork.
Yet even so I am willing to give her back, if that is better.
I want the host to be safe rather than to perish.
But make ready at once another prize of honour for me, so that I alone
of the Argives be not without a prize — that is not fitting.
For you all see this, that my prize of honour goes elsewhere."
Then fleet-footed noble Achilles answered him in turn:

"Most renowned son of Atreus, most covetous of all men,
how shall the great-hearted Achaeans give you a prize of honour?
We know of no great store lying in common anywhere.
What we plundered from the cities has been divided,
and it is not fitting that the host gather it back again.
Give up this girl to the god now; and we Achaeans
will repay you threefold and fourfold, if ever Zeus
grants us to sack the well-walled city of Troy."
Then lord Agamemnon answered him and said:

"Not so, godlike Achilles, brave though you are:
do not steal with your mind, for you will not get past me nor persuade me.
Is it your wish, so that you may keep your own prize, that I
sit here empty-handed, while you bid me give this girl back?
No — if the great-hearted Achaeans give me a prize of honour,
fitting it to my spirit so that it is of equal worth, good;
but if they do not give it, then I myself will come and take
either your prize, or Ajax’s, or Odysseus’s,
and carry it off; and the man I come to will be angry.
But we will consider these things again hereafter.
Now come, let us drag a black ship down to the bright sea,
and gather into her rowers enough, and put aboard
a hecatomb, and let fair-cheeked Chryseis herself
go up on board; and let one man of counsel be the leader,
either Ajax or Idomeneus or noble Odysseus,
or you, son of Peleus, most terrible of all men,
so that you may appease for us with sacrifice the god who works from afar."
Then swift-footed Achilles spoke to him with a dark look:

"Ah, you clothed in shamelessness, you with the profiteer’s mind,
how shall any Achaean readily obey your words,
to go on a march or to fight men with force?
For it was not on account of the Trojan spearmen that I came
here to fight, since they are in no way to blame toward me.
Never yet have they driven off my cattle, nor my horses,
nor ever in Phthia of the deep soil, nurse of men,
did they ruin the harvest, since much lies between us —
shadowy mountains and the sounding sea.
But you, great shameless one, we followed, so that you might be glad,
winning honour for Menelaus and for you, dog-face,
from the Trojans — and of that you take no heed and no care.
And now you threaten to take away my prize of honour yourself,
for which I laboured much, and which the sons of the Achaeans gave me.
Never do I have a prize equal to yours when the Achaeans
sack some well-settled stronghold of the Trojans.
The greater part of the storming war
my hands carry through; but when the division comes,
your prize is far the greater, and I go back to the ships
with something small but dear, when I am worn out with fighting.
Now I am going to Phthia, since it is far better
to go home with my curved ships; nor do I think
that I shall draw wealth and riches for you here, dishonoured."
Then Agamemnon lord of men answered him in turn:

"Run, then, if your spirit drives you. I do not
beg you to stay for my sake. There are others beside me
who will honour me, and above all Zeus the counsellor.
You are the most hateful to me of the kings whom Zeus nurtures.
Strife is always dear to you, and wars and battles.
If you are very strong, it was a god who gave you that.
Go home with your ships and your companions
and rule over the Myrmidons. I care nothing for you,
and I take no account of your grudge. But I threaten you thus:
as Phoebus Apollo takes Chryseis from me,
her I will send away with my ship and my companions,
and I myself will take fair-cheeked Briseis,
going to your hut — your prize of honour — so that you may know well
how much stronger I am than you, and another may shrink
from calling himself my equal and matching himself against me."

So he spoke; and grief came upon the son of Peleus, and the heart
in his shaggy breast was divided two ways in doubt,
whether to draw the sharp sword from beside his thigh
and break up the assembly and cut down the son of Atreus,
or check his anger and restrain his spirit.
While he was turning this over in his mind and in his spirit,
and was drawing the great sword from its sheath, Athena came
from heaven; for the goddess white-armed Hera had sent her forth,
loving and caring for them both alike in her spirit.
She stood behind him and caught the son of Peleus by his golden hair,
showing herself to him alone; none of the others saw her.
Achilles was amazed, and turned round, and at once knew
Pallas Athena; and terrible her eyes shone upon him.
And he spoke to her and addressed her with winged words:

"Why have you come again, child of aegis-bearing Zeus?
Is it to see the outrage of Agamemnon son of Atreus?
But I tell you outright, and I think it will be accomplished:
by his own arrogance he may soon lose his life."
Then the goddess grey-eyed Athena spoke to him in turn:

"I have come to check your fury, if you will obey,
down from heaven; the goddess white-armed Hera sent me forth,
loving and caring for you both alike in her spirit.
Come, leave off the quarrel, and do not draw the sword with your hand.
Revile him with words instead, and tell him how it will be.
For I tell you this outright, and it shall be brought to pass:
one day three times as many splendid gifts shall be yours
for the sake of this outrage. Hold back, and obey us."
Then swift-footed Achilles answered her and said:

"A man must keep the word of you two, goddess,
however angry he is in his spirit; for so it is better.
Whoever obeys the gods, to him they listen readily."

He spoke, and stayed his heavy hand on the silver hilt,
and thrust the great sword back into the sheath, and did not disobey
the word of Athena. And she had gone to Olympus,
to the halls of aegis-bearing Zeus, among the other gods.
But the son of Peleus once more with galling words
spoke to the son of Atreus, and had not yet left off his anger:

"Wine-sodden, with the eyes of a dog and the heart of a deer!
Never to arm for battle along with the host,
nor to go into ambush with the best men of the Achaeans,
have you dared in your spirit: that seems to you to be death.
Far better it is, through the wide camp of the Achaeans,
to take away the gifts of any man who speaks against you.
King who devours his people, since you rule over nobodies —
otherwise, son of Atreus, this outrage would be your last.
But I tell you outright, and I swear a great oath upon it:
yes, by this staff, which will never again put out leaves and shoots
now that it has once left its stump in the mountains,
nor grow green again, for the bronze has stripped it all round
of leaves and bark; and now the sons of the Achaeans
carry it in their hands as judges, who guard the ordinances
that come from Zeus — and this shall be my great oath:
surely one day a longing for Achilles will come upon the sons of the Achaeans,
all of them; and then you will not be able, for all your grief,
to help them, when many fall dying at the hands
of Hector the man-slayer; and you will tear your spirit within you
in rage that you gave no honour at all to the best of the Achaeans."

So spoke the son of Peleus, and he flung the staff to the ground,
studded with golden nails, and himself sat down.
And on the other side the son of Atreus raged. Then Nestor
rose up among them, sweet of speech, the clear orator of the Pylians,
from whose tongue the voice flowed sweeter than honey.
Already two generations of mortal men had passed away
for him, who had been born and reared with him before
in sacred Pylos, and he was king among the third.
He with good intent toward them addressed the assembly and spoke:

"Ah me, a great grief indeed comes upon the land of Achaea.
Priam would rejoice, and the sons of Priam,
and the rest of the Trojans would be glad at heart,
if they learned all this of you two quarrelling —
you who are first of the Danaans in counsel and first in fighting.
Listen to me. You are both younger than I am.
For in my time I have kept company with better men
than you, and they never made light of me.
Never yet have I seen such men, nor shall I see them,
as Peirithous and Dryas, shepherd of the host,
and Caeneus and Exadius and godlike Polyphemus,
and Theseus son of Aegeus, a match for the immortals.
The strongest of men reared upon the earth were those;
the strongest they were, and they fought with the strongest,
the mountain-dwelling beasts, and destroyed them utterly.
And with those men I kept company, coming from Pylos,
far off from a distant land; for they themselves called me.
And I fought on my own account; and with those men none
of the mortals who are now upon the earth could fight.
And they listened to my counsels and obeyed my word.
So obey, you also, since obedience is better.
Do not you, mighty though you are, take the girl from him,
but let her be, as the sons of the Achaeans first gave her to him as his prize;
and do not you, son of Peleus, seek to quarrel with a king
face to face, since never has an equal share of honour fallen
to a sceptred king, to whom Zeus has given renown.
If you are strong, and a goddess mother bore you,
yet he is the greater, since he rules over more.
Son of Atreus, check your fury; and I myself
beg you to let go your anger against Achilles, who is
the great bulwark of all the Achaeans against the evil of war."
Then lord Agamemnon answered him and said:

"Yes, old man, all this you have said in due measure.

"But this man wishes to be above all others,
he wishes to have power over all, to be lord of all,
to give orders to all — which someone, I think, will not obey.
If the gods who are for ever made him a spearman,
does that put insults on his tongue to speak?"
Then noble Achilles broke in and answered him:

"Coward indeed and nobody should I be called
if I yield to you in every matter, whatever you say.
Lay these commands on others; do not give orders
to me; for I do not think I shall obey you any longer.
And another thing I will tell you; put it away in your mind.
With my hands I will not fight for the girl’s sake,
not with you nor with any other, since you take back what you gave.
But of the rest that is mine beside my swift black ship,
of that you shall take nothing away against my will.
Come, make the trial, so that these men too may know:
quickly your dark blood will run about my spear."

So the two of them, having fought with hostile words,
stood up, and broke up the assembly beside the ships of the Achaeans.
The son of Peleus went off to his huts and his balanced ships
with the son of Menoetius and his own companions.
But the son of Atreus dragged a swift ship down to the sea,
and picked out twenty rowers for her, and put aboard
a hecatomb for the god, and brought fair-cheeked Chryseis
and set her on board; and Odysseus of many devices went as leader.
Then they embarked and sailed the watery ways,
and the son of Atreus bade the host purify themselves.
They purified themselves and cast the defilement into the sea,
and offered to Apollo perfect hecatombs
of bulls and goats beside the shore of the unharvested sea;
and the savour went up to heaven, curling in the smoke.

So they busied themselves at this through the camp. But Agamemnon
did not leave off the quarrel with which he had first threatened Achilles;
he spoke to Talthybius and Eurybates,
who were his heralds and ready attendants:
"Go to the hut of Achilles son of Peleus.
Take fair-cheeked Briseis by the hand and lead her here.
And if he will not give her up, I myself will come and take her
with more men; and that will be the colder thing for him."

So saying he sent them off, and laid on them a harsh command.

The two went unwilling along the shore of the unharvested sea,
and came to the huts and the ships of the Myrmidons,
and found him sitting beside his hut and his black ship;
and Achilles was not glad when he saw them.
The two of them, in fear and in awe of the king,
stood, and did not speak to him or ask anything.

But he understood in his own mind, and spoke:

"Welcome, heralds, messengers of Zeus and of men.
Come closer. You are not to blame in my eyes, but Agamemnon,
who sent you here for the girl Briseis.
Come, Zeus-born Patroclus, bring the girl out
and give her to them to take. And let these two be witnesses
before the blessed gods and before mortal men
and before that harsh king — if ever again
there is need of me to ward off shameful destruction
from the rest. For he rages in his ruinous mind,
and does not know how to look forward and back at once,
so that the Achaeans might fight in safety beside their ships."

So he spoke, and Patroclus obeyed his dear companion,
and led fair-cheeked Briseis out of the hut,
and gave her to them to take; and they went back beside the ships of the Achaeans.
The woman went with them unwilling. But Achilles
burst into tears and sat down at once apart from his companions,
on the shore of the grey sea, looking out over the boundless deep.
He prayed long to his dear mother, stretching out his hands:
"Mother, since you bore me to be short-lived as I am,
the Olympian at least should have granted me honour,
Zeus who thunders on high; but now he has not honoured me even a little.
For the son of Atreus, wide-ruling Agamemnon,
has dishonoured me: he has taken my prize of honour and holds it, seized by his own hand."

So he spoke, shedding tears, and his lady mother heard him
where she sat in the depths of the sea beside her aged father.
Swiftly she rose from the grey sea like a mist,
and sat down before him as he wept,
and stroked him with her hand, and spoke, and called him by name:

"Child, why do you weep? What grief has come upon your mind?
Speak out, hide nothing in your thoughts, so that we both may know."
Then, groaning heavily, swift-footed Achilles spoke to her:

"You know. Why should I tell you all this, when you know it?
We went to Thebe, the sacred city of Eëtion,
and sacked it, and brought everything here.
The sons of the Achaeans divided it fairly among themselves,
and chose out fair-cheeked Chryseis for the son of Atreus.
But Chryses, priest of Apollo the far-darter,
came to the swift ships of the bronze-clad Achaeans
to ransom his daughter, bringing a boundless ransom,
holding in his hands the fillets of Apollo the far-shooter
on a golden staff, and he entreated all the Achaeans,
and above all the two sons of Atreus, marshals of the host.
Then all the rest of the Achaeans shouted assent,
that the priest be respected and the splendid ransom taken;
but it did not please the spirit of Agamemnon son of Atreus,
and he sent him away harshly, and laid on him a harsh command.

"The old man went back in anger; and Apollo
heard his prayer, since he was very dear to him,
and let fly an evil shaft against the Argives. And now the host
were dying thick upon each other, and the shafts of the god ranged
everywhere through the wide camp of the Achaeans. And to us the seer
in his knowledge declared the oracles of the far-darter.
At once I was the first to urge that we appease the god.
Then anger seized the son of Atreus, and he stood up at once
and spoke a threat which has now been brought to pass.
For the one girl the bright-eyed Achaeans are sending
to Chryse in a swift ship, carrying gifts to the lord;
and the other the heralds have just now gone from my hut leading away,
the daughter of Briseus, whom the sons of the Achaeans gave me.
But you, if you can, stand by your own son.
Go to Olympus and entreat Zeus, if ever
you gladdened the heart of Zeus by word or by deed.
For often in my father’s halls I have heard you
declaring, when you said that from the son of Cronos of the dark cloud
you alone among the immortals warded off shameful destruction,
on the day when the other Olympians wished to bind him,
Hera and Poseidon and Pallas Athena.
But you came, goddess, and loosed him from his bonds,
swiftly calling the hundred-handed one up to high Olympus,
whom the gods call Briareus, but all men
Aegaeon — for he is greater in strength than his father.
He sat down beside the son of Cronos, exulting in his renown,
and the blessed gods were afraid of him and bound Zeus no more.
Remind him of these things now, and sit beside him and clasp his knees,
in the hope that he may be willing to help the Trojans,
and to pen the Achaeans back among their sterns and about the sea,
cut down, so that they may all have the benefit of their king,
and that the son of Atreus, wide-ruling Agamemnon, may know
his own blind folly, that he gave no honour at all to the best of the Achaeans."
Then Thetis answered him in turn, shedding tears:

"Ah, my child, why did I rear you, having borne you to sorrow?
Would that you might sit beside the ships without tears and unharmed,
since your portion is short, not long at all.
But now you are both swift-fated and wretched beyond all men.
To an evil portion I bore you in my halls.
To speak this word for you to Zeus who delights in the thunderbolt
I will go myself to snowy Olympus, in case he listens.
But you now sit beside your swift-running ships,
keep your wrath against the Achaeans, and hold off from war altogether.
For Zeus went yesterday to Ocean, to the blameless Ethiopians,
to a feast, and all the gods went with him.
On the twelfth day he will come back to Olympus,
and then I will go for you to the bronze-floored house of Zeus,
and clasp his knees, and I think I shall persuade him."

So she spoke and went away, and left him there
angry in his spirit for the fair-girdled woman
whom they had taken from him by force, against his will. But Odysseus
came to Chryse, bringing the holy hecatomb.
And when they came inside the deep harbour,
they furled the sails and stowed them in the black ship,
and lowered the mast by the forestays and brought it to the mast-crutch
quickly, and rowed her forward with oars to the mooring.
They threw out the anchor stones and made fast the stern cables,
and themselves went out onto the breaking surf of the sea,
and brought out the hecatomb for Apollo the far-shooter,
and Chryseis stepped out of the seafaring ship.
Then Odysseus of many devices led her to the altar
and put her in her dear father’s hands, and spoke to him:

"Chryses, Agamemnon lord of men sent me here
to bring your child to you, and to offer a holy hecatomb
to Phoebus on behalf of the Danaans, that we may appease the lord
who has now sent grief and much groaning upon the Argives."

So saying he put her in his hands, and he received his dear child
with joy. And they quickly set the holy hecatomb for the god
in order round the well-built altar,
and then washed their hands and took up the barley grains.
And among them Chryses prayed aloud, lifting up his hands:

"Hear me, god of the silver bow, you who stand over Chryse
and holy Cilla, and rule Tenedos with power.

"Once before you heard me when I prayed,
and did me honour, and struck the host of the Achaeans hard.
Now once again fulfil this desire of mine:
ward off now at last the shameful destruction from the Danaans."

So he spoke in prayer, and Phoebus Apollo heard him.
Then, when they had prayed and flung forward the barley grains,
they first drew back the victims’ heads and cut their throats and flayed them,
and cut out the thigh-pieces and covered them with fat,
making a double fold, and laid raw flesh upon them.
The old man burned them on split wood, and over them poured
the gleaming wine; and beside him the young men held five-pronged forks in their hands.
But when the thigh-pieces were burned up and they had tasted the inner parts,
they cut up the rest and pierced it on spits,
and roasted it carefully, and drew it all off.
And when they had ceased from their work and made ready the feast,
they feasted, and no spirit lacked anything of the equal feast.
But when they had put from them the desire for drink and food,
the young men filled the mixing bowls to the brim with drink
and served them all, first pouring drops into each cup.
All day long they appeased the god with song and dance,
the young men of the Achaeans singing a beautiful paean,
hymning the god who works from afar; and his mind was glad to hear it.
And when the sun went down and darkness came on,
then they lay down to sleep beside the ship’s stern cables.
But when early-born rosy-fingered Dawn appeared,
then they put out to sea for the wide camp of the Achaeans.
And Apollo who works from afar sent them a following wind.
They set up the mast and spread the white sails,
and the wind filled the belly of the sail, and about the stem
the dark wave sang loud as the ship went on.
She ran on over the wave, making her way.
And when they had reached the wide camp of the Achaeans,
they dragged the black ship up onto the land,
high on the sand, and set the long props beneath her,
and themselves scattered among the huts and the ships.
But he kept his wrath, sitting beside his swift-running ships,
the Zeus-born son of Peleus, swift-footed Achilles.
Never did he go to the assembly where men win renown,
nor ever to war, but he wasted his own heart away
staying there, and he longed for the war cry and the battle.
But when the twelfth dawn came after that,
then the gods who are for ever went to Olympus,
all together, and Zeus led them. And Thetis did not forget the charge
laid on her by her son, but rose up through the wave of the sea
and went up early in the morning to the great heaven and Olympus.
She found the far-seeing son of Cronos sitting apart from the others
on the topmost peak of many-ridged Olympus.
She sat down before him and took hold of his knees
with her left hand, and with her right caught him beneath the chin,
and in entreaty spoke to the lord Zeus son of Cronos:

"Father Zeus, if ever I have helped you among the immortals
by word or by deed, fulfil this desire of mine:
give honour to my son, who is doomed to die sooner
than any other man. And now Agamemnon lord of men
has dishonoured him: he has taken his prize of honour and holds it, seized by his own hand.
But do you honour him, Olympian Zeus the counsellor;
give the mastery to the Trojans for so long, until the Achaeans
honour my son and increase him with honour."

So she spoke; and Zeus the cloud-gatherer said nothing to her,
but sat long in silence. And Thetis, as she had clasped his knees,
so held on, clinging close, and asked him a second time:
"Promise me truly and bow your head in assent,
or refuse — for there is nothing for you to fear — so that I may know well
how far I am the most dishonoured of all the gods."
Then, deeply troubled, Zeus the cloud-gatherer spoke to her:

"This is ruinous work, that you should set me at odds
with Hera, when she provokes me with words of abuse.
Even as things are she is always quarrelling with me
among the immortal gods, and says I help the Trojans in the fighting.
But go back now, in case Hera notices something.
These things shall be my care, until I accomplish them.
Come, I will bow my head to you, so that you may be sure.
For this is the greatest pledge from me among the immortals:
nothing of mine can be taken back, or is false,
or unaccomplished, once I have bowed my head to it."

He spoke, and the son of Cronos bowed his dark brows in assent,
and the ambrosial locks of the lord swept forward
from his immortal head; and he made great Olympus shake.
So the two took counsel and parted. She then
leapt into the deep sea from shining Olympus,
and Zeus went to his own house. And all the gods rose together
from their seats to face their father; not one dared
to stay seated as he came, but all stood up to meet him.

So he sat down there upon his throne. And Hera
did not fail to see that silver-footed Thetis, daughter
of the old man of the sea, had made a plan with him.
At once she spoke to Zeus son of Cronos with cutting words:

"Which of the gods, you schemer, has been making plans with you now?
Always it is your pleasure, when you are away from me,
to think secret thoughts and give judgement. Never yet
have you brought yourself to tell me freely what you are planning."
Then the father of men and gods answered her in turn:

"Hera, do not hope to know all my words.
They would be hard for you, wife of mine though you are.
What it is fitting for you to hear, no one after that
shall know before you, neither of gods nor of men.
But what I choose to think apart from the gods,
do not question me about each thing, nor go searching."
Then ox-eyed lady Hera answered him in turn:

"Most dread son of Cronos, what a word is this you have spoken!

"Truly, in the past I have not questioned you or searched,
but quite undisturbed you plan whatever you wish.
But now I am terribly afraid in my mind that you have been won over
by silver-footed Thetis, daughter of the old man of the sea.
Early this morning she sat beside you and took hold of your knees.
I think you truly bowed your head to her, that you would honour
Achilles, and destroy many beside the ships of the Achaeans."
Then Zeus the cloud-gatherer answered her and said:

"You strange one, always you suspect, and I do not escape you.
Yet you will be able to do nothing about it, but will be further
from my spirit; and that will be the colder thing for you.
If it is as you say, then it must be my pleasure that it is so.
Sit down in silence and obey my word,
or all the gods that are in Olympus will not protect you
as I come near, when I lay my irresistible hands upon you."

So he spoke, and ox-eyed lady Hera was afraid,
and sat down in silence, bending her own heart to his will.
Through the house of Zeus the gods, the sons of Heaven, were troubled.
Then Hephaestus the famed craftsman began to speak among them,
bringing comfort to his dear mother, white-armed Hera:
"This will be ruinous work, and no longer bearable,
if you two quarrel like this for the sake of mortals,
and drive a brawl among the gods. There will be no
pleasure in the good feast, since the worse things win.
And I advise my mother, though she understands it herself,
to bring comfort to our dear father Zeus, so that he may not
quarrel again and throw our feast into confusion.
For if the Olympian, the lord of the lightning, should wish
to dash us from our seats — for he is far the strongest —
so approach him with soft words;
then at once the Olympian will be gracious to us."

So he spoke, and springing up he put the two-handled cup
into his dear mother’s hand, and spoke to her:

"Endure, my mother, and bear it, grieved though you are,
so that I may not see you beaten before my eyes,
dear as you are; then I shall not be able, for all my grief,
to help you; for the Olympian is hard to stand against.
Once before, when I was eager to defend you,
he caught me by the foot and hurled me from the divine threshold.
All day I was carried down, and as the sun set
I fell on Lemnos, and little spirit was left in me.
There the Sintian men took me up at once where I had fallen."

So he spoke, and the goddess white-armed Hera smiled,
and smiling took the cup from her son’s hand.
Then he poured wine for all the other gods, from left to right,
drawing sweet nectar from the mixing bowl.
And unquenchable laughter rose among the blessed gods
as they saw Hephaestus bustling through the halls.
So then all day long until the sun went down
they feasted, and no spirit lacked anything of the equal feast,
nor of the beautiful lyre that Apollo held,
nor of the Muses, who sang in turn with lovely voice.
But when the bright light of the sun had gone down,
they went each to his own house to lie down,
where for each the famed god of the two strong arms,
Hephaestus, had made a hall with his knowing craft.
And Zeus the Olympian, lord of the lightning, went to his bed,
where he had always lain when sweet sleep came upon him.
There he went up and slept, and beside him golden-throned Hera.

Now the other gods and the horse-crested men
slept all night long; but sweet sleep did not hold Zeus,
and he pondered in his mind how he might honour Achilles
and destroy many beside the ships of the Achaeans.
And this seemed to his spirit the best counsel:
to send a baneful Dream to Agamemnon son of Atreus.
And he spoke to it and addressed it with winged words:

"Go, baneful Dream, to the swift ships of the Achaeans.
Go into the hut of Agamemnon son of Atreus
and tell him everything exactly as I command.
Bid him arm the long-haired Achaeans
with all speed; for now he might take the wide-wayed city
of the Trojans. For the immortals who hold the halls of Olympus
are no longer divided in counsel; Hera has bent them all
with her entreaty, and griefs are fastened upon the Trojans."

So he spoke, and the Dream went when it had heard his word.
Swiftly it came to the swift ships of the Achaeans,
and went to Agamemnon son of Atreus, and found him
sleeping in his hut, with ambrosial sleep poured about him.
It stood above his head in the likeness of the son of Neleus,
Nestor, whom of all the elders Agamemnon honoured most.
Likening itself to him, the divine Dream spoke to him:

"You are asleep, son of Atreus, the wise breaker of horses.
A man of counsel must not sleep the whole night through,
one to whom the host is entrusted and who has so much to care for.
Now mark me quickly: I am a messenger to you from Zeus,
who, far away as he is, cares greatly for you and pities you.
He bids you arm the long-haired Achaeans
with all speed; for now you might take the wide-wayed city
of the Trojans. For the immortals who hold the halls of Olympus
are no longer divided in counsel; Hera has bent them all
with her entreaty, and griefs are fastened upon the Trojans
from Zeus. But hold this in your mind, and do not let forgetfulness
take you when honey-sweet sleep releases you."

So saying it went its way, and left him there
thinking in his spirit of things that were not to be accomplished.
For he thought he would take the city of Priam that very day,
the fool, and knew nothing of the work that Zeus was planning.
For he was yet to lay griefs and groans
upon Trojans and Danaans alike through the mighty encounters.
He woke from sleep, and the divine voice was poured about him.
He sat up straight and put on his soft tunic,
beautiful and new-made, and threw about him a great cloak;
and beneath his shining feet he bound fine sandals,
and about his shoulders he slung the silver-studded sword.
He took up the staff of his fathers, imperishable for ever,
and with it he went among the ships of the bronze-clad Achaeans.
Now the goddess Dawn was climbing to high Olympus,
to announce the light to Zeus and to the other immortals;
and he ordered the clear-voiced heralds
to summon the long-haired Achaeans to assembly.
They made the summons, and the men gathered very quickly.
But first he seated a council of the great-hearted elders
beside the ship of Nestor, the king born in Pylos.
Calling them together he framed a shrewd plan:
"Hear me, friends. A divine Dream came to me in my sleep
through the ambrosial night, and most of all to noble Nestor
it was closest in form and size and bearing.
It stood above my head and spoke a word to me:

’You are asleep, son of Atreus, the wise breaker of horses.
A man of counsel must not sleep the whole night through,
one to whom the host is entrusted and who has so much to care for.
Now mark me quickly: I am a messenger to you from Zeus,
who, far away as he is, cares greatly for you and pities you.
He bids you arm the long-haired Achaeans
with all speed; for now you might take the wide-wayed city
of the Trojans. For the immortals who hold the halls of Olympus
are no longer divided in counsel; Hera has bent them all
with her entreaty, and griefs are fastened upon the Trojans
from Zeus. But hold this in your mind.’ So it spoke,
and flew away, and sweet sleep released me.
Come then, let us see if we can arm the sons of the Achaeans.
But first I shall make trial of them with words, as is the custom,
and I shall order them to flee with the many-benched ships;
and you, one here and another there, hold them back with words."
So he spoke, and sat down; and there rose among them
Nestor, who was lord of sandy Pylos.
He with good intent toward them addressed the assembly and spoke:

"Friends, leaders and rulers of the Argives,
if any other of the Achaeans had told this dream,
we should call it a lie and turn away from it the more.
But now the man has seen it who claims to be far the best of the Achaeans.
Come then, let us see if we can arm the sons of the Achaeans."

So saying he led the way out from the council,
and they rose and obeyed the shepherd of the host,
the sceptred kings; and the host came streaming on.
As the tribes of thronging bees go forth,
coming ever fresh out of a hollow rock,
and fly in clusters over the flowers of spring,
some flitting in swarms this way, some that:
so the many tribes of them, from the ships and the huts,
marched in ranks along the deep shore
in companies to the assembly; and among them Rumour blazed,
the messenger of Zeus, urging them on; and they gathered.
The assembly was in tumult, and the earth groaned beneath
as the host sat down, and there was uproar. Nine heralds
shouted and tried to hold them, in the hope that they might stop
their clamour and listen to the kings nurtured by Zeus.
With effort the host was seated and kept to their places,
ceasing from their noise. Then lord Agamemnon
stood up, holding the staff that Hephaestus had laboured to make.
Hephaestus gave it to the lord Zeus son of Cronos,
and Zeus gave it to the guide, the slayer of Argus;
and the lord Hermes gave it to Pelops the driver of horses,
and Pelops in turn gave it to Atreus, shepherd of the host,
and Atreus at his death left it to Thyestes rich in flocks,
and Thyestes in turn left it to Agamemnon to carry,
to rule over many islands and over all Argos.
Leaning upon it he spoke his words among the Argives:

"Friends, Danaan heroes, attendants of Ares,
Zeus son of Cronos has bound me fast in heavy blind folly,
the cruel god, who promised me before and bowed his head to it
that I should sack well-walled Ilium and go home again;
but now he has planned an evil deception, and bids me
come to Argos without glory, having lost much of my host.
So, I suppose, it must please Zeus the overmastering,
who has brought down the heads of many cities
and will bring down more; for his power is the greatest.
It is a shameful thing for men yet to come to hear of,
that so fine and so great a host of the Achaeans
fought and did battle in a fruitless war, and all for nothing,
against fewer men, and no end of it has yet appeared.
For if we should wish, Achaeans and Trojans alike,
to cut faithful oaths and to be counted, both sides —
the Trojans mustered, all who have hearths in the city,
and we Achaeans ranged ourselves in tens,
and each ten chose a Trojan to pour our wine,
many a ten would go without a wine-pourer.
By so much, I say, do the sons of the Achaeans outnumber
the Trojans who dwell in the city. But there are allies,
spear-brandishing men out of many cities,
who drive me far off my course and will not let me,
for all my will, sack the well-settled citadel of Ilium.
Nine years of great Zeus have already gone by,
and the ships’ timbers have rotted and the cables are loosened;
and our wives and our little children
sit in the halls awaiting us; and the work
for which we came here is still unaccomplished.
Come then, let us all do as I say:
let us flee with the ships to our own dear native land;
for we shall never take Troy of the wide ways."

So he spoke, and he stirred the spirit in the breasts
of all the multitude who had not heard the council.
The assembly heaved like the long waves of the sea,
of the Icarian deep, when the East Wind and the South Wind
rush down and raise them from the clouds of father Zeus.
And as when the West Wind comes and stirs a deep cornfield,
blustering violently, and the ears bow down before it:
so all their assembly was stirred. With a shout
they rushed for the ships, and under their feet the dust
rose and stood in the air. They called to one another
to lay hold of the ships and drag them to the bright sea,
and they cleared out the launching channels; and the cry went up to heaven
as they strained for home; and they knocked the props from under the ships.
Then a homecoming beyond what was fated would have come to the Argives,
had not Hera spoken a word to Athena:

"Ah me, child of aegis-bearing Zeus, Unwearying One,
is it thus that the Argives are to flee homeward
to their own dear native land over the broad back of the sea,
and leave behind them, as a boast for Priam and the Trojans,
Argive Helen, for whose sake many of the Achaeans
have perished at Troy, far from their own dear land?
Go now among the host of the bronze-clad Achaeans.
With your gentle words hold back each man,
and do not let them drag the curved ships down to the sea."

So she spoke, and the goddess grey-eyed Athena did not disobey.
She darted down from the peaks of Olympus,
and swiftly came to the swift ships of the Achaeans.
There she found Odysseus, the equal of Zeus in counsel,
standing still; he did not lay a hand on his black
well-benched ship, for grief had come upon his heart and spirit.
Standing near him grey-eyed Athena spoke to him:

"Zeus-born son of Laertes, Odysseus of many wiles,
is it thus that you are to flee homeward
to your own dear native land, falling into the many-benched ships,
and leave behind you, as a boast for Priam and the Trojans,
Argive Helen, for whose sake many of the Achaeans
have perished at Troy, far from their own dear land?
Go now among the host of the Achaeans, and hold back no longer.
With your gentle words hold back each man,
and do not let them drag the curved ships down to the sea."

So she spoke, and he knew the voice of the goddess as she called,
and set off at a run, and flung down his cloak; and it was gathered up
by the herald Eurybates of Ithaca, who attended him.
He came face to face with Agamemnon son of Atreus
and took from him the staff of his fathers, imperishable for ever,
and with it he went among the ships of the bronze-clad Achaeans.
Whatever king or man of mark he came upon,
he would stand beside him and hold him back with gentle words:
"Strange man, it is not fitting to frighten you like a coward.
Sit down yourself, and make the rest of the host sit too.
You do not yet know clearly the mind of the son of Atreus.
Now he is making trial; soon he will strike the sons of the Achaeans.
We did not all hear in the council what he said.
Let him not in anger do harm to the sons of the Achaeans.
Great is the spirit of kings nurtured by Zeus;
their honour is from Zeus, and Zeus the counsellor loves them."
But whatever man of the people he saw, and found shouting,
he would drive him with the staff and rebuke him with a word:
"Strange man, sit still and listen to the word of others,
who are better men than you; you are no fighter and have no strength,
and you count for nothing in war nor in council.
We Achaeans cannot all be kings here.
The rule of many is no good thing: let there be one ruler,
one king, to whom the son of crooked-counselling Cronos has given
the staff and the ordinances, that he may take counsel for them."
So he ranged the camp, mastering it. And back to the assembly
they came streaming again from the ships and the huts,
with a roar, as when a wave of the loud-roaring sea
thunders on a great beach, and the deep resounds.
The rest sat down and kept to their places;
only Thersites still brawled on, a man of measureless speech,
who knew in his mind many words, and disorderly ones,
to wrangle with the kings, at random and out of all order,
whatever seemed to him likely to raise a laugh among the Argives.
He was the ugliest man who came beneath Ilium:
bandy-legged, lame in one foot, and his two shoulders
were hunched and drawn together over his chest; and above
his head ran to a point, with a thin stubble growing on it.
He was most hateful to Achilles above all, and to Odysseus,
for he was always railing at those two. But now at noble Agamemnon
he shrieked out his abuse; and the Achaeans
were terribly indignant with him and angered in their spirits.
But he shouted loud and reviled Agamemnon with his words:
"Son of Atreus, what is it you complain of now, what do you want?
Your huts are full of bronze, and many women,
chosen out, are in your huts, whom we Achaeans
give you first of all whenever we take a citadel.
Or is it gold you still lack, which some man will bring
out of Ilium from the horse-taming Trojans, as ransom for his son,
whom I have bound and led in, or another of the Achaeans?
Or is it a young woman, to mingle with her in love,
whom you keep apart for yourself? It is not fitting
for a leader to bring the sons of the Achaeans into evil.
You soft things, base disgraces, women of Achaea, no longer Achaeans:
let us go home with the ships, and leave this man
here in Troy to digest his prizes of honour, so that he may see
whether we too are any help to him or not —
he who now has dishonoured Achilles, a far better man
than himself: he has taken his prize of honour and holds it, seized by his own hand.
But there is no anger in Achilles’ mind; he lets it go.
Otherwise, son of Atreus, this would be your last outrage."

So he spoke, railing at Agamemnon, shepherd of the host —
Thersites. But quickly noble Odysseus came to his side,
and with a dark look rebuked him with a harsh word:
"Thersites of the reckless tongue, clear speaker though you are,
hold your peace, and do not wish to wrangle with kings alone.
For I say there is no other mortal worse than you
of all who came beneath Ilium with the sons of Atreus.
So you should not hold kings in your mouth and harangue,
nor fling insults at them, nor keep watch for the homeward voyage.
We do not yet know clearly how these things will turn out,
whether we sons of the Achaeans go home well or badly.
So now at Agamemnon son of Atreus, shepherd of the host,
you sit hurling insults, because the Danaan heroes
give him very much; and you make mockery in your speech.
But I will tell you this, and it shall be brought to pass:
if ever again I find you playing the fool as you do now,
then let the head of Odysseus no longer stand on his shoulders,
and let me no longer be called the father of Telemachus,
if I do not take you and strip the clothes from your body,
the cloak and the tunic that cover your nakedness,
and send you off weeping to the swift ships,
beaten out of the assembly with shameful blows."

So he spoke, and with the staff he struck his back and shoulders.
He doubled over, and a swelling tear fell from him;
and a bloody weal rose up on his back
under the golden staff. He sat down and was afraid,
and in pain, with a helpless look, he wiped away the tear.
And the men, distressed as they were, laughed happily at him,
and one would say, looking at his neighbour:
"Ah me, countless are the good things Odysseus has done,
leading in good counsel and marshalling the war;
but this is by far the best thing he has done among the Argives,
that he has stopped this insolent word-slinger from his speeches.
Surely his proud spirit will not set him on again
to revile kings with words of reproach."

So said the multitude. Then Odysseus the sacker of cities
stood up holding the staff; and beside him grey-eyed Athena,
in the likeness of a herald, bade the host be silent,
so that the sons of the Achaeans, first and last together,
might hear his word and take in his counsel.
He with good intent toward them addressed the assembly and spoke:

"Son of Atreus, now the Achaeans wish, my lord,
to make you the most despised of all mortal men,
and they will not fulfil for you the promise they made
while they were still on their way here from horse-pasturing Argos:
to go home only after sacking well-walled Ilium.
For like little children or widowed women
they wail to one another about going home.
It is hard labour, to be sure, and a man goes home distressed.
For a man who stays one month away from his wife
frets beside his many-benched ship, when the winter gales
and the heaving sea pen him in.
But for us this is the ninth year come round
of our waiting here. So I do not blame the Achaeans
for fretting beside the curved ships. But even so
it is a shameful thing to stay long and then go home empty.
Endure, friends, and stay a while longer, so that we may learn
whether Calchas prophesies truly or not.
For this we know well in our minds, and you are all
witnesses, all whom the death-spirits have not carried off:
it was but yesterday or the day before, when the ships of the Achaeans
were gathering at Aulis, bearing evils for Priam and the Trojans,
and we around a spring, at the holy altars,
were offering perfect hecatombs to the immortals,
under a fine plane tree, from which bright water flowed.
There a great portent appeared: a serpent with blood-red back,
terrible, which the Olympian himself had sent into the light,
darted out from under the altar and rushed to the plane tree.
There were the nestlings of a sparrow, helpless young,
on the topmost branch, cowering under the leaves,
eight of them, and the mother that bore them was the ninth.
There he devoured them, and pitifully they cheeped;
and the mother fluttered about, wailing for her dear young.
He coiled himself and caught her by the wing as she shrieked about him.
And when he had eaten the sparrow’s young and the mother too,
the god who had shown him made him plain to see:
the son of crooked-counselling Cronos turned him to stone.
And we stood and marvelled at what had happened.
So when the dread portent broke in upon the gods’ hecatombs,
Calchas at once spoke out in prophecy:

’Why have you fallen silent, long-haired Achaeans?
For us Zeus the counsellor has shown this great sign,
late in coming, late in fulfilment, whose glory shall never perish.
As this serpent ate the sparrow’s young and the mother too,
eight of them, and the mother that bore them was the ninth,
so we shall wage war here for as many years,
and in the tenth we shall take the wide-wayed city.’
So he spoke then; and now all this is being fulfilled.
Come then, all you well-greaved Achaeans, stay here
until we take the great city of Priam."

So he spoke, and the Argives shouted aloud, and about them the ships
rang terribly with the cry of the Achaeans,
as they praised the word of godlike Odysseus.
And among them spoke the Gerenian horseman Nestor:

"Ah me, you talk in assembly like little children,
infants who care nothing for the works of war.
Where will our covenants and our oaths go now?
Into the fire, then, with the counsels and plans of men,
the unmixed libations and the right hands we trusted in.
For we wrangle with words to no purpose, and can find
no remedy at all, though we have been here a long time.
Son of Atreus, do you as before hold to your unshaken purpose
and lead the Argives through the mighty encounters.
Let these waste away, the one or two of the Achaeans
who plan apart; there will be no fulfilment of their plans.
They would go to Argos before we learn whether the promise
of aegis-bearing Zeus is a lie or not.
For I say that the overmastering son of Cronos bowed his head
on the day when the Argives were boarding the swift-sailing ships,
bringing slaughter and doom to the Trojans:
he lightened on the right, showing signs of good omen.
Therefore let no man hurry to go home
before he has lain beside the wife of some Trojan
and taken payment for the strivings and groans of Helen.
But if any man desperately wishes to go home,
let him lay hold of his black well-benched ship,
so that he may meet death and his doom before the rest.
But you, my lord, plan well yourself and listen to another;
the word I shall speak will not be one to throw away.
Separate the men by tribes and by clans, Agamemnon,
so that clan may support clan, and tribe tribe.
If you do this, and the Achaeans obey you,
you will then know which of the leaders is a coward, and which of the host,
and which is brave; for they will fight by themselves.
And you will know whether it is by divine will that you do not take the city,
or by the cowardice of men and their ignorance of war."
Then lord Agamemnon answered him and said:

"Once again, old man, you surpass the sons of the Achaeans in speech.
Would, father Zeus and Athena and Apollo,
that I had ten such counsellors among the Achaeans!
Then the city of the lord Priam would soon bow down,
taken and sacked beneath our hands.
But aegis-bearing Zeus son of Cronos has given me griefs,
who casts me into fruitless quarrels and wranglings.
For Achilles and I fought over a girl
with hostile words, and I was the first to be harsh.
But if we ever come to one counsel, then no longer
will there be any putting off of evil for the Trojans, not for a moment.
Now go to your meal, so that we may join battle.
Let each man sharpen his spear well and set his shield well,
and let each give a good feed to his swift-footed horses,
and let each look well over his chariot and turn his mind to war,
so that all day long we may contend in hateful battle.
For there shall be no respite in it, not for a moment,
until night comes on and parts the fury of men.
The baldric of many a man’s body-covering shield
will be soaked with sweat about his chest, and his hand will grow weary about the spear;
and many a man’s horse will sweat, straining at the polished chariot.
But whomever I see wishing to hold back from the fighting,
to linger beside the curved ships, for him thereafter
there will be no sure escape from the dogs and the birds."

So he spoke, and the Argives shouted aloud, as when a wave
on a high headland, when the South Wind comes and stirs it,
beats on a jutting crag, which the waves never leave,
raised by winds of every quarter, wherever they rise.
They stood up and hurried away, scattering among the ships,
and made smoke rise through the huts, and took their meal.
One man sacrificed to one of the everlasting gods, another to another,
praying to escape death and the toil of Ares.
But Agamemnon lord of men sacrificed an ox,
a fat one of five years, to the overmastering son of Cronos,
and he called the elders, the chieftains of all the Achaeans,
Nestor first of all and the lord Idomeneus,
and then the two Ajaxes and the son of Tydeus,
and sixth Odysseus, the equal of Zeus in counsel.
And Menelaus of the great war cry came of his own accord,
for he knew in his spirit how his brother was labouring.
They stood around the ox and took up the barley grains,
and among them lord Agamemnon spoke in prayer:

"Zeus most glorious, most great, of the dark cloud, dwelling in the sky,
let not the sun go down and the darkness come on
before I have thrown down headlong the hall of Priam,
blackened with smoke, and burned its doorposts with ravening fire,
and torn the tunic of Hector about his breast,
ripped with the bronze; and about him let many companions
fall headlong in the dust and bite the earth."

So he spoke; but the son of Cronos did not yet grant it him.
He accepted the offerings, but he increased their unenviable toil.
Then when they had prayed and flung the barley grains,
first they drew back the victim’s head and cut its throat and flayed it,
and cut out the thigh-pieces and covered them with fat,
making a double fold, and laid raw flesh upon them.
These they burned on leafless split wood,
and pierced the inner parts and held them over the fire.
Then when the thigh-pieces were burned up and they had tasted the inner parts,
they cut up the rest and pierced it on the spits,
and roasted it carefully, and drew it all off.
Then when they had ceased from their labour and made ready the meal,
they feasted, and no man’s spirit went short of the equal feast.
Then when they had put from them the desire for drink and food,
the Gerenian horseman Nestor began to speak among them:
"Most glorious son of Atreus, Agamemnon lord of men,
let us not talk here any longer now, nor put off
much further the work that the god is putting into our hands.
Come, let the heralds of the bronze-clad Achaeans
make proclamation and gather the host along the ships,
and let us go in a body like this through the wide camp of the Achaeans,
so that we may the sooner rouse the keen war god."

So he spoke, and Agamemnon lord of men did not disobey.
At once he ordered the clear-voiced heralds
to summon the long-haired Achaeans to battle.
They made the summons, and the men gathered very quickly.
And the kings nurtured by Zeus, about the son of Atreus,
hurried among them, marshalling them; and with them grey-eyed Athena,
holding the aegis, precious, ageless and immortal,
from which a hundred tassels of pure gold flutter,
all finely woven, each worth a hundred oxen.
With it, flashing about, she rushed through the host of the Achaeans,
urging them on; and she roused strength in each man’s
heart to wage war and fight without ceasing.
And at once war became sweeter to them than to go home
in the hollow ships to their own dear native land.
As a destroying fire blazes through a boundless forest
on the peaks of a mountain, and the glare shows from far off,
so as they marched the dazzling gleam from their wondrous bronze
went up through the upper air to heaven.
And as the many tribes of winged birds,
geese or cranes or long-necked swans,
in the Asian meadow about the streams of Caÿster,
fly this way and that, glorying in their wings,
and settle forward with a clangour, and the meadow rings:
so their many tribes, from the ships and the huts,
poured out onto the plain of Scamander; and the earth beneath
rang terribly under the feet of men and of horses.
They took their stand in the flowering meadow of Scamander,
in their thousands, as many as the leaves and flowers that come in season.
As the many tribes of thronging flies
that swarm about a herdsman’s steading
in the season of spring, when the milk wets the pails:
so many were the long-haired Achaeans who stood
against the Trojans on the plain, straining to break them.
And as goatherds easily sort out the wide flocks
of goats when they have mingled at pasture,
so the leaders marshalled them here and there
to go into the encounter; and among them lord Agamemnon,
in eyes and head like Zeus who delights in the thunderbolt,
in girth like Ares, in chest like Poseidon.
As a bull in a herd stands far above all the rest,
a bull, for he is conspicuous among the gathered cattle:
such did Zeus make the son of Atreus on that day,
outstanding among the many and pre-eminent among heroes.
Tell me now, Muses who hold the halls of Olympus —
for you are goddesses, you are present and know all things,
while we hear only the report and know nothing —
who were the leaders and lords of the Danaans.
The multitude I could not tell nor name,
not if I had ten tongues and ten mouths,
and an unbreakable voice, and a heart of bronze within me,
unless the Olympian Muses, daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus,
should call to mind all those who came beneath Ilium.
But the captains of the ships I will tell, and all the ships.
Of the Boeotians Peneleos and Leïtus were leaders,
and Arcesilaus and Prothoenor and Clonius:
those who dwelt in Hyria and rocky Aulis,
and Schoenus and Scolus and Eteonus of the many spurs,
Thespeia and Graea and Mycalessus of the broad dancing-floors,
and those who dwelt about Harma and Eilesium and Erythrae,
and those who held Eleon and Hyle and Peteon,
Ocalea and Medeon, a well-built citadel,
Copae and Eutresis and Thisbe of the many doves,
and those of Coroneia and grassy Haliartus,
and those who held Plataea and those who dwelt in Glisas,
and those who held Lower Thebe, a well-built citadel,
and holy Onchestus, the bright grove of Poseidon,
and those who held Arne rich in grapes, and Mideia
and most holy Nisa and Anthedon on the border:
of these there came fifty ships, and in each
went a hundred and twenty young men of the Boeotians.
Those who dwelt in Aspledon and Minyan Orchomenus,
these Ascalaphus and Ialmenus led, sons of Ares,
whom Astyoche bore in the house of Actor son of Azeus,
a modest maiden, when she had gone up to the upper chamber
to mighty Ares; and he lay with her in secret.
With these thirty hollow ships came on in order.
Of the Phocians Schedius and Epistrophus were leaders,
sons of great-hearted Iphitus son of Naubolus,
who held Cyparissus and rocky Pytho
and most holy Crisa and Daulis and Panopeus,
and those who dwelt about Anemoreia and Hyampolis,
and those who lived by the bright river Cephisus,
and those who held Lilaea at the springs of Cephisus.
With these forty black ships followed.
These marshalled and ordered the ranks of the Phocians,
and they armed close beside the Boeotians on the left.
Of the Locrians swift Ajax son of Oïleus was leader,
the lesser, not so great as Ajax son of Telamon,
but far less: a small man in a linen corslet,
but with the spear he surpassed all Hellenes and Achaeans.
They dwelt in Cynus and Opoeis and Calliarus
and Bessa and Scarphe and lovely Augeiae
and Tarphe and Thronium about the streams of Boagrius.
With him forty black ships followed,
of the Locrians who dwell across from holy Euboea.
Those who held Euboea, the Abantes breathing fury,
Chalcis and Eretria and Histiaea rich in grapes
and Cerinthus by the sea and the steep citadel of Dium,
and those who held Carystus and those who dwelt in Styra:
of these Elephenor was leader, a scion of Ares,
son of Chalcodon, lord of the great-hearted Abantes.
With him the swift Abantes followed, their hair grown long behind,
spearmen straining with their outstretched ashen shafts
to break the corslets about their enemies’ breasts.
With him forty black ships followed.
Those who held Athens, a well-built citadel,
the land of great-hearted Erechtheus, whom once Athena
reared, the daughter of Zeus, though the grain-giving earth had borne him;
and she settled him in Athens, in her own rich temple,
and there the young men of the Athenians propitiate him
with bulls and rams as the years come round:
of these Menestheus son of Peteos was leader.
No man on earth was ever like him
at marshalling horses and shield-bearing men;
only Nestor rivalled him, for he was the elder.
With him fifty black ships followed.
And Ajax led twelve ships from Salamis,
and brought them and set them where the ranks of the Athenians stood.
Those who held Argos and walled Tiryns,
Hermione and Asine, which hold a deep gulf,
Troezen and Eïonae and vine-clad Epidaurus,
and the young men of the Achaeans who held Aegina and Mases:
of these Diomedes of the great war cry was leader,
and Sthenelus, dear son of glorious Capaneus;
and with them went Euryalus third, a man like a god,
son of the lord Mecisteus son of Talaus.
But over them all Diomedes of the great war cry was leader.
With them eighty black ships followed.
Those who held Mycenae, a well-built citadel,
and wealthy Corinth and well-built Cleonae,
and dwelt in Orneiae and lovely Araethyrea
and Sicyon, where Adrastus was first king,
and those who held Hyperesia and steep Gonoessa
and Pellene, and dwelt about Aegium
and all along Aegialus and about broad Helice:
of their hundred ships lord Agamemnon was captain,
the son of Atreus. With him followed by far the most
and the best of the host; and he himself put on the gleaming bronze
in his glory, and he stood out among all the heroes
because he was the best and led by far the most men.
Those who held Lacedaemon of the hollow ravines,
and Pharis and Sparta and Messe of the many doves,
and dwelt in Bryseiae and lovely Augeiae,
and those who held Amyclae and Helos, a citadel by the sea,
and those who held Laas and dwelt about Oetylus:
of these his brother, Menelaus of the great war cry, was captain,
with sixty ships; and they armed apart.
Among them he went himself, trusting in his own eagerness,
urging them to war; and most of all he longed in his spirit
to take payment for the strivings and groans of Helen.
Those who dwelt in Pylos and lovely Arene
and Thryum, the ford of Alpheius, and well-built Aepy,
and lived in Cyparisseïs and Amphigeneia
and Pteleos and Helos and Dorium, where the Muses
met Thamyris the Thracian and made an end of his singing,
as he came from Oechalia, from Eurytus of Oechalia;
for he had boasted that he would win even if the Muses themselves
should sing against him, the daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus.
In anger they maimed him, and took away his wondrous
song, and made him forget his harping:
of these the Gerenian horseman Nestor was leader.
With him ninety hollow ships came on in order.
Those who held Arcadia below the steep mountain of Cyllene,
beside the tomb of Aepytus, where men fight hand to hand,
who dwelt in Pheneos and Orchomenus rich in flocks
and Rhipe and Stratia and windy Enispe,
and held Tegea and lovely Mantineia
and held Stymphelus and dwelt in Parrhasia:
of these the son of Ancaeus, lord Agapenor, was leader,
with sixty ships; and in each ship went many
Arcadian men, skilled in warfare.
For Agamemnon lord of men had himself given them
the well-benched ships to cross the wine-dark sea,
the son of Atreus, since the works of the sea were no care of theirs.
Those who dwelt in Buprasium and noble Elis,
so much of it as Hyrmine and Myrsinus on the border
and the Olenian rock and Alesium enclose:
of these there were four captains, and ten swift ships
followed each man, and many Epeians embarked.
Of some Amphimachus and Thalpius were leaders,
sons the one of Cteatus, the other of Eurytus, the Actorides;
of others mighty Diores son of Amarynceus was captain;
and of the fourth part godlike Polyxeinus was captain,
son of Agasthenes, son of the lord Augeas.
Those from Dulichium and the holy Echinean
islands, which lie across the sea opposite Elis:
of these Meges was leader, a match for Ares,
son of Phyleus, whom the horseman Phyleus, dear to Zeus, begot,
who once had removed to Dulichium in anger at his father.
With him forty black ships followed.
And Odysseus led the great-hearted Cephallenians,
who held Ithaca and Neritum of the trembling leaves
and dwelt in Crocyleia and rugged Aegilips,
and those who held Zacynthus and those who dwelt about Samos,
and those who held the mainland and dwelt on the shores opposite.
Of these Odysseus was captain, the equal of Zeus in counsel.
With him followed twelve ships with vermilion cheeks.
Of the Aetolians Thoas son of Andraemon was leader,
of those who dwelt in Pleuron and Olenus and Pylene
and Chalcis by the sea and rocky Calydon;
for the sons of great-hearted Oeneus were no longer alive,
nor was he himself, and fair-haired Meleager was dead.
To Thoas it had fallen to rule over the Aetolians entire.
With him forty black ships followed.
Of the Cretans Idomeneus famed with the spear was leader,
of those who held Cnossos and walled Gortyn,
Lyctus and Miletus and white Lycastus
and Phaestus and Rhytium, well-peopled cities,
and the others who dwelt about Crete of the hundred cities.
Of these Idomeneus famed with the spear was leader,
and Meriones, a match for Enyalius the man-slayer.
With them eighty black ships followed.
Tlepolemus son of Heracles, a good man and a tall,
led nine ships from Rhodes, of the lordly Rhodians,
who dwelt about Rhodes ordered in three divisions,
Lindus and Ialysus and white Cameirus.
Of these Tlepolemus famed with the spear was leader,
whom Astyocheia bore to the might of Heracles;
he brought her from Ephyra, from the river Selleïs,
when he had sacked many cities of young men nurtured by Zeus.
But when Tlepolemus had grown up in the well-built hall,
at once he killed his own father’s dear uncle,
Licymnius, a scion of Ares, already growing old.
Quickly he built ships, and gathering a great host
he went off in flight over the sea; for the others threatened him,
the sons and grandsons of the might of Heracles.
So he came to Rhodes in his wandering, suffering griefs;
and they settled there in three divisions by tribes, and were loved
by Zeus, who is lord over gods and men,
and Cronion poured wondrous wealth upon them.
Nireus again led three balanced ships from Syme,
Nireus, son of Aglaïa and of the lord Charopus,
Nireus, the handsomest man who came beneath Ilium
of all the other Danaans, after the flawless son of Peleus;
but he was a weakling, and few were the host that followed him.
Those who held Nisyrus and Crapathus and Casus
and Cos, the city of Eurypylus, and the Calydnian islands:
of these Pheidippus and Antiphus were leaders,
the two sons of Thessalus, son of the lord Heracles.
With them thirty hollow ships came on in order.
And now those who dwelt in Pelasgian Argos,
and those who lived in Alus and Alope and Trachis,
and those who held Phthia and Hellas of the lovely women,
and were called Myrmidons and Hellenes and Achaeans:
of their fifty ships Achilles was captain.
But they had no thought of grim-sounding war,
for there was no one to lead them into the ranks.
For fleet-footed noble Achilles lay among the ships,
in anger for the girl, fair-haired Briseis,
whom he had taken out of Lyrnessus after much labour,
when he had sacked Lyrnessus and the walls of Thebe,
and cut down Mynes and Epistrophus, furious with the spear,
sons of the lord Euenus son of Selepus.
For her he lay grieving; but soon he was to rise again.
Those who held Phylace and flowering Pyrasus,
the precinct of Demeter, and Iton the mother of flocks,
and Antron by the sea and Pteleos of the deep grass:
of these warlike Protesilaus had been leader
while he lived; but by now the black earth held him.
His wife, both cheeks torn in mourning, was left behind in Phylace,
and his house half-finished. A Dardanian man killed him
as he leapt from his ship, far the first of the Achaeans.
Nor were they without a leader, though they longed for the one they had;
but Podarces marshalled them, a scion of Ares,
son of Iphiclus son of Phylacus, rich in flocks,
own brother to great-hearted Protesilaus,
younger in birth; the other was both older and the better man,
the hero, warlike Protesilaus. So the host
did not lack a leader, though they longed for him, brave as he was.
With him forty black ships followed.
Those who dwelt in Pherae beside the lake of Boebe,
Boebe and Glaphyrae and well-built Iolcus:
of these the dear son of Admetus was captain, with eleven ships,
Eumelus, whom Alcestis bore to Admetus, noblest of women,
the most beautiful in form of the daughters of Pelias.
Those who dwelt in Methone and Thaumacia
and held Meliboea and rugged Olizon:
of these Philoctetes was captain, well skilled with the bow,
with seven ships; and fifty rowers were aboard
each of them, well skilled with the bow to fight in might.
But he lay on an island suffering hard pains,
in most holy Lemnos, where the sons of the Achaeans left him
in agony from the evil wound of a deadly water-snake.
There he lay grieving; but soon the Argives beside their ships
were to remember the lord Philoctetes.
Nor were they without a leader, though they longed for the one they had;
but Medon marshalled them, the bastard son of Oïleus,
whom Rhene bore to Oïleus the sacker of cities.
Those who held Tricce and craggy Ithome,
and those who held Oechalia, the city of Eurytus of Oechalia:
of these the two sons of Asclepius were leaders,
good physicians both, Podaleirius and Machaon.
With them thirty hollow ships came on in order.
Those who held Ormenius, and those of the spring Hypereia,
and those who held Asterium and the white peaks of Titanus:
of these Eurypylus was captain, the bright son of Euaemon.
With him forty black ships followed.
Those who held Argissa and dwelt in Gyrtone,
Orthe and Elone and the white city of Oloosson:
of these Polypoetes, staunch in war, was leader,
son of Peirithous, whom immortal Zeus begot;
him glorious Hippodameia bore to Peirithous
on the day when he took vengeance on the shaggy beasts,
and drove them from Pelion and thrust them out to the Aethices.
Not alone: with him was Leonteus, a scion of Ares,
son of high-spirited Coronus son of Caeneus.
With them forty black ships followed.
And Guneus led twenty-two ships from Cyphus.
With him followed the Enienes and the Peraebi, staunch in war,
who had made their homes about wintry Dodona,
and those who tilled the fields about the lovely Titaresius,
which sends its fair-flowing water into the Peneius,
yet does not mingle with the silver eddies of the Peneius,
but flows over it on the surface like oil;
for it is a branch of the water of Styx, the dread oath.
Of the Magnesians Prothous son of Tenthredon was captain,
of those who dwelt about the Peneius and Pelion of the trembling leaves.
Of these swift Prothous was leader,
and with him forty black ships followed.
These were the leaders and lords of the Danaans.
But which of them was far the best, tell me, Muse,
of the men themselves and of the horses that followed the sons of Atreus.
By far the best horses were those of the son of Pheres,
which Eumelus drove, swift as birds,
alike in coat and age, level along the back to the measuring rod;
Apollo of the silver bow had reared them in Pereia,
both of them mares, carrying the terror of war.
Of the men by far the best was Ajax son of Telamon,
while Achilles kept his wrath; for Achilles was far the strongest,
and so were the horses that carried the flawless son of Peleus.
But he lay among his curved sea-going ships,
in his wrath against Agamemnon, shepherd of the host,
the son of Atreus; and his host, beside the breaking surf of the sea,
amused themselves with the discus and with throwing javelins
and with the bow. Their horses stood each beside his own chariot,
cropping clover and marsh-grown parsley,
and the chariots of their lords lay well covered
in the huts. And the men, longing for their leader beloved of Ares,
wandered here and there through the camp and did not fight.
But the rest went on as though all the earth were pastured by fire,
and the ground groaned beneath, as under Zeus who delights in the thunderbolt
in his anger, when he lashes the earth about Typhoeus
in the land of the Arimoi, where they say is the bed of Typhoeus:

so the earth groaned greatly beneath their feet
as they went; and very quickly they made their way across the plain.
And to the Trojans came a messenger, wind-footed swift Iris,
from aegis-bearing Zeus, with a grievous message.
They were holding assembly at the doors of Priam,
all gathered together, both the young and the old.
Standing near, swift-footed Iris spoke to them,

and she likened her voice to that of Polites son of Priam,
who used to sit as a scout for the Trojans, trusting in his speed of foot,
on the topmost point of the tomb of old Aesyetes,
watching for when the Achaeans should set out from their ships.
Likening herself to him, swift-footed Iris spoke to him:

"Old man, endless talk is always dear to you,
as it was once in peacetime; but relentless war has risen.
Very often indeed have I gone into the battles of men,
but never yet have I seen a host so fine and so great.
For, exactly like the leaves or the grains of sand,
they come across the plain to fight against the city.
Hector, on you above all I lay this charge; do as I say.
There are many allies throughout the great city of Priam,
and one tongue differs from another among men widely scattered.
Let each man give the word to those he rules,
and lead them out, having marshalled his own townsmen."

So she spoke, and Hector did not fail to know the word of the goddess.
At once he broke off the assembly, and they rushed to arms.
All the gates were opened, and the host poured out,
foot soldiers and charioteers; and a great din arose.
Now there is before the city a steep mound
out in the plain, standing clear with room to run about it,
which men call Batieia,
but the immortals the tomb of Myrine of the many leaps.
There the Trojans and their allies were then drawn up in order.
Of the Trojans great Hector of the flashing helm was leader,
the son of Priam. With him by far the most and the best
of the host armed themselves, straining with their spears.
Of the Dardanians the valiant son of Anchises was captain,
Aeneas, whom noble Aphrodite bore to Anchises
on the spurs of Ida, a goddess who had lain with a mortal;
not alone: with him were the two sons of Antenor,
Archelochus and Acamas, well skilled in every kind of fighting.
Those who dwelt in Zeleia below the lowest foot of Ida,
wealthy men, who drink the dark water of Aesepus,
Trojans: of these the bright son of Lycaon was captain,
Pandarus, to whom Apollo himself gave the bow.
Those who held Adresteia and the land of Apaesus
and held Pityeia and the steep mountain of Tereia:
of these Adrestus was captain and Amphius of the linen corslet,
the two sons of Merops of Percote, who beyond all men
knew the arts of prophecy, and would not let his sons
go into the man-destroying war. But they would not
obey him; for the death-spirits of black death were leading them on.
Those who dwelt about Percote and Practius
and held Sestus and Abydus and noble Arisbe:
of these Asius son of Hyrtacus was captain, a marshal of men,
Asius son of Hyrtacus, whom his horses carried from Arisbe,
great tawny horses, from the river Selleïs.
Hippothous led the tribes of the Pelasgians furious with the spear,
of those who dwelt in Larisa of the deep soil.
Of these Hippothous was captain, and Pylaeus, a scion of Ares,
the two sons of Lethus the Pelasgian, son of Teutamus.
And Acamas led the Thracians, and the hero Peirous,
all those whom the strong-flowing Hellespont encloses.
Euphemus was captain of the Cicones, the spearmen,
son of Troezenus son of Ceas, nurtured by Zeus.
And Pyraechmes led the Paeonians of the curved bows,
from far off, from Amydon, from the wide-flowing Axius,
the Axius, whose water is the fairest that spreads over the earth.
Of the Paphlagonians the shaggy heart of Pylaemenes was leader,
from the Eneti, where the breed of wild mules comes from,
who held Cytorus and dwelt about Sesamus
and lived in famous houses about the river Parthenius
and Cromna and Aegialus and lofty Erythini.
Of the Halizones Odius and Epistrophus were captains,
from far off, from Alybe, where silver is born.
Of the Mysians Chromis was captain, and Ennomus the bird-diviner;
but he did not ward off black death by his birds,
but was brought down by the hands of the swift-running descendant of Aeacus
in the river, where he cut to pieces the Trojans and others too.
Phorcys led the Phrygians, and godlike Ascanius,
from far Ascania; and they strained to fight in the encounter.
Of the Maeonians Mesthles and Antiphus were leaders,
the two sons of Talaemenes, whom the Gygaean lake bore,
and they led the Maeonians too, born under Tmolus.
Nastes led the Carians of barbarous speech,
who held Miletus and the mountain of Phthires with its endless leaves
and the streams of Maeander and the steep peaks of Mycale.
Of these Amphimachus and Nastes were leaders,
Nastes and Amphimachus, the bright children of Nomion,
who went to war wearing gold, like a girl,
the fool; and it did not save him from wretched destruction,
but he was brought down by the hands of the swift-running descendant of Aeacus
in the river, and wise Achilles carried off the gold.
And Sarpedon was captain of the Lycians, and flawless Glaucus,
from far Lycia, from the eddying Xanthus.

Now when each side had been marshalled with its leaders,
the Trojans came on with clamour and shouting, like birds,
as when the clamour of cranes goes up before the face of heaven,
who, when they have fled from winter and the immeasurable rain,
fly with a clamour toward the streams of Ocean,
bringing slaughter and doom to the Pygmy men,
and out of the air they carry evil strife to them.
But the Achaeans came on in silence, breathing fury,
straining in their spirit to stand by one another.
As when the South Wind pours a mist over the peaks of a mountain,
no friend to shepherds, but better than night to a thief,
and a man can see only so far as he can cast a stone:

so a swirling dust storm rose beneath their feet
as they went; and very quickly they made their way across the plain.
And when they had come near, advancing on one another,
godlike Alexander stood out as champion of the Trojans,
with a leopard skin on his shoulders and a curved bow
and a sword; and brandishing two spears tipped with bronze
he challenged all the best of the Argives
to fight him face to face in dread combat.
And when Menelaus beloved of Ares caught sight of him
coming out in front of the throng with long strides,
then, as a lion rejoices when he comes upon a great carcass,
finding a horned stag or a wild goat,
and is hungry, and devours it greedily even though
swift dogs and lusty young men are driving him off:
so Menelaus rejoiced when his eyes beheld
godlike Alexander; for he thought to take vengeance on the sinner.
At once he leapt in his armour from his chariot to the ground.
And when godlike Alexander caught sight of him
appearing among the front fighters, his own heart was struck with dismay,
and he shrank back into the throng of his companions, avoiding death.
As when a man who has seen a snake starts back and gives ground
in the glens of a mountain, and trembling takes hold of his limbs,
and he withdraws, and pallor seizes his cheeks:
so he sank back again into the throng of the lordly Trojans,
godlike Alexander, in fear of the son of Atreus.
But Hector saw him and reviled him with shaming words:
"Wretched Paris, best in looks, woman-mad, deceiver,
would that you had never been born, or had died unmarried.
That is what I would wish, and it would have been far better
than that you should be a reproach like this, and an object of others’ scorn.
Surely the long-haired Achaeans are laughing aloud,
who thought you a champion and the best, because your looks
are fine — but there is no strength in your mind, nor any courage.
Was it being such a man that in your sea-going ships,
sailing the sea, having gathered trusty companions,
and mingling with foreigners, you brought back a lovely woman
from a distant land, a bride of men who are spearmen,
a great affliction to your father and to the city and to all the people,
a joy to your enemies and a disgrace to yourself?
Will you not stand and face Menelaus beloved of Ares?
You would learn what kind of man it is whose blooming wife you hold.
Your lyre would not help you, nor the gifts of Aphrodite,
nor your hair, nor your looks, when you were mingled with the dust.
But the Trojans are cowards indeed; otherwise by now
you would have put on a shirt of stone for all the evils you have done."
Then godlike Alexander spoke to him in turn:

"Hector, since you reproach me as is right and not beyond right —
your heart is always unyielding, like an axe
that goes through a beam at the hands of a man who skilfully
cuts out a ship’s timber, and it increases the man’s force;
such is the fearless mind in your breast —
do not cast in my face the lovely gifts of golden Aphrodite.
Not to be thrown away are the glorious gifts of the gods,
whatever they themselves give; no man could take them by his own will.
But now, if you wish me to wage war and fight,
make the other Trojans sit down, and all the Achaeans,
and set me in the middle, with Menelaus beloved of Ares,
to fight for Helen and for all the possessions.
And whichever of us wins and proves the stronger,
let him take all the possessions and the woman and lead them home;
and the rest of you, cutting oaths of friendship and faith,
dwell on in Troy of the deep soil, and let them go home
to horse-pasturing Argos and Achaea of the lovely women."

So he spoke, and Hector rejoiced greatly to hear his word,
and he went into the middle and held back the ranks of the Trojans,
gripping his spear by the middle; and they all sat down.
But the long-haired Achaeans kept shooting at him,
aiming with arrows and pelting him with stones.
Then Agamemnon lord of men shouted aloud:

"Hold back, Argives; do not shoot, young men of the Achaeans.
Hector of the flashing helm is making ready to speak a word."

So he spoke, and they held off from the fighting and fell silent
at once; and Hector spoke between the two sides:

"Hear me, Trojans and well-greaved Achaeans,
the word of Alexander, for whose sake this quarrel arose.
He bids the other Trojans and all the Achaeans
lay down their fine armour on the earth that nourishes many,
and let him and Menelaus beloved of Ares,
alone in the middle, fight for Helen and all the possessions.
And whichever of them wins and proves the stronger,
let him take all the possessions and the woman and lead them home;
and the rest of us cut oaths of friendship and faith."

So he spoke, and they all became hushed in silence.
And among them spoke Menelaus of the great war cry:

"Hear me now also. The grief comes most of all
upon my own spirit; and I think that Argives and Trojans
should now be parted, since you have suffered many evils
for the sake of my quarrel and of Alexander’s beginning of it.
For whichever of us two death and doom are made ready,
let him die; and the rest of you part as quickly as may be.
Bring two lambs, one white and one black,
for Earth and for the Sun; and we shall bring another for Zeus.
And bring the might of Priam, so that he may cut the oaths
himself, since his sons are overweening and faithless,
in case some man’s transgression should spoil the oaths of Zeus.
The minds of younger men are always fluttering;
but when an old man is among them he looks both forward and back,
so that the outcome may be far the best for both sides."

So he spoke, and the Achaeans and the Trojans rejoiced,
hoping to have an end of the wretched war.
They held their horses in the ranks and stepped down themselves
and stripped off their armour; and they laid it on the ground
close to one another, and little ground lay between.
Hector sent two heralds to the city
quickly, to fetch the lambs and to summon Priam;
and lord Agamemnon sent Talthybius out
to go to the hollow ships, and he bade him bring a lamb;
and he did not disobey noble Agamemnon.
Now Iris came as a messenger to white-armed Helen,
in the likeness of her husband’s sister, the wife of Antenor’s son,
whom the lord Helicaon, son of Antenor, had to wife,
Laodice, the most beautiful in form of Priam’s daughters.
She found her in the hall, weaving a great web,
a double purple cloak, and working into it the many trials
of the horse-taming Trojans and of the bronze-clad Achaeans,
which for her sake they were suffering at the hands of Ares.
Standing near, swift-footed Iris spoke to her:

"Come here, dear bride, and see the wondrous doings
of the horse-taming Trojans and of the bronze-clad Achaeans,
who before were bringing tearful war upon one another
on the plain, longing for deadly battle.
They are sitting now in silence, and the fighting has stopped;
they are leaning on their shields, and their long spears are stuck in the ground.
But Alexander and Menelaus beloved of Ares
will fight with their long spears for you;
and you will be called the dear wife of the winner."

So saying, the goddess put a sweet longing into her spirit
for her former husband and her city and her parents.
At once she veiled herself in shining linen
and set out from her chamber, letting a soft tear fall,
not alone: two handmaids went with her,
Aethra daughter of Pittheus, and ox-eyed Clymene.
Quickly they came to where the Scaean gates were.
And those about Priam and Panthous and Thymoetes,
and Lampus and Clytius and Hicetaon, a scion of Ares,
and Ucalegon and Antenor, wise both of them,
the elders of the people, were sitting at the Scaean gates,
stopped from fighting by old age, but speakers
of quality, like cicadas that in a wood
settle on a tree and send out their lily-soft voice:
such were the leaders of the Trojans sitting on the tower.
And when they saw Helen coming to the tower,
softly they spoke winged words to one another:
"It is no cause for anger that Trojans and well-greaved Achaeans
should suffer griefs for a long time over such a woman.
Terribly does she look like the immortal goddesses to the eye.
But even so, such as she is, let her go home in the ships,
and let her not be left as an affliction to us and to our children after us."

So they spoke; and Priam called Helen with his voice:
"Come here, dear child, and sit in front of me,
so that you may see your former husband and your kinsmen and your friends.
You are not to blame in my eyes; the gods are to blame,
who roused against me the tearful war of the Achaeans.
And tell me the name of that huge man,
who this Achaean is, so valiant and so tall.
There are others taller by a head than he,
but so handsome a man I have never yet seen with my eyes,
nor one so majestic; for he looks like a king."
Then Helen, noblest of women, answered him with these words:

"Revered you are to me, dear father of my husband, and dread.
Would that evil death had pleased me when I came here
following your son, leaving my bridal chamber and my kinsfolk
and my late-born child and the lovely companions of my youth.
But that did not happen; and so I waste away with weeping.
But I will tell you what you ask me and search out.
That man is the son of Atreus, wide-ruling Agamemnon,
both a good king and a mighty spearman.
And he was brother-in-law to me, shameless that I am — if ever that was."

So she spoke, and the old man marvelled at him and said:

"O blessed son of Atreus, child of fortune, favoured of heaven,
how many indeed of the young Achaeans are subject to you!
Once I went into Phrygia of the vines,
and there I saw the Phrygian men in their multitudes, with their glancing horses,
the hosts of Otreus and of godlike Mygdon,
who were then encamped along the banks of Sangarius;
for I too, as an ally, was counted among them
on the day when the Amazons came, the women who fight like men.
But not even they were as many as the bright-eyed Achaeans."
Next the old man saw Odysseus, and asked:
"Come, tell me of this man too, dear child, who he is.
He is shorter by a head than Agamemnon son of Atreus,
but broader to look on in the shoulders and the chest.
His armour lies on the earth that nourishes many,
but he himself ranges the ranks of men like a ram.
To a thick-fleeced ram I would liken him,
that goes through a great flock of white sheep."
Then Helen, sprung from Zeus, answered him:

"That is the son of Laertes, Odysseus of many devices,
who was reared in the land of Ithaca, rugged though it is,
and who knows all manner of tricks and shrewd designs."
Then wise Antenor spoke to her in answer:

"Lady, this is a true word that you have spoken.

"For noble Odysseus once came here before,
on an embassy for your sake, with Menelaus beloved of Ares.
I entertained them as guests and welcomed them in my halls,
and I learned the build of both men and their shrewd designs.
But when they mingled with the Trojans in assembly,
and they stood, Menelaus overtopped him with his broad shoulders;
but when both were seated, Odysseus was the more majestic.
And when they wove their words and their designs before us all,
Menelaus indeed spoke fluently,
few words but very clearly, since he was not a man of many words
nor one to miss the mark; and he was the younger too.
But whenever Odysseus of many devices sprang up,
he would stand and look down, with his eyes fixed on the ground,
and he would move the staff neither backward nor forward,
but held it unmoving, like a man with no understanding;
you would say he was some sullen fellow, and a fool as well.
But when he sent out his great voice from his chest,
and words like the snowflakes of winter,
then no other mortal could contend with Odysseus;
and then we did not so marvel at the look of Odysseus."
Third the old man saw Ajax, and asked:
"Who then is that other Achaean, so valiant and so tall,
outstanding among the Argives in his head and his broad shoulders?"
Then Helen of the trailing robe, noblest of women, answered him:

"That is huge Ajax, the bulwark of the Achaeans.
And on the other side is Idomeneus, standing like a god among the Cretans,
and about him the leaders of the Cretans are gathered.
Often Menelaus beloved of Ares entertained him
in our house, whenever he came from Crete.
And now I see all the other bright-eyed Achaeans,
whom I could well recognise and tell their names;
but two marshals of the host I cannot see,
Castor the breaker of horses and Polydeuces good with his fists,
my own brothers, whom one mother bore with me.
Either they did not follow from lovely Lacedaemon,
or they did come here in their sea-going ships
but now are unwilling to go down into the battle of men,
fearing the shame and the many reproaches that are mine."

So she spoke; but the life-giving earth already held them
there in Lacedaemon, in their own dear native land.
Meanwhile the heralds were bearing through the city the faithful oaths of the gods,
two lambs, and heart-cheering wine, the fruit of the field,
in a goatskin; and the herald Idaeus carried a shining
mixing bowl and golden cups.
He stood beside the old man and roused him with words:
"Rise, son of Laomedon: the best men call you,
of the horse-taming Trojans and the bronze-clad Achaeans,
to come down to the plain, so that you may cut faithful oaths.
For Alexander and Menelaus beloved of Ares
will fight with their long spears for the woman;
and the woman and the possessions will go with the winner;
and the rest of us, cutting oaths of friendship and faith,
shall dwell on in Troy of the deep soil, and they will go home
to horse-pasturing Argos and Achaea of the lovely women."

So he spoke, and the old man shuddered; and he ordered his companions
to yoke the horses; and they quickly obeyed.
Priam mounted and drew back the reins,
and beside him Antenor stepped onto the beautiful chariot;
and the two drove the swift horses through the Scaean gates to the plain.
And when they had come among the Trojans and the Achaeans,
they stepped down from the chariot onto the earth that nourishes many
and walked out into the middle, between Trojans and Achaeans.
At once Agamemnon lord of men rose up,
and Odysseus of many devices. And the noble heralds
brought together the faithful oaths of the gods, and mixed the wine
in the bowl, and poured water over the kings’ hands.
Then the son of Atreus drew out with his hands the knife
that always hung beside the great scabbard of his sword,
and cut hairs from the heads of the lambs; and then
the heralds distributed them to the best of the Trojans and the Achaeans.
And among them the son of Atreus prayed aloud, lifting up his hands:

"Father Zeus, who rule from Ida, most glorious, most great,
and Helios, who see all things and hear all things,
and Rivers and Earth, and you two who below the ground
punish dead men, whoever swears a false oath:
be witnesses, and guard the faithful oaths.
If Alexander kills Menelaus,
then let him keep Helen and all the possessions,
and we shall go home in our sea-going ships.
But if fair-haired Menelaus kills Alexander,
then let the Trojans give back Helen and all the possessions,
and pay the Argives such recompense as is fitting,
one that shall stand also among men yet to come.
And if Priam and the sons of Priam are unwilling
to pay me the recompense when Alexander has fallen,
then I shall fight on even after that for the payment,
staying here until I come upon the end of the war."

He spoke, and cut the throats of the lambs with the pitiless bronze,
and laid them down on the ground, gasping,
with their life failing; for the bronze had taken away their fury.
They drew wine from the mixing bowl into cups
and poured it out, and prayed to the everlasting gods.
And thus would one of the Achaeans and Trojans say:
"Zeus most glorious, most great, and you other immortal gods,
whichever side first does harm against the oaths,
so may their brains be poured out on the ground like this wine,
their own and their children’s, and may their wives be subdued by others."

So they spoke; but the son of Cronos did not yet grant it them.
And among them Priam son of Dardanus spoke a word:

"Hear me, Trojans and well-greaved Achaeans.
I am going back to windy Ilium,
since I could never bear to look with my own eyes
on my dear son fighting with Menelaus beloved of Ares.
Zeus knows this, I suppose, and the other immortal gods,
for which of the two the end of death is appointed."

So spoke the godlike man, and put the lambs in the chariot,
and mounted himself and drew back the reins,
and beside him Antenor stepped onto the beautiful chariot.
So the two turned back and went away to Ilium.
But Hector son of Priam and noble Odysseus
first measured out the ground, and then
took the lots and shook them in a bronze-fitted helmet,
to see which of the two should first let fly his bronze spear.
And the hosts prayed and lifted up their hands to the gods,
and thus would one of the Achaeans and Trojans say:
"Father Zeus, who rule from Ida, most glorious, most great,
whichever of the two brought these deeds upon both peoples,
grant that he perish and go down into the house of Hades,
and that for us there be friendship and faithful oaths."

So they spoke; and great Hector of the flashing helm shook the lots,
looking away; and quickly the lot of Paris leapt out.
Then they sat down in their ranks, where each man’s
high-stepping horses and inlaid armour lay.
And he put his fine armour about his shoulders,
noble Alexander, husband of fair-haired Helen.
First he set the greaves about his shins,
fine ones, fitted with silver ankle-pieces;
and next he put the corslet about his chest,
his brother Lycaon’s; and it fitted him.
About his shoulders he slung the silver-studded sword
of bronze, and then the great and heavy shield;
and on his mighty head he set the well-made helmet
with its horsehair crest, and terribly the plume nodded above;
and he took up a strong spear that fitted his palm.
And in the same way warlike Menelaus put on his gear.
And when the two had armed on either side of the throng,
they walked out into the middle, between Trojans and Achaeans,
glaring terribly; and amazement held those who watched,
the horse-taming Trojans and the well-greaved Achaeans.
They took their stand near each other in the measured space,
shaking their spears in anger at one another.
First Alexander let fly his far-shadowing spear,
and struck the shield of the son of Atreus, balanced on every side;
but the bronze did not break through, and the point was bent back
on the strong shield. Then the son of Atreus, Menelaus,
rose second with his bronze, praying to father Zeus:
"Lord Zeus, grant that I take vengeance on the man who first did me wrong,
noble Alexander, and subdue him beneath my hands,
so that any man of those born hereafter may shudder
to do evil to a host who has offered him friendship."

He spoke, and poised his far-shadowing spear and let it fly,
and struck the shield of the son of Priam, balanced on every side.
The heavy spear went through the shining shield
and forced its way through the richly worked corslet;
and straight on beside the flank the spear sheared through
his tunic; but he swerved aside and avoided black death.
Then the son of Atreus drew his silver-studded sword
and, raising it, struck the ridge of the helmet; but about it
the sword broke in three and four pieces and fell from his hand.
And the son of Atreus groaned and looked to the broad heaven:
"Father Zeus, no other god is more destructive than you.
Surely I thought to take vengeance on Alexander for his wickedness;
but now the sword has broken in my hands, and the spear
flew from my palm for nothing, and I did not strike him."

He spoke, and leapt on him and seized the helmet of thick horsehair,
and swung him round and began dragging him toward the well-greaved Achaeans.
The embroidered strap was choking him under his soft throat,
the chin-strap of the helmet drawn tight beneath his chin.
And now he would have dragged him off and won unspeakable renown,
had not Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus, seen it sharply.
She broke the strap, cut from the hide of an ox slain by force,
and the empty helmet came away in his thick hand.
The hero whirled it round and flung it
among the well-greaved Achaeans, and his trusty companions took it up.
And he sprang back again, straining to kill him
with his bronze spear; but Aphrodite snatched him away
very easily, as a god may, and hid him in thick mist,
and set him down in his fragrant, sweet-smelling chamber.
And she herself went to call Helen; and she found her
on the high tower, and the women of Troy were thronging about her.
With her hand she plucked at her nectar-scented robe
and spoke to her in the likeness of an old woman, born long ago,
a wool-worker, who used to work fine wool for her
when she lived in Lacedaemon, and whom she loved most of all.
Likening herself to her, noble Aphrodite spoke to her:

"Come here. Alexander calls you to go home.
He is there in the chamber, on the inlaid bed,
shining in his beauty and his clothes. You would not say
he had come from fighting a man, but rather that he was going
to a dance, or sitting down having just left off dancing."

So she spoke, and stirred the spirit in her breast;
and when she saw the goddess’s beautiful neck
and lovely breasts and flashing eyes,
then she was amazed, and spoke and called her by name:

"Strange goddess, why do you long to deceive me in this way?
Will you lead me still further on, to some well-peopled city
of Phrygia or lovely Maeonia,
if there too you have some dear one among mortal men,
just because now Menelaus has beaten noble Alexander
and wishes to lead me, hateful as I am, home again?
Is that why you have come here now with your treachery?
Go and sit beside him yourself, and turn aside from the paths of the gods,
and never again let your feet carry you back to Olympus,
but always be wretched about him and keep watch over him,
until he makes you his wife, or else his slave.
I will not go there — it would be a shameful thing —
to make ready that man’s bed. The women of Troy would blame me
afterwards, every one; and I have endless griefs in my spirit."
Then noble Aphrodite spoke to her in anger:

"Do not provoke me, hard woman, or in my anger I may forsake you,
and hate you as terribly as I have loved you until now,
and devise between the two sides a bitter hatred,
Trojans and Danaans; and you would perish by an evil fate."

So she spoke, and Helen, sprung from Zeus, was afraid,
and went, wrapping herself in her shining white robe,
in silence; and none of the women of Troy saw her. The goddess led the way.
And when they had come to the beautiful house of Alexander,
the handmaids turned quickly to their work,
and she, noblest of women, went to the high-roofed chamber.
Then laughter-loving Aphrodite took a chair for her
and the goddess carried it and set it down opposite Alexander;
and there Helen sat, the daughter of aegis-bearing Zeus,
turning her eyes away, and she rebuked her husband with a word:
"You have come back from the fighting. Would that you had died there,
beaten by the mighty man who was my husband before.

"Once you used to boast that you were the better man
than Menelaus beloved of Ares, in your strength and your hands and your spear.
Go then now and challenge Menelaus beloved of Ares
to fight you face to face again. But I for my part
bid you stop, and not against fair-haired Menelaus
to wage war face to face and fight him
in your folly, lest you be quickly subdued beneath his spear."
Then Paris answered her with these words:

"Do not chide my spirit, lady, with harsh reproaches.
Now indeed Menelaus has won, with Athena’s help;
but another time I shall beat him; for we too have gods on our side.
Come, let us go to bed and turn to love;
for never yet has desire so wrapped my mind about,
not even when I first carried you off from lovely Lacedaemon
and sailed away in my sea-going ships,
and mingled with you in love on the island of Cranae,
as now I love you and sweet longing takes hold of me."

He spoke, and led the way to the bed; and his wife went with him.
So the two lay down together on the corded bed.
But the son of Atreus ranged through the throng like a wild beast,
to see if he could catch sight of godlike Alexander.
But none of the Trojans or their famous allies
could then show Alexander to Menelaus beloved of Ares.
It was not out of friendship that they would have hidden him, had any seen him;
for he was as hateful to them all as black death.
And among them Agamemnon lord of men spoke:

"Hear me, Trojans and Dardanians and allies.
The victory clearly belongs to Menelaus beloved of Ares.
Give up Argive Helen and the possessions with her,
and pay such recompense as is fitting,
one that shall stand also among men yet to come."

So spoke the son of Atreus, and the other Achaeans approved.

Now the gods sat in assembly beside Zeus
on the golden floor, and among them the lady Hebe
poured them nectar; and they pledged one another
with golden cups, looking out at the city of the Trojans.
At once the son of Cronos tried to provoke Hera
with cutting words, speaking with sidelong intent:
"Two goddesses are helpers to Menelaus,
Argive Hera and Athena of Alalcomenae.
But those two sit apart and take their pleasure
in watching; while beside the other laughter-loving Aphrodite
is always standing, and wards the death-spirits from him.
Even now she has saved him when he thought he would die.
But the victory belongs to Menelaus beloved of Ares.
Let us then consider how these things shall be:
whether we shall stir up again the evil war and the dread combat,
or cast friendship between the two sides.
If this should somehow be dear and pleasant to all,
then the city of the lord Priam might still be lived in,
and Menelaus might lead Argive Helen home again."

So he spoke, and Athena and Hera muttered.
They were sitting side by side, devising evils for the Trojans.
Athena was silent and said nothing,
sullen at father Zeus, and wild anger held her;
but Hera’s breast could not contain her anger, and she spoke:

"Most dread son of Cronos, what a word is this you have spoken!

"How can you wish to make my labour vain and unaccomplished,
and the sweat I sweated in my toil? My horses grew weary
as I gathered the host, evils for Priam and his sons.
Do it. But we other gods do not all approve."
Then greatly troubled, Zeus the cloud-gatherer said to her:

"Strange woman, what such great evils do Priam
and the sons of Priam do to you, that you rage without ceasing
to sack the well-built citadel of Ilium?
If you were to go inside the gates and the long walls
and eat Priam raw, and the sons of Priam
and the other Trojans, then you might heal your anger.
Do as you wish. Only let this quarrel not become,
hereafter, a great cause of strife between you and me.
And another thing I will tell you; lay it up in your mind.
Whenever I too am eager to sack a city,
one where the men are dear to you,
do not try to hinder my anger, but let me be;
for I have given way to you willingly, though against my spirit.
Of all the cities of men on earth that lie
beneath the sun and the starry heaven,
holy Ilium was honoured in my heart above them all,
and Priam, and the people of Priam of the good ash spear.
For my altar never lacked its equal feast,
the libation and the savour; for that is the prize of honour we are given."
Then ox-eyed lady Hera answered him:

"Three cities are by far the dearest to me,
Argos and Sparta and Mycenae of the broad ways.
Sack them, whenever they become hateful to your heart;
I shall not stand in front of them nor grudge you them.
For even if I do grudge it and will not let you sack them,
I accomplish nothing by grudging, since you are far the stronger.
But my own labour too must not be left unaccomplished;
for I am a god as well, and my birth is from the same source as yours,
and crooked-counselling Cronos bore me as the eldest daughter,
both by birth and because I am called
your wife, while you are lord over all the immortals.
But in this let us give way to one another,
I to you and you to me; and the other immortal gods
will follow. Now quickly give Athena her orders
to go into the dread combat of Trojans and Achaeans,
and to make trial, so that the Trojans may be the first
to do harm to the exulting Achaeans, against the oaths."

So she spoke, and the father of men and gods did not disobey.
At once he addressed Athena with winged words:

"Go quickly to the camp, among the Trojans and the Achaeans,
and make trial, so that the Trojans may be the first
to do harm to the exulting Achaeans, against the oaths."

So saying he urged on Athena, who was eager already,
and she darted down from the peaks of Olympus.
As when the son of crooked-counselling Cronos sends a star,
a portent for sailors or for a broad host of men,
a bright one, and many sparks fly out from it:
in that likeness Pallas Athena darted down to earth,
and leapt into the middle; and amazement held those who watched,
the horse-taming Trojans and the well-greaved Achaeans.
And one would say, looking at his neighbour:

"Surely there will be evil war again and dread combat,
or else Zeus is setting friendship between the two sides,
Zeus, who is made the steward of war for men."

So one of the Achaeans and Trojans would say.
But she went down into the throng of the Trojans in the likeness of a man,
Laodocus son of Antenor, a mighty spearman,
seeking godlike Pandarus, in the hope of finding him.
She found the son of Lycaon, flawless and mighty,
standing still; and about him were the strong ranks of shield-bearing
men, who had followed him from the streams of Aesepus.
Standing near him she addressed him with winged words:

"Will you now be persuaded by me, wise son of Lycaon?
You would dare to let a swift arrow fly at Menelaus,
and you would win favour and renown from all the Trojans,
and most of all from Alexander the king.
From him first of all you would carry off splendid gifts,
if he should see warlike Menelaus son of Atreus
brought down by your shaft and laid on the grievous pyre.
Come then, shoot at glorious Menelaus,
and vow to Apollo, Lycian-born, famed for his bow,
that you will offer a famous hecatomb of firstling lambs
when you have gone home to the city of holy Zeleia."

So spoke Athena, and persuaded the fool’s mind.
At once he uncovered his polished bow, made from a leaping wild
goat, which he himself had once struck under the breast,
as it came out from a rock, waiting for it in ambush,
and hit it in the chest; and it fell backwards on the rock.
From its head the horns had grown sixteen palms long;
and a worker in horn had fitted them and joined them,
and polished the whole well and set a golden tip upon it.
And he set it down well, bending it against the ground
to string it; and his brave companions held their shields before him,
so that the warlike sons of the Achaeans should not spring up
before warlike Menelaus son of Atreus was struck.
Then he took off the lid of his quiver, and drew out an arrow,
unshot, feathered, a bearer of black pains;
and quickly he fitted the bitter arrow to the string,
and vowed to Apollo, Lycian-born, famed for his bow,
that he would offer a famous hecatomb of firstling lambs
when he had gone home to the city of holy Zeleia.
He drew back together, gripping the notches and the ox-sinew string;
the string he brought to his breast, and the iron to the bow.
And when he had bent the great bow into a circle,
the bow twanged, the string sang loud, and the arrow leapt,
sharp-pointed, straining to fly through the throng.
Nor did the blessed immortal gods forget you, Menelaus,
and first of all the daughter of Zeus, driver of spoil,
who stood in front of you and warded off the piercing shaft.
She kept it as far from his flesh as when a mother
keeps a fly from her child when he lies in sweet sleep,
and she herself guided it to where the golden clasps
of the belt held fast and the corslet met double.
The bitter arrow fell upon the fitted belt;
it was driven through the richly worked belt,
and forced its way through the richly worked corslet
and through the guard he wore to protect his flesh, a fence against javelins,
which shielded him most; and it went right through that as well.
And the arrow grazed the outermost skin of the man,
and at once dark blood flowed from the wound.
As when a woman stains ivory with purple,
a Maeonian or a Carian, to be a cheek-piece for horses,
and it lies in a chamber, and many horsemen
have prayed to carry it; but it lies there a treasure for a king,
both an adornment for the horse and a glory for its driver:
so, Menelaus, were your thighs stained with blood,
your shapely thighs and your legs and your fine ankles below.
Then Agamemnon lord of men shuddered
when he saw the dark blood running down from the wound;
and Menelaus beloved of Ares shuddered too himself.
But when he saw that the sinew-binding and the barbs were outside,
his spirit gathered back again in his breast.
Groaning heavily, lord Agamemnon spoke among them,
holding Menelaus by the hand, and their companions groaned with him:
"Dear brother, it was your death, then, that I cut the oaths for,
setting you out alone before the Achaeans to fight the Trojans,
since the Trojans have struck you and trampled the faithful oaths.
Yet the oath is not in vain, nor the blood of the lambs,
the unmixed libations and the right hands we trusted in.
For even if the Olympian does not fulfil it at once,
he fulfils it at last, and men pay for it dearly,
with their own heads and their wives and their children.
For this I know well in my mind and in my spirit:
the day will come when holy Ilium shall perish,
and Priam, and the people of Priam of the good ash spear,
and Zeus son of Cronos, who sits on high and dwells in the sky,
shall himself shake his dark aegis over them all
in wrath at this deception. These things will not go unfulfilled.
But terrible grief will be mine for you, Menelaus,
if you die and fill up the measure of your life.
And I should come back to thirsty Argos in utter disgrace;
for at once the Achaeans would remember their native land,
and we should leave behind, as a boast for Priam and the Trojans,
Argive Helen; and the ploughland would rot your bones
as you lay in Troy with the work unfinished.
And thus would one of the overbearing Trojans say,
leaping upon the tomb of glorious Menelaus:
’Would that Agamemnon might so accomplish his anger in every case,
as now he led the host of the Achaeans here for nothing,
and has gone home to his own dear native land
with empty ships, leaving behind him brave Menelaus.’
So one day will someone say. Then may the wide earth gape for me."
But fair-haired Menelaus spoke to him and gave him courage:

"Take heart, and do not yet frighten the host of the Achaeans.
The sharp shaft did not fix in a fatal place; before it
the glittering belt protected me, and beneath
the kilt and the guard that men who work in bronze made."
Then lord Agamemnon answered him and said:

"May it be so indeed, dear Menelaus.
A healer shall handle the wound and lay on it
drugs that will stop the black pains."

He spoke, and addressed Talthybius the divine herald:

"Talthybius, call Machaon here as quickly as you can,
the son of Asclepius, the flawless healer,
so that he may see warlike Menelaus son of Atreus,
whom some man well skilled with the bow has shot and struck,
a Trojan or a Lycian: glory for him, and grief for us."

So he spoke, and the herald did not disobey when he heard,
and went off through the host of the bronze-clad Achaeans,
looking about for the hero Machaon; and he caught sight of him
standing still; and about him were the strong ranks of shield-bearing
men, who had followed him from horse-pasturing Tricce.
Standing near him he addressed him with winged words:

"Rise, son of Asclepius: lord Agamemnon is calling you,
so that you may see warlike Menelaus, leader of the Achaeans,
whom some man well skilled with the bow has shot and struck,
a Trojan or a Lycian: glory for him, and grief for us."

So he spoke, and stirred the spirit in his breast;
and they went off through the throng, through the wide camp of the Achaeans.
But when they came to where fair-haired Menelaus
lay wounded, and about him were gathered in a circle
all the best men, the godlike man came and stood in the middle,
and at once he drew the arrow from the fitted belt;
and as it was drawn out the sharp barbs were broken back.
He loosened the glittering belt and, beneath it,
the kilt and the guard that men who work in bronze had made.
And when he saw the wound where the bitter arrow had fallen,
he sucked out the blood and, with knowledge, sprinkled on it
soothing drugs, which Cheiron had once given his father in friendship.
While they were busy about Menelaus of the great war cry,
the ranks of the shield-bearing Trojans came on;
and the Achaeans put on their armour again and remembered the joy of battle.
Then you would not have seen noble Agamemnon drowsing,
nor cowering, nor unwilling to fight,
but hurrying hard into the battle where men win glory.
He left his horses and his chariot inlaid with bronze,
and his attendant held them apart, snorting,
Eurymedon son of Ptolemaeus son of Peiraeus;
and he charged him strictly to keep them near, in case
weariness should take his limbs as he marshalled the many.
And he went on foot and ranged the ranks of men.
Whomever of the Danaans with their swift horses he saw hurrying on,
he would stand beside them and greatly encourage them with words:
"Argives, do not slacken at all in your furious courage.
For father Zeus will be no helper to liars;
but as for those who were first to do harm against the oaths,
the vultures shall eat their own tender flesh,
and we shall carry off their dear wives and their little children
in our ships, when we have taken the citadel."
But whomever he saw slackening from the hateful war,
these he would greatly revile with angry words:
"Argives, braggarts with the bow, disgraces, have you no shame?
Why do you stand there stunned, like fawns
that grow tired with running over a wide plain
and stand still, and there is no courage at all in their hearts?
So you stand stunned and do not fight.
Are you waiting for the Trojans to come close, to where the ships
with their fine sterns are drawn up on the shore of the grey sea,
to see whether the son of Cronos will hold his hand over you?"
So he ranged the ranks of men, mastering them.
He came to the Cretans as he went through the crowd of men.
They were arming about wise Idomeneus:
Idomeneus among the front fighters, like a boar in courage,
and Meriones was urging on his rearmost companies.
Agamemnon lord of men rejoiced when he saw them,
and at once he spoke to Idomeneus with gentle words:

"Idomeneus, I honour you above the Danaans with their swift horses,
both in war and in every other kind of work
and at the feast, when the best of the Argives
mix the elders’ gleaming wine in the bowl.
For even if the other long-haired Achaeans
drink their measured portion, your cup always stands full,
as mine does, to drink whenever your spirit bids you.
But rouse yourself for war, and be the man you claim to have been before."
Then Idomeneus, leader of the Cretans, spoke to him in answer:

"Son of Atreus, I shall be a trusty companion to you indeed,
as I first undertook and bowed my head to it.
But rouse the other long-haired Achaeans,
so that we may fight as quickly as may be, since the Trojans
have poured the oaths away. Death and sorrows will be theirs
hereafter, since they were first to do harm against the oaths."

So he spoke, and the son of Atreus passed on, glad at heart.
He came to the two Ajaxes as he went through the crowd of men.
They were arming, and a cloud of foot soldiers came with them.
As when from a lookout a goatherd sees a cloud
coming over the sea before the blast of the West Wind,
and to him, far off as he is, it looks blacker than pitch
as it comes over the sea, and it brings a great whirlwind,
and he shudders at the sight and drives his flocks into a cave:
such were the close companies of young men nurtured by Zeus
that moved with the two Ajaxes into the hostile war,
dark companies, bristling with shields and spears.
And lord Agamemnon rejoiced when he saw them,
and he spoke to them and addressed them with winged words:

"You two Ajaxes, leaders of the bronze-clad Argives,
to you two — for it is not fitting to urge you — I give no orders;
for you yourselves are driving your men hard to fight with might.
Would, father Zeus and Athena and Apollo,
that such a spirit were in the breasts of all!
Then the city of the lord Priam would soon bow down,
taken and sacked beneath our hands."

