The Iliad, Page 41

  when he saw the flocks of fighters crowding in his wake.

  Round Alcathous' corpse they lunged in hand-to-hand

  with their long spears, and the bronze around their chests

  clashed out, a terrific din as they struck each other fiercely,

  the lines jamming and two fighters rearing above the rest,

  Idomeneus and Aeneas, both a match for Ares, charged

  with their ruthless bronze to hack each other's flesh.

  Aeneas was first--he aimed and hurled at Idomeneus

  but the Cretan saw it coming, dodged the brazen tip

  and Aeneas' lance plunged in the earth, quivering,

  his arm's power poured in a wasted shot.

  Idomeneus--

  he hurled and speared Oenomaus through the belly,

  smashing his corslet just where the plates join

  and the bronze spearhead spilled his entrails out

  and down the Trojan crashed, grasping, clawing the dust.

  Idomeneus wrenched his dark shaft from the corpse

  but as for the dead man's burnished gear--no use.

  The chief was helpless to rip it off his shoulders--

  enemy weapons jolted him back with so much force

  his legs buckled, the old driving power lost,

  no dash left to dive for a spear or dodge one.

  So there he stood, taking it all, beating away

  the ruthless day of death. No more running now,

  no quick leaps to sweep him clear of the fighting,

  just backing, step by step ...

  And Deiphobus taking aim

  with his big glinting spear, forever hating the man

  and he hurled and missed again--

  but Deiphobus hit Ascalaphus with that shaft,

  Ascalaphus son of the butcher god of battles--

  the heavy spearshaft ran him through the shoulder

  and down he thundered, scraping, clutching the dust.

  But the giant bellowing Ares had heard nothing yet

  of how his son went down in the mounting carnage.

  On a crest of Olympus under golden clouds he sat,

  the god of war held fast by the will of Zeus, aloof

  where the other deathless gods were kept back from battle.

  Still round Ascalaphus fighters kept on lunging in.

  Deiphobus stripped away the corpse's gleaming helmet

  but quick as the god of war Meriones leapt at him,

  stabbed his outstretched arm and the blank-eyed helmet

  slipped from his grasp, pounding the ground and clanging.

  Meriones back on attack--a savage swoop like a vulture--

  yanked the spear from the Trojan's shoulder joint

  and back he drew into crowds of waiting troops.

  But Polites swept up close to Deiphobus' side,

  caught his brother around the waist with both arms

  and dragged him clear of the heartbreaking skirmish,

  far downfield till they reached his team of racers

  standing behind the rear lines and rush of battle,

  their driver and handsome chariot held in tow ...

  Then back to Troy they bore Deiphobus, groaning hard,

  in agony, blood from his fresh wound pouring down his arm.

  And still the rest fought on, relentless war cries rising.

  Aeneas charging Aphareus, son of Caletor, slit open

  his throat just turning toward Aeneas' ripping blade--

  his head slumped to the side, shield crushing in on him,

  helmet too, and courage-shattering death engulfed his corpse.

  Next Antilochus, watching Thoon veer for a quick escape,

  sprang and stabbed him, slashing away the whole vein

  that runs the length of the back to reach the neck--

  he severed it, sheared it clear

  and the man went sprawling, back flat in the dust

  and stretching out both hands to his friends-in-arms.

  Antilochus closed to tear the gear from his shoulders,

  glancing left and right as Trojans massed against him,

  plunging from every side to batter down his shield

  but they could not pierce that broad glistening hide--

  no scoring his tender young flesh with ruthless bronze.

  Not Antilochus, guarded now by the god of earthquakes

  shielding, ringing the son of Nestor round, even in this,

  this storm of spears. Antilochus never clear of enemies,

  always wheeling, bracing to face them, his own spear

  never resting, always brandished, quivering tense,

  his courage primed to cut men down with a hurl

  or charge them face-to-face.

  His spear aimed in the melee--

  but Adamas, Asius' son missed nothing, he saw it all,

  rushed him, rammed Antilochus' buckler dead center

  with sharp bronze but the blue-haired god Poseidon

  crushed the spear, denied him the Argive's life.

  Half his lance hung there in Antilochus' shield

  like a charred stake, half dropped to the ground.

  And back he shrank to his cohorts, dodging death

  but hounding him as he went Meriones speared him

  between the genitals and the navel--hideous wound,

  the worst the god of battles deals to wretched men.

  There the spear stuck. Hugging the shaft he writhed,

  gasping, shuddering like some wild bull in the hills

  that herdsmen shackle, trapping the beast with twisted ropes

  and he fights them all the way as the men drag him off--

  so he gasped with his wound. A little, not for long.

  Till the hero Meriones moved in where he sprawled,

  wrenched the spear from his corpse

  and the dark came shrouding down across his eyes.

  Helenus charged Deipyrus, cleft the side of his head

  with a massive Thracian sword, smashed his helmet

  and knocked it off. It fell to earth and an Argive

  snatched it up as it rolled at soldiers' feet--

  and the night came blinding down Deipyrus' eyes.

  And anguish seized Menelaus lord of the war cry.

  He went on the run at the fighting prophet Helenus,

  all menace, madly shaking his whetted javelin

  just as Helenus seized his bow by the handgrip.

  Both let fly at each other, one launching out

  with a sharp lance, one a shaft from the string--

  and Helenus' arrow hit Atrides right on the chest,

  on the breastplate's curve but the arrow sprang away.

  High as the black-skin beans and chickpeas bounce and leap

  from a big bladed shovel, flying across the threshing floor,

  sped by a whistling wind and a winnower's sweeping stroke--

  so the arrow flew from fighting Atrides' breastplate,

  the keen shaft glancing, skittering off downfield.

  But the lord of the war cry aimed for Helenus' hand

  gripping his polished bow--and clean through his fist

  the bronze spearhead drove and cracked the tensed weapon.

  Back he fell to his massed companions, dodging death,

  his hand dangling, dragging the long ashen shaft.

  And gallant Agenor drew the spear from his hand

  and bound it up in a band of tightly twisted wool,

  a sling his aide retained for the good commander.

  And now Pisander rushed Menelaus famed in arms

  but a grim fate was rushing him to the stroke of death--

  to be crushed in this hell of war by you, Menelaus.

  Just as the two men closed, heading into each other,

  Atrides missed--his spearshaft hooking off to the side--

  Pisander stabbed his shield but the bronze could not bore through--

  the huge hide blocked
it, the shaft snapped at the socket.

  Still the Trojan exulted, wild with hopes of triumph

  as Menelaus, drawing his sword with silver studs,

  leapt at Pisander, