The Iliad · wrath, sing, goddess
Poseidon's defiance: Zeus looks away, the sea-god slips into the battle in disguise, and the line holds — shield on shield, man on man.
Book 13 begins with a look and ends with a noise. Zeus, satisfied, turns his shining eyes away from Troy toward the far pastoral north — the mare-milkers and the Abioi, "most righteous of men" (note 1) — certain no god will dare interfere; Poseidon, watching from the peak of Samothrace, comes down in four strides, and the whole book runs on his stolen presence: a god working the Achaean line in borrowed shapes and voices, "in secret, always, up and down the army" — because Zeus is elder-born and knows more (note 15). The last line closes the frame: the clamor of both armies "reached the ether and the radiance of Zeus" — the battle he refused to watch arrives as sound (note 37).
Its centerpiece is the poem's one aristeia of a middle-aged man: Idomeneus of Crete, "half-grey," met coming back from a comrade's sickbed, talked into glory by a god, and given the book's most famous set-piece before he throws a spear — the anatomy of courage and cowardice in ambush, where the coward's color runs and his teeth chatter and the brave man's color never changes (note 12). His kills are the book's plot: Othryoneus, who bid for Cassandra with a promise instead of gifts (note 16); Asius, paying the death-notice filed in Book 12; and Alcathous, whom Poseidon freezes where he stands — the god holding the victim for the blow, the most terrible divine intervention in the poem (note 19).
Around the aristeia the book builds the day's resistance out of lists and low things: the locked phalanx where "shield pressed on shield, helmet on helmet, man on man" (note 6); the defense roster with its Ionians (nowhere else in Homer) and its exiled homicide Medon; the Locrians who fight shoeless of honor, with bows and wool slings, unseen from behind (note 31); beans jumping from a winnowing-shovel; oxen sweating at one plow; a roped bull; a worm. Where Book 12 measured war by peace, Book 13 arms peace and sends it back in. Two wounds are planted for later books: Ascalaphus lies dead and his father Ares, penned on Olympus by Zeus's command, does not know it (note 23); and Harpalion's father walks weeping behind the bier — Pylaemenes, whom the poem killed in Book 5: the most famous inconsistency in Homer, which ancient critics solved with an athetesis and this translation keeps in the open (note 27).
Register notes: 13.769 reuses 3.39 ("Paris — evil Paris...") verbatim; 13.10 uses the fixed "kept no blind man's watch"; the phalanx lines are fixed for reuse at 16.215-217, the shipwright tree-fall for 16.482-484, and Medon's biography for 15.333-336.
1Now Zeus, when he had brought the Trojans and Hector to the ships,
left them beside them, to bear the toil and the misery
without respite; and he himself turned his shining eyes
away, gazing far off at the land of the horse-herding Thracians,
5and the close-fighting Mysians, and the proud Mare-milkers
who drink the milk, and the Abioi, most righteous of men.1
To Troy he no longer turned his shining eyes at all,
for he did not expect in his heart that any immortal
would come to stand by either Trojans or Danaans.
10But the lord earth-shaker kept no blind man's watch:
he sat marveling at the war and the fighting,
high on the topmost peak of wooded Samos,
Thracian Samos; for from there all Ida showed clear,
and Priam's city showed clear, and the ships of the Achaeans.
15There he sat, come up out of the sea, and he pitied the Achaeans
broken under the Trojans; and against Zeus his anger was strong.
At once he came down from the rugged mountain,
striding fast on his feet; and the tall hills trembled, and the timber,
under the immortal feet of Poseidon as he went.2
20Three strides he made, and with the fourth he reached his goal,
Aegae, where his famous house in the depths of the water,
golden, glittering, is built for him, imperishable forever.
There he came, and yoked beneath his chariot the bronze-hoofed horses,
swift-flying, with manes streaming gold,
25and clothed himself in gold, and took the whip,
gold, well-wrought, and mounted the chariot,
and drove out over the waves. And the sea-beasts gamboled beneath him,
coming from every hollow, and did not fail to know their lord;
and the sea in its joy stood apart; and the horses flew on
30lightly, and the bronze axle beneath was not even wetted;3
and the bounding horses carried him toward the ships of the Achaeans.
There is a broad cave in the depths of the deep water,
midway between Tenedos and rugged Imbros:
there Poseidon the earth-shaker stayed his horses,
35loosing them from the chariot, and threw down ambrosial fodder
for them to eat; and around their feet he cast golden hobbles,
unbreakable, not to be undone, so they would stay there unmoved
for their lord's return; and he went to the army of the Achaeans.
And the Trojans, massed like flame or like a stormwind,
40followed Hector, Priam's son, in insatiable fury,
roaring, crying as one; and they hoped to take the ships
of the Achaeans, and kill all their best men beside them.
But Poseidon, holder of the earth, the earth-shaker,
come up out of the deep water, was rousing the Argives,
45likened to Calchas in body and tireless voice.
First he spoke to the two Ajaxes, eager as they already were:
"You two Ajaxes — you will save the army of the Achaeans
if you remember your courage, and no shiver of panic.
Elsewhere I do not fear the invincible hands
50of the Trojans who have climbed our great wall in a mass:
the strong-greaved Achaeans will hold all of them.
But here I fear most terribly that we suffer something —
here where that rabid one leads them, like a flame,
Hector, who claims to be a son of mighty Zeus.
55May some god put it into the hearts of you two
to stand hard yourselves, and to command the others:
then you might beat him back from the swift-faring ships
for all his fury, even if the Olympian himself is driving him."
He spoke, and the holder of the earth, the earth-shaker,
60striking both of them with his staff, filled them with strong fury,
and made their limbs light, their feet and their hands above.
And he himself rose to fly like a swift-winged hawk
that lifts from a sheer towering rock-face
and swoops to chase some other bird across the plain:
65so Poseidon the earth-shaker darted away from them.
Of the two, swift Ajax, Oïleus' son, knew him first,
and at once he spoke to Ajax, Telamon's son:
"Ajax — since some one of the gods who hold Olympus,
likened to the seer, tells us to fight beside the ships —
70and that is not Calchas, the reader of gods' bird-signs:
the trace of his feet and legs from behind, as he went off,
I knew it easily — the gods are easy to know —4
now the heart in my own chest, for its part,
is set far more on warring and fighting,
75and my feet beneath are hungry for it, and my hands above."
Answering him spoke Telamonian Ajax:
"So with me: my invincible hands about the spear
are hungry, and my fury has risen, and beneath me both
my feet are driving; and I long — even alone —
80to fight Hector, Priam's son, in his insatiable fury."
So the two of them spoke to one another,
in the joy of battle-craving the god had cast into their hearts;
and meanwhile the holder of the earth roused the Achaeans behind them,
who were cooling their hearts back by the swift ships.
85Their limbs were unstrung with grievous weariness,
and grief was rising in their hearts as they watched
the Trojans, who had climbed the great wall in a mass:
looking at them, they let the tears spill under their brows,
for they did not think they would escape the evil. But the earth-shaker,
90passing easily among them, stirred the strong battle-lines.
To Teucer first he came, and Leïtus, commanding,
and the hero Peneleos, and Thoas, and Deïpyrus,
and Meriones and Antilochus, masters of the war-shout;
urging these on, he spoke winged words:
95"Shame, Argives — young men! It was you I trusted:
fight, and you will save our ships.
But if you slacken from the misery of this war,
now dawns the day we are broken under the Trojans.
Shame! — a great marvel is this I see with my eyes,
100a terrible thing I never once said would come to pass:
the Trojans advancing on our ships — the Trojans, who before
were like skittering deer, which through the timber,
feed for jackals and leopards and wolves,
wander witless and weaponless, with no fight in them:
105so before now the Trojans would not stand against
the fury and the hands of the Achaeans — not for a moment.
Now, far from their city, they are fighting at the hollow ships,
through a leader's failing and the slackness of the army,
who quarrel with him, and will not defend
110the swift-faring ships, but are killed among them.
Yet even if the truth is that the man wholly to blame
is the hero, Atreus' son, wide-ruling Agamemnon,
because he dishonored the swift-footed son of Peleus,
we, for our part, have no leave to slacken from the war.
115No: let us heal it, quickly. The minds of good men can be healed.5
It is no longer honorable, this slackening of your rushing courage,
you who are all of you the best men in the army. I would not
quarrel with any man who hung back from the fighting
because he was worthless; but with you my heart is angry to the core.
120Soft men! Soon you will make some greater evil yet
by this hanging back. Let each of you put in his heart
shame, and the fear of blame: a great struggle has risen.
Hector is fighting at the ships now, good at the war-cry,
in his power, and he has broken the gates and the long bar."
125So the holder of the earth, commanding, roused the Achaeans.
And around the two Ajaxes the battle-lines took their stand,
strong lines: Ares himself could not have come and faulted them,
nor Athena, driver of armies. For the chosen best
stood and awaited the Trojans and brilliant Hector,
130locking spear on spear, shield on layered shield:
buckler pressed on buckler, helmet on helmet, man on man,
and the horsehair crests on the bright ridges touched
as they nodded, so close they stood to one another;6
and the spears, shaken in daring hands,
135crossed over one another; and their minds were set straight ahead, hot to fight.
The Trojans struck first, massed; Hector led them,
straining straight on, like a boulder off a cliff-face
that a river swollen with winter shoves down the ledge,
breaking with prodigious rain the shameless rock's moorings;
140bounding high it flies, and the timber crashes
under it; and it runs on unswerving, steady, until it reaches
the level plain — and there it rolls no more, for all its rush:7
so Hector for a while threatened to sweep clean to the sea,
clean through the huts and ships of the Achaeans,
145killing; but when he ran against those close-set battle-lines,
he stopped, jammed hard against them. And the sons of the Achaeans facing him,
stabbing with swords and double-curved spears,
thrust him away from them; and he shuddered and gave ground.
He cried a piercing cry, to carry to the Trojans:
150"Trojans and Lycians and Dardanians who fight at close quarters —
stand by me! Not for long will the Achaeans hold me,
not though they have built themselves into a tower,
no — I think they will give way under my spear, if truly
the best of gods drove me on, the loud-thunderer, Hera's lord."
155So speaking he stirred the fury and the heart of every man.
And Deiphobus strode among them thinking great things,
Priam's son, holding before him his shield, balanced every way,
stepping light on his feet, advancing under the shield's cover.
And Meriones aimed at him with his shining spear
160and threw, and did not miss, striking the shield, balanced every way,
the bull's-hide shield — but drove nowhere through it: well before that
the long spear snapped at the socket. And Deiphobus
held the bull's-hide shield away from him, and his heart feared
the spear of war-minded Meriones; but that hero
165drew back into the band of his companions, angry to the bone
both ways — for the lost victory, and the spear he had shattered —
and set off along the huts and ships of the Achaeans
to fetch a long spear that was left him in his hut.
The others fought on, and the quenchless roar rose.
170Teucer, Telamon's son, was first to kill his man,
the spearman Imbrius, son of Mentor rich in horses.
He lived in Pedaeum, before the sons of the Achaeans came,
and had for wife a bastard daughter of Priam, Medesicaste;
but when the double-ended ships of the Danaans came,
175he came back to Ilion, and stood out among the Trojans,
and lived with Priam, who honored him like his own children.
Him the son of Telamon stabbed under the ear with the long spear,
and wrenched the spear out; and he fell like an ash tree
that on the crest of a mountain seen clear from every side
180is cut down by the bronze, and brings its soft leaves to the ground:
so he fell, and his armor, intricate with bronze, clashed about him.
And Teucer rushed in, hot to strip the armor off him;
but as he rushed, Hector cast at him with his shining spear.
He saw it coming and dodged the bronze spear —
185barely; and Hector struck Amphimachus, son of Cteatus
of Actor's line, with the spear in the chest as he came into the battle:
he fell with a thud, and his armor clattered upon him.
And Hector rushed in to tear the helmet, close-fitted
at the temples, from the head of great-hearted Amphimachus;
190but as he rushed, Ajax lunged at him with the shining spear —
yet nowhere reached the flesh, for all of him was sheathed
in terrible bronze. He stabbed the boss of the shield instead
and shoved him back with great strength; and Hector gave ground
behind the two corpses, and the Achaeans dragged them clear.
195Amphimachus, then, Stichius and brilliant Menestheus,
captains of the Athenians, carried back among the Achaean host;
and Imbrius the two Ajaxes, hot with rushing courage,
as two lions snatch a goat from under the guard
of sharp-toothed dogs and carry it through the thick brush,
200holding it high above the ground in their jaws:
so the two Ajaxes, helmed for war, holding him high,
stripped his armor; and the head from the soft neck
Oïleus' son cut off, in wrath for Amphimachus,
and swung and sent it rolling like a ball through the crowd;
205and it fell in the dust in front of Hector's feet.8
And then it was that Poseidon was angered to the heart,
his grandson fallen in the dread combat,9
and he set off along the huts and ships of the Achaeans
to rouse the Danaans; and he was building sorrows for the Trojans.
210And Idomeneus, famed with the spear, met him
coming from a companion who had just come out of the fighting,
cut behind the knee by the sharp bronze.
His comrades carried him in; and Idomeneus, giving the healers
their orders, was going to his hut, for he still longed
215to face the war. And the lord earth-shaker spoke to him,
likening his voice to Thoas, Andraemon's son,
who in all Pleuron and steep Calydon
ruled the Aetolians, honored like a god by the people:
"Idomeneus, counselor of the Cretans, where have they gone,
220the threats the sons of the Achaeans threatened against the Trojans?"
And Idomeneus, leader of the Cretans, answered him:
"Thoas, no man is at fault now — not so far
as I can tell; for all of us know how to fight.
No one is gripped by bloodless fear, no one yields
225to shirking and ducks out of this evil war. No — this, it seems,
must be the pleasure of the overmastering son of Cronos:
that the Achaeans perish here, nameless, far from Argos.
But Thoas — you were always staunch before,
and you rouse any other man you see slackening:
230so do not leave off now. Call to every man."
Then answered him Poseidon the earth-shaker:
"Idomeneus, may the man never come home
from Troy — may he be sport for dogs on this ground —
who on this day chooses to slacken from the fighting.
235Come then, take up your weapons and come out with me. We must
press this together, and see if the two of us can be of use.
Even sorry men, combined, come to some courage —10
and the two of us would know how to fight even the best."
So speaking, the god went back into the toil of men;
240and Idomeneus, when he reached his well-built hut,
put his fine armor about his body, caught up two spears,
and went his way like the lightning-bolt the son of Cronos
takes in his hand and brandishes from glittering Olympus,
showing a sign to mortals, and its flashes blaze far:
245so the bronze blazed on his chest as he ran.
And Meriones, his brave aide, met him
while he was still near the hut — he was going to fetch
a bronze spear — and the strength of Idomeneus spoke to him:
"Meriones, Molus's son, swift-footed, dearest of my companions,11
250why have you come, leaving the war and the combat?
Are you hit somewhere — is an arrowhead wearing you down?
Or do you come after me with some message? I myself
have no wish to sit in the huts, but to fight."
And level-headed Meriones answered him:
255"Idomeneus, counselor of the bronze-shirted Cretans,
I come to fetch a spear, if one is left
in your huts; the one I carried before, we shattered it —
I struck the shield of Deiphobus in his arrogance."
And Idomeneus, leader of the Cretans, answered him:
260"Spears — if you want them you will find one, and twenty,
standing in my hut against the bright entrance-wall:
Trojan spears, which I strip from the men I kill. I hold12
it is not my way to fight standing far from enemy men;
and so I have spears, and bossed shields,
265and helmets, and corslets shining bright."
And level-headed Meriones answered him:
"I too, by my hut and my black ship, have plenty
of Trojan spoils — but they are not close by for the taking.
For I say I am no more forgetful of courage than you:
270I take my stand among the first in the battle where men win glory
whenever the strife of war has risen.
Some other of the bronze-shirted Achaeans might miss
my fighting; but you — you are the one who knows it, I think."
And Idomeneus, leader of the Cretans, answered him:
275"I know your worth, and what kind of man you are. Why recite it?
If now beside the ships all our best were being counted
for an ambush — where the worth of men shows clearest,
where the coward and the brave man stand revealed:
the coward's color changes to one thing and another,
280and the spirit in his chest cannot hold him steady in his seat,
but he shifts his crouch, sits back from foot to foot,
and the heart in his ribs hammers hugely
as he imagines the death-spirits, and his teeth chatter aloud;
but the brave man's color never changes, and no fear in him
285is too great, once he has settled into the ambush of men,
and he prays to be mixed at once in the misery of battle —
there, no man could fault your fury or your hands.
For even if you were hit in the work, or struck close in,
the missile would not fall on the nape of your neck, or your back:
290it would meet your chest or your belly
as you pressed forward into the front-fighters' trysting-place.13
But come, no more standing here talking of this
like children — someone might scoff beyond all measure.
Go to the hut, and choose yourself a massive spear."
295So he spoke; and Meriones, the equal of swift Ares,
quickly took up a bronze spear from the hut
and went after Idomeneus, his whole mind on war.
As Ares, bane of mortals, goes out to war,
and with him follows Panic, his dear son, strong and fearless,
300who sends even the patient-hearted warrior running;
the two of them arm out of Thrace against the Ephyri
or the great-hearted Phlegyes — and they do not hear14
both sides' prayers, but hand the glory to one:
such were Meriones and Idomeneus, leaders of men,
305as they went into the war, helmed in blazing bronze.
And Meriones spoke to him first with his word:
"Son of Deucalion, where are you eager to enter the crowd?
On the right of the whole army, or through the middle,
or on the left? For nowhere else, I think, do the long-haired
310Achaeans so fail of hands in the fighting."
And Idomeneus, leader of the Cretans, answered him:
"In the center ships there are others to hold the defense,
the two Ajaxes, and Teucer, who is best of the Achaeans
in bowmanship, and good too in the standing fight:
315they will drive him to sickness of it, however hot for battle —
Hector, Priam's son — however strong he is.
It will be steep going for him, blaze as he may to fight:
against their conquering fury and invincible hands
he will not fire the ships — unless the son of Cronos in person
320hurls a burning brand onto the swift ships.
To no man would he yield, great Telamonian Ajax —
to no man who is mortal and eats the grain of Demeter,
who can be broken by bronze or by great hurled stones.
Not even to Achilles, breaker of men, would he give way —
325in the standing fight; in speed of foot there is no contesting him.
So take us leftward of the army, and quickly: we will see
whether we give the triumph to some man, or he to us."
So he spoke; and Meriones, the equal of swift Ares,
led on, until they came to the army where he had bidden.
330And when they saw Idomeneus, strong as a flame,
him and his aide, in their intricate war-gear,
they called to one another through the crowd and made for him,
and their struggle joined, one mass, by the sterns of the ships.
As when squalls come racing under shrill winds
335on a day when the dust lies thickest on the roads,
and all together they raise up a great cloud of dust:
so their battle came together in one mass, and they were hot
in their hearts to slaughter each other in the crowd with the sharp bronze.
And the man-destroying battle bristled with the long
340flesh-cutting spears they gripped; and eyes were blinded
by the flare of bronze off glittering helmets
and fresh-burnished corslets and shining shields
as they came on in one mass. It would be a hard-hearted man
who could rejoice at the sight of that toil, and not be grieved.15
345And the two strong sons of Cronos, divided in purpose,
were building grim sorrows for the fighting men.
Zeus willed the victory for the Trojans and Hector,
glorifying swift-footed Achilles; yet he had no wish
for the Achaean army to perish wholly before Ilion —
350he was glorifying Thetis, and her strong-hearted son.
But Poseidon had come among the Argives and was stirring them,
slipped up in secret from the grey salt water; for it galled him
to see them broken by Trojans, and against Zeus his anger was strong.
Both, to be sure, were of one stock and one parentage,
355but Zeus was elder-born, and he knew more.
For that reason Poseidon shunned defending them openly,
and in secret, always, roused them down the army, likened to a man.
So the two of them knotted the cord of strong strife
and leveling war, and drew it taut over both sides —
360a cord unbreakable, not to be untied; and it unstrung the knees of many.16
Then — though his hair was half-grey — Idomeneus,
calling on the Danaans, leapt on the Trojans and drove panic among them.
For he killed Othryoneus, in the town from Cabesus —
lately come, chasing the report of the war,
365and he had asked for the loveliest of Priam's daughters,
Cassandra, without bride-gifts — promising a great work instead:
to drive the sons of the Achaeans out of Troy against their will.
And old Priam had promised her, had bowed his head:
give her he would; and Othryoneus fought trusting the promises.
370Idomeneus aimed at him with his shining spear
and threw, and hit him in mid-stride; the corslet of bronze
he wore did not hold: the spear fixed in his belly's middle.
He fell with a thud; and Idomeneus exulted, calling:
"Othryoneus — I congratulate you beyond all living men
375if you are really going to accomplish all you promised
Priam, Dardanus' heir! He promised you his daughter.
Look — we too could promise you as much, and keep it:
we would give you the loveliest of the daughters of Atreus' son,
bringing her out of Argos for you to marry, if you will join us
380and sack the well-peopled city of Ilion.
Come along: let us settle the marriage at the seafaring ships —
you will find we are not hard men over bride-terms."17
So speaking the hero Idomeneus dragged him by the foot
through the strong encounter. But Asius came to avenge him,
385on foot before his horses; the aide who drove them
kept them breathing at his shoulders always. And his heart was hot
to hit Idomeneus; but the other was quicker, and struck him with the spear
in the throat under the chin, and drove the bronze clean through.
He fell as an oak falls, or a white poplar,
390or a towering pine, that carpenters up in the mountains
cut down with fresh-whetted axes to be a ship's timber:18
so he lay stretched out before his horses and chariot,
bellowing, clawing at the blood-soaked dust.
And the charioteer was struck out of the wits he had:
395he did not dare wheel the horses round and slip
out of the enemy's hands; and Antilochus, staunch in the fight,
caught him with the spear mid-body; the corslet of bronze
he wore did not hold: the spear fixed in his belly's middle,
and he fell gasping out of the well-built chariot.
400And the horses Antilochus, great-hearted Nestor's son,
drove off from the Trojans to the strong-greaved Achaeans.
Then Deiphobus came up very close to Idomeneus,
grieving for Asius, and cast with his shining spear.
But Idomeneus saw it coming and dodged the bronze spear:
405he hid himself behind his shield, balanced every way,
the shield he carried, built of oxhides and gleaming bronze
rounded on the wheel, fitted with two cross-rods:
under it he gathered himself whole, and the bronze spear flew over
and the shield rang dry and harsh as the spear grazed
410across it. Yet Deiphobus's heavy hand had not thrown in vain:
he hit Hypsenor, Hippasus's son, shepherd of the people,
in the liver below the midriff, and unstrung his knees on the instant.
And Deiphobus vaunted terribly over him, crying far:
"Not unavenged, after all, lies Asius! No — I say
415that even going down to Hades, the strong closer of the gate,
he will be glad at heart: I have given him an escort for the road."19
So he spoke, and grief came over the Argives at his vaunting,
and most of all he stirred the heart of war-minded Antilochus;
yet grieved as he was, he did not forget his companion:
420running, he stood over him and covered him with the shield,
and two loyal companions stooped beneath him,
Mecisteus, Echius' son, and brilliant Alastor,
and carried him, groaning heavily, to the hollow ships.
And Idomeneus did not slacken his great fury: he strained
425always either to wrap some Trojan in blinding night
or to fall himself with a crash, warding ruin from the Achaeans.
Then the dear son of Zeus-nurtured Aesyetes,
the hero Alcathous — he was Anchises' son-in-law,
married to the eldest of his daughters, Hippodameia,
430whom her father and her lady mother loved with all their hearts
at home; for she outshone all the girls of her age
in beauty and in handiwork and in wit, and for that
the best man in the breadth of Troy had married her —
him, then, Poseidon broke under Idomeneus's hand:
435he charmed his shining eyes and shackled his glorious limbs,20
so that he could neither run back nor swerve aside,
but stood unmoving, like a grave-pillar or a tree
in high leaf, while the hero Idomeneus stabbed him with the spear
mid-chest, and burst the bronze tunic around it,
440the tunic that till then had kept ruin from his flesh:
it screamed dry and harsh as it tore around the spear.
He fell with a thud, the spear stuck fast in his heart,
and the heart, still beating, shook even the butt-end
of the spear, quivering — until at last massive Ares stilled its fury.
445And Idomeneus vaunted terribly over him, crying far:
"Deiphobus! Shall we call it a fair reckoning now —
three men killed for one? — since it was you who boasted.
Strange man: come stand against me yourself, face to face,
and learn what son of Zeus's line has come here:
450Zeus first begot Minos, warden of Crete;
and Minos got a son, blameless Deucalion;
and Deucalion fathered me, lord over many men
in wide Crete; and now the ships have carried me here,
an evil to you, and your father, and the rest of the Trojans."21
455So he spoke; and Deiphobus was torn two ways —
whether to fall back and take as companion some one
of the great-hearted Trojans, or to try it alone.
And as he weighed it, this seemed to him the better course:
to go for Aeneas. He found him standing rearmost
460of the crowd; for he was forever furious at brilliant Priam,
because, brave among men as he was, Priam gave him no honor.22
Standing close, he spoke winged words to him:
"Aeneas, counselor of the Trojans, now the great need is on you
to stand for your sister's husband — if kinship's grief can reach you.
465Come, let us fight for Alcathous, who long ago,
as your sister's husband, reared you in his house when you were little;
and Idomeneus, famed with the spear, has stripped him."
So he spoke, and stirred the heart in Aeneas's chest,
and he went after Idomeneus, his whole mind on war.
470But no panic took hold of Idomeneus, as though he were some pampered boy:
he stood his ground, like a boar in the mountains sure of his strength,
who abides the great oncoming rabble of men
in a lonely place, and the ridge of his back bristles up,
and his eyes shine with fire, and he whets his tusks,
475hot to beat off the dogs and the men:
so Idomeneus, famed with the spear, stood fast and did not yield
to Aeneas coming swift to the rescue. But he called his companions,
looking to Ascalaphus and Aphareus and Deïpyrus
and Meriones and Antilochus, masters of the war-shout;
480urging these on, he spoke winged words:
"Here, friends — I am alone: defend me! I dread him terribly,
swift-footed Aeneas, who is coming at me —
who is very strong in battle at killing men,
and has the flower of youth besides, which is the greatest power.
485If we were of one age, with the heart I carry now,
quickly would he carry off great power — or I would."
So he spoke; and all of them, one spirit in their chests,
took their stand close by him, shields leaned against their shoulders.
And Aeneas on the other side called to his companions,
490looking to Deiphobus and Paris and brilliant Agenor,
fellow-leaders of the Trojans with him; and after them
the troops followed, as flocks follow the bell-ram
down from the pasture to drink — and the shepherd's heart is glad:23
so the heart in Aeneas's chest rejoiced
495when he saw the mass of troops following his own lead.
And around Alcathous they went at each other, close in,
with their long pikes; and the bronze about their chests
rang terribly as they aimed at one another
through the crowd. And two men of war beyond the others,
500Aeneas and Idomeneus, the equals of Ares,
strained to hew each other's flesh with the pitiless bronze.
Aeneas first cast at Idomeneus;
but he saw it coming and dodged the bronze spear,
and the point of Aeneas's spear went quivering
505into the earth, hurled in vain from his massive hand.
But Idomeneus struck Oenomaus mid-belly,
and burst the plate of his corslet, and the bronze
spilled his bowels through; and falling in the dust he clutched the earth in his palm.
And Idomeneus wrenched the long-shadowed spear out
510of the corpse, but could not strip the rest of the fine armor
from his shoulders: the missiles pressed him too hard.
For the joints of his feet no longer held firm in the charge —
no spring left, either to follow his own cast or to dodge another's.
So in the standing fight he still fended off the pitiless day,
515but in retreat his feet could no longer carry him quick out of the battle.
And as he was stepping slowly back, Deiphobus cast at him
with his shining spear — for the grudge he held him was relentless, always.
But this time too he missed; and the spear hit Ascalaphus,
the son of Enyalius; through the shoulder the massive spear
520drove; and falling in the dust he clutched the earth in his palm.
But loud-roaring massive Ares knew nothing of it yet —
that his son had fallen in the strong encounter —
for he sat on the peak of Olympus, under the golden clouds,
penned there by the designs of Zeus, where the other
525immortal gods sat too, barred from the war.24
And around Ascalaphus they went at each other close in:
Deiphobus tore the shining helmet from Ascalaphus,
but Meriones, the equal of swift Ares, leaping in,
stabbed his upper arm with the spear, and out of his hand
530the socketed helmet fell ringing to the ground.
And Meriones, springing in again like a vulture,
wrenched the massive spear out of his upper arm
and drew back into the band of his companions. And Polites,
Deiphobus's own brother, throwing his arms around his waist,
535led him out of the harsh-sounding war, until they reached
his swift horses, which stood behind the battle and the fighting
with their charioteer and the intricate chariot;
these carried him toward the city, groaning heavily,
worn; and the blood ran down from the fresh wound on his arm.
540The others fought on, and the quenchless roar rose.
There Aeneas sprang on Aphareus, Caletor's son,
and struck his throat — it was turned toward him — with the sharp spear;
his head dropped to one side, and shield and helmet
crumpled down on him, and death that breaks the spirit poured round him.
545And Antilochus, watching Thoon as he turned around,
leapt in and stabbed him, and severed the whole vein
that runs up the length of the back to reach the neck:
the whole of it he severed, and the man dropped on his back in the dust,
stretching both hands out toward his dear companions.
550And Antilochus sprang on him and set to stripping the armor
from his shoulders, watching all round; for the Trojans, ringing him,
stabbed at his broad glittering shield from this side and that, yet could not
get through to graze the soft flesh behind it with the pitiless bronze —
the flesh of Antilochus; for Poseidon the earth-shaker
555guarded Nestor's son on every side, even amid the thick missiles.
For never was he out of reach of enemies; he wheeled
among them; and his spear was never held still, but always
shaken, quivering; and his aim was set in his mind
either to cast at someone, or to charge in close.
560But as he aimed through the crowd he did not go unseen
by Adamas, Asius's son, who leapt in close and stabbed
the middle of his shield with the sharp bronze; but the blue-maned
Poseidon made the point strengthless, grudging him that life.25
And half of it stuck there, like a fire-hardened stake,
565in the shield of Antilochus, and half lay on the ground;
and Adamas drew back into the band of his companions, dodging doom.
But Meriones, following as he went, threw the spear
and hit him between the genitals and the navel — there
where the war-god comes most grievous to wretched mortals.
570There the spear stuck fast; and doubled over the shaft
he writhed, as a bull writhes that herdsmen in the mountains
have bound with willow-ropes and drag along unwilling:
so, stabbed, he writhed a little while — not long —
until the hero Meriones came close and wrenched
575the spear out of his flesh; and darkness covered his eyes.
And Helenus struck Deïpyrus close in, on the temple,
with a great Thracian sword, and sheared the helmet away;
it was knocked spinning to the ground, and some Achaean
picked it up as it rolled between the fighters' feet;
580and gloomy night came down and covered his eyes.
Then grief seized Atreus' son, Menelaus good at the war-cry,
and he strode out threatening against the hero, lord Helenus,
shaking his sharp spear; and Helenus drew back the grip of his bow.
So the two came on together, the one hot to cast
585the sharp-pointed spear, the other the arrow off the string.
Priam's son struck him first, with the arrow, on the chest,
on the corslet's plate — and the bitter arrow sprang off.
As off a broad winnowing-shovel, on a great threshing-floor,
the dark-skinned beans or the chickpeas jump
590under the shrill wind and the winnower's swing,
so from the corslet of glorious Menelaus
the bitter arrow glanced far off, turned hard away.26
But Atreus' son, Menelaus good at the war-cry, struck
the hand in which he held the polished bow: and into the bow
595the bronze spear drove, clean through the hand.
He drew back into the band of his companions, dodging doom,
his hand hanging slack at his side, dragging the ash spear.
Great-hearted Agenor drew it out of the hand,
and bound the hand itself in a sling of twisted
600sheep's wool, which his aide carried for the shepherd of the people.27
Then Peisander came straight at glorious Menelaus —
but an evil fate was leading him toward death's end:
toward you, Menelaus, to be broken in the dread combat.
And when they were close, advancing on one another,
605Atreus' son missed his cast; the spear was turned aside;
and Peisander stabbed at the shield of glorious Menelaus
but could not drive the bronze on through:
the broad shield held it, and the spear snapped
at the socket. Yet he rejoiced in his heart, and hoped for victory.
610But Atreus' son, drawing his silver-studded sword,
sprang at Peisander; and he, from under his shield, pulled out
a fine axe of good bronze on a haft of olive-wood,
long and well-polished; and in the same instant they reached each other.
Peisander chopped at the ridge of the horsehair-crested helmet
615at its very peak, under the plume; Menelaus caught him coming on
at the forehead, above the base of the nose: the bones cracked loud,
and his eyes, all blood, dropped in the dust by his feet,
and he doubled over and fell. And setting a heel on his chest
Menelaus stripped his armor, and spoke in triumph over him:
620"This is how you will leave the ships of the swift-colted Danaans —
you Trojans past all pride, never sated with the terrible war-shout —
nor short of any other outrage and disgrace,
like the outrage you did to me, you foul dogs, with never a fear
in your hearts for the harsh wrath of loud-thundering Zeus
625of Guest-right, who one day will destroy your steep city.
You who went off — wantonly — carrying away my wedded wife
and much of my wealth, when it was she who had made you welcome;
and now you rage to hurl annihilating fire
on the seafaring ships, and to kill the Achaean heroes.
630But you will be stopped, somewhere, war-hungry as you are.
O father Zeus — they say you stand above all others
in wisdom, men and gods alike; yet all this comes from you:
what favor you are showing to men of violence —
these Trojans, whose fury is forever reckless, who cannot
635get their fill of the din of leveling war!
Of all things there is satiety — of sleep, of love,
of sweet song and of blameless dancing;
a man would sooner pray to take his fill of these
than of war. But the Trojans are never sated with battle."28
640So speaking, blameless Menelaus stripped the bloody armor
from the body and gave it to his companions,
and went back himself again and mixed with the front-fighters.
There the son of king Pylaemenes leapt out at him,
Harpalion, who had followed his dear father to fight
645at Troy, and never came home again to his fatherland.
He stabbed the middle of Atreus' son's shield with his spear,
close in, but could not drive the bronze on through,
and drew back into the band of his companions, dodging doom,
glancing on every side, lest flesh of his meet bronze.
650But Meriones, as he retreated, shot a bronze-tipped arrow
and hit him in the right buttock; and the arrow
passed under the bone, straight on, into the bladder.
Sinking down on the spot, in the arms of his dear companions,
breathing out his life, he lay stretched on the ground
655like a worm; and the dark blood ran out and soaked the earth.29
Around him the great-hearted Paphlagonians busied themselves:
they lifted him into a chariot and drove him toward holy Ilion,
grieving; and among them went his father, shedding tears;
and there was no blood-price for his son who was dead.
660Now at his killing the heart of Paris was angered exceedingly,
for he had been his guest-friend among the many Paphlagonians;
and angered for him, he let fly a bronze-tipped arrow.
There was one Euchenor, the son of the seer Polyidus,
a rich man and a brave one, whose house was in Corinth,
665who had boarded his ship knowing well his deadly fate:
for the good old man Polyidus had told him, often,
that he would waste to death of a grievous sickness at home,
or go down under Trojan hands among the ships of the Achaeans;
and so he shunned two things at once: the heavy fine
670of the Achaeans, and the loathsome sickness, that his heart might feel no pain.30
Him Paris struck below the jaw, under the ear; and quickly the spirit
went out of his limbs, and the hateful darkness took him.
So they fought on, like blazing fire;
and Hector, dear to Zeus, had not heard, and did not know at all
675that on the left of the ships his people were being cut down
by the Argives — and soon the triumph would have belonged
to the Achaeans: such was the holder of the earth, the earth-shaker,
driving the Argives on, and defending them besides with his strength.
But Hector held where first he had leapt the gates and the wall,
680breaking the close-set battle-lines of Danaan shield-men,
there where the ships of Ajax and Protesilaus
were drawn up on the beach of the grey sea, and above them
the wall was built at its lowest — there where beyond all places
the men themselves and their horses were fiercest in the fight.
685There the Boeotians, and the Ionians with their trailing tunics,31
the Locrians, and the Phthians, and the shining Epeians
held him off the ships as he charged hard, but had not strength
to thrust him back away from them — brilliant Hector like a flame —
the picked men of the Athenians among them; and their leader
690was Menestheus, Peteos' son, and with him followed
Pheidas and Stichius and brave Bias; and the Epeians' leaders
were Meges, Phyleus' son, and Amphion and Dracius,
and before the Phthians, Medon, and Podarces steadfast in battle.
Now the one — Medon — was a bastard son of godlike Oïleus
695and brother of Ajax; but he lived in Phylace,
far from his own fatherland, having killed a man,
a kinsman of his stepmother Eriopis, wife of Oïleus;32
and the other was a son of Iphiclus, Phylacus's line.
These, armed in the front of the great-hearted Phthians,
700fought in defense of the ships beside the Boeotians;
and Ajax, the swift son of Oïleus, would no longer
stand apart from Ajax, Telamon's son — not by a step:
but as in fallow land two wine-dark oxen strain
at the jointed plow with one and the same heart, and around
705the roots of their horns the sweat wells up in streams,
and only the polished yoke holds the two apart
as they drive down the furrow, and the plow cuts to the field's edge:
so the two of them took their stand, shoulder to shoulder.33
But the son of Telamon had troops with him, many and brave,
710companions who took his shield from him
whenever weariness and sweat came over his knees;
while no Locrians followed the great-hearted son of Oïleus:
their hearts had no stomach for the standing fight,
for they had no bronze helmets, thick with horsehair,
715no round shields and no ash spears:
it was trusting in their bows, and in the twisted wool
of sheep, that they had followed him to Ilion; and with these,
shooting thick and fast, they broke the Trojan battle-lines.
So then: the ones in front, in their intricate war-gear,
720fought the Trojans and Hector of the bronze helmet,
while the others shot from behind, unseen; and the Trojans
lost all memory of the joy of battle: the arrows drove them into rout.34
And then, in misery, back from the ships and the huts
the Trojans would have retreated to windy Ilion,
725had not Polydamas come and stood by daring Hector:
"Hector, there is no dealing with you: no man's persuasion moves you.
