The Iliad of Homer Part 48

"Dephobus, surely thou wert ever before by far the dearest to me of my brothers, the sons whom Hecuba and Priam produced. But now I think in my mind that I honour thee still more, since thou hast dared for my sake, when thou dost behold [me] with thine eyes, to come out of the city; while others remain within."

But him the azure-eyed G.o.ddess Minerva in turn addressed:

"My brother dear, my father and venerable mother indeed greatly supplicated me, by turn embracing my knees and my companions around, to remain there (so much do all tremble with fear); but my mind within was hara.s.sed with sad grief. But now let us forthwith eagerly engage, nor let there any longer be a sparing of our spears, that we may know whether Achilles, having slain us both, shall bear our b.l.o.o.d.y spoils to the hollow barks, or be subdued by thy spear."

Thus having spoken, Minerva also with deception led on. But when they were near advancing towards each other, him mighty crest-tossing Hector first addressed:

"No longer, O son of Peleus, will I fly thee as before. Thrice have I fled round the great city of Priam, nor ever dared to await thee coming on; but now my mind urges me to stand against thee: certainly I shall slay, or be slain. But come, let us attest the G.o.ds; for they will be the best witnesses and observers of agreements. For neither will I cruelly insult thee, if indeed Jove shall give me the victory, and I take away thy life; but after I shall despoil thy beautiful armour, O Achilles, I will give back thy body to the Greeks; and so also do thou."

But him swift-footed Achilles sternly regarding, addressed:

"Talk not to me of covenants, O most cursed Hector. As there are not faithful leagues between lions and men, nor yet have wolves and lambs an according mind,[706] but ever meditate evils against each other; so it is not possible for thee and me to contract a friendship, nor shall there at all be leagues between us,--first shall one, falling, satiate the invincible warrior Mars with his blood. Call to mind all thy valour; now it is very necessary for thee to be both a spearman and a daring warrior. Nor is there any longer any escape for thee, for Pallas Minerva at once subdues thee beneath my spear, and thou shalt now pay for all the acc.u.mulated sorrows of my companions, whom thou hast slain, raging with the spear."

[Footnote 706: See Duport, p. 127; and cf. Hor. Epod. iv. 1.]

He spoke, and brandishing it, sent forth his long-shadowed spear, and ill.u.s.trious Hector, seeing it opposite, avoided it; for, looking before him, he sunk down, and the brazen spear pa.s.sed over him, and was fixed in the earth. But Pallas Minerva plucked it out, and gave it back to Achilles, and escaped the notice of Hector, the shepherd of the people.

Then Hector addressed the ill.u.s.trious son of Peleus:

"Thou hast erred, O G.o.dlike Achilles, nor art thou yet acquainted with my fate from Jove; certainly thou didst say so, but thou art a prater, and very subtle in words, in order that, dreading thee, I may be forgetful of my strength and courage. But not in my back, whilst flying, shalt thou thrust thy spear, but shalt drive it through my breast, rushing right on, if G.o.d grants this to thee. But now in turn avoid my brazen spear! would that thou mightst now receive it all in thy body.

Then truly would the war become lighter to the Trojans, thou being slain; for thou art the greatest bane to them."

He spoke, and, brandishing, sent forth his long-shadowed spear, and struck the centre of Pelides' shield, nor missed; but the spear was repelled far away from the shield. But Hector was enraged because his swift weapon had fled in vain from his hand; and stood dejected, for he had not another ashen spear. Then he called upon the white-shielded Dephobus, greatly shouting, [and] he asked him for a long spear; but he was not near him; and Hector perceived in his mind, and said:

"Alas! without doubt, now the G.o.ds have summoned me to death. For I indeed thought the hero Dephobus was by my side; but he is within the wall, and Minerva has deceived me. But now is evil death near me, nor far away, neither is there escape. Certainly this long since was more agreeable to Jove and to the far-darting son of Jove, who formerly, propitious, preserved me; but now, on the contrary, Fate overtakes me.

Nevertheless I will not perish cowardly and ingloriously at least, but having done some great deed to be heard of even by posterity."

Thus having spoken, he drew his sharp sword, which hung below his loins, both huge and strong, and, with collected might, rushed forward, like a lofty-soaring eagle, which swoops to the plain through the gloomy clouds, about to s.n.a.t.c.h either a tender lamb, or a timid hare; thus Hector rushed forward, brandishing his sharp sword. Achilles also rushed on, and filled his soul with fierce rage. He sheltered his breast in front with his shield, beautiful, curiously wrought and nodded with his shining helmet, four-coned; but the beautiful golden tufts, which Vulcan had diffused in great abundance round the cone, were shaken. As the star Hesperus, which is placed the brightest star in heaven,[707] proceeds amongst other stars in the unseasonable time of night, so it shone from the well-sharpened spear which Achilles, designing mischief to n.o.ble Hector, brandished in his right hand, eyeing his fair person, where it would best yield. But the beautiful brazen armour, of which he had despoiled great Patroclus, having slain him, covered the rest of his body so much; yet did there appear [a part] where the collar-bones separate the neck from the shoulders, and where the destruction of life is most speedy. There n.o.ble Achilles, eager, drove into him with the spear, and the point went out quite through his tender neck. However the ash, heavy with bra.s.s, did not cut away the windpipe, so that, answering in words, he could address him. But he fell in the dust, and n.o.ble Achilles vaunted over him:

"Hector, thou didst once suppose, when spoiling Patroclus, that thou be safe, nor dreaded me, being absent. Fool! for I apart, a much braver avenger of him, was left behind at the hollow ships, I who have relaxed thy knees. The dogs, indeed, and birds shall dishonourably tear thee, but the Greeks shall perform his funeral rites."

But him crest-tossing Hector, growing languid, then addressed:

"I supplicate thee by thy soul, thy knees, thy parents, suffer not the dogs to tear me at the ships of the Greeks; but do thou indeed receive bra.s.s in abundance, and gold, which my father and venerable mother will give thee; and send my body home, that the Trojans and wives of the Trojans may make me, dead, partaker of a funeral pyre." [708]

[Footnote 707: Milton, P.L. v. 166:--

"Fairest of stars, last in the train of night, If better thou belong not to the dawn."]

[Footnote 708: Cf. aen. x. 903; xii. 930, sqq.]

But him swift-footed Achilles, sternly regarding, addressed;

"Dog, supplicate me not by my knees, nor by my parents; for would that my might and mind in any manner urge me myself, tearing thy raw flesh to pieces, to devour it, such things hast thou done to me. So that there is not any one who can drive away the dogs from thy head, not even if they should place ten-fold and twenty-times such ransoms, bringing them hither, and even promise others; not even if Dardanian Priam should wish to compensate for thee with gold:[709] not even thus shall thy venerable mother lament [thee] whom she has borne, having laid thee upon a bier, but dogs and fowl shall entirely tear thee in pieces."

But him crest-tossing Hector, dying, addressed:

"Surely well knowing thee, I foresaw this, nor was I destined to persuade thee; for truly within thee there is an iron soul. Reflect now, lest to thee I be some cause of the wrath of the G.o.ds, on that day when Paris and Phbus Apollo[710] shall kill thee, though being brave, at the Scaean gates."

As he spoke thus, the end of death overshadowed him; and his soul flying from his limbs, descended to Hades, bewailing its destiny, relinquishing vigour and youth. But him, although dead, n.o.ble Achilles addressed:

"Die: but I will then receive my fate whensoever Jove may please to accomplish it,[711] and the other immortal G.o.ds."

He spoke, and plucked the spear from the corpse; and then laid it aside, but he spoiled the b.l.o.o.d.y armour from his shoulders. But the other sons of the Greeks ran round, who also admired the stature and wondrous form, of Hector;[712] nor did any stand by without inflicting a wound. And thus would some one say, looking to his neighbour: "Oh, strange! surely Hector is now much more gentle to be touched, than when he burned the ships with glowing fire."

[Footnote 709: _I.e._ to give thy weight in gold. Theognis, 77: ??st?? ???? ???s?? te ?a? ??????? ??te??sas?a? ?????.]

[Footnote 710: Grote, vol. i. p. 406, observes: "After routing the Trojans, and chasing them into the town, Achilles was slain near the Skaean gate by an arrow from the quiver of Paris, directed under the unerring auspices of Apollo," referring to Soph. Phil. 334; Virg. aen. vi. 56.]

[Footnote 711: "I have conversed with some men who rejoiced in the death or calamity of others, and accounted it as a judgment upon them for being on the other side, and against them in the contention: but within the revolution of a few months, the same man met with a more uneasy and unhandsome death; which when I saw, I wept, and was afraid; for I knew that it must be so with all men; for we also die, and end our quarrels and contentions by pa.s.sing to a final sentence."--Taylor, Holy Dying, i. p. 305, ed.

Bohn.]

[Footnote 712: Herodot. ix. 25: ? d? ?e???? ??? ???? ?????

e???e?? e??e?a ?a ????e??.]

Thus would some one say, and, standing by, would wound him. But swift-footed Achilles, after he had despoiled him, standing amongst the Greeks, spoke winged words:

"O friends, leaders and princes of the Greeks, since the G.o.ds have granted us to subdue this hero, he who did as many mischiefs, as did not all the others together; come! let us make trial round the city with our arms, that we may learn concerning the Trojans, what mind they have; whether they are about to desert the citadel, he being slain, or intend to remain, Hector being no more. But why does my mind within me deliberate these things? Patroclus lies at the ships, an unwept, unburied corse; and him I shall never forget, as long as I am amongst the living, and my dear knees move for me; and though they forget the dead in Hades, yet will I remember my beloved comrade even there. But come now, ye youths of the Greeks, singing a paean,[713] let us return to the hollow ships, and let us bring him; we bear back great glory: we have slain n.o.ble Hector, whom the Trojans, throughout the city, worshipped as a G.o.d."

He spoke, and was meditating unseemly deeds against n.o.ble Hector. He perforated the tendons of both his feet behind, from the heel to the instep, and fastened in them leather thongs, and bound him from the chariot; but left his head to be trailed along. Then ascending his chariot, and taking up the splendid armour, he lashed (the horses) to go on, and they, not unwilling, flew. But the dust arose from him while trailed along, and his azure locks around approached [the ground],[714]

and his entire head, once graceful, lay in the dust; for Jupiter had then granted to his enemies, to dishonour him in his own father-land.

Thus indeed his whole head was denied with dust; but his mother plucked out her hair, and cast away her shining veil, and wept very loudly, having beheld her son. And his dear father groaned piteously, and all the people around were occupied in wailing and lamentation through the city; and it was very like to this, as if all Ilium, from its summit, were smouldering in fire. With difficulty indeed did the people detain the old man, indignant with grief anxious to rush out from the Dardanian gates: for rolling in the mud, he was supplicating all, addressing each man by name:

[Footnote 713: "This hymn consisted in a repet.i.tion, cf. v. 393, 4, which Quintus Smyrnaeus has imitated in ?d. 117, and Abronius Silo translated ap. _Senec. Suas_. c. 2. The most ancient hymn of this kind on record is that in the first book of Samuel, xviii.

7."--Kennedy.]

[Footnote 714: Supply ??de? or ?????.]

"Desist, my friends, and permit me alone, grieved as I am, going out of the city, to approach the ships of the Greeks. I will supplicate this reckless, violent man, if perchance he may respect my time of life, and have compa.s.sion on my old age; for such is his father Peleus to him, he who begat and nurtured him a destruction to the Trojans; but particularly to me above all has he caused sorrows. For so many blooming youths has he slain to me, for all of whom I do not lament so much, although grieved, as for this one, Hector, keen grief for whom will bear me down even into Hades.[715] Would that he had died in my hands; for thus we should have been satisfied, weeping and lamenting, both his unhappy mother who bore him, and I myself." Thus he spoke, weeping, but the citizens also groaned. But among the Trojan dames, Hecuba began her continued lamentation:

[Footnote 715: "Then shall ye bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave." --Genes, xlii. 38.]

"O my son, why do wretched I live, having suffered grievous things, thou being dead? Thou who by night and day wast my boast throughout the town, and an advantage to the Trojan men and women throughout the city, who received thee as a G.o.d. For a.s.suredly thou wast a very great glory to them when alive now, on the contrary, death and fate possess thee."

Thus she spoke, weeping; but the wife of Hector had not yet learned anything: no certain messenger going, informed her that her husband had remained without the gates; but she was weaving a web in a retired part of her lofty house; double, splendid, and was spreading on it various painted works.[716] And she had ordered her fair-haired attendants through the palace, to place a large tripod on the fire, that there might be a warm bath for Hector, returning from the battle. Foolish! nor knew she that, far away from baths, azure-eyed Minerva had subdued him by the hands of Achilles. But she heard the shriek and wailing from the tower, and her limbs were shaken, and the shuttle fell from her to the ground; and immediately she addressed her fair-haired attendants:

[Footnote 716: ??????ata is similarly used in vi. 294.]

"Come hither, let two follow me, that I may see what deeds have been done. I heard the voice of my venerable mother-in-law, and to myself the heart within my breast leaps up to my mouth, and the limbs under me are benumbed. Surely some evil is now near the sons of Priam. O that the word may be [far] from my ear! I dread lest brave Achilles, having already cut off n.o.ble Hector alone from the city, may drive him towards the plain, and even now have made him desist from the fatal valour which possessed him; for he never remained among the throng of warriors, but leaped out far before, yielding in his valour to none."

Thus having spoken, she rushed through the palace like unto one deranged, greatly palpitating in heart; and her attendants went along with her. But when she reached the tower and the crowd of men, she stood looking round over the wall, and beheld him dragged before the city; but the fleet steeds drew him ruthlessly towards the ships of the Greeks.

Then gloomy night veiled her over her eyes, and she fell backwards, and breathed out her soul in a swoon. But from her head fell the beautiful head-gear, the garland, the net, and the twisted fillet, and the veil which golden Venus had given to her on that day when crest-tossing Hector led her from the palace of Eetion, after he had presented many marriage-gifts. Around her in great numbers stood her sisters-in-law and sisters, who supported her amongst them, seized with stupor unto death.[717] But when she again revived, and her soul was collected in her breast, sobbing at intervals, she spoke among the Trojan dames:

[Footnote 717: See Kennedy: ?ste is to be understood before ?p???s?a?.]

"Hector, O wretched me! then we were both born to a like fate, thou indeed in Troy, in the mansion of Priam, but I in Thebe, beneath woody Placus, in the palace of Eetion; who, himself ill-fated, reared me, ill-fated, being yet a little child;--would that he had not begotten me!

Now, however, thou goest to the mansions of Hades beneath the recesses of the earth, but leavest me, in hateful grief, a widow in the dwelling; and thy boy, yet such an infant, to whom thou and I unfortunate gave birth; nor wilt thou be an advantage to him, O Hector, for thou art dead; nor he to thee. For even if he shall escape the mournful war of the Greeks, still will labour and hardship ever be to him hereafter; for others will deprive him of his fields by changing the landmarks. But the bereaving day renders a boy dest.i.tute of his contemporaries; he is ever dejected, and his cheeks are bedewed with tears. The boy in want shall go to the companions of his father, pulling one by the cloak, another by the tunic; and some of these pitying, shall present him with a very small cup; and he shall moisten his lips, but not wet his palate.

Him also some one, enjoying both [parents],[718] shall push away from the banquet, striking him with his hands, and reviling him with reproaches: 'A murrain on thee! even thy father feasts not with us.'

Then shall the boy Astyanax return weeping to his widowed mother,--he who formerly, indeed, upon the knees of his own father, ate marrow alone, and the rich fat of sheep; but when sleep came upon him, and he ceased childishly crying, used to sleep on couches in the arms of a nurse, in a soft bed, full as to his heart with delicacies. But now, indeed, Astyanax,[719] whom the Trojans call by surname (because thou alone didst defend their gates and lofty walls for them), shall suffer many things, missing his dear father. But now shall the crawling worms devour thee, naked, at the curved ships, far away from thy parents, after the dogs shall have satiated themselves: but thy robes, fine and graceful, woven by the hands of women, lie in thy palaces. Truly all these will I consume with burning fire, being of no use to thee, for thou wilt not lie on them; but let them be a glory [to thee] before the Trojans and the Trojan dames."