So saying he left them there and went off after others.
There he found Nestor, the clear-voiced speaker of the men of Pylos,
setting his companions in order and urging them to fight,
about great Pelagon and Alastor and Chromius
and lord Haemon and Bias, shepherd of the host.
The charioteers he set first, with their horses and cars,
and behind them the foot soldiers, many and brave,
to be a bulwark of the war; and the cowards he drove into the middle,
so that even the unwilling man must fight of necessity.
First he laid his commands on the charioteers; for he ordered them
to hold in their horses and not to be driven in confusion through the throng.
"And let no man, trusting in his horsemanship and his manhood,
be eager to fight the Trojans alone in front of the rest,
nor let him give ground; for you will be the weaker so.
But whatever man from his own chariot reaches another’s car,
let him thrust with his spear, since that is far the better way.
So did the men of old sack cities and walls,
with this mind and this spirit in their breasts."
So the old man urged them on, long skilled in wars.
And lord Agamemnon rejoiced when he saw him,
and he spoke to him and addressed him with winged words:

"Old man, if only your knees could follow the spirit
in your own breast, and your strength were steady!
But old age, which comes to all alike, wears you down. Would that some
other man had it, and you were among the younger men."
Then the Gerenian horseman Nestor answered him:

"Son of Atreus, I too should much wish to be
as I was on the day when I killed noble Ereuthalion.
But the gods do not give men all things at once.
If I was young then, old age is upon me now.
But even so I shall be among the charioteers and give them orders
by counsel and by words; for that is the prize of honour of old men.
The younger men shall wield the spears, who were born
later than I and who trust in their strength."

So he spoke, and the son of Atreus passed on, glad at heart.
He found Menestheus son of Peteos, the driver of horses,
standing still; and about him were the Athenians, devisers of the war cry.
And near him stood Odysseus of many devices,
and beside him the ranks of the Cephallenians, no feeble ones,
were standing; for their host had not yet heard the war cry,
but the companies of the horse-taming Trojans and of the Achaeans
were only just being stirred and set in motion; and they were waiting,
standing still, until some other column of the Achaeans should come up
and charge the Trojans and begin the fighting.
Agamemnon lord of men saw them and reviled them,
and he spoke to them and addressed them with winged words:

"Son of Peteos, the king nurtured by Zeus,
and you, master of evil tricks, schemer for gain:
why do you stand apart cowering, waiting for others?
It would be fitting for you two to stand among the foremost
and to face the scorching battle;
for you two are the first to hear of my feast,
whenever we Achaeans make ready a feast for the elders.
There you are glad to eat roasted meat and to drink cups
of honey-sweet wine as long as you wish.
But now you would gladly look on even if ten columns of the Achaeans
were fighting in front of you with the pitiless bronze."
Then with a dark look Odysseus of many devices said to him:

"Son of Atreus, what a word has escaped the barrier of your teeth!
How can you say that we hang back from the war, when the Achaeans
rouse the keen war god against the horse-taming Trojans?
You shall see, if you wish and if these things are your concern,
the dear father of Telemachus mingling with the front fighters
of the horse-taming Trojans. This talk of yours is empty wind."
Then lord Agamemnon smiled at him and spoke,
since he knew he was angry; and he took his word back again:
"Zeus-born son of Laertes, Odysseus of many wiles,
I neither revile you beyond measure nor give you orders;
for I know that the spirit in your own breast
knows gentle counsels; you think as I think myself.
But come; we shall make these things good hereafter, if any evil
has been spoken now; and may the gods make it all come to nothing."

So saying he left them there and went off after others.
He found the son of Tydeus, high-spirited Diomedes,
standing among his horses and his jointed chariot,
and beside him stood Sthenelus, the son of Capaneus.
Lord Agamemnon saw him and reviled him,
and he spoke to him and addressed him with winged words:

"Ah me, son of Tydeus, the wise breaker of horses,
why do you cower, why do you peer at the causeways of the war?
It was not Tydeus’ way to cower like this,
but to fight the enemy far in front of his own companions,
as those said who saw him at his work; for I myself
never met him nor saw him; but they say he surpassed all others.
Once he came to Mycenae, not in war,
but as a guest with godlike Polyneices, gathering a host;
for they were then campaigning against the holy walls of Thebe,
and they earnestly begged us to give them famous allies.
And our men were willing to give them, and approved as they asked;
but Zeus turned them aside by showing signs of ill omen.
So when they had gone and were well on their way,
and had come to Asopus of the deep rushes and the grassy banks,
there the Achaeans sent Tydeus out with a message.
He went, and found many of the sons of Cadmus
feasting in the house of the mighty Eteocles.
There Tydeus the driver of horses, stranger though he was,
was not afraid, alone among many Cadmeians,
but challenged them to contests, and won them all
easily; such a helper was Athena to him.
But the Cadmeians, goaders of horses, were angered,
and as he went back they set a close ambush for him,
fifty young men; and there were two leaders,
Maeon son of Haemon, the equal of the immortals,
and the son of Autophonus, Polyphontes, staunch in war.
Tydeus set a shameful doom upon these as well:
he killed them all, and let one only go home;
he let Maeon go, obeying the portents of the gods.
Such was Tydeus the Aetolian. But the son he begot
is worse than himself in battle, though better in the assembly."

So he spoke, and mighty Diomedes said nothing to him,
in awe of the rebuke of the king he revered.
But the son of glorious Capaneus answered him:
"Son of Atreus, do not lie when you know how to speak the truth.
We claim to be far better men than our fathers.
We took the seat of seven-gated Thebe,
having led a smaller host beneath a stronger wall,
trusting in the portents of the gods and the help of Zeus;
but those men perished by their own recklessness.
So do not set our fathers in the same honour with us."
Then with a dark look mighty Diomedes said to him:

"Friend, sit in silence and obey my word.
I do not blame Agamemnon, shepherd of the host,
for urging the well-greaved Achaeans to fight.
For the renown will go with him if the Achaeans
cut down the Trojans and take holy Ilium,
and his too will be the great grief if the Achaeans are cut down.
Come then, let us two also turn our minds to furious courage."

He spoke, and leapt in his armour from the chariot to the ground.
Terribly the bronze rang on the breast of the lord
as he rose; fear would have taken even a stout-hearted man.
As when on a loud-sounding shore the wave of the sea
rises wave upon wave under the driving of the West Wind —
far out on the deep it first gathers its crest, and then
breaks on the land and roars aloud, and about the headlands
it arches and peaks and spits out the salt foam:
so then the companies of the Danaans moved wave upon wave,
without pause, into the war; and each of the leaders
gave orders to his own. The rest went in silence — you would not say
that so great a host followed with a voice in their breasts,
silent in fear of their commanders. And about them all
the inlaid armour shone that they wore as they marched in ranks.
But the Trojans, as the countless ewes in the courtyard of a man of many flocks
stand to be milked of their white milk
and bleat without ceasing as they hear the voice of their lambs:
so the shouting of the Trojans rose through their wide camp.
For their cry was not the same for all, nor was their speech one,
but their tongues were mixed, and the men were called from many lands.
Ares roused the one side, and grey-eyed Athena the other,
and Terror and Rout and Strife, raging without end,
sister and companion of man-slaying Ares,
who at first rears herself small, but afterwards
plants her head in heaven while she walks upon the earth.
She it was who then cast strife, which comes to all alike, into their midst,
going through the throng and increasing the groaning of men.
And when they had come together and met in one place,
they dashed together their shields of hide, and their spears, and the fury of men
in bronze corslets; and the bossed shields
clashed against one another, and a great din arose.
There was groaning and boasting together, of men
killing and being killed, and the earth ran with blood.
As when winter torrents flowing down from the mountains
throw their heavy water together at a meeting of glens,
from great springs inside a hollow ravine,
and far off in the hills a shepherd hears the roar:
such was the shouting and the toil as they mingled.
First Antilochus killed a helmeted Trojan man,
a good man among the front fighters, Echepolus son of Thalysius.
Him he was first to strike, on the ridge of his thick-horsehair helmet,
and drove it into his forehead, and the bronze point
passed through the bone; and darkness covered his eyes,
and he fell like a tower in the mighty encounter.
As he fell the lord Elephenor caught him by the feet,
son of Chalcodon, lord of the great-hearted Abantes,
and dragged him out from under the missiles, straining to strip
his armour as quickly as he could; but his rush was short-lived.
For great-hearted Agenor saw him dragging the corpse,
in the side, which was left bare by his shield as he stooped,
and stabbed him with a bronze-tipped shaft, and loosened his limbs.
So his spirit left him, and over him a grievous work
was done by the Trojans and the Achaeans; and like wolves
they leapt on one another, and man grappled with man.
There Ajax son of Telamon struck the son of Anthemion,
the unmarried youth in his prime, Simoeisius, whom once his mother
bore beside the banks of the Simoeis, as she came down
from Ida, when she had gone with her parents to see the flocks;
and for that they called him Simoeisius. But he did not repay
his dear parents for his rearing, and his life was short,
brought down beneath the spear of great-hearted Ajax.
For as he came on he struck him in the chest beside the right
nipple; and straight through the shoulder the bronze spear
went; and he fell to the ground in the dust like a poplar
that has grown in the low ground of a great marsh,
smooth, but with branches growing at its very top;
and a chariot-maker with gleaming iron
cuts it down, to bend a wheel-rim for a beautiful chariot,
and it lies drying beside the banks of the river:
such was Simoeisius son of Anthemion when he was stripped
by Zeus-born Ajax. At him Antiphus of the glittering corslet,
the son of Priam, hurled his sharp spear through the throng.
He missed him, but struck Leucus, the brave companion of Odysseus,
in the groin, as he was dragging the corpse the other way;
and he fell upon it, and the body dropped from his hand.
Odysseus was greatly angered in his spirit at his killing,
and he strode through the front fighters, helmeted in gleaming bronze,
and came and stood very near and hurled his shining spear,
peering about him; and the Trojans shrank back
from the man as he cast. And he did not send his shaft in vain,
but struck Democoon, a bastard son of Priam,
who had come to him from Abydus, from the swift mares.
Him Odysseus, angered for his companion, struck with his spear
on the temple; and the bronze point passed clean through
the other temple; and darkness covered his eyes,
and he fell with a thud, and his armour clattered upon him.
And the front fighters gave ground, and shining Hector with them;
and the Argives shouted aloud and dragged off the bodies,
and pressed forward far. But Apollo was indignant,
looking down from Pergamus, and he called to the Trojans with a shout:

"Rise, horse-taming Trojans, and do not yield the joy of battle
to the Argives; their flesh is not stone nor iron
to hold off the flesh-cutting bronze when they are struck.
And Achilles, son of fair-haired Thetis, is not
fighting, but beside the ships he digests his heart-grieving anger."

So spoke the dread god from the city. But the Achaeans
were roused by the daughter of Zeus, most glorious Tritogeneia,
who went through the throng wherever she saw them slackening.
There fate fettered Diores son of Amarynceus.
For he was struck by a jagged stone beside the ankle,
on the right shin; and the man who threw it was the leader of the Thracians,
Peirous son of Imbrasus, who had come from Aenus.
The ruthless stone crushed both the tendons and the bones
utterly; and he fell backwards in the dust,
stretching out both his hands to his dear companions,
gasping out his life. And the man who had struck him ran up,
Peirous, and stabbed him with his spear beside the navel; and all
his bowels poured out on the ground, and darkness covered his eyes.
But Thoas the Aetolian struck him with his spear as he rushed away,
in the chest above the nipple, and the bronze fixed in his lung.
Thoas came close to him and drew the heavy spear
out of his chest, and drew his sharp sword,
and with it struck him full in the belly and took away his life.
But he did not strip his armour; for his companions stood around him,
the Thracians with hair on the crown of their heads, holding long spears in their hands,
and they thrust him back from them, great and mighty and noble
though he was; and he gave ground and was driven off.

So the two lay stretched in the dust beside one another,
the one leader of the Thracians, the other of the bronze-clad
Epeians; and many others were killed about them.
Then no man who came upon that work could have found fault with it,
one who was still unstruck and unwounded by the sharp bronze
and moved through the middle, with Pallas Athena leading him
by the hand and keeping off the rush of the missiles;
for many of the Trojans and Achaeans on that day
lay stretched face down in the dust beside one another.

Then to the son of Tydeus, Diomedes, Pallas Athena
gave fury and daring, so that he might stand out among all
the Argives and win noble glory.
She kindled from his helmet and his shield a tireless fire,
like the star of late summer, which above all
shines bright and clear, bathed in the Ocean;
such was the fire she kindled from his head and his shoulders,
and she drove him into the middle, where the most were struggling.
There was among the Trojans one Dares, rich and blameless,
a priest of Hephaestus; and he had two sons,
Phegeus and Idaeus, both well skilled in every kind of fighting.
These two broke from the ranks and charged against him,
the pair of them from their chariot, while he came on foot from the ground.
And when they had come close, advancing on one another,
Phegeus was the first to let fly his far-shadowing spear;
and over the left shoulder of the son of Tydeus the point
of the spear went, and did not strike him. Then he rushed on with the bronze,
the son of Tydeus; and the missile did not fly from his hand in vain,
but struck the chest between the nipples and thrust him from the chariot.
And Idaeus sprang away, leaving the very beautiful car,
and did not dare to stand over his brother’s body;
nor indeed would he himself have escaped the black death,
but Hephaestus shielded him and saved him, wrapping him in night,
so that the old man might not be utterly broken with grief.
And the son of great-hearted Tydeus drove away the horses
and gave them to his companions to lead down to the hollow ships.
But when the great-hearted Trojans saw the two sons of Dares,
the one in flight, the other slain beside the chariot,
the spirit of them all was shaken. But grey-eyed Athena
took impetuous Ares by the hand and spoke to him:

"Ares, Ares, bane of mortals, blood-stained stormer of walls,
shall we not leave the Trojans and the Achaeans
to fight, to whichever of the two father Zeus holds out the triumph,
and the two of us withdraw, and avoid the wrath of Zeus?"

So saying, she led impetuous Ares out of the battle,
and then she seated him on the sandy banks of Scamander.
And the Danaans bent the Trojans back; each of the leaders
took his man. First Agamemnon, lord of men,
hurled great Odius, captain of the Halizones, from his chariot;
for as he turned first to flee he fixed the spear in his back
between the shoulders, and drove it on through his chest,
and he fell with a thud, and his armour clattered upon him.
And Idomeneus killed Phaestus, son of Borus the Maeonian,
who had come from Tarne of the rich soil.
Him Idomeneus famed with the spear stabbed with his long spear
in the right shoulder as he was mounting his chariot;
and he fell from the car, and hateful darkness took him.
The attendants of Idomeneus stripped him of his armour.
And Scamandrius the son of Strophius, skilled in the hunt,
Menelaus son of Atreus took with his sharp spear,
a fine hunter; for Artemis herself had taught him
to shoot every wild thing that the forest rears in the mountains.
But Artemis the shooter of arrows did not help him then,
nor his long-range archery, in which he had once excelled;
but Menelaus son of Atreus, famed with the spear,
as he fled before him, wounded him in the back with the spear
between the shoulders, and drove it on through his chest,
and he fell face down, and his armour clattered upon him.
And Meriones killed Phereclus, son of Harmonides
the carpenter, who knew how to make with his hands all manner
of intricate work; for Pallas Athena loved him above others.
It was he who built for Alexander the balanced ships,
the beginning of the evil, which became a ruin for all the Trojans
and for himself, since he knew nothing of the decrees of the gods.
When Meriones had run him down in pursuit,
he struck him in the right buttock; and straight through,
clean out under the bone by the bladder, went the point.
He fell to his knees with a cry, and death enfolded him.
And Meges killed Pedaeus, the son of Antenor,
who was a bastard, but noble Theano had reared him with care,
equal with her own dear children, to please her husband.
The son of Phyleus, famed with the spear, came close
and struck him on the head at the nape with his sharp spear;
and straight on through the teeth under the tongue the bronze cut;
and he fell in the dust, and his teeth closed on the cold bronze.
And Eurypylus son of Euaemon killed noble Hypsenor,
the son of high-spirited Dolopion, who had been made
priest of Scamander, and was honoured by the people like a god —
him Eurypylus, the splendid son of Euaemon,
as he fled before him, ran down and struck on the shoulder
with a rush of the sword, and shore away the heavy arm.
The bloody arm fell to the plain; and over his eyes
came dark death and overmastering fate.

So they laboured on through the mighty struggle.
But of the son of Tydeus you could not have told to which side he belonged,
whether he moved among the Trojans or among the Achaeans.
For he raged across the plain like a swollen river
in winter flood, that in its swift running scatters the dykes;
the close-built dykes cannot hold it back,
nor do the fences of the flourishing orchards stay it
when it comes suddenly, when the rain of Zeus bears down;
and many fair works of young men fall in ruin before it.
So before the son of Tydeus the close-packed ranks
of the Trojans were driven in rout, and they did not hold him, many as they were.
But when the splendid son of Lycaon saw him
raging across the plain, driving the ranks in rout before him,
at once he bent his curved bow against the son of Tydeus,
and hit him as he charged, on the right shoulder,
in the plate of his corslet; the bitter arrow flew through it
and passed clean out, and the corslet was spattered with blood.
And the splendid son of Lycaon shouted loud over him:
"Rouse yourselves, great-hearted Trojans, drivers of horses!
For the best of the Achaeans is struck, and I do not think
he will long hold out against the strong shaft, if truly
the lord, son of Zeus, sped me on my way from Lycia."

So he spoke in boasting; but the swift shaft did not bring him down,
and he drew back and stood before his horses and his car
and spoke to Sthenelus, the son of Capaneus:

"Up, good friend, son of Capaneus, get down from the chariot,
and draw the bitter arrow out of my shoulder."

So he spoke, and Sthenelus leapt from the chariot to the ground,
and standing beside him drew the swift shaft clean out of the shoulder;
and the blood spurted up through the woven tunic.
Then Diomedes of the great war cry prayed aloud:

"Hear me, child of aegis-bearing Zeus, Unwearying One:
if ever with kind intent you stood beside my father
in the fury of war, be my friend now also, Athena.
Grant me to kill that man, and to come within a spear’s cast
of him who struck me first and now boasts, and says that I
shall not long look upon the bright light of the sun."