Because a god gave you the works of war beyond others,
you insist on knowing counsel, too, better than others;
but you cannot possibly take all things to yourself at once.
730To one man the god has given the works of war,
to another the dance, to another the lyre and song,
and in another's chest wide-seeing Zeus sets a mind
of worth, and many men get profit of it,
and it saves many, and he who has it knows it best of all.35
735But I will say it as it seems to me to be best.
Everywhere around you the garland of war is blazing;
and the great-hearted Trojans, now they have crossed the wall,
are some of them standing back with their arms, and some fighting,
fewer against more, scattered along the ships.
740Fall back, then, and summon all our best men here;
and then we could weigh the whole counsel together —
whether to fall on the many-benched ships, if the god
is willing to hand us the power, or whether after all
to come away from the ships unhurt. For I, for one, fear
745the Achaeans may pay us back yesterday's debt in full:
a man waits by the ships insatiate of war,
and I think he will hold back from the fighting no longer."
So spoke Polydamas, and the prudent word pleased Hector,
and at once he leapt with his weapons from the chariot to the ground,
750and speaking winged words he addressed him:
"Polydamas — you hold all our best men here,
I will go over there and take my share of the fighting,
and come back quickly, when I have given them their orders."
He spoke, and set off — like a snow-shining mountain —36
755screaming, and flew through the Trojans and the allies.
And they all surged toward Panthous's son, gracious Polydamas,
when they heard the voice of Hector.
But he went ranging through the front-fighters, searching
for Deiphobus, and the strength of lord Helenus,
760and Adamas, Asius's son, and Asius, Hyrtacus's son —
if he might find them anywhere. He found them
not unhurt, not unruined: some by the sterns
of the Achaean ships lay dead at Argive hands,
and some were inside the wall with wounds from far or near.
765But one he found quickly, on the left of the tearful battle:
brilliant Alexandros, the husband of lovely-haired Helen,
heartening his companions and urging them to fight.
Standing close, he raked him with shaming words:
"Paris — evil Paris — beauty and nothing more, woman-mad, seducer:37
770where is Deiphobus, and the strength of lord Helenus,
and Adamas, Asius's son, and Asius, Hyrtacus's son?
And where is Othryoneus? Now all of steep Ilion
is ruined, top to bottom. Now your own sheer destruction is sure."
Then godlike Alexandros answered him:
775"Hector — since your heart is set on blaming the blameless,
some other day, perhaps, I may hang back from the fighting;
but not now: my mother did not bear me wholly a coward.
From the moment you woke the battle of our companions at the ships,
from then we have stood our ground here, engaging the Danaans
780without respite. The companions you ask after are dead —
except Deiphobus and the strength of lord Helenus:
those two have gone off, each wounded in the hand
by long spears; the son of Cronos kept death from them.
Now lead on, wherever your heart and spirit command,
785and we will follow you, and gladly; nor do I think
you will find us short of courage, so far as the strength is in us.
Beyond his strength no man can fight, however hot he burns."
So speaking the hero turned his brother's mind.
They set off for where the battle and struggle burned thickest,
790around Cebriones, and blameless Polydamas,
and Phalces, and Orthaeus, and godlike Polyphetes,
and Palmys, and Ascanius and Morys, sons of Hippotion,
who had come in relief out of deep-soiled Ascania
the dawn before; and now Zeus drove them to fight.
795And they came on like a squall of punishing winds
that under the thunder of father Zeus drives at the plain
and with a prodigious roar meets the sea, and the countless
seething waves of the loud-roaring water
arch up, white-crested, some in front, and others behind them:
800so the Trojans, closed up, some in front, and others behind them,
glittering in bronze, came on behind their leaders.
And Hector led them, the equal of Ares bane of mortals,
Priam's son; before him he held his shield, balanced every way,
thick with hides, with heavy bronze hammered over it,
805and about his temples the shining helmet shook.
Everywhere he probed the battle-lines, advancing,
trying whether they might give before him as he came under shield-cover;
but he could not confound the heart in the Achaeans' chests.
And Ajax, striding long, was first to challenge him:
810"Possessed one — come closer! Why try to frighten Argives
with mere noise? We are not unschooled in battle;
it is the evil whip of Zeus that has broken us Achaeans.
I suppose your heart hopes to strip the ships clean —
well, we too have hands, quick hands, to hold them.
815Long before that, mark me, your own well-peopled city
will be taken under our hands, and sacked.
And for you yourself, I say the hour is near when, running,
you will pray to father Zeus and the other immortals
to make your fair-maned horses swifter than falcons
820as they carry you to the city, raising the dust of the plain."
And as he spoke, a bird flew by on the right hand,
an eagle, flying high; and the Achaean army shouted at it,
heartened by the sign. But glorious Hector answered:
"Ajax, you blundering ox of a braggart — what a thing to say!
825I wish I were as surely, all my days, the son
of aegis-bearing Zeus, and the lady Hera had borne me,
and I were honored as Athena and Apollo are honored,
as surely as this day now brings evil to the Argives —
all of them; and you will be killed among them, if you dare
830stand against my long spear, which will tear open
your lily-soft skin; and you will glut the dogs and birds of Troy38
with your fat and your flesh, fallen beside the ships of the Achaeans."
So speaking he led the way, and they followed him
with a prodigious roar, and the army screamed behind him.
835And the Argives on the other side raised their cry, and did not forget
their courage, but stood fast against the best of the Trojans coming on;
and the clamor of both reached the ether and the radiance of Zeus.39
1 lines 1–9 — Zeus, sure of his arrangements, turns his shining eyes away from the war — north, to the horse-herding Thracians, the close-fighting Mysians, and then clean off the map of the war: the Hippemolgoi, "Mare-milkers who drink the milk," and the Abioi, "most righteous of men." The lines are the most famous ethnographic glance in Homer — steppe pastoralists (later identified with Scythians; Ammianus Marcellinus was still quoting the verse in the fourth century AD) whose remoteness from the war is precisely their righteousness. Zeus rests his eyes on the people who own least and quarrel least — and his inattention is the hinge of the plot: no god, he thinks, will dare (7-9). One will. ↩
2 lines 17–22 — Poseidon's descent: "the tall hills trembled, and the timber, under the immortal feet of Poseidon as he went. Three strides he made, and with the fourth he reached his goal." Longinus quotes the passage in On the Sublime (9.8) as an instance of the divine measured by cosmic stride. Aegae, his golden house under the water, was paired with Helice at 8.203; Samothrace ("Thracian Samos"), the north-Aegean peak, really does command a sight-line over Imbros to the Troad — the poet's geography of watching is checkable, and correct. ↩
3 lines 23–31 — The ride: gold horses, gold whip, gold armor — and then the great verse of the animal world's homage: "the sea-beasts gamboled beneath him, coming from every hollow, and did not fail to know their lord; and the sea in its joy stood apart." The wave makes way; the axle stays dry. After eleven books of the sea as grey backdrop for grief, one god's commute turns it joyful — the Iliad's single moment of happy nature. ↩
4 lines 66–75 — The lesser Ajax detects the god from the way he moves: "the trace of his feet and legs from behind, as he went off, I knew it easily — the gods are easy to know" (ἀρίγνωτοι δὲ θεοί περ). Divine disguise deceives the face-to-face view only; gait betrays godhead. The other symptom is inward: both Ajaxes' hands and feet go "hungry" for battle — possession described from inside the possessed. ↩
