The Iliad · wrath, sing, goddess
The lying Dream, the testing of the army, Thersites beaten — and the Catalogue of Ships.
Book 2 falls into two very different halves — the night-intrigue, failed test, and Thersites scene (1-493), and then the Catalogue of Ships with its Trojan counterpart (494-877) — and the main book-wide decision here was how to handle the second half. The Catalogue has been suspected since antiquity's critics and modern Analysts alike of being an originally independent composition, and several manuscripts omit the span entirely (see note 20). I have translated it as fully integral, and deliberately kept its litany register rather than flattening it into a gazetteer: one English line per Greek line as elsewhere, every place-epithet translated ("Thisbe of the many doves," "rocky Aulis"), leader-genealogies given their full ceremonial weight. The incantatory repetition of the ship-count refrains ("With him followed forty black ships") is preserved exactly where the Greek repeats and varied only where the Greek varies. The little narrative windows that open out of the list — Thamyris maimed by the Muses, Protesilaus' half-built house, Philoctetes on Lemnos, Nireus beautiful and negligible — are the Catalogue's own pulse, and the notes flag them rather than the geography.
The other live decision was tonal: Odysseus' two-tier crowd control (kings get "gentle words," commoners get the scepter across the back). Aristarchus athetized 193-197, and the passage is independently missing from Xenophon's quotation of the scene (note 11); I translate as printed and let the class asymmetry stand at full strength, since Thersites' beating immediately afterward depends on it. Thersites himself I have kept rough — "endless babble," "word-slinging insulter" — because the poem's own verdict on him is rough; this is the one place in the Iliad where the army's laughter is turned on a named common soldier, and softening it misrepresents the scene.
Zenodotus is unusually active in this book: he condensed the Dream's triple-repeated message (notes [4]), athetized Agamemnon's atē-speech (11-118, note 7), the Thersites portrait-lines, the Nireus anaphora (note 26), and the Achilles-passage inside the Catalogue (note 27). As in Book 1, the translation follows the printed vulgate text throughout and records atheteses in the notes.
Two carried-over threads from Book 1 to watch: Agamemnon here blames his quarrel with Achilles on Zeus-sent atē ("blindness," 111, and openly "it was I who began the anger," 378) — the same vocabulary Achilles used of him at 1.412; and the Catalogue's Achilles-paragraph (686-694) holds the plot's tension in place mid-list. New recurring epithets are footnoted at first occurrence and logged in translation/CONVENTIONS.md; the famous crux at 318 (did the god make the serpent-portent "conspicuous" or "invisible"?) is note 14, and the Salamis couplet with its ancient forgery accusation is note 23.
1The other gods, and men who fight from chariots,
slept the whole night through; but sweet sleep did not hold Zeus.
He was turning over in his mind how he might honor
Achilles, and destroy many beside the Achaean ships.
5And this plan seemed to his heart the best:
to send baneful Dream to Atreus' son Agamemnon.1
And speaking winged words he addressed him:
"Up, go, baneful Dream, to the Achaeans' swift ships.
Come to the hut of Agamemnon, Atreus' son,
10and tell him everything exactly as I charge you.
Bid him arm the long-haired Achaeans2
in full force: for now he might take the wide-wayed city
of the Trojans. The immortals who keep their homes on Olympus
are no longer divided; Hera has bent them all
15by her begging, and sorrows are fastened on the Trojans."
So he spoke, and Dream went when he had heard the word.
Swiftly he came to the Achaeans' swift ships
and went to Atreus' son Agamemnon. He found him
sleeping in his hut, ambrosial slumber poured around him.
20He stood above his head in the likeness of Neleus' son
Nestor, whom Agamemnon honored most of the elders;
in his likeness the divine Dream spoke:
"You sleep, son of war-minded Atreus, breaker of horses.3
A man of counsel should not sleep the whole night through,
25a man to whom peoples are entrusted, who has so much to care for.
Now hear me quickly: I am a messenger of Zeus,
who far away cares greatly for you, and pities you.
He bids you arm the long-haired Achaeans
in full force: for now you might take the wide-wayed city
30of the Trojans. The immortals who keep their homes on Olympus
are no longer divided; Hera has bent them all
by her begging, and sorrows are fastened on the Trojans
from Zeus. Keep this in your mind, and let no forgetting
take you, when honey-hearted sleep lets you go."
35So he spoke and went away, and left him there
believing in his heart things that were not to be:
he thought he would take Priam's city on that very day —
the fool: he did not know what work Zeus was planning,
who meant to lay yet more griefs and groans
40on Trojans and Danaans alike through the strong encounters of war.
He woke from sleep, the divine voice drifting around him,
and sat upright, and pulled on his soft tunic,
fine and new-made, and threw his great cloak around him,
and beneath his shining feet he bound fair sandals,
45and slung about his shoulders the silver-studded sword,
and took up the ancestral scepter, imperishable forever,
and with it went down along the ships of the bronze-shirted Achaeans.
Now the goddess Dawn went up to high Olympus,
announcing light to Zeus and the immortals;
50and he ordered the clear-voiced heralds
to summon the long-haired Achaeans to assembly.
They made the summons, and the men gathered quickly.
But first he seated a council of great-hearted elders
beside the ship of Nestor, the Pylos-born king,
55and calling them together he framed his shrewd plan:
"Hear me, friends. A divine Dream came to me in sleep
through the ambrosial night, and in face, in build, in bearing
it was most like brilliant Nestor.
It stood above my head, and it said to me:
60'You sleep, son of war-minded Atreus, breaker of horses.4
A man of counsel should not sleep the whole night through,
a man to whom peoples are entrusted, who has so much to care for.
Now hear me quickly: I am a messenger of Zeus,
who far away cares greatly for you, and pities you.
65He bids you arm the long-haired Achaeans
in full force: for now you might take the wide-wayed city
of the Trojans. The immortals who keep their homes on Olympus
are no longer divided; Hera has bent them all
by her begging, and sorrows are fastened on the Trojans
70from Zeus. Keep this in your mind.' So the Dream 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 will test them with words, as is the custom,5
and order them to flee with the many-benched ships;
75and you, from your places, one here, one there, hold them back with words."
So he spoke and sat down; and among them rose
Nestor, who was king of sandy Pylos.
With good will toward them he spoke and addressed them:
"Friends, leaders and lords of the Argives,
80if any other Achaean had told us this dream,
we would call it a lie and turn our backs on it;
but the man who saw it claims to be far the best of the Achaeans.
Come then — let us see if we can arm the sons of the Achaeans."
So he spoke, and led the way out of the council,
85and the scepter-holding kings rose and obeyed
the shepherd of the people; and the troops came streaming.
As when the tribes of thronging bees come out
of some hollow rock, always arriving anew,
and fly in clusters over the flowers of spring,
90and some swarm thick this way, and some that way —
so the many tribes of men from the ships and huts
marched in companies along the deep beach
to the assembly; and among them Rumor blazed like fire,
Zeus's messenger, driving them on; and they kept gathering.
95The assembly was in turmoil, and the earth groaned beneath
as the troops sat down, and there was uproar. Nine heralds,
shouting, tried to hold them back — to stop the clamor
and make them listen to the Zeus-nurtured kings.