So he spoke in prayer, and Pallas Athena heard him,
and made his limbs light, his feet and his hands above;
and standing near him she addressed him with winged words:

"Take courage now, Diomedes, and fight against the Trojans;
for I have put into your breast your father’s fury,
the fearless fury that Tydeus the horseman had, the wielder of the shield;
and I have taken from your eyes the mist that was on them before,
so that you may know well both a god and a man.
Therefore now, if a god comes here to make trial of you,
do not fight face to face against the immortal gods,
the others; but if the daughter of Zeus, Aphrodite,
comes into the battle, wound her with the sharp bronze."
So saying, grey-eyed Athena went away,
and the son of Tydeus went back and mingled with the front-fighters;
and though he had been eager before in his spirit to fight the Trojans,
now three times as much fury seized him, as it seizes a lion
that a shepherd in the field, among his woolly sheep,
has grazed as it leapt the wall of the fold, but has not killed;
he has roused its strength, and then does not defend them,
but slips into the buildings, and the deserted flock takes fright;
and they lie heaped one upon another,
while the lion in his fury leaps out of the deep-walled fold —
so in his fury mighty Diomedes mingled with the Trojans.
There he killed Astynous and Hypeiron, shepherd of the host:
the one he struck above the nipple with his bronze-shod spear,
the other he smote with his great sword on the collarbone by the shoulder,
and shore the shoulder away from the neck and from the back.
These he left, and went after Abas and Polyidus,
sons of Eurydamas, the old reader of dreams;
for them, when they went out, the old man did not read the dreams,
but mighty Diomedes stripped them of their armour.
Then he went after Xanthus and Thoon, the sons of Phaenops,
both of them well-beloved late-born sons; and he was worn with wretched old age,
and begot no other son to leave behind over his possessions.
There Diomedes killed them, and took away the dear life
of both, and left to the father lamentation and wretched sorrows,
since he did not receive them alive, home again from the battle;
and distant kinsmen divided up the inheritance.
Then he took two sons of Priam son of Dardanus,
who were in one chariot, Echemmon and Chromius.
As a lion springing among cattle breaks the neck
of a heifer or a cow as they graze in the woodland,
so the son of Tydeus thrust both of them down
from the chariot, hard against their will, and then stripped their armour,
and gave the horses to his companions to drive to the ships.
But Aeneas saw him wasting the ranks of men,
and went through the fighting and the clash of spears
seeking godlike Pandarus, in the hope of finding him.
He found the son of Lycaon, blameless and strong,
and stood before him and spoke a word to his face:

"Pandarus, where are your bow and your winged arrows
and your glory? In that no man here can match you,
nor does anyone in Lycia claim to be better than you.
Come, lift your hands to Zeus and let fly a shaft at this man,
whoever he is who prevails and has already done much harm
to the Trojans, since he has loosened the knees of many good men —
unless he is some god, angry with the Trojans,
wrathful over sacrifices; and hard is the wrath of a god."
Then the splendid son of Lycaon answered him in turn:

"Aeneas, counsellor of the bronze-clad Trojans,
I liken him in everything to the skilled son of Tydeus:
I know him by his shield and by his crested helmet,
and I see his horses; but I do not know for certain that he is not a god.
And if he is the man I say, the skilled son of Tydeus,
then not without a god does he rage like this, but one of the immortals
stands near him, his shoulders wrapped in cloud,
who turned aside my swift shaft as it reached him.
For I have already let fly a shaft at him, and struck him on the shoulder,
the right one, clean through the plate of his corslet;
and I thought I had sent him down to Aidoneus,
and yet I did not bring him down: some god is angry.
And I have no horses here, no chariot I might mount;
but in the halls of Lycaon there are eleven cars,
beautiful, newly joined, newly made, and cloths
are spread over them; and beside each of them a pair of horses
stands, feeding on white barley and on spelt.
Truly the old spearman Lycaon urged me much
in his well-built house when I was setting out:
he told me to mount my horses and my chariot
and so lead the Trojans through the mighty struggles.
But I did not obey him — and it would have been far better —
sparing the horses, in case they should lack fodder
with men penned in, they that were used to eating their fill.
So I left them, and came to Ilium on foot,
trusting in my bow; and it was not going to help me.
For I have already let fly at two of their champions,
the son of Tydeus and the son of Atreus, and from both of them
I truly drew blood with my shot, and only roused them the more.
So it was under an evil fate that I took my curved bow
from the peg on that day when I led the Trojans
to lovely Ilium, doing a favour to noble Hector.
But if I return and see with my eyes
my native land and my wife and my great high-roofed house,
then may some stranger cut off my head at once
if I do not break this bow with my hands
and throw it into the blazing fire; for it goes with me to no purpose."
Then Aeneas, leader of the Trojans, said to him in turn:

"Do not speak so. It will be no different before this,
until the two of us go against this man with horses and chariot
and make trial of him face to face in arms.
Come, mount my chariot, so that you may see
what the horses of Tros are like, how they know the plain
and can gallop swiftly this way and that, in pursuit and in flight.
They will bring the two of us safe to the city, if once again
Zeus holds out the triumph to Diomedes son of Tydeus.
Come then, take the whip and the shining reins,
and I will dismount from the horses to fight;
or else do you meet him, and the horses shall be my care."
Then the splendid son of Lycaon answered him in turn:

"Aeneas, do you keep the reins yourself, and your own horses;
they will carry the curved chariot better under the driver
they are used to, if we have to flee from the son of Tydeus.
I fear they may take fright and balk, and be unwilling
to carry us out of the battle, missing your voice,
and the son of great-hearted Tydeus rush upon us
and kill us both and drive off the single-hooved horses.
So drive your own chariot yourself, and your own horses,
and I will meet the man’s onset with my sharp spear."

So they spoke, and mounted the ornate chariot,
and eagerly drove the swift horses at the son of Tydeus.
And Sthenelus, the splendid son of Capaneus, saw them,
and at once addressed the son of Tydeus with winged words:

"Diomedes son of Tydeus, dear to my spirit,
I see two mighty men, eager to fight against you,
with strength beyond measure. One is well skilled with the bow,
Pandarus, and he claims besides to be the son of Lycaon;
and Aeneas claims to be born the son of blameless
Anchises, and his mother is Aphrodite.
Come, let us give ground on the chariot, and do not go raging
like this through the front-fighters, or you may lose your dear life."
Then mighty Diomedes spoke to him with a dark look:

"Do not speak of flight to me, for I do not think you will persuade me.
It is not in my blood to fight while shrinking back,
nor to cower; my fury is still steady in me.
I shrink from mounting the chariot: even as I am
I will go against them. Pallas Athena does not let me tremble.
As for those two, their swift horses will not carry them back
away from us both, even if one of them should escape.
And I will say another thing, and you lay it up in your mind:
if Athena of many counsels holds out the triumph to me
to kill them both, then you hold these swift horses
here, lashing the reins fast to the chariot rail,
and remember to rush at the horses of Aeneas
and drive them from the Trojans to the well-greaved Achaeans.
For they are of that stock which wide-seeing Zeus gave to Tros
in recompense for his son Ganymede, since they are the best
of all horses under the dawn and the sun;
and from that stock Anchises, lord of men, stole a breed,
putting his mares to them in secret from Laomedon.
From these six were born to him in his halls;
four of them he kept himself and reared at the manger,
and the other two he gave to Aeneas, devisers of rout.
If we could take these two, we would win noble glory."

So they spoke such things to one another,
and the two came swiftly near, driving their swift horses.
The splendid son of Lycaon spoke to him first:

"Stout-hearted, skilled son of noble Tydeus,
truly my swift shaft did not bring you down, the bitter arrow;
now I will make trial with the spear, to see if I hit you."

He spoke, and poised and let fly his far-shadowing spear,
and struck the shield of the son of Tydeus; straight through it
the bronze point flew, and drove on to the corslet.
And the splendid son of Lycaon shouted loud over him:
"You are hit in the flank, clean through, and I do not think
you will hold out much longer; and you have given me a great boast."
But mighty Diomedes, unafraid, said to him:

"You have missed, you did not hit. But I do not think the two of you
will leave off before one or the other falls
and gluts Ares with his blood, the shield-enduring warrior."

So saying he let fly; and Athena guided the shaft
to the nose beside the eye, and it went through the white teeth.
The unyielding bronze cut off his tongue at the root,
and the point came out through the base of the chin.
He fell from the chariot, and his armour clattered upon him,
glittering and shining; and his swift-footed horses
shied aside; and there his spirit and his fury were loosed.
And Aeneas leapt down with his shield and his long spear,
fearing that the Achaeans might somehow drag the body away.
He strode about it like a lion trusting in his strength,
and held his spear before him and his shield balanced on every side,
eager to kill whoever should come against him,
crying his terrible cry. But the son of Tydeus took up a stone
in his hand, a great feat, which two men could not carry,
such as men are now; yet he wielded it easily, alone.
With it he struck Aeneas on the hip, where the thigh
turns in the hip — men call it the socket —
and he crushed the socket, and broke both the tendons as well;
and the jagged stone tore the skin away. But the hero
sank to his knees and stayed there, and braced himself with his thick hand
on the earth; and dark night covered his eyes.
And now Aeneas, lord of men, would have perished there,
had not the daughter of Zeus, Aphrodite, been quick to see it,
his mother, who bore him to Anchises as he herded his cattle.
She flung her white arms about her dear son,
and spread a fold of her shining robe before him
to be a fence against missiles, so that none of the Danaans of the swift horses
might cast bronze into his breast and take away his life.
So she carried her dear son out of the battle.
And the son of Capaneus did not forget the charge
that Diomedes of the great war cry had laid upon him,
but he held his own single-hooved horses back
away from the tumult, lashing the reins to the chariot rail,
and rushed at the fair-maned horses of Aeneas
and drove them from the Trojans to the well-greaved Achaeans.
He gave them to Deipylus his dear companion, whom he honoured
beyond all of his own age, because his thoughts were in accord with his own,
to drive to the hollow ships. Then the hero
mounted his own chariot and took the shining reins,
and at once drove the strong-hooved horses after the son of Tydeus,
eagerly. And he went after Cypris with the pitiless bronze,
knowing that she was a coward goddess, not one of those goddesses
who hold sway in the war of men,
neither Athena nor Enyo the sacker of cities.
But when at last he caught her, pressing through the great throng,
then the son of great-hearted Tydeus reached out
and leaping upon her wounded the surface of her hand with his sharp spear,
her tender hand; and at once the spear pierced the flesh
through the ambrosial robe which the Graces themselves had wrought,
above the base of the palm; and the immortal blood of the goddess flowed,
ichor, such as flows in the blessed gods;
for they eat no bread, they drink no gleaming wine,
and therefore they are bloodless and are called immortal.
And she cried out loudly and let her son fall from her;
but Phoebus Apollo caught him up in his arms
in a dark cloud, so that none of the Danaans of the swift horses
might cast bronze into his breast and take away his life.
And Diomedes of the great war cry shouted loud over her:
"Give way, daughter of Zeus, from war and from fighting.
Is it not enough that you beguile feeble women?
But if you go into the war, I think you will
shudder at war itself, even if you only hear of it far off."

So he spoke, and she went away distraught, in terrible pain.
Iris, swift as the wind, took her and led her out of the throng,
weighed down with her anguish, and her fair skin was darkening.
Then she found impetuous Ares sitting on the left of the battle,
and his spear and his swift horses were resting on the mist.
And she fell to her knees, and of her dear brother
with much entreaty asked for the horses with the golden frontlets:
"Dear brother, take care of me and give me your horses,
so that I may come to Olympus, where the seat of the immortals is.
I am too much weighed down by the wound a mortal man gave me,
the son of Tydeus, who now would fight even with father Zeus."

So she spoke, and Ares gave her the horses with the golden frontlets;
and she mounted the chariot, grieving in her dear heart,
and Iris mounted beside her and took the reins in her hands,
and lashed them to a gallop, and the two flew on, not unwilling.
And swiftly then they came to steep Olympus, the seat of the gods;
there swift Iris, wind-footed, halted the horses
and loosed them from the car, and threw ambrosial fodder before them;
and noble Aphrodite fell at the knees of Dione,
her mother; and she took her daughter in her arms
and stroked her with her hand, and spoke and called her by name:

"Which of the sons of Heaven has done such things to you, dear child,
rashly, as though you had been caught doing some open wrong?"
Then laughter-loving Aphrodite answered her:

"The son of Tydeus wounded me, high-spirited Diomedes,
because I was carrying my dear son out of the battle,
Aeneas, who is by far the dearest of all to me.
For it is no longer the dread strife of Trojans and Achaeans,
but now the Danaans fight even with the immortals."
Then Dione, noble among goddesses, answered her:

"Endure it, my child, and bear up, however grieved you are.
For many of us who have our homes on Olympus have endured
hard sufferings from men, laying them on one another.
Ares endured it, when Otus and mighty Ephialtes,
the sons of Aloeus, bound him in a strong bond;
he lay bound in a bronze jar for thirteen months.
And Ares, insatiate of war, would have perished there,
had not their stepmother, the very beautiful Eeriboea,
carried word to Hermes; and he stole Ares away
when he was already worn out, and the hard bond was breaking him.
Hera endured it, when the mighty son of Amphitryon
struck her in the right breast with a three-barbed arrow;
then pain past healing took hold of her too.
And monstrous Hades endured the swift arrow among them,
when the same man, the son of aegis-bearing Zeus,
struck him in Pylos among the dead and gave him over to pain.
And he went to the house of Zeus and to high Olympus
grieving in his heart, pierced with pains; for the arrow
had been driven into his massive shoulder, and it wore down his spirit.
But Paeeon sprinkled pain-killing drugs upon him
and healed him; for he was not made mortal.
Reckless, violent man, who cared nothing for the outrages he did,
who with his bow troubled the gods that hold Olympus.
And it was the goddess grey-eyed Athena who set this man on you.
Fool — the son of Tydeus does not know in his mind
that a man who fights the immortals does not live long,
and no children call him father at his knees
when he comes home from the war and the dread fighting.
So now let the son of Tydeus, mighty as he is,
beware lest someone better than you fight with him,
lest Aegialeia, the prudent daughter of Adrastus,
wake her dear household with her wailing out of sleep,
mourning for her wedded husband, the best of the Achaeans,
the strong wife of Diomedes, tamer of horses."

She spoke, and with both hands wiped the ichor from the arm;
the hand was healed, and the heavy pains eased.
But Athena and Hera, watching them,
provoked Zeus son of Cronos with mocking words.
And the goddess grey-eyed Athena began to speak among them:
"Father Zeus, will you be angry with me for what I say?
Cypris, surely, was urging some Achaean woman
to follow the Trojans, whom now she loves so terribly,
and while she stroked one of the fair-robed Achaean women
she scratched her slender hand on a golden brooch-pin."

So she spoke, and the father of men and gods smiled,
and called golden Aphrodite to him and said:

"The works of war are not given to you, my child;
but do you attend to the lovely works of marriage,
and all this will be the care of swift Ares and Athena."

So they spoke such things to one another;
but Diomedes of the great war cry rushed at Aeneas,
knowing that Apollo himself held his hands over him.
Yet he had no awe even of the great god, and was still eager
to kill Aeneas and strip his glorious armour.
Three times then he rushed at him, raging to kill him,
and three times Apollo beat back his shining shield.
But when for the fourth time he came on like a divine power,
Apollo who works from afar cried out terribly and spoke to him:

"Take heed, son of Tydeus, and give way, and do not seek
to think thoughts equal to the gods; for never are they of one kind,
the race of immortal gods and of men who walk upon the ground."

So he spoke, and the son of Tydeus drew back a little,
avoiding the wrath of Apollo the far-darter.
And Apollo set Aeneas apart from the throng
in holy Pergamus, where his temple had been built.
There Leto and Artemis the shooter of arrows
healed him and gave him glory in the great sanctuary.
But Apollo of the silver bow made a phantom,
like Aeneas himself and in armour like his;
and about the phantom the Trojans and the noble Achaeans
hacked at one another’s breasts, at the oxhide
round shields and the light fluttering bucklers.
Then Phoebus Apollo spoke to impetuous Ares:

"Ares, Ares, bane of mortals, blood-stained stormer of walls,
will you not go and drag this man out of the battle,
the son of Tydeus, who now would fight even with father Zeus?
First he wounded Cypris in close fight, on the hand at the wrist,
and then he rushed at me myself like a divine power."

So saying, he himself sat down on the height of Pergamus,
and destroying Ares went among the Trojan ranks and urged them on,
in the likeness of Acamas, the swift leader of the Thracians;
and he called to the sons of Priam, nurtured of Zeus:
"Sons of Priam, the king nurtured of Zeus,
how long will you let your people be killed by the Achaeans?
Until they are fighting around the well-built gates?
A man lies fallen whom we honoured equal to noble Hector,
Aeneas, son of high-hearted Anchises.
Come, let us save our noble comrade from the tumult."

So saying, he stirred the fury and the spirit of every man.
Then Sarpedon rebuked noble Hector sharply:
"Hector, where has the fury gone that you had before?
You used to say that without the host and without allies
you would hold the city, alone with your brothers and your sisters’ husbands.
Of these I can now see none, nor make out any,
but they cower like dogs around a lion,
and it is we who fight, we who are only allies here.
For I too, being an ally, have come from very far away;
far off is Lycia, on the eddying Xanthus,
where I left my dear wife and my infant son,
and my many possessions, which a needy man longs for.
Yet even so I urge on the Lycians, and I am eager myself
to fight my man; and I have nothing here of the kind
the Achaeans might carry off or drive away.
But you stand there, and do not even command the rest
of your people to hold their ground and defend their wives.
Take care that you are not caught, as in the meshes of an all-taking net,
and become the spoil and the prey of hostile men,
and they soon sack your well-settled city.
All this must be your care by night and by day,
entreating the leaders of your far-famed allies
to hold on without ceasing, and put away your bitter reproach."

So spoke Sarpedon, and the word bit into Hector’s heart.
At once he leapt from his chariot to the ground in his armour,
and shaking his sharp spears he went everywhere through the host
urging them to fight; and he roused the dread battle.
And they rallied and stood facing the Achaeans;
and the Argives held their ground in close order and did not flee.
As the wind carries chaff about the sacred threshing floors
when men are winnowing, and fair-haired Demeter
separates the grain and the chaff in the driving wind,
and the heaps of chaff whiten beneath — so then the Achaeans
grew white above with the dust, which through them
up to the brazen heaven the feet of the horses beat
as they mingled again; and the drivers wheeled them round.
And the men carried the fury of their hands straight on; and about them night
impetuous Ares wrapped over the battle, helping the Trojans,
going everywhere; for he was fulfilling the commands
of Phoebus Apollo of the golden sword, who had bidden him
rouse the spirit of the Trojans, since he had seen Pallas Athena
going away; for she had been the helper of the Danaans.
And Apollo himself sent Aeneas out of his rich sanctuary
and cast fury into the breast of the shepherd of the host.
And Aeneas took his place among his companions; and they rejoiced
when they saw him coming alive and unhurt
and with noble fury in him; but they asked him nothing.
For another labour would not let them, which the god of the silver bow was rousing,
and Ares, bane of mortals, and Strife raging without stint.
And the two Ajaxes and Odysseus and Diomedes
urged the Danaans on to fight; and they themselves
feared neither the violence of the Trojans nor their onsets,
but stood like the clouds which the son of Cronos
sets on the mountain peaks in a windless calm,
motionless, while the fury of the North Wind sleeps and of the other
violent winds, which with their shrill blasts
scatter the shadowy clouds when they blow —
so the Danaans stood firm against the Trojans and did not flee.
And the son of Atreus went through the throng with many commands:
"Friends, be men, and take up a valiant heart,
and have respect for one another through the mighty struggles.
When men have respect for one another, more are saved than killed;
but when they flee, no glory rises and no defence."

He spoke, and cast swiftly with his spear, and struck a champion,
Deicoon son of Pergasus, companion of great-hearted Aeneas,
whom the Trojans honoured equally with the sons of Priam,
since he was quick to fight among the foremost.
Him lord Agamemnon struck with his spear on the shield;
and the shield did not hold off the spear, but the bronze went clean through,
and drove through his belt into the lower belly;
and he fell with a thud, and his armour clattered upon him.
Then in turn Aeneas killed the best men of the Danaans,
the two sons of Diocles, Crethon and Orsilochus,
whose father lived in well-built Phere,
rich in substance, and his descent was from the river
Alpheius, which flows broad through the land of the Pylians,
who begot Ortilochus, lord over many men;
and Ortilochus in turn begot great-hearted Diocles,
and from Diocles were born twin sons,
Crethon and Orsilochus, well skilled in every kind of fighting.
When these two had come to manhood they followed the Argives
in the black ships to Ilium of the fine horses,
winning honour for the sons of Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus;
and there the end of death covered them over.
As two lions on the mountain peaks
are reared by their mother in the thickets of the deep wood,
and they snatch cattle and fat sheep
and lay waste the steadings of men, until they too
are killed by the hands of men with the sharp bronze —
so these two were brought down by the hands of Aeneas
and fell, like tall pine trees.
And Menelaus dear to Ares pitied them as they fell,
and went through the front-fighters helmeted in flashing bronze,
shaking his spear; and Ares roused his fury,
intending this, that he should be brought down by the hands of Aeneas.
But Antilochus, son of great-hearted Nestor, saw him,
and went through the front-fighters; for he greatly feared for the shepherd of the host,
that he might suffer something, and utterly baffle them of their labour.
The two were already holding their hands and their sharp spears
face to face, eager to fight,
when Antilochus came and stood very close beside the shepherd of the host.
And Aeneas did not stand his ground, quick warrior though he was,
when he saw two men holding fast beside one another.
And when they had dragged the dead men back among the host of the Achaeans,
they laid the two wretched bodies in the hands of their companions,
and themselves turned back and fought among the foremost.
There they killed Pylaemenes, the peer of Ares,
captain of the great-hearted Paphlagonian shield-bearers.
Him Menelaus son of Atreus, famed with the spear,
as he stood, stabbed with the spear, striking him at the collarbone;
and Antilochus struck Mydon, his attendant and charioteer,
the noble son of Atymnius, as he was wheeling the single-hooved horses,
hitting him with a stone full on the elbow; and from his hands
the reins, white with ivory, fell to the ground in the dust.
And Antilochus leapt at him and drove his sword into his temple;
and gasping he fell from the well-wrought chariot
headlong in the dust, on his crown and his shoulders.
A long time he stood so, for he had struck deep sand,
until his own two horses struck him and cast him to the ground in the dust;
and Antilochus lashed them and drove them into the host of the Achaeans.
But Hector marked them through the ranks, and rushed at them
with a shout; and the Trojan battalions followed him,
strong ones. And Ares led them, and lady Enyo,
she holding the shameless Uproar of battle,
while Ares wielded a monstrous spear in his hands
and ranged now in front of Hector, now behind him.
And Diomedes of the great war cry shuddered when he saw him.
As when a helpless man, going over a great plain,
halts at a swift-flowing river running out to the sea,
and seeing it seething with foam runs back again,
so then the son of Tydeus gave ground, and spoke to the host:
"Friends, how we all marvelled at noble Hector
for being a spearman and a bold warrior;
but always one of the gods is beside him, who keeps ruin off.
And now Ares is there beside him, in the likeness of a mortal man.
Keep your faces to the Trojans, and always give ground
backwards, and do not rage to fight by force against the gods."