5 lines 95–124 — Poseidon's rebuke, pivoting on the poem's political nerve: even if Agamemnon is "wholly to blame... because he dishonored the swift-footed son of Peleus, we, for our part, have no leave to slacken" — and then the great clause: "let us heal it, quickly. The minds of good men can be healed" (ἀκεσταί τοι φρένες ἐσθλῶν, 115). The god concedes the grievance and dissolves its authority in nine words — the whole ethics of the quarrel-plot, and the sentence Achilles will not hear until Book 19. ↩
6 lines 126–135 — The locked phalanx: "buckler pressed on buckler, helmet on helmet, man on man, and the horsehair crests on the bright ridges touched as they nodded." The lines (131-133) recur at 16.215-217 when the Myrmidons form up — reuse this English there. Whatever the date of hoplite tactics, this is the sensation of close order: equipment touching equipment before any enemy is met. ↩
7 lines 136–146 — Hector as the boulder: torn loose by a river in flood, bounding, the woods crashing beneath it — "until it reaches the level plain, and there it rolls no more, for all its rush." The simile carries its own prophecy: the stone's momentum is the cliff's gift, not the stone's, and the plain is waiting. Hector jams against the close-set lines within five lines of it. ↩
8 lines 170–205 — Imbrius, the son-in-law from Pedaeum who came back to Troy when the war began and was honored by Priam "like his own children" — another of the poem's in-law obituaries (cf. Iphidamas, Othryoneus, Alcathous: Troy's defense is a web of marriages). He falls like an ash on a mountain crest cut down by bronze. Then the book's most brutal image: the lesser Ajax cuts the head from the corpse "in wrath for Amphimachus" and bowls it through the crowd "like a ball," to stop in the dust at Hector's feet. Wrath answered with sport: the small Ajax's savagery is a fixed trait (cf. 23.473-498, and his end in the Odyssey), and the head at Hector's feet is a delivery with an address on it. ↩
9 lines 206–209 — Amphimachus was Cteatus's son — a grandson of the Moliones pair whom Poseidon fathered and once rescued from Nestor (11.750-752). So the god's rage here is family grief: the Iliad's gods enter its casualty-lists two generations removed, and Poseidon's next intervention (note [25]) is likewise a grandfather's grudge. ↩
10 lines 232–238 — Poseidon-as-Thoas: on the day's deserter, "may he be sport for dogs"; then the recruiting proverb — "Even sorry men, combined, come to some courage — and the two of us would know how to fight even the best." The arithmetic of the wall (12.412) again: courage as a sum, spoken by a god enlisting one tired middle-aged king. ↩
11 line 249 — "Meriones, Molus's son": Molus received the boar's- tusk helmet in its pedigree (10.269-270) — the same household's war-gear economy continues here, an entire scene about where spears come from. Idomeneus and Meriones bicker with perfect courtesy — the older man teasing, the younger standing on his record — before the god-stirred battle lets either spend it. ↩
12 lines 260–294 — The armory speech: twenty Trojan spears against the bright wall of the hut, "which I strip from the men I kill," because Idomeneus does "not fight standing far from enemy men." Then the great set-piece (275-286): the ambush as the assay of worth — the coward's color running, his crouch shifting from foot to foot, the heart hammering on the ribs, the teeth chattering aloud; the brave man's color "never changes," and his one prayer is to be mixed in the fighting at once. It is the poem's fullest psychology of fear, set not in the charge but in the waiting — and given to the oldest front-fighter in the army. ↩
13 line 291 — "the front-fighters' trysting-place" — ὀαριστύς, the word for lovers' intimate talk (cf. 22.127-128, where Hector uses it of a boy and girl whispering), applied to the range where chests meet spears. The battlefield as terrible intimacy: one of the boldest single words in the Iliad. ↩
14 lines 298–305 — Ares and Panic (Phobos, his son, the capitalized personification of 4.440) arming out of Thrace against the Ephyri or Phlegyes — gods who "do not hear both sides' prayers, but hand the glory to one." War-god theology in miniature; and an uneasy simile to hang on Idomeneus and Meriones, since Ares at this hour is penned on Olympus, deaf to everything — not even hearing of his own son's death (note [24]). ↩
15 lines 339–344 — The battle "bristled" (ἔφριξεν) with flesh- cutting spears — the field itself gets gooseflesh; eyes are blinded by bronze glare. Then the narrator's aside: "It would be a hard-hearted man who could rejoice at the sight of that toil, and not be grieved." As at 12.176 and 4.539-542, the poem turns to check the audience's pleasure — the singer measuring the distance between glory sung and toil seen. ↩
16 lines 345–360 — The theological knot of the middle Iliad: Zeus wills Trojan victory (to glorify Thetis and her son), yet not Achaean annihilation; Poseidon works the other side "in secret... likened to a man" — because "both were of one stock and one parentage, but Zeus was elder-born, and he knew more." Primogeniture as cosmology (restated by force in 15.165-167, and contested at 15.185-199). And so the two sons of Cronos "knotted the cord of strong strife and leveling war, and drew it taut over both sides — a cord unbreakable, not to be untied; and it unstrung the knees of many": the tug-of-war image of battle (cf. 7.102, 11.336) tied to its grimmest clause — the knot the gods cannot break is loosed instead in men's knees. Aristarchus athetized 350 (the Thetis line) as needless; the printed text keeps it. ↩
17 lines 363–382 — Othryoneus, war-bridegroom: he bid for Cassandra — her first appearance in the poem, "loveliest of Priam's daughters," with no word of prophecy, which is post-Homeric — "without bride-gifts," offering instead the war itself as bride-price. Idomeneus kills him mid-stride and conducts the poem's cruelest wedding-negotiation over the body: we'll give you Agamemnon's loveliest daughter "if you will join us and sack the well-peopled city of Ilion. Come along: let us settle the marriage at the seafaring ships — you will find we are not hard men over bride-terms." The marriage-economics of death (Iphidamas, 11.241-245) turned entirely to mockery: the dead man dragged by the foot toward his "wedding." ↩
18 lines 389–393 — Asius falls "as an oak falls, or a white poplar, or a towering pine, that carpenters up in the mountains cut down with fresh-whetted axes to be a ship's timber" — paying the death-notice filed at 12.116-117, killed by the very man it named. The simile recurs verbatim at 16.482-484 for Sarpedon — reuse this English there. Man as felled timber "to be a ship's timber": the war's dead as material for the very machines that brought the war. ↩
19 lines 402–416 — Deiphobus's vaunt for Hypsenor: Asius shall not lie unavenged — "even going down to Hades, the strong closer of the gate, he will be glad at heart: I have given him an escort for the road." The dead man as travel-arrangement; the poem's bookkeeping of vengeance (ποινή) spoken as courtesy. (In fact Hypsenor's death-wound is described and mourned — but the poet never says he died; ancient critics worried the point.) ↩
20 lines 424–444 — Alcathous: the poem's most terrible intervention. Poseidon "charmed his shining eyes and shackled his glorious limbs" — the god holds the man still, "like a grave-pillar or a tree in high leaf," while Idomeneus spears him through the chest. The bridegroom-obituary again (Hippodameia, who outshone her age-mates "in beauty and in handiwork and in wit"); the grave-stele simile stands the man's own monument up in advance; and the heart, still beating, shakes the butt-end of the spear — the most clinically horrifying detail in the poem. A god fighting for the Achaeans does this: the poem does not flinch, and does not comment. ↩
21 lines 446–454 — Idomeneus's ledger ("three for one") and pedigree: Zeus - Minos "warden of Crete" - Deucalion - Idomeneus. The Cretan king's genealogy is the shortest distance in the poem between Zeus and a living fighter — three generations — and he ends it flatly: the ships have carried me here, "an evil to you, and your father, and the rest of the Trojans." ↩
22 lines 459–461 — Aeneas found sulking, "rearmost of the crowd, for he was forever furious at brilliant Priam, because, brave among men as he was, Priam gave him no honor." The Achilles-pattern in Trojan miniature: worth unhonored by the king, service withheld. The grievance (never elsewhere explained) belongs to the junior branch of the royal house — cf. 20.178-183, where Achilles taunts him with hoping to inherit Priam's rank, and 20.302-308, where Poseidon prophesies that his line, not Priam's, will rule the Trojans hereafter. ↩
23 lines 489–495 — Aeneas's men follow "as flocks follow the bell-ram down from the pasture to drink — and the shepherd's heart is glad": war-following rendered as the tamest scene the poem knows, with the commander's joy set inside the shepherd's. The gentlest simile in a savage book. ↩
24 lines 518–525 — Deiphobus's cast kills Ascalaphus, "son of Enyalius" (Ares' son by the Catalogue, 2.512) — "but loud-roaring massive Ares knew nothing of it yet... he sat on the peak of Olympus, under the golden clouds, penned there by the designs of Zeus." A father's ignorance held in suspension across two books: at 15.110-142 Ares learns, arms for revenge against Zeus's edict, and must be forced down by Athena. The quiet lines here are the fuse. ↩
25 lines 554–575 — Poseidon shields Antilochus (Nestor's son — the god's affection for the house of Neleus again) and makes Adamas's spear-point "strengthless... grudging him that life." Adamas dies under Meriones' throw "between the genitals and the navel — there where the war-god comes most grievous to wretched mortals" — the poem's plainest statement about wounds and pain — writhing "as a bull writhes that herdsmen in the mountains have bound with willow-ropes and drag along unwilling." The pastoral world keeps arriving as the measure of agony. ↩
26 lines 586–592 — Helenus's arrow springs off Menelaus's corslet "as off a broad winnowing-shovel, on a great threshing-floor, the dark-skinned beans or the chickpeas jump under the shrill wind and the winnower's swing." Harvest again — the missile as chaff-work; the deadly and the domestic in one bounce. The duel itself is asymmetric: spear against bow, and the spear pins the bow-hand to the bow. ↩
27 lines 598–600 — The wounded hand is bound "in a sling of twisted sheep's wool" — the σφενδόνη, the Iliad's only named sling, here as bandage; at 716 the same twisted wool arms the Locrians as a weapon. One humble implement, both uses, thirty lines apart: the poem's quartermaster memory at work. ↩
28 lines 620–639 — Menelaus over Peisander (killed in the poem's one axe-against-sword exchange, his eyes dropped bloody in the dust): the wronged husband's theology. The Trojans are indicted under "the harsh wrath of loud-thundering Zeus of Guest-right" (Ζηνὸς ξεινίου... μῆνιν — the poem's theme-word "wrath" given to Zeus as protector of hospitality, the war's whole legal basis in one phrase); then the strange, wonderful complaint: "Of all things there is satiety — of sleep, of love, of sweet song and of blameless dancing; a man would sooner pray to take his fill of these than of war. But the Trojans are never sated with battle." The catalogue of things men can have enough of is the poem's shyest confession of what peace is for. Ancient critics athetized here (637); readers have loved the passage in exact proportion. ↩
29 lines 643–659 — Harpalion dies "like a worm... stretched on the ground" — the poem's smallest death-simile, for a boy who followed his father to war. And then the famous impossibility: "among them went his father, shedding tears" — his father is Pylaemenes, killed by Menelaus at 5.576-579 in our own text. Ancient critics athetized 658-659 to heal the contradiction; moderns treat it as the clearest seam of oral composition — the poet reaching for the pathos-formula (a father behind a bier) without an audit of Book 5. The translation keeps the printed text and the wound. The closing line — "and there was no blood-price for his son who was dead" — prices the loss in the currency the poem uses everywhere (cf. 9.632-636, 18.498). ↩
30 lines 663–672 — Euchenor of Corinth, the seer's son, who sailed "knowing well his deadly fate": his father had told him he would die of sickness at home or under Trojan hands at the ships. He chose the spear — "and so he shunned two things at once: the heavy fine of the Achaeans, and the loathsome sickness." The precise double of Achilles' two fates (9.410- 416) at commoner's scale — and with the poem's driest touch, the war-death is also a tax dodge: the θωή, the fine levied on draft-evaders, listed in one breath with mortal disease. He is killed by Paris, absent-mindedly, in someone else's revenge. ↩
31 lines 685–700 — The defense roster: Boeotians, Locrians, Phthians, Epeians, picked Athenians — and "the Ionians with their trailing tunics" (Ἰάονες ἑλκεχίτωνες), the name's only occurrence in Homer, applied to Athenian-led troops: a single audible seam between the poem's world and the poet's own Ionian one. ↩
32 lines 694–697 — Medon, bastard son of Oïleus, exiled from his fatherland "having killed a man, a kinsman of his stepmother Eriopis": the homicide-exile is epic's standard hard-luck biography (cf. Patroclus, 23.85-88). These four lines recur verbatim at 15.333-336, where Medon dies — the poem files a man's whole story twice, once at his post and once at his death. Reuse this English there. ↩
33 lines 701–708 — The two Ajaxes as "two wine-dark oxen" (βόε οἴνοπε — the sea's own color-word given to plow-beasts) straining at one plow, sweat welling at the roots of their horns, the polished yoke alone holding them apart: the poem's great image of joint labor — heroic partnership rendered as agriculture, down the furrow to the field's edge. ↩
34 lines 712–722 — The Locrian way of war: no helmets, no shields, no ash spears — bows and wool slings, shooting "from behind, unseen," while the armored line fights in front. Combined arms, and the breaking of the Trojan rush credited to the missile troops the heroic code barely deigns to see (cf. 11.385-390): the poem knows exactly what wins battles, and says so here without editorializing. ↩
35 lines 726–747 — Polydamas's third counsel — accepted, like the first: the famous division of gifts. "To one man the god has given the works of war, to another the dance, to another the lyre and song, and in another's chest wide-seeing Zeus sets a mind of worth... But you cannot possibly take all things to yourself at once." (Line 731 — dance and song — was omitted by Aristarchus; Zenodotus kept it, Lucian quoted it, and the printed text prints it.) The tactical advice — regroup, count heads, decide — carries a shadow-clause: "a man waits by the ships insatiate of war," the book's only reference to Achilles as a standing threat, from the man who is always right. ↩
36 line 754 — Hector sets off "like a snow-shining mountain" — ὄρεϊ νιφόεντι ἐοικώς: a man like a mountain, and a moving one; ancient and modern readers have puzzled at it (a mass of glittering bronze? a peak walking?). It is the largest thing Hector is ever compared to, on the day his rush crests. ↩
37 line 769 — "Paris — evil Paris — beauty and nothing more, woman-mad, seducer": Hector's rebuke repeats 3.39 word for word, our English kept. There it opened the poem's first duel, here its last day of Trojan victory — and Paris's answer this time is measured, brave, and just ("your heart is set on blaming the blameless" — the very phrase Patroclus used of Achilles, 11.654), ending on the proverb "Beyond his strength no man can fight, however hot he burns." The poem allows Paris his best moment exactly where Hector repeats his worst line. ↩
38 lines 809–832 — The exchange before the charge: Ajax's taunt promises Hector a prayer for horses "swifter than falcons," and the eagle confirms it on the right; Hector's reply is the strangest oath-wish in the poem — "I wish I were as surely, all my days, the son of aegis-bearing Zeus... as this day is bringing evil on the Argives": certainty of today traded against an impossible divinity, from the man who cannot know his warrant expires at sundown. His threat gives Ajax "lily- soft skin" (χρόα λειριόεντα) — the flower-word for the flesh of the enemy's biggest man; and "you blundering ox of a braggart" (βουγάϊε) is one of the poem's rare pure insults, coarse as a barnyard. ↩
39 line 837 — The last line: "and the clamor of both reached the ether and the radiance of Zeus." The book that began with Zeus turning his shining eyes away ends with the battle arriving at him as sound — αἰθέρα καὶ Διὸς αὐγάς, the noise climbing into the very brightness he looked away with. The ring closes: he will look back down at 15.4, and the correction will be immediate and total. ↩