With effort the people were seated, held in their places,
100and left off shouting. Then the lord Agamemnon stood up,
holding the scepter Hephaestus had labored to make.6
Hephaestus gave it to lord Zeus, son of Cronos;
then Zeus gave it to the guide, the slayer of Argus;
lord Hermes gave it to Pelops, driver of horses;
105Pelops in turn gave it to Atreus, shepherd of the people;
Atreus, dying, left it to Thyestes rich in flocks;
and Thyestes in turn left it to Agamemnon to carry,
to be lord over many islands and all of Argos.
Leaning on it, he spoke his words to the Argives:
110"Friends, Danaan heroes, squires of Ares,
Zeus, Cronos' great son, has bound me fast in heavy blindness —7
the hard god: he promised me once, he bowed his head,
that I should sack well-walled Ilion before returning;
now he has planned a cruel deceit, and orders me
115back to Argos in disgrace, with half my people lost.
Such, it seems, must be the pleasure of overmastering Zeus,
who has undone the crowns of many cities
and will undo more yet: his power is the greatest.
This is a shameful thing even for men to come to hear of,
120that so fine an Achaean host, so great,
fought a fruitless war and battled
fewer men, with no end yet in sight.
For if we wished — Achaeans and Trojans both —
to swear a solemn truce and count ourselves,
125the Trojans mustering all who have their hearths in the city,
and we Achaeans forming up in tens,
and each ten chose one Trojan man to pour its wine,
many tens would go without a wine-pourer.
By so much, I tell you, the sons of the Achaeans outnumber
130the Trojans who live in the city. But there are allies,
spear-wielding men from many cities,
who beat me far off my course and will not let me
sack Ilion's well-settled citadel, for all my wanting it.
Nine years of great Zeus have gone already,
135and now the ships' timbers are rotten, the rigging loosed,
and our wives, no doubt, and our little children
sit in our halls waiting; while the work
for which we came here stands as undone as ever.
Come then — as I say it, let us all obey:
140let us flee with the ships to our dear fatherland.
We shall not take wide-wayed Troy now."
So he spoke, and stirred the heart in the breast
of everyone in the crowd who had not heard the council.
The assembly moved like the long waves of the sea,
145the Icarian deep, when East Wind and South Wind together
rouse them, rushing down from the clouds of father Zeus;
or as when the West Wind comes and moves deep grain,
driving hard, and the field bows its ears —
so all that assembly was moved. With a roar
150they rushed for the ships, and under their feet the dust
rose and hung; and they shouted to one another
to lay hold of the ships and drag them to the bright sea,
and they cleared out the launching-channels; the cry went up to the sky
as they strained for home; and they pulled the props from under the hulls.
155Then a homecoming beyond fate would have come to the Argives,
if Hera had not spoken a word to Athena:
"Shame! Unwearied one, child of aegis-bearing Zeus —8
is it like this, homeward, to their dear fatherland,
that the Argives are to flee over the broad back of the sea,
160and leave to Priam and the Trojans their boast —
Argive Helen, for whose sake so many Achaeans
have perished at Troy, far from their dear fatherland?
Go now through the host of the bronze-shirted Achaeans;
with your gentle words hold back every man;
165do not let them drag the balanced ships down to the sea."
So she spoke, and the goddess grey-eyed Athena did not disobey.
Down from the peaks of Olympus she went darting
and swiftly came to the Achaeans' swift ships.
There she found Odysseus, the equal of Zeus in counsel,9
170standing still: he had not laid a hand on his black
well-benched ship, for grief had reached his heart and spirit.
Standing close, grey-eyed Athena spoke to him:
"Zeus-sprung son of Laertes, Odysseus of many devices,10
is it like this, homeward, to your dear fatherland,
175that you will all flee, tumbling into the many-benched ships,
and leave to Priam and the Trojans their boast —
Argive Helen, for whose sake so many Achaeans
have perished at Troy, far from their dear fatherland?
Go now through the host of the Achaeans; hold back no longer;
180with your gentle words hold back every man;
do not let them drag the balanced ships down to the sea."
So she spoke, and he knew the voice of the goddess speaking.
He set off at a run, and threw off his cloak — the herald
Eurybates of Ithaca, who attended him, picked it up —
185and coming face to face with Agamemnon, Atreus' son,
he took from him the ancestral scepter, imperishable forever,
and with it went along the ships of the bronze-shirted Achaeans.
Whenever he met a king, or a man of note,
he would stand beside him and hold him back with gentle words:
190"Friend, it is not right to threaten you like a coward;
but sit down yourself, and seat the rest of your people.
You do not yet clearly know the mind of Atreus' son:
now he is testing, and soon he will bear down on the sons of the Achaeans.11
Did we not all hear in council what he said?
195May he not in anger do some harm to the sons of the Achaeans.
Great is the anger of Zeus-nurtured kings;
their honor is from Zeus, and Zeus the counselor loves them."
But whatever man of the people he saw, and found him shouting,
him he would drive with the scepter and berate aloud:
200"Fool — sit still and listen to what others tell you,
your betters. You are unwarlike and without strength,
never counted, whether in battle or in council.
We cannot all be kings here, we Achaeans.
The rule of many is no good thing: let there be one ruler,12
205one king, to whom the son of crooked-counseled Cronos gave
the scepter and the ordinances, to do the ruling for his people."
So, masterfully, he went through the army setting it in order; and they
came streaming back to the assembly from the ships and huts
with a roar, as when a wave of the loud-roaring sea
210thunders on a great beach, and the deep crashes in answer.
Then the others sat down and were held in their places —
all but Thersites, alone, still brawling on, unmeasured in speech,13
whose mind was full of words, disorderly and many,
to quarrel with kings — recklessly, in no kind of order,
215but with whatever looked likely to raise a laugh
among the Argives. And he was the ugliest man who came under Ilion:
bandy-legged, lame in one foot, his two shoulders
hunched and drawn in over his chest; and above them
a head that came to a point, with sparse stubble growing on it.
220He was hatefullest of all to Achilles and Odysseus,
for those two he was forever reviling. But now it was brilliant Agamemnon
he went at, shrieking shrill abuse; the Achaeans
were furious at him, and indignation rose in every heart.
Bawling loudly, he berated Agamemnon:
225"Son of Atreus, what are you complaining of now? What more do you want?
Your huts are full of bronze; there are many women
in your huts, choice ones, whom we Achaeans
give you first of all whenever we take a town.
Or do you still lack gold as well, that some son
230of the horse-taming Trojans will bring out of Ilion as ransom
for a son that I bound and led away — I, or another Achaean?
Or a young woman, to lie with in love,
one you keep apart for yourself? It is not right
for the commander to march the sons of the Achaeans into misery.
235Soft things! Vile disgraces! Achaean women — Achaean men no longer!
Let us go home, home with the ships, and leave this man
here in Troy to digest his prizes, so he may learn
whether we others are any help to him or not —
he who even now dishonored Achilles, a man
240far better than himself: he has taken and keeps his prize; he seized it himself.
But there is no anger in Achilles' heart; he lets it go.
Otherwise, son of Atreus, this outrage would be your last."
So he spoke, reviling Agamemnon, shepherd of the people —
Thersites. But quickly brilliant Odysseus was at his side,
245and glaring at him darkly he lashed him with hard words:
"Thersites — endless babble, clear-voiced speaker though you are:
stop; do not stand up alone to quarrel with kings.
I say there is no viler mortal than you
of all who came under Ilion with the sons of Atreus.
250So you had better not take kings into your mouth when you hold forth,
hurling insults at them, with one eye on the voyage home.
We do not even know clearly yet how these things will end —
whether we sons of the Achaeans come home well or badly.
So now you sit here reviling Agamemnon, Atreus' son,
255shepherd of the people, because the Danaan heroes
give him so much. You speak in mockery.
But I tell you this outright, and it will be accomplished:
if I find you playing the fool again as you are now,
then may Odysseus' head no longer sit on his shoulders,
260may I no longer be called the father of Telemachus,
if I do not seize you and strip you of your own clothes,
the cloak and the tunic that cover your shame,
and send you off to the swift ships in tears,
whipped out of the assembly with strokes of disgrace."
265So he spoke, and with the scepter he struck his back
and shoulders. Thersites doubled up, and a fat tear fell from him,
and a bloody welt rose up out of his back
under the golden scepter. He sat down, terrified,
and hurting, with a helpless look, he wiped away the tear.
270And the men, vexed at heart though they were, laughed at him sweetly,
and thus one would say, with a glance at his neighbor:
"Well now! Odysseus has done ten thousand good things,
leading in good counsel, marshaling war;
but this is the best thing he has done among the Argives:
275he has shut this word-slinging insulter out of our debates.
That proud heart of his will not send him back again
to rail at kings with words of abuse."
So spoke the multitude. Then the sacker of cities, Odysseus,
stood up with the scepter, and beside him grey-eyed Athena,
280in the likeness of a herald, called the host to silence,
so that near and far the sons of the Achaeans
might hear his word alike, and take in his counsel.
With good will toward them he spoke and addressed them:
"Son of Atreus — now, lord, the Achaeans mean
285to make you the most despised of mortal men,
and they will not fulfill the promise they undertook
while still on the way here from horse-pasturing Argos:
that you should sack well-walled Ilion before returning.
Like little children or widowed women
290they wail to one another about going home.
And truly, there is toil here to send a man home disheartened:
a man kept even one month from his wife
frets by his many-benched ship when the winter gales
and the rising sea shut him in;
295and for us this is the ninth year, circling round,
that we have stayed here. So I cannot blame the Achaeans
for fretting beside the beaked ships. But even so —
it is shameful to wait so long and then come home empty.
Bear up, friends, and stay a while longer, till we learn
300whether Calchas prophesies truly or not.
For this we know well in our hearts, and you are all
witnesses — all whom the fates of death have not carried off:
only yesterday, it seems, when the Achaean ships were gathering
at Aulis, bearing evils for Priam and the Trojans,
305and we, around a spring, at the holy altars,
were offering the immortals perfect hecatombs
under a beautiful plane tree, where the bright water ran:
there a great sign appeared. A serpent, its back blood-dark,
terrible, which the Olympian himself had sent into the light,
310darted from under the altar and made for the plane tree.
There were nestling sparrows there, baby chicks,
on the topmost branch, cowering under the leaves —
eight of them, and the mother who hatched them made nine.
There he devoured them, cheeping piteously,
315while the mother fluttered around, crying for her dear chicks;
and coiling up he caught her by the wing as she shrieked about him.
But when he had eaten the sparrow's children and the bird herself,
the god who had shown him made him a sign conspicuous:14
the son of crooked-counseled Cronos turned him to stone,
320and we stood there marveling at what had happened.
So then: since this dread portent entered the gods' hecatombs,
Calchas straightway spoke in prophecy:
'Why have you fallen silent, long-haired Achaeans?
For us Zeus the counselor has shown this great sign,
325late, late of fulfillment, whose fame will never perish.
As this serpent ate the sparrow's children and the bird herself —
eight, and the mother who hatched them made nine —
so shall we make war here for as many years,
and in the tenth we shall take the wide-wayed city.'
330That is how he spoke; and now it is all being fulfilled.
Come then, stay, all of you, strong-greaved Achaeans,
right here, until we take the great city of Priam."
So he spoke, and the Argives roared aloud — and around them the ships
echoed terribly under the shouting of the Achaeans —
335in praise of the word of godlike Odysseus.
And among them spoke the Gerenian horseman Nestor:15
"Shame! You hold assembly like little boys,
infants with no interest in deeds of war.
Where then will our compacts go, and our oaths?
340Into the fire, then, with every counsel and plan of men,
the unmixed libations, the right hands we trusted!
We are battling with words, and nothing else; a remedy
we cannot find, for all our long time here.
Son of Atreus — hold your counsel unshaken, as before,
345and lead the Argives through the strong encounters;
and let them rot, the one or two of the Achaeans
who take counsel apart — they will accomplish nothing —
all for going back to Argos before we know
whether the promise of aegis-bearing Zeus is a lie or not.
350For I say the overmastering son of Cronos bowed his head
on that day when the Argives went aboard their swift-faring ships
bearing slaughter and doom for the Trojans:
lightening on the right, showing signs of good omen.
Therefore let no man press to be gone homeward
355before he has lain beside the wife of some Trojan,
and avenged the struggles and groans of Helen.16
But if any man is wildly set on going home,
let him just lay a hand on his black well-benched ship,
and before all others he will meet his death and doom.
360And you, lord — take good counsel yourself, and listen to another;
not to be tossed aside is the word I speak:
divide the men by tribes and by clans, Agamemnon,
so clan may stand by clan, and tribe by tribe.
If you do this, and the Achaeans obey,
365you will know then which of your leaders is a coward, and which of your men,
and which is brave: for they will be fighting among their own.
And you will know whether it is by the gods' will you fail to take the city,
or by men's cowardice and folly in war."
Answering him spoke the lord Agamemnon:
370"Once again, old man, you outdo the sons of the Achaeans in speech.
O father Zeus, Athena, Apollo —
if I had ten such counselors among the Achaeans,
then the city of lord Priam would soon bow its head,
taken and sacked beneath our hands.
375But instead aegis-bearing Zeus, Cronos' son, gives me griefs,
throwing me into fruitless quarrels and feuds.
I and Achilles fought over a girl
with head-on words — and it was I who began the anger.
If ever we take counsel as one, then no longer
380will there be any putting off of evil for the Trojans, not for a moment.
Now go to your meal, so we may join battle.
Let every man sharpen his spear well, and set his shield right,
let him give his swift-footed horses their feed,
let him look over his chariot on every side, and put his mind on war,
385so that all day long we may measure ourselves in hateful battle.
For there will be no pause, not the least,
until night comes on and parts the fury of men.
The strap of the body-covering shield will be sweated through
on many a chest, and the hand will ache around the spear,
390and many a horse will sweat, straining at the polished chariot.
And whomever I see minded to hang back from the fighting,
lingering by the beaked ships — for him there will be
no hope after that of escaping the dogs and the birds."
So he spoke, and the Argives roared aloud, like a wave
395against a high headland when the South Wind comes and drives it
on a jutting cliff — the waves never leave it,
whatever wind is blowing, whether they rise this side or that.
They stood up and scattered, hurrying to the ships,
and made their fires smoke among the huts, and took their meal.
400And each man sacrificed to one of the gods who are forever,
praying to escape death and the grind of Ares.
But Agamemnon, lord of men, slaughtered an ox,
fat, five years old, to the overmastering son of Cronos,
and called the elders, the chief men of all the Achaeans:
405Nestor first of all, and lord Idomeneus,
then the two Ajaxes and Tydeus' son,
and sixth Odysseus, the equal of Zeus in counsel.
And Menelaus, good at the war-cry, came unbidden,17
for he knew in his heart how his brother labored.
410They stood around the ox and took up the barley-grains,
and praying among them the lord Agamemnon spoke:
"Zeus, most glorious, greatest, lord of the dark cloud, dwelling in the sky:
let not the sun go down, nor the darkness come,
until I have thrown down Priam's hall headlong,
415blackened with smoke, and burned its doors with hostile fire,
and slashed the tunic on Hector's chest to rags
with the bronze; and around him may his companions, many of them,
fall face-down in the dust and bite the earth."
So he spoke; but the son of Cronos would not yet grant it.
420He accepted the offering — and piled up joyless toil.
Then, when they had prayed and thrown the barley-grains,
they first drew back the victims' heads, cut their throats, and flayed them,
carved out the thigh-pieces and wrapped them in fat,
making a double fold, and laid raw flesh upon them;
425these they burned on dry leafless billets,
and spitted the inner parts and held them over the flame of Hephaestus.
When the thighs were burned and they had tasted the inner parts,
they cut up the rest and threaded it on spits,
roasted it with care, and drew it all off.
430Then when they had finished the work and made the meal ready,
they feasted, and no heart lacked a fair share of the feast.
And when they had put away desire for eating and drinking,
the Gerenian horseman Nestor began to speak among them:
"Most glorious son of Atreus, lord of men Agamemnon,
435let us sit talking here no longer, nor delay
any further the work the god is putting in our hands.
Come: let the heralds of the bronze-shirted Achaeans
make their cry and gather the host along the ships,
and let us go down together, as we are, through the wide Achaean camp,
440to waken sharp Ares the sooner."
So he spoke, and the lord of men Agamemnon 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 quickly.
445The Zeus-nurtured kings around Atreus' son
hurried about marshaling them, and among them grey-eyed Athena,
holding the aegis — precious, unaging, immortal,18
from which a hundred tassels of pure gold float free,
all finely woven, each worth a hundred oxen.
450With it she flashed through the Achaean host,
driving them on; and in each man's heart she roused strength
to war and fight without ceasing.
And at once war became sweeter to them than going home
in the hollow ships to their dear fatherland.
455As an annihilating fire blazes up through a boundless forest
on the peaks of a mountain, and the glare shows from far away,
so, as they marched, from the tremendous bronze
a gleam went flashing through the upper air to the sky.
And as the many tribes of winged birds —
460geese, or cranes, or long-necked swans —
on the Asian meadow around the streams of Caystrius
fly this way and that, glorying in their wings,
settling with cries, always advancing, and the meadow rings —
so their many tribes from the ships and huts
465poured out onto the Scamandrian plain, and beneath them the ground
thundered terribly under the feet of men and horses.
They stood in the flowering Scamandrian meadow,
tens of thousands, as many as the leaves and flowers in their season.
As the many tribes of thronging flies
470that swarm through a herdsman's steading
in the season of spring, when milk wets the pails,
so many were the long-haired Achaeans who stood in the plain
facing the Trojans, mad to break them.
And as goatherds easily sort out
475their wide-wandering flocks of goats when they mingle at pasture,
so the leaders sorted the men this way and that
to go into battle, and among them the lord Agamemnon:
in eyes and head like Zeus who delights in thunder,
in girdle like Ares, in chest like Poseidon.
480As a bull stands out far the finest of all in the herd,
conspicuous among the gathering cattle,
such did Zeus make Atreus' son on that day,
conspicuous among many, preeminent among heroes.
Tell me now, Muses, who keep your homes on Olympus —19
485for you are goddesses, you are present, you 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,
490a voice unbreakable, and a heart of bronze within me,
unless the Olympian Muses, daughters of aegis-bearing
Zeus, remembered for me all who came under Ilion.
But the captains of the ships I will tell, and all the ships.
Of the Boeotians, Peneleos and Leïtus were leaders,20
495with Arcesilaus and Prothoenor and Clonius:
they who dwelt in Hyria and rocky Aulis,
in Schoenus and Scolus and Eteonus of the many ridges,
Thespeia, Graea, and spacious Mycalessus;
who dwelt around Harma and Eilesium and Erythrae;
500who held Eleon and Hyle and Peteon,
Ocalea and Medeon, that well-built citadel,
Copae, Eutresis, and Thisbe of the many doves;
who held Coroneia and grassy Haliartus;
who held Plataea; who dwelt in Glisas;
505who held Hypothebae, that well-built citadel,
and holy Onchestus, Poseidon's shining grove;
who held Arne rich in grapes, and Mideia,
sacred Nisa, and Anthedon at the land's edge:
of these came fifty ships, and in each one
510a hundred and twenty young men of the Boeotians.
And those who lived in Aspledon and Minyan Orchomenus
were led by Ascalaphus and Ialmenus, sons of Ares,
whom Astyoche bore in the house of Actor, Azeus' son —
a modest maiden: she went up to her upper chamber,
515and mighty Ares lay with her in secret.
With them thirty hollow ships sailed in order.
And the Phocians were led by Schedius and Epistrophus,
sons of great-hearted Iphitus, Naubolus' son:
they who held Cyparissus and rocky Pytho,
520holy Crisa and Daulis and Panopeus;
who dwelt around Anemoreia and Hyampolis;
who lived along the brilliant river Cephisus;
who held Lilaea at the springs of Cephisus.
With them followed forty black ships.
525Their leaders were busy ranging the Phocian ranks,
and they armed close beside the Boeotians, on the left.
Of the Locrians, swift Ajax led, Oïleus' son —
the lesser Ajax, in no way so big as Telamonian Ajax
but far smaller: a little man, in a linen corslet,21
530but with the spear he surpassed all Hellenes and Achaeans:
they who dwelt in Cynus and Opoeis and Calliarus,
Bessa and Scarphe and lovely Augeae,
Tarphe and Thronium, around the streams of Boagrius.
With him followed forty black ships
535of the Locrians who live across from holy Euboea.
And the Abantes, breathing fury, who held Euboea —
Chalcis and Eretria and Histiaea rich in grapes,
Cerinthus by the sea and the steep citadel of Dios;
who held Carystus; who dwelt in Styra —
540these were led by Elephenor, scion of Ares,
Chalcodon's son, chief of the great-hearted Abantes.
With him followed the swift Abantes, hair grown long behind,
spearmen eager with outstretched ash-wood spears
to tear the cuirasses on the chests of their enemies.
545With him followed forty black ships.
And those who held Athens, that well-built citadel,
the district of great-hearted Erechtheus, whom once Athena22
raised, Zeus's daughter — the grain-giving earth had borne him —
and settled in Athens, in her own rich temple,
550where the young men of the Athenians seek his favor
with bulls and rams as the years come round —
these were led by Menestheus, son of Peteos.
No man on the face of the earth was his equal
at marshaling horses and shield-bearing men;
555Nestor alone rivaled him, for he was older.
With him followed fifty black ships.
And Ajax led twelve ships from Salamis,23
and brought them and set them where the Athenian ranks stood.
And those who held Argos and walled Tiryns,
560Hermione and Asine that lie on the deep gulf,
Troezen, Eïones, and vine-clad Epidaurus,
and the young Achaean men who held Aegina and Mases —
these were led by Diomedes, good at the war-cry,
and Sthenelus, dear son of famed Capaneus;
565and with them went a third, Euryalus, a godlike man,
son of lord Mecisteus, Talaus' son;
but the leader of them all was Diomedes, good at the war-cry.
With them followed eighty black ships.
And those who held Mycenae, that well-built citadel,
570and wealthy Corinth and well-built Cleonae;
who dwelt in Orneiae and lovely Araethyrea
and Sicyon, where Adrastus first was king;
who held Hyperesia and steep Gonoessa
and Pellene; who dwelt around Aegium
575and through all Aegialus and around broad Helice —
of their hundred ships the leader was the lord Agamemnon,
Atreus' son. With him followed by far the most
and the best troops; and he among them, clad in gleaming bronze,
glorying, stood out preeminent among all the heroes,
580because he was the best, and led by far the most men.
And those who held hollow Lacedaemon full of ravines,
Pharis and Sparta and Messe of the many doves;
who dwelt in Bryseiae and lovely Augeae;
who held Amyclae and Helos, the citadel by the sea;
585who held Laas and dwelt around Oetylus —
these his brother led, Menelaus, good at the war-cry,
with sixty ships; and they armed apart.
He himself moved among them, trusting his own eagerness,
urging them to war; and beyond all others his heart was set
590on avenging the struggles and groans of Helen.
And those who dwelt in Pylos and lovely Arene,
Thryon, the ford of Alpheius, and well-built Aepy;
who lived in Cyparisseeis and Amphigeneia,
Pteleos and Helos and Dorium — where the Muses24
595met Thamyris the Thracian and ended his singing,
as he came from Oechalia, from Eurytus the Oechalian:
for he had vowed in his boasting that he would win, even if
the Muses themselves should sing, the daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus;
and in their anger they maimed him: they took away
600his wondrous song and made him forget his harping —
these were led by the Gerenian horseman Nestor.
With him ninety hollow ships sailed in order.
And those who held Arcadia under the steep mountain of Cyllene,
beside the tomb of Aepytus, where men fight hand to hand;
605who dwelt in Pheneos and Orchomenus rich in flocks,
Rhipe and Stratie and windswept Enispe;
who held Tegea and lovely Mantinea;
who held Stymphelus and dwelt in Parrhasia —
these were led by Ancaeus's son, the lord Agapenor,
610with sixty ships, and in each ship many
Arcadian men went aboard, skilled fighters.
For the lord of men Agamemnon himself had given them
the well-benched ships to cross the wine-dark sea —
Atreus' son — since the works of the sea were no concern of theirs.
615And those who dwelt in Buprasium and brilliant Elis,
all that Hyrmine and Myrsinus at the land's edge
and the Olenian rock and Alesium enclose between them —
of these there were four leaders, and ten swift ships
followed each man, with many Epeians aboard.
620Two of them, Amphimachus and Thalpius, led —
sons, one of Cteatus, one of Eurytus, of Actor's line;
of the third company strong Diores was leader, Amarynceus' son;
and of the fourth godlike Polyxeinus was leader,
son of lord Agasthenes, Augeias' son.
625And those from Dulichium and the holy Echinae,
the islands that lie across the sea facing Elis —
these were led by Meges, the equal of Ares,
Phyleus' son, whom the horseman Phyleus dear to Zeus begot —
who once, angered at his father, had moved away to Dulichium.
630With him followed forty black ships.
And Odysseus led the great-hearted Cephallenians,
who held Ithaca and Neriton with quivering leaves;
who dwelt in Crocyleia and rugged Aegilips;
who held Zacynthus; who dwelt around Samos;
635who held the mainland and dwelt on the facing shores —
these Odysseus led, the equal of Zeus in counsel,
and with him followed twelve ships with cheeks of vermilion.25
And the Aetolians were led by Thoas, Andraemon's son:
they who dwelt in Pleuron and Olenus and Pylene,
640Chalcis by the shore and rocky Calydon.
For the sons of great-hearted Oeneus were no more,
and he himself was no more, and fair-haired Meleager was dead;
so on Thoas the whole rule of the Aetolians had been laid.
With him followed forty black ships.
645Of the Cretans, Idomeneus, famed with the spear, was leader:
they who held Cnossos and walled Gortyn,
Lyctus and Miletus and chalk-white Lycastus,
Phaestus and Rhytium, fine cities to live in,
and the others who dwelt through hundred-citied Crete.
650Of these Idomeneus, famed with the spear, was leader,
with Meriones, the equal of Enyalius, slayer of men.
With them followed eighty black ships.
And Tlepolemus, Heracles' son, tall and strong,
led nine ships from Rhodes, of the lordly Rhodians,
655who dwelt through Rhodes in three divisions:
Lindus, Ialysus, and chalk-white Cameirus.
Their leader was Tlepolemus, famed with the spear,
whom Astyocheia bore to the might of Heracles —
he brought her out of Ephyra, from the river Selleïs,
660after sacking many towns of Zeus-nurtured fighting men.
Now when Tlepolemus was grown in the well-built hall,
he killed, on the instant, his own father's dear uncle,
Licymnius, scion of Ares, already growing old;
and quickly he built ships, gathered a great following,
665and fled away over the sea, for the others threatened him —
the sons and the grandsons of the might of Heracles.
He came at last to Rhodes, a wanderer, a man of sorrows;
and there they settled in three parts, tribe by tribe, and were loved
by Zeus, who is king over gods and men,
670and the son of Cronos poured wondrous wealth upon them.
And Nireus led three balanced ships from Syme —26
Nireus, son of Aglaïa and lord Charopus;
Nireus, the most beautiful man who came under Ilion
of all the Danaans, after the blameless son of Peleus.
675But he was a slight man, and few people followed him.
And those who held Nisyrus and Crapathus and Casus,
and Cos, city of Eurypylus, and the Calydnae islands —
these were led by Pheidippus and Antiphus,
two sons of lord Thessalus, Heracles' son.
680With them thirty hollow ships sailed in order.
Now all those who dwelt in Pelasgian Argos,
who lived in Alos and Alope and Trachis;
who held Phthia and Hellas of the beautiful women —
and they were called Myrmidons, and Hellenes, and Achaeans —
685of their fifty ships Achilles was captain.
But they had no thought of grim-voiced war;27
there was no one to lead them into the ranks.
For swift-footed brilliant Achilles lay among the ships,
in wrath over the girl, Briseis of the lovely hair,
690whom he had taken out of Lyrnessus with great toil,
when he sacked Lyrnessus and the walls of Thebe
and cut down Mynes and Epistrophus, the spear-mad
sons of lord Euenus, Selepius' son.
Grieving for her he lay there; but he was soon to rise.
695And those who held Phylace and flowering Pyrasus,
Demeter's precinct, and Iton, mother of flocks,
Antron by the sea, and Pteleos deep in meadow-grass —
these warlike Protesilaus had led
while he lived; but by then the black earth held him under.
700His wife, cheeks torn with mourning, was left behind in Phylace,
his house but half-built: a Dardanian man had killed him28
as he leapt from his ship, far the first of the Achaeans.
Yet the men were not leaderless, though they longed for their leader:
Podarces, scion of Ares, set them in order,
705son of Iphiclus rich in flocks, Phylacus' son,
own brother of great-hearted Protesilaus,
the younger-born; the elder and the better man
was the hero Protesilaus the warlike. So the people
lacked no leader, though they longed for the brave man gone.
710With him followed forty black ships.
And those who dwelt in Pherae beside Lake Boebeïs,
in Boebe and Glaphyrae and well-built Iolcus —
these Admetus' dear son led with eleven ships:
Eumelus, whom Alcestis bore to Admetus —
715brilliant among women, loveliest of the daughters of Pelias.
And those who dwelt in Methone and Thaumacia;
who held Meliboea and rugged Olizon —
these Philoctetes led, the master bowman,29
with seven ships; and in each one fifty rowers
720had come aboard, all skilled bowmen, strong fighters.
But he lay on an island, suffering hard pains,
on sacred Lemnos, where the sons of the Achaeans had left him
tormented by the evil wound of the murderous water-snake.
There he lay grieving. But soon the Argives by their ships
725were to remember lord Philoctetes.
Yet the men were not leaderless, though they longed for their leader:
Medon set them in order, Oïleus' bastard son,
whom Rhene bore to Oïleus, sacker of cities.
And those who held Tricca and terraced Ithome;
730who held Oechalia, city of Eurytus the Oechalian —
these were led by the two sons of Asclepius,
the good healers Podaleirius and Machaon.
With them thirty hollow ships sailed in order.
And those who held Ormenion and the spring Hypereia;
735who held Asterium and the white peaks of Titanus —
these Eurypylus led, Euaemon's shining son.
With him followed forty black ships.
And those who held Argissa; who dwelt in Gyrtone,
Orthe and Elone and the white city Oloosson —
740these were led by Polypoetes, steadfast in battle,
son of Peirithous, whom immortal Zeus begot;
famed Hippodameia bore him to Peirithous
on the day he took vengeance on the shaggy beast-men
and drove them out of Pelion, and pushed them to the Aethices.
745Not alone: with him was Leonteus, scion of Ares,
son of high-hearted Coronus, Caeneus' son.
With them followed forty black ships.
And Gouneus led two and twenty ships from Cyphus,
and with him followed the Enienes and the battle-steadfast Peraebians,
750who set their homes around wintry Dodona;
who worked the fields around lovely Titaressus,
the river that pours his fair-flowing water into Peneius —
yet he does not mingle with the silver eddies of Peneius,
but flows along on top of him like oil:
755for he is a branch broken off the water of Styx, the dread oath.
And the Magnetes were led by Prothoos, Tenthredon's son:
they who dwelt around Peneius and Pelion
of the quivering leaves. Swift Prothoos was their leader,
and with him followed forty black ships.
760These, then, were the leaders and lords of the Danaans.
Now which was far the best of them — tell me, Muse —
of the men, and of the horses, that followed the sons of Atreus?
Best by far of the horses were the mares of Pheres' line,
which Eumelus drove: swift-footed as birds,
765matched in coat and matched in years, their backs as level as a plumb-line.
Apollo of the silver bow had raised them in Pereia,
both of them mares, carrying with them the panic of war.
And of the men, far the best was Telamonian Ajax —
while Achilles kept his wrath: for he was mightiest by far,
770he, and the horses that carried the blameless son of Peleus.
But he lay among his beaked seagoing ships,
nursing his rage at Agamemnon, shepherd of the people,
Atreus' son; and his men along the surf-line of the sea
amused themselves throwing the discus and the hunting-spear,
775and shooting with bows; and the horses, each beside its chariot,
stood cropping lotus and marsh-grown parsley,
while the chariots lay well covered in the huts
of their lords; and the men, longing for their leader dear to Ares,
drifted here and there through the camp, and did not fight.
780On the others came, as if all the land were swept with fire;
and the earth groaned beneath them, as under Zeus who delights in thunder
in his anger, when he lashes the earth around Typhoeus30
among the Arimi, where they say Typhoeus has his bed:
so the earth groaned greatly under their feet
785as they came on; and very swiftly they crossed the plain.
And to the Trojans went wind-footed swift Iris, a messenger31
from aegis-bearing Zeus, with a grievous message.
They were holding assembly at Priam's doors,
all gathered together, the young men and the old.
790Standing close, swift-footed Iris spoke to them,
likening her voice to Priam's son Polites,
who sat as lookout of the Trojans, trusting the speed of his feet,
on the very top of the tomb of old Aesyetes,
watching for when the Achaeans should rush out from their ships;
795in his likeness swift-footed Iris spoke:
"Old man, endless talk is always dear to you,
as once it was in peacetime; but relentless war is upon us.
Truly I have gone into very many battles of men,
but never yet have I seen such a host, so great:
800for like the leaves, like the sands, in their multitude
they are coming over the plain to fight for the city.
Hector, you above all I charge to do this:
there are many allies through Priam's great city,
and tongue differs from tongue among men of scattered lands.
805Let each man give the word to those he rules;
let him marshal his own townsmen, and lead them out."
So she spoke, and Hector did not fail to know the goddess's voice.
At once he dissolved the assembly, and they rushed to arms.
All the gates were flung open, and the host streamed out,
810foot-soldiers and horsemen; and a great din arose.
There is a steep mound out before the city,
apart in the plain, with open ground on every side;
men call it Batieia,
but the immortals call it the tomb of Myrine, light of step.32
815There the Trojans and their allies formed their divisions.
The Trojans were led by great Hector of the flashing helmet,33
Priam's son; with him by far the most and the best
troops armed themselves, eager with their spears.
The Dardanians were led by the good son of Anchises,
820Aeneas, whom brilliant Aphrodite bore to Anchises
on the spurs of Ida, a goddess bedded with a mortal.
Not alone: with him were Antenor's two sons,
Archelochus and Acamas, skilled in all fighting.
And those who dwelt in Zeleia under the lowest foot of Ida,
825men of wealth, who drink the dark water of Aesepus,
Trojans — these were led by Lycaon's shining son,
Pandarus, to whom Apollo himself gave the bow.
And those who held Adresteia and the district of Apaesus;
who held Pityeia and the steep mount of Tereia —
830these were led by Adrestus and Amphius of the linen corslet,
two sons of Merops of Percote, who beyond all men
knew the seer's art, and would not let his sons
go to man-destroying war; but the two would not
obey him: the fates of black death were leading them on.
835And those who dwelt around Percote and Practius;
who held Sestus and Abydos and brilliant Arisbe —
these were led by Hyrtacus' son Asius, marshal of men —
Asius, Hyrtacus' son, whom horses carried from Arisbe,
tall and fire-colored, from the river Selleïs.
840And Hippothous led the tribes of the Pelasgian spearmen,
those who dwelt in deep-soiled Larisa;
these were led by Hippothous and Pylaeus, scion of Ares,
two sons of Pelasgian Lethus, Teutamus' son.
And the Thracians were led by Acamas and the hero Peiroos —
845all those the strong-flowing Hellespont encloses.
And Euphemus was captain of the Ciconian spearmen,
son of Zeus-nurtured Troezenus, Ceas' son.
And Pyraechmes led the Paeonians of the curved bows,
from far away, from Amydon, from the wide-flowing Axius —
850Axius, whose water spreads fairest over the earth.
And the Paphlagonians were led by Pylaemenes of the shaggy heart,
from the Eneti, where the breed of wild mules is born:
they who held Cytorus and dwelt around Sesamus,
whose famed homes stood around the river Parthenius,
855Cromna and Aegialus and the heights of Erythini.
And the Halizones were led by Odius and Epistrophus,
from far away, from Alybe, where silver has its birthplace.
And the Mysians were led by Chromis, and Ennomus the bird-reader —
but his birds did not save him from black doom:
860he was broken under the hands of the swift-footed son of Aeacus34
in the river, where Achilles cut down Trojans and others with them.
And Phorcys led the Phrygians, with godlike Ascanius,
from far Ascania; and they were eager to fight in the press of battle.
And the Maeonians were led by Mesthles and Antiphus,
865the two sons of Talaemenes, whom the Gygaean lake bore;
they led the Maeonians, born under Tmolus.
And Nastes was captain of the Carians of barbarous speech,35
who held Miletus and the mountain of Phthires, dense with leaves,
the streams of Maeander and the steep peaks of Mycale;
870these were led by Amphimachus and Nastes —
Nastes and Amphimachus, the shining children of Nomion.
And one of them went to war decked in gold, like a girl —
the fool: it did not ward off wretched destruction from him;
he was broken under the hands of the swift-footed son of Aeacus
875in the river, and war-minded Achilles carried off the gold.
And Sarpedon led the Lycians, with blameless Glaucus,
from far Lycia, from the eddying Xanthus.
1 line 6 — "baneful Dream" (οὖλον ὄνειρον) — Dream is a personified agent here, capitalized accordingly. That Zeus sends a deliberately lying dream scandalized ancient readers (Plato cites this passage disapprovingly, Republic 383a); the poem itself is unembarrassed — the deception is the mechanism of Zeus's promise to Thetis. ↩
2 line 11 — "long-haired Achaeans" (κάρη κομόωντες Ἀχαιοί) — stock epithet of the army, literally "letting the hair grow long on the head"; always so rendered. ↩
3 line 23 — "breaker of horses" (ἱπποδάμοιο) — here of Atreus; later in the poem it is the standing epithet of the Trojans and of Hector ("horse-taming Trojans," 230). Rendered "breaker(s) of horses" for individuals, "horse-taming" for the people. ↩
4 lines 60–70 — The Dream repeats Zeus's instructions verbatim, and Agamemnon repeats them verbatim again to the council — standard epic messenger technique. Zenodotus' text drastically condensed such repetitions (apparatus, Line 60-70), and he omitted 157-168 below (Hera's speech restated by Athena) entirely, replacing it with a single line (apparatus, Line 156, 157-168). The vulgate keeps the full repetitions; so does this translation, in identical English each time. ↩
5 line 73 — "I will test them with words, as is the custom" (ἣ θέμις ἐστί) — the "testing" (peira) is one of the poem's strangest plot devices: no custom of testing armies is otherwise known, and the plan nearly destroys the expedition. The phrase may mean only "as is my right." Translated neutrally; the narrative logic is left as the poem leaves it — precarious. ↩
6 lines 101–108 — The scepter's pedigree — Hephaestus, Zeus, Hermes, Pelops, Atreus, Thyestes, Agamemnon — is a title-deed in miniature: Agamemnon's authority is literally handed down from Zeus. "The slayer of Argus" (ἀργεϊφόντης) is Hermes' fixed epithet, of disputed meaning ("Argus-slayer" is the traditional reading and is kept); "the guide" (διάκτορος) is his companion title. ↩
7 lines 111–118 — Zenodotus athetized this opening of the speech (apparatus). Lines 111-118 recur nearly verbatim at 9.18-25, where Agamemnon speaks them in earnest; here they are play-acted despair. Note the vocabulary: Zeus "bound me in heavy blindness" (ἄτη) — the same word Achilles used of him at 1.412, and Agamemnon concedes at 378 that "it was I who began the anger." ↩
8 line 157 — "Unwearied one" (Ἀτρυτώνη) — obscure cult title of Athena, traditionally derived from "not to be worn down"; rendered by that traditional sense. ↩
9 line 169 — "the equal of Zeus in counsel" (Διὶ μῆτιν ἀτάλαντον) — Odysseus' loftiest epithet, crediting him with mētis, the cunning practical intelligence that is also Zeus's; always so rendered. ↩
10 line 173 — "Zeus-sprung son of Laertes, Odysseus of many devices" (διογενὲς Λαερτιάδη πολυμήχανʼ Ὀδυσσεῦ) — the full-line address formula used for Odysseus throughout both epics; πολυμήχανος ("of many devices") is kept distinct from πολύμητις ("resourceful"). ↩
11 lines 193–197 — Aristarchus athetized these five lines, and they are independently absent from Xenophon's quotation of the passage (Memorabilia 1.2.56) — two converging hints they may not be original (apparatus, Line 193-197; disputed_lines.md #3). Without them, Odysseus' speech to the kings loses its "he is only testing" explanation. Translated as printed; the two-tier treatment of kings and commoners on either side of this line is in any case secure. One crux inside the passage: 194 is printed here as a rhetorical question ("Did we not all hear in council what he said?" — so Lattimore), but Kirk reads it as a statement — "in council we did NOT all hear what he said" — which better explains why the man addressed needs Odysseus's telling. The question-rendering stands; the alternative is recorded. ↩
12 line 204 — "The rule of many is no good thing: let there be one ruler" (οὐκ ἀγαθὸν πολυκοιρανίη· εἷς κοίρανος ἔστω) — the most quoted political sentence in Homer (Aristotle cites it in the Metaphysics in defense of monarchy). In context it is crowd-control rhetoric, not constitutional theory. ↩
13 lines 212–219 — Thersites is the only common soldier in the Iliad who is named, described, and given a speech — and the description is a catalogue of deformities, the epic's physiognomic shorthand for baseness (contrast every hero's beauty). His name suggests θέρσος, "audacity." Zenodotus athetized 220-223 (apparatus). Notice that his complaints against Agamemnon are substantively Achilles' complaints from Book 1, voiced one rung down the social ladder — and answered with a beating the assembly applauds. ↩
14 lines 318–319 — "made him a sign conspicuous" — the vulgate reads ἀρίζηλον ("very plain to see"): the petrified serpent becomes a lasting marker of the portent. An ancient variant read ἀΐζηλον ("unseen"): the god made the serpent vanish. Aristarchus athetized 319 (the petrification line) outright (apparatus, Line 318, 319). Translated from the printed text: conspicuous, then turned to stone. ↩
15 line 336 — "the Gerenian horseman Nestor" (Γερήνιος ἱππότα Νέστωρ) — his fixed title henceforth; "Gerenian" was obscure already in antiquity (usually connected with Gerenia in Messenia, where Nestor was said to have been raised). Always so rendered. ↩
16 line 356 — "the struggles and groans of Helen" (Ἑλένης ὁρμήματά τε στοναχάς τε) — ambiguous since antiquity: either Helen's own strivings and griefs (a Helen carried off unwilling), or the struggles and groans fought and suffered over her. The English keeps the genitive's ambiguity. The line recurs at 590 of Menelaus. ↩
17 line 408 — "good at the war-cry" (βοὴν ἀγαθός) — fixed epithet of Menelaus and Diomedes: the carrying battlefield voice as a command skill. Always so rendered. Menelaus coming "unbidden" to his brother's feast was proverbial in antiquity. ↩
18 lines 447–449 — The aegis (see Book 1, note [21]) here gets its fullest description: a hundred all-gold tassels, "each worth a hundred oxen" (ἑκατόμβοιος) — value is reckoned in cattle, the Homeric world's standard of price; there is no money in the poem. ↩
19 lines 484–493 — The poet's second and most elaborate invocation of the Muses, marking the Catalogue as a feat of memory beyond unaided human power ("ten tongues, ten mouths"). The Muses know because they are present and see; the poet otherwise has only kleos — "the report" — at second hand. ↩
20 lines 494–759 — The Catalogue of Ships: 29 Achaean contingents, some 190 place names, 1,186 ships by the traditional count. It has been argued since antiquity to reflect an originally separate composition (its geography fits mainland Greece of an earlier era better than the poem's own dramatic situation — Boeotia leads, plausibly from the muster at Aulis), and several manuscripts omit the whole span (apparatus, Line 494-877: om.; disputed_lines.md #2). Translated as fully integral, in the same line-for-line verse as the narrative; see commentary. ↩
21 lines 528–530 — The disambiguation of the two Ajaxes. Zenodotus athetized 528 and Aristarchus 529-530 (apparatus) — the "linen corslet" (λινοθώρηξ) bothered critics, linen being light armor at odds with heroic bronze. Kept: the lesser Ajax's smallness and spear-skill are both plot-relevant later. ↩
22 lines 546–551 — Erechtheus, the primeval Athenian king, is "borne by the grain-giving earth" and raised by Athena in her own temple — the earliest statement of the Athenian autochthony myth, and one of the very few references to hero-cult practice (annual bull and ram offerings) in the Iliad. ↩
23 lines 557–558 — The most notorious couplet in the poem. Aristarchus athetized 558, and ancient tradition (Strabo 9.1.10, Diogenes Laertius 1.48) reports that Solon or Pisistratus inserted it to support Athens's claim to Salamis against Megara — the Megarians circulated a rival version continuing Ajax's line with Megarian towns instead (quoted in the apparatus at Line 557-558). Whether or not the accusation is true, Ajax — the war's second-best fighter — receives a strikingly minimal two-line entry. Translated as printed, with the controversy recorded here (disputed_lines.md #2a). ↩
24 lines 594–600 — Thamyris the Thracian bard boasted he could outsing the Muses; they "maimed" him (πηρόν — later tradition specifies blinding, but the word is unspecific), stripped his song, and made him forget his lyre-craft. A dark in-poem parable of song as the Muses' revocable gift, placed pointedly just after the poet's own humble invocation of them. ↩
25 line 637 — "ships with cheeks of vermilion" (μιλτοπάρῃοι) — Odysseus' ships have bows painted with red ochre; the word transfers the "cheek" of the human face-epithets to the ship's prow. ↩
26 lines 671–675 — The Nireus entry: his name opens three consecutive lines (anaphora unique in the Catalogue) — beautiful, well-born, and militarily negligible. Zenodotus athetized 673-675 and omitted 674 (apparatus). The rhetorical polish of the entry made it famous; it is kept at full strength. ↩
27 lines 686–694 — Zenodotus athetized this Achilles-paragraph (apparatus, Line 686-694). It is the Catalogue's load-bearing link to the poem's plot: the fifty ships are mustered, and their leader lies apart "in wrath over the girl" — with the quiet promise "but he was soon to rise." ↩
28 lines 698–702 — Protesilaus, "far the first of the Achaeans" ashore, killed as he leapt from his ship (an oracle had promised death to the first to land — the poem alludes without telling). His "house but half-built" (δόμος ἡμιτελής) is ambiguous: an unfinished hall, or a marriage cut off half-made; the wife with torn cheeks favors hearing both. ↩
29 lines 716–725 — Philoctetes, master of Heracles' bow, abandoned on Lemnos with the festering water-snake wound. "Soon the Argives were to remember" him: prophecy held that Troy could not fall without the bow — the story of Sophocles' Philoctetes. One of the Catalogue's several forward windows beyond the Iliad's own frame. ↩
30 lines 782–783 — Typhoeus, the monstrous challenger of Zeus, lies lashed by his thunderbolts "among the Arimi" (location already disputed in antiquity — Cilicia, Lydia, and volcanic Ischia were all proposed). The marching army makes the earth groan like Zeus's cosmic punishment: the grandest of the muster-similes. ↩
31 line 786 — "wind-footed swift Iris" (ποδήνεμος ὠκέα Ἶρις) — the rainbow goddess as messenger of Zeus; her fixed epithet, always so rendered. ↩
32 lines 813–814 — Men call the mound Batieia; the gods call it "the tomb of Myrine" (an Amazon, in later tradition). Second instance of divine-versus-human double naming (cf. Briareus/Aegaeon, Book 1 note [33]) — the gods' name preserves the older, true history of the landmark. ↩
33 line 816 — "Hector of the flashing helmet" (κορυθαίολος Ἕκτωρ) — his defining epithet, first appearance in the poem; literally "with glancing/shimmering helm." Always so rendered. ↩
34 lines 860–861 — Aristarchus athetized these lines (and obelized the parallel pair at 874-875): they anticipate, in the future tense of the narrator, Achilles' massacre in the river Scamander — which belongs to Book 21 — and ancient critics disliked the Catalogue "spoiling" it. Kept: the Trojan catalogue's habit of glancing at its captains' deaths is part of its elegiac texture. ↩
35 line 867 — "Carians of barbarous speech" (βαρβαροφώνων) — the first occurrence in Greek literature of any "barbar-" word. Not yet the later blanket term "barbarian": in the whole poem only the Carians get this label, and the Trojans themselves speak with the Achaeans unhindered. Rendered "of barbarous speech" to keep the word's echoic, language-centered sense. ↩