So he spoke, and the Trojans came very close to them.
There Hector killed two men skilled in the joy of battle,
who were in one chariot, Menesthes and Anchialus.
And great Ajax son of Telamon pitied them as they fell,
and came and stood very near, and cast with his shining spear,
and struck Amphius son of Selagus, who lived in Paesus,
rich in possessions and rich in cornland; but fate
had led him to come as an ally to Priam and his sons.
Him Ajax son of Telamon struck on the belt,
and the far-shadowing spear stuck fast in his lower belly,
and he fell with a thud. And shining Ajax ran up
to strip his armour; but the Trojans poured their spears on him,
sharp and glittering, and his shield took many.
But he set his heel on the corpse and pulled the bronze spear
out of it; yet he could not strip the rest of the fine armour
from the shoulders, for he was hard pressed by the missiles.
And he feared the strong encircling of the proud Trojans,
who stood over him, many and brave, holding their spears,
and though he was great and mighty and noble
they thrust him away from them; and he gave ground and was shaken back.

So they laboured on through the mighty struggle;
but overmastering fate roused Tlepolemus son of Heracles,
a brave man and a tall, against godlike Sarpedon.
And when they had come close, advancing on one another,
the son and the son’s son of Zeus the cloud-gatherer,
Tlepolemus was the first to speak a word to him:

"Sarpedon, counsellor of the Lycians, what need is there for you
to cower here, a man ignorant of battle?
They lie who say you are the offspring of aegis-bearing Zeus,
since you fall far short of those men
who were born of Zeus among the men of former times.
But such, they say, was the might of Heracles,
my father, of the daring heart and the lion spirit,
who came here once for the horses of Laomedon
with only six ships and fewer men,
and sacked the city of Ilium and made her streets desolate.
But your spirit is a coward’s, and your people are perishing.
And I do not think you will be any defence to the Trojans,
coming from Lycia, however strong you may be,
but you will be brought down by me and pass through the gates of Hades."
Then Sarpedon, leader of the Lycians, said to him in turn:

"Tlepolemus, that man did indeed destroy holy Ilium
through the folly of a man, of proud Laomedon,
who answered him with a harsh word when he had served him well,
and did not give up the horses for which he had come from far away.
But you, I say, will find slaughter here and black death
at my hands, and brought down by my spear
you will give me the boast, and your spirit to Hades of the famed horses."

So spoke Sarpedon; and Tlepolemus raised his ashen spear.
And from the hands of both at once the long spears
sped; and Sarpedon struck him full on the neck,
and the grievous point went clean through;
and dark night covered over his eyes.
And Tlepolemus had struck the left thigh with his long spear,
and the point tore through, raging,
and grazed the bone; but his father still warded off ruin.
And his noble companions carried godlike Sarpedon
out of the fighting; and the long spear weighed him down
as it dragged; for no one thought of it or noticed
to draw the ashen spear out of his thigh so that he could walk,
in their haste; such was the labour they had, tending him.
And on the other side the well-greaved Achaeans carried Tlepolemus
out of the fighting; and noble Odysseus saw it,
he of the enduring spirit, and his dear heart raged within him;
and then he pondered in his mind and in his spirit
whether to pursue further the son of loud-thundering Zeus,
or to take away the lives of more of the Lycians.
But it was not fated for high-hearted Odysseus
to kill the strong son of Zeus with the sharp bronze;
and so Athena turned his spirit toward the throng of the Lycians.
There he killed Coeranus and Alastor and Chromius,
and Alcander and Halius and Noemon and Prytanis.
And noble Odysseus would have killed still more of the Lycians,
had not great Hector of the flashing helm been quick to see it.
He went through the front-fighters helmeted in flashing bronze,
bringing terror to the Danaans; and Sarpedon, son of Zeus,
rejoiced as he came near, and spoke a piteous word:

"Son of Priam, do not leave me to lie here as spoil
for the Danaans, but stand by me. After that let my life leave me
in your city, since I was not, it seems, to return
home to my own dear native land
and gladden my dear wife and my infant son."

So he spoke, and Hector of the flashing helm said nothing to him,
but rushed past, straining to thrust back the Argives
as quickly as he could, and take the life of many.
And his noble companions set godlike Sarpedon down
beneath the very beautiful oak of aegis-bearing Zeus;
and strong Pelagon, who was his dear companion,
thrust the ashen spear out of his thigh.
And his spirit left him, and a mist poured down over his eyes;
but he breathed again, and the breath of the North Wind
blowing about him revived the spirit he had gasped out so painfully.
And the Argives, before Ares and Hector of the bronze helm,
neither turned back toward the black ships
nor stood against them in battle, but always backwards
they gave ground, when they learned that Ares was with the Trojans.
Then whom first, whom last did they strip of armour,
Hector son of Priam and brazen Ares?
Godlike Teuthras, and after him Orestes driver of horses,
and Trechus the Aetolian spearman, and Oenomaus,
and Helenus son of Oenops, and Oresbius of the flashing belt,
who lived in Hyle, much concerned with his wealth,
dwelling by the Cephisian lake; and beside him others
of the Boeotians lived, holding a very rich land.
But when the goddess white-armed Hera saw them
destroying the Argives in the mighty struggle,
at once she addressed Athena with winged words:

"Ah me, child of aegis-bearing Zeus, Unwearying One,

surely we made an empty promise to Menelaus,
that he should go home after sacking well-walled Ilium,
if we let destroying Ares rage on like this.
Come, let us two also remember our impetuous valour."

So she spoke, and the goddess grey-eyed Athena did not disobey.
She went and harnessed the horses with the golden frontlets,
Hera, the honoured goddess, daughter of great Cronos;
and Hebe swiftly set the curved wheels on the chariot at either side,
bronze, eight-spoked, about the iron axle.
Of these the felloe is gold, imperishable, and over it
are bronze tyres fitted, a wonder to see;
and the naves that run round on either side are of silver;
and the body is stretched tight with straps of gold and of silver,
and two rails run round it.
From it the pole stood out, of silver; and at the end
she bound the beautiful golden yoke, and threw over it
the fine golden breast-straps; and Hera led beneath the yoke
the swift-footed horses, raging for strife and the war cry.
And Athena, daughter of aegis-bearing Zeus,
let fall on her father’s floor the soft robe,
richly worked, which she herself had made and wrought with her hands;
and she put on the tunic of Zeus the cloud-gatherer
and armed herself in her armour for tearful war.
About her shoulders she cast the tasselled aegis,
the terrible thing, all round which Rout is set as a crown,
and in it is Strife, and Valour, and chilling Pursuit,
and in it the Gorgon’s head, of the terrible monster,
terrible and dreadful, a portent of aegis-bearing Zeus.
On her head she set the helmet with two ridges and four bosses,
of gold, fitted with the foot-soldiers of a hundred cities.
She stepped into the flaming chariot and took up the spear,
heavy, huge, massive, with which she brings down the ranks of men,
of heroes, against whom she of the mighty father is angered.
And Hera swiftly touched the horses with the whip;
and of their own accord the gates of heaven groaned, which the Seasons keep,
to whom are entrusted great heaven and Olympus,
both to open the thick cloud and to close it again.
Through them they drove their goaded horses,
and they found the son of Cronos sitting apart from the other gods
on the topmost peak of Olympus of the many ridges.
There the goddess white-armed Hera halted the horses
and questioned Zeus, the highest son of Cronos, and spoke:

"Father Zeus, are you not indignant with Ares for these violent deeds,
how great and how fine a host of the Achaeans he has destroyed,
recklessly, and not in order? It is grief to me, while at their ease
Cypris and Apollo of the silver bow take their pleasure,
having let loose this madman, who knows no law.
Father Zeus, will you be angry with me at all if I drive Ares
out of the battle, beaten wretchedly?"
Then Zeus the cloud-gatherer answered her and said:

"Come then, set Athena the driver of spoil upon him,
who above all is used to bringing him into hard pain."

So he spoke, and the goddess white-armed Hera did not disobey,
and she lashed the horses; and the two flew on, not unwilling,
between the earth and the starry heaven.
As far as a man sees into the haze with his eyes
sitting on a lookout, gazing over the wine-dark sea,
so far do the loud-neighing horses of the gods leap at a bound.
But when they came to Troy and the two flowing rivers,
where Simoeis and Scamander join their streams,
there the goddess white-armed Hera halted the horses
and loosed them from the car, and poured thick mist about them;
and Simoeis made ambrosia spring up for them to graze on.
And the two went with steps like timorous doves,
raging to bring help to the men of Argos.
But when they came to where the most and the best
were standing about the might of Diomedes, tamer of horses,
packed close, like lions that eat raw flesh
or like wild boars, whose strength is not easily worn down,
there the goddess white-armed Hera stood and shouted,
in the likeness of high-hearted Stentor of the brazen voice,
who could cry as loud as fifty other men:
"Shame, Argives! Base things to look at, splendid in appearance!
So long as noble Achilles went into the war,
the Trojans never came out beyond the Dardanian gates,
for they feared his mighty spear;
but now they fight far from the city, at the hollow ships."

So saying, she stirred the fury and the spirit of every man.
And the goddess grey-eyed Athena rushed to the son of Tydeus.
She found that lord beside his horses and his chariot,
cooling the wound that Pandarus had made with his arrow.
For sweat wore him down under the broad strap
of his round shield; he was worn with it, and his arm was weary,
and he was holding up the strap and wiping away the dark blood.
And the goddess laid her hand on the horses’ yoke and spoke:

"Truly Tydeus begot a son little like himself.
Tydeus was small in build, but a fighter;
and even when I would not let him fight
or make a show of himself — when he came apart from the Achaeans
as a messenger to Thebes, among the many Cadmeians,
I bade him feast quietly in their halls;
but he, keeping the strong spirit he always had,
challenged the young men of the Cadmeians and beat them all
easily; such a helper was I to him.
And I stand beside you too, and I guard you,
and I bid you with a ready heart to fight the Trojans;
but either the toil of many onsets has sunk into your limbs,
or else some spiritless fear holds you. Then you are no
offspring of skilled Tydeus, son of Oeneus."
Then mighty Diomedes answered her and said:

"I know you, goddess, daughter of aegis-bearing Zeus;
and so I will speak my word to you readily and hide nothing.
No spiritless fear holds me, nor any shrinking,
but I still remember the commands you laid on me:
you would not let me fight face to face with the blessed gods,
the others; but if the daughter of Zeus, Aphrodite,
should come into the battle, I was to wound her with the sharp bronze.
That is why I myself now give ground, and have ordered
all the other Argives to gather here;
for I know Ares, who holds sway over the battle."
Then the goddess grey-eyed Athena answered him:

"Diomedes son of Tydeus, dear to my spirit,
do not fear Ares for that, nor any other
of the immortals; such a helper am I to you.
Come, drive your single-hooved horses at Ares first,
and strike him hand to hand, and have no awe of impetuous Ares,
this raving thing, this made evil, this turncoat,
who lately declared to me and to Hera, saying
he would fight against the Trojans and help the Argives,
and now keeps company with the Trojans and has forgotten them."

So saying, she pushed Sthenelus from the chariot to the ground,
dragging him back with her hand, and he leapt down at once;
and she mounted the chariot beside noble Diomedes,
the goddess raging; and the oaken axle groaned aloud
under the weight, for it carried a dread goddess and the best of men.
And Pallas Athena took the whip and the reins,
and at once drove the single-hooved horses at Ares first.
He was stripping the armour of monstrous Periphas,
far the best of the Aetolians, the splendid son of Ochesius;
blood-stained Ares was stripping him. But Athena
put on the cap of Hades, so that mighty Ares should not see her.
And when Ares, bane of mortals, saw noble Diomedes,
he left monstrous Periphas lying there
where he had first killed him and taken his life away,
and went straight at Diomedes, tamer of horses.
And when they had come close, advancing on one another,
Ares thrust first over the yoke and the reins of the horses
with his bronze spear, raging to take his life away;
but the goddess grey-eyed Athena caught it in her hand
and thrust it up away from the chariot, to fly in vain.
Then Diomedes of the great war cry made his rush in turn
with the bronze spear; and Pallas Athena drove it home
into the lowest flank, where he was girt with the war-belt.
There she struck and wounded him, and tore through the fair flesh,
and drew the spear out again. And brazen Ares bellowed
as loud as nine thousand or ten thousand men
cry out in war when they join the strife of Ares.
And trembling took hold of the Achaeans and the Trojans
in their fear; so loudly bellowed Ares, insatiate of war.
As the darkening air appears out of the clouds
when after heat a foul wind rises,
so brazen Ares appeared to Diomedes son of Tydeus
as he went with the clouds into the wide heaven.
Swiftly he came to steep Olympus, the seat of the gods,
and sat down beside Zeus son of Cronos, grieving in his spirit,
and showed the immortal blood running down from the wound,
and lamenting he addressed him with winged words:

"Father Zeus, are you not indignant to see these violent deeds?
Always we gods have suffered most horribly
at one another’s will, doing favours to men.
We are all at odds with you; for you begot that mad girl,
the accursed one, whose care is always for lawless works.
For all the other gods who are on Olympus
obey you, and each of us is subject to you;
but her you never check with a word or with any deed,
but let her go, since you yourself begot that destroying child.
Now she has set the son of Tydeus, arrogant Diomedes,
on to rave against the immortal gods.
First he wounded Cypris in close fight, on the hand at the wrist,
and then he rushed at me myself like a divine power.
But my swift feet carried me off; otherwise I would long have been
suffering pains there among the grim heaps of the dead,
or else, alive, would have been strengthless from the strokes of the bronze."
Then Zeus the cloud-gatherer spoke to him with a dark look:
"Do not sit beside me and whine, you turncoat.
You are the most hateful to me of the gods that hold Olympus;
for always strife is dear to you, and wars and battles.
You have your mother’s fury, unbearable, unyielding,
Hera’s; her I can hardly master with words.
So I think it is by her promptings that you suffer this.
But I will not endure to see you in pain much longer;
for you are my offspring, and your mother bore you to me.
But if you had been born so destructive of any other god,
long since you would have been lower than the sons of Heaven."

So he spoke, and bade Paeeon heal him.
And Paeeon sprinkled pain-killing drugs upon him
and healed him; for he was not made mortal.
As when fig juice quickly curdles the white milk,
liquid though it is, and it thickens very fast as a man stirs it,

so swiftly he healed impetuous Ares.
And Hebe bathed him and clothed him in lovely garments,
and he sat down beside Zeus son of Cronos, exulting in his glory.
And they went back to the house of great Zeus,
Argive Hera and Alalcomenean Athena,
having stopped Ares, bane of mortals, from his slaughter of men.

So the dread strife of the Trojans and the Achaeans was left to itself;
and the battle surged this way and that over the plain,
as they aimed their bronze-shod spears at one another,
between the streams of Simoeis and Xanthus.
And Ajax son of Telamon, the bulwark of the Achaeans, was the first
to break a battalion of the Trojans, and he made light for his companions,
striking a man who was the best among the Thracians,
the son of Eussorus, Acamas, a brave man and a tall.
Him he struck first on the ridge of his helmet of thick horsehair,
and fixed it in his forehead, and the bronze point passed
on into the bone; and darkness covered his eyes.
And Diomedes of the great war cry killed Axylus,
son of Teuthras, who lived in well-built Arisbe,
rich in substance, and was a friend to men;
for he lived in a house by the road and gave welcome to all.
But none of them warded off wretched destruction from him then
by coming out to meet it; and Diomedes took away the life of both,
himself and his attendant Calesius, who was then
his charioteer; and the two of them went down into the earth.
And Euryalus stripped Dresus and Opheltius of their armour,
and went after Aesepus and Pedasus, whom once the nymph
of the water, Abarbarea, bore to blameless Bucolion.
Bucolion was the son of proud Laomedon,
the eldest by birth, but his mother bore him in secret.
As he shepherded his flocks he lay with her in love,
and she conceived and bore twin sons.
The son of Mecisteus loosed the fury and the shining limbs
of these two, and stripped the armour from their shoulders.
And Polypoetes, steadfast in battle, killed Astyalus;
and Odysseus stripped Pidytes of Percote of his armour
with his bronze spear, and Teucer noble Aretaon.
And Antilochus son of Nestor killed Ablerus with his shining spear,
and Agamemnon, lord of men, killed Elatus;
he lived by the banks of the fair-flowing Satnioeis,
in steep Pedasus. And the hero Leitus took Phylacus
as he fled; and Eurypylus stripped Melanthius of his armour.
And then Menelaus of the great war cry took Adrastus
alive; for his two horses, bolting over the plain,
caught in a tamarisk branch and broke the curved chariot
at the end of the pole, and they themselves went off
toward the city, where the others too were bolting in panic;
and he himself rolled out of the car beside the wheel,
face down in the dust, on his mouth. And beside him stood
Menelaus son of Atreus, holding his far-shadowing spear.
Then Adrastus caught him by the knees and begged him:

"Take me alive, son of Atreus, and receive a worthy ransom;
many treasures lie stored in my rich father’s house,
bronze and gold and iron wrought with much labour;
and of these my father would gladly give you ransom past counting
if he learned that I was alive at the ships of the Achaeans."

So he spoke, and was persuading the spirit in his breast;
and Menelaus was on the point of giving him to his attendant
to take down to the swift ships of the Achaeans. But Agamemnon
came running to meet him, and cried out and spoke a word:

"Good friend, Menelaus, why do you care so much
for the men? Were the finest things done to you in your house
by the Trojans? Let none of them escape sheer destruction
at our hands — not even the boy a mother carries
in her womb, not even he; let all of them together
be blotted out of Ilium, unburied and without a trace."

So saying the hero turned his brother’s mind,
advising what was right; and Menelaus thrust away from him with his hand
the hero Adrastus. And lord Agamemnon
stabbed him in the flank; and he fell back, and the son of Atreus
set his heel on his chest and drew out the ashen spear.
And Nestor called to the Argives with a great shout:

"Friends, Danaan heroes, attendants of Ares,
let no man now hang back to fall upon the spoils
so that he may come to the ships carrying the most,
but let us kill men; afterwards you can strip
the bodies of the dead at your ease over the plain."

So saying, he stirred the fury and the spirit of every man.
Then again the Trojans, before the Achaeans dear to Ares,
would have gone up into Ilium, beaten down by their own weakness,
had not Helenus son of Priam come and stood by Aeneas and Hector
and spoken — far the best of the readers of birds:
"Aeneas and Hector, since the labour of the Trojans
and the Lycians rests most on you two, because you are the best
in every venture, both to fight and to plan,
stand fast here, and hold back the host before the gates,
going everywhere, before they fall in flight
into their women’s arms and become a delight to the enemy.
But when you have urged on all the battalions,
we will stay here and fight against the Danaans,
hard pressed though we are; for necessity drives us.
But you, Hector, go to the city, and then speak
to your mother and mine; and let her gather the old women
at the temple of grey-eyed Athena on the height of the city,
and open with the key the doors of the holy house,
and the robe which seems to her the loveliest and the largest
in the hall, and which is far the dearest to her own self,
let her lay it on the knees of Athena of the lovely hair,
and vow to her that she will sacrifice in the temple twelve
yearling heifers, ungoaded, if she will take pity
on the city and on the Trojans’ wives and their infant children,
and hold off from holy Ilium the son of Tydeus,
that savage spearman, the strong deviser of rout,
whom I declare to have become the mightiest of the Achaeans.
Not even Achilles did we ever fear like this, the leader of men,
who they say is born of a goddess. But this man rages
too far, and no one can match his fury."

So he spoke, and Hector did not disobey his brother at all.
At once he leapt from his chariot to the ground in his armour,
and shaking his sharp spears he went everywhere through the host
urging them to fight; and he roused the dread battle.
And they rallied and stood facing the Achaeans;
and the Argives gave way and left off from the slaughter,
and they said that one of the immortals had come down
from the starry heaven to help the Trojans, so did they rally.
And Hector called to the Trojans with a great shout:

"High-spirited Trojans and far-famed allies,
be men, friends, and remember your impetuous valour,
while I go to Ilium and tell the elders
of the council and our wives
to pray to the divine powers and to promise hecatombs."

So saying, Hector of the flashing helm went away;
and the black hide beat about his ankles and his neck,
the rim that ran round the outermost edge of his bossed shield.
And Glaucus son of Hippolochus and the son of Tydeus
came together in the space between the armies, eager to fight.
And when they had come close, advancing on one another,
Diomedes of the great war cry spoke to him first: