The Iliad of Homer Part 5

[Footnote 108: Hesych. ???ata, e???a?. Etym. ?. ?????ata, f???t?de?. See b.u.t.tm. Lexil. p. 440, sqq. Helen certainly shows some repentance in iii. 176.]

[Footnote 109: "Pro virili parte," Wolf. Cf. i. 271.]

But him answering, king Agamemnon addressed: "Old man, now indeed, as at other times, dost thou excel the sons of the Greeks in council. For, would, O father Jove, Minerva, and Apollo, that I were possessed of ten such fellow-counsellors among the Greeks! So should the city of Priam quickly fall, captured and destroyed by our hands. But upon me hath aegis-bearing Jove, the son of Saturn, sent sorrow, who casts me into unavailing strifes and contentions. For I and Achilles have quarrelled on account of a maid with opposing words: but I began quarrelling. But if ever we shall consult in common, no longer then shall there be a respite from evil to the Trojans, no, not for ever so short a time. Now go to your repast, that we may join battle. Let each one well sharpen his spear, and well prepare[110] his shield. Let him give fodder to his swift-footed steeds, and let each one, looking well to his chariot, get ready for war; that we may contend all day in the dreadful battle. Nor shall there be a cessation, not for ever so short a while, until night coming on shall part the wrath of the heroes. The belt of the man-protecting[111] shield shall be moist with sweat around the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of each one, and he shall weary his hand round his spear; and each one's horse shall sweat, dragging the well-polished chariot. But whomsoever I shall perceive desirous to remain at the beaked ships, apart from the battle, it will not be possible for him afterwards to escape the dogs and the birds."

Thus he spoke, but the Argives shouted aloud, as when a wave [roars]

against the steep sh.o.r.e, when the south wind urges it, coming against an out-jutting rock; for this the billows from all kinds of winds never forsake, when they may be here or there. And rising up, the people hastened forth, scattered from ship to ship, and raised up smoke among the tents, and took repast. And one sacrificed to some one of the immortal G.o.ds, and [another to another,] praying to escape death and the slaughter of war. But king Agamemnon offered up a fat ox, of five years old, to the powerful son of Saturn, and summoned the elder chiefs of all the Greeks, Nestor first of all, and king Idomeneus, but next the two Ajaxes,[112] and the son of Tydeus, and sixth Ulysses, of equal weight with Jove in council. But Menelaus, valiant in the din[113] of war, came of his own accord,[114] for he knew his brother in his heart, how he was oppressed. Then they stood around the ox, and raised up the pounded barley cakes: and king Agamemnon, praying amidst them, said:

[Footnote 110: Schol. e?t?ep?s?t?.]

[Footnote 111: These shields were so large, that they covered nearly the whole person.]

[Footnote 112: One the son of Telamon, the other the son of Oleus.]

[Footnote 113: This translation is, I think, far bolder than "loud-voiced," or "good in the battle-shout." ??? contains the whole idea of the tumultuous noise heard in the heat of battle, and thence the battle itself. Thus the Schol. ? ?v t? p????

?e??a???; and Hesych. ?at? t?? ???? a?d?e???.]

[Footnote 114: Opposed to ???t??, as in Oppian, Hal. iii. 360, ???t?? t' a?t? ???? te. See Plato Sympos. p. 315, G. Laem. Why Menelaus did so, is no matter to us, and probably was no mystery to his brother.]

"O Jove, most glorious, most great dark-cloud-collector, dwelling in the air, may not the sun set, nor darkness come on, before I have laid prostrate Priam's hall, blazing, and consumed its gates with the hostile fire; and cut away Hector's coat of mail around his breast, split asunder with the bra.s.s; and around him may many comrades, p.r.o.ne in the dust, seize the earth with their teeth."

Thus he spoke, nor as yet did the son of Saturn a.s.sent, but he accepted the offering, and increased abundant toil. But after they had prayed, and thrown forward the bruised barley, they first drew back [the neck of the victim,] slew it, and flayed it, then cut out the thighs, and covered them in the fat, having arranged it in a double fold, and then laid the raw flesh upon them. And they roasted them upon leafless billets. Next, having pierced the entrails with spits, they held them over the fire. But then, after the thighs were roasted, and they had tasted the entrails, they cut the rest of them into small pieces, and fixed them on spits, and roasted them skilfully, and drew them all off [the spits]. But when they had ceased from labour, and had prepared the banquet, they feasted; nor did their soul in anywise lack a due allowance of the feast. But when they had dismissed the desire of drink and food, them the Gerenian knight Nestor began to address:

"Most glorious son of Atreus, Agamemnon, king of men, let us now no longer sit prating[115] here, nor let us long defer the work which the deity now delivers into our hands. But come, let the heralds of the brazen-mailed Greeks, summoning the people, a.s.semble them at the ships, and let us thus in a body pa.s.s through the wide army of the Greeks, that we may the sooner awaken keen warfare."

[Footnote 115: See b.u.t.tm. Lexil. p. 398, Anthon, and Arnold.]

Thus he spoke, nor did Agamemnon, king of men, refuse compliance.

Immediately he ordered the clear-voiced heralds to summon the waving-crested Greeks to battle. These then gave the summons, and they were hastily a.s.sembled, and the Jove-nurtured kings, who were with the son of Atreus, kept hurrying about arranging them. But amongst them was azure-eyed Minerva, holding the inestimable aegis, which grows not old, and is immortal: from which one hundred golden fringes were suspended, all well woven, and each worth a hundred oxen in price. With this she, looking fiercely about,[116] traversed the host of the Greeks, inciting them to advance, and kindled strength in the breast of each to fight and contend unceasingly. Thus war became instantly sweeter to them than to return in the hollow ships to their dear native land.

As when a destructive[117] fire consumes an immense forest upon the tops of a mountain, and the gleam is seen from afar: so, as they advanced, the radiance from the beaming bra.s.s glittering on all sides reached heaven through the air.

[Footnote 116: See Liddell and Scott.]

[Footnote 117: Literally "invisible." Hence "making invisible, destructive." Cf. b.u.t.tm. Lex. s. v. ??d????.]

And of these--like as the numerous nations of winged fowl, of geese, or cranes, or long-necked swans, on the Asian mead, by the waters of Cayster, fly on this side and on that, disporting with their wings, alighting beside each other clamorously, and the meadow resounds--so the numerous nations of these [the Greeks] from the ships and tents poured themselves forth into the plain of Scamander, countless as the flowers and leaves are produced in spring.

As the numerous swarms of cl.u.s.tering flies which congregate round the shepherd's pen in the spring season, when too the milk overflows the pails; so numerous stood the head-crested Greeks upon the plain against the Trojans, eager to break [their lines].

And these,[118] as goat-herds easily separate the broad flocks of the goats, when they are mingled in the pasture, so did the generals here and there marshal them to go to battle; and among them commander Agamemnon, resembling, as to his eyes and head, the thunder-delighting Jove, as to his middle, Mars, and as to his breast, Neptune.

[Footnote 118: In t??? d? there is an anacoluthon similar to the one in vs. 459]

As a bull in the herd is greatly eminent above all, for he surpa.s.ses the collected cattle, such on that day did Jove render Agamemnon, distinguished amongst many, and conspicuous amongst heroes.

Tell me now, ye Muses, who possess the Olympian mansions (for ye are G.o.ddesses, and are [ever] present, and ken all things, whilst we hear but a rumour, nor know anything[119]), who were the leaders and chiefs of the Greeks. For I could not recount nor tell the mult.i.tude, not even if ten tongues, and ten mouths were mine, [not though] a voice unwearied,[120] and a brazen heart were within me; unless the Olympic Muses, daughters of aegis-bearing Jove, reminded me of how many came to Ilium. However, I will rehea.r.s.e the commanders of the ships, and all the ships.

[Footnote 119: Cf. aen. vii. 644:--

"Et meministis enim, Divae, et memorare potestis: Ad nos vix tenuis famae perlabitur aura."

Milton, Par. Lost, i. 27:--

"Say first, for Heav'n hides nothing from thy view, Nor the deep tract of h.e.l.l----"]

[Footnote 120: Cf. aen. vi. 625 sqq.; Georg. ii. 42; Valer. Flacc, vi. 36; Silius, iv. 527; Claudian, 6 Cons. Hon. 436. This hyperbolical mode of excusing poetic powers is ridiculed by Persius, Sat. vi. 1.]

THE CATALOGUE OF THE SHIPS.

Peneleus, and Letus, and Arcesilaus, and Prothoenor, and Clonius, commanded the Botians; both those who tilled Hyrie, and rocky Aulis, and Schnos, and Scholos, and hilly Eteonus, Thespia, Graea, and the ample plain of Mycalessus; and those who dwelt about Harma, and Ilesius, and Erythrae; and those who possessed Elion, Hyle, Peteon, Ocalea, and the well-built city Medeon, Copae, Eutressis, and Thisbe abounding in doves; and those who possessed Coronaea, and gra.s.sy Haliartus, and Plataea; and those who inhabited Glissa, and those who dwelt in Hypothebae, the well-built city, and in sacred Onchestus, the beauteous grove of Neptune; and those who inhabited grape-cl.u.s.tered Arne, and those [who inhabited] Midea, and divine Nissa, and remote Anthedon: fifty ships of these went to Troy, and in each embarked a hundred and twenty Botian youths.

Those who inhabited Aspledon, and Minyean Orchomenus, these Ascalaphus and Ialmenus, the sons of Mars, led, whom Astyoche bore to powerful Mars in the house of Actor, son of Azis: a modest virgin, when she ascended the upper part of her father's house; but the G.o.d secretly embraced her.

Of these thirty hollow ships went in order.

Moreover, Schedius and Epistrophus, sons of magnanimous Iphitus, the son of Naubolus, led the Phoceans, who possessed Cyparissus, and rocky Python, and divine Crissa, and Daulis, and Panopea; and those who dwelt round Anemoria and Hyampolis, and near the sacred river Cephissus, and those who possessed Lilaea, at the sources of Cephissus: with these forty dark ships followed. They indeed,[121] going round, arranged the lines of the Phoceans; and they were drawn up in array near the Botians, and towards the left wing.

[Footnote 121: Schedius and Epistrophus.]

Swift-footed Ajax, the son of Oileus, was leader of the Locrians; less in stature than, and not so tall as Ajax, the son of Telamon, but much less. He was small indeed, wearing a linen corslet, but in [the use of]

the spear he surpa.s.sed all the h.e.l.lenes and Achaeans, who inhabited Cynus, Opus, Calliarus, Bessa, Scarpha, and pleasant Augeia, and Tarpha, and Thronium, around the streams of Boagrius. But with him forty dark ships of the Locrians followed, who dwell beyond sacred Euba.

The Abantes, breathing strength, who possessed Euba, and Chalcis, and Eretria, and grape-cl.u.s.tered Histiaea, and maritime Cerinthus, and the towering city of Dium, and those who inhabited Carystus and Styra: the leader of these was Elephenor, of the line of Mars, the son of Chalcodon, the magnanimous prince of the Abantes. With him the swift Abantes followed, with flowing locks behind, warriors skilled with protended spears of ash, to break the corslets on the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of their enemies. With him forty dark ships followed.

Those besides who possessed Athens, the well-built city, the state of magnanimous Erechtheus, whom Minerva, the daughter of Jove, formerly nursed (but him the bounteous earth brought forth), and settled at Athens in her own rich temple: there the sons of the Athenians, in revolving years, appease her with [sacrifices of] bulls and lambs[122]--them Menestheus, son of Peteus, commanded. "No man upon the earth was equal to him in marshalling steeds and shielded warriors in battle; Nestor alone vied with him, for he was elder. With him fifty dark ships followed."

But Ajax[123] led twelve ships from Salamis, and leading arranged them where the phalanxes of the Athenians were drawn up.

[Footnote 122: Grote, Hist. of Greece, vol. i. p. 75, observes, "Athene is locally identified with the soil and people of Athens, even in the Iliad: Erechtheus, the Athenian, is born of the earth, but Athene brings him up, nourishes him, and lodges him in her own temple, where the Athenians annually worship him with sacrifice and solemnities. It was altogether impossible to make Erechtheus son of Athene,--the type of the G.o.ddess forbade it; but the Athenian myth-creators, though they found this barrier impa.s.sable, strove to approach to it as near as they could."

Compare also p. 262, where he considers Erechtheus "as a divine or heroic, certainly a superhuman person, and as identified with the primitive germination of Attic man."]

[Footnote 123: The son of Telamon.]

Those who possessed Argos, and well-fortified Tiryns, Hermione, and which encircle the Asine deep bay, Trzene, and Eionae, and vine-planted Epidaurus, and those who possessed aegina, and Mases, Achaean youths.

Their leader then was Diomede, brave in war, and Sthenelus, the dear son of much-renowned Capaneus; and with these went Euryalus the third, G.o.d-like man, the son of king Mecisteus, Talaus' son; and all these Diomede brave in war commanded. With these eighty dark ships followed.

Those who possessed Mycenae, the well-built city, and wealthy Corinth,[124] and well-built Cleonae, and those who inhabited Ornia, and pleasant Araethyrea, and Sicyon, where Adrastus first reigned: and those who possessed Hyperesia, and lofty Gonoessa, and Pellene, and those who [inhabited] aegium, and all along the sea-coast,[125] and about s.p.a.cious Helice. Of these, king Agamemnon, the son of Atreus, commanded a hundred ships: and with him by far the most and bravest troops followed; and he had clothed himself in dazzling bra.s.s, exulting in his glory, that he shone conspicuous amongst all heroes; for he was the most eminent, and led by far the most numerous troops.[126]

[Footnote 124: An anachronism, as Corinth, before its capture by the Dorians, was called Ephyra (as in II. vi. 152). "Neque est, quod miremur ab Homero nominari Corinthum, nam ex persona poetae et hanc urbem, et quasdam Ionum colonias iis nominibus appellat, quibus vocabantur aetate ejus, multo post Ilium captum conditae."--Vell. Paterc. i. 3.]

[Footnote 125. I. e. the later Achaia.--Arnold.]

[Footnote 126: On the superior power of Agamemnon, see Grote, vol. i. p. 211 and compare II. ix. 69.]

But those who possessed great Lacedaemon, full of clefts, and Pharis and Sparta, and dove-abounding Messa, and Brysiae, and pleasant Augeiae; and those who possessed Amyclae, and Helos, a maritime city; and those who possessed Laas, and dwelt round tylus. Of these his brother Menelaus, brave in battle, commanded sixty ships, but they were armed apart [from Agamemnon's forces]. Amidst them he himself went, confiding in his valour, inciting them to war; but especially he desired in his soul to avenge the remorse of Helen and her groans.

Those who inhabited Pylos and pleasant Arene, and Thryos, by the fords of Alphus, and well-built aepy, and Cyparesseis and Amphigenia, and Pteleum, and Helos, and Dorium: and there it was the Muses, meeting the Thracian Thamyris, as he was coming from chalia, from chalian Eurytus, caused him to cease his song; for he averred, boasting, that he could obtain the victory,[127] even though the Muses themselves, the daughters of aegis-bearing Jove, should sing. But they, enraged, made him blind, and moreover deprived him of his power of singing, and caused him to forget the minstrel-art. These the Gerenian horseman Nestor commanded: and with him ninety hollow ships proceeded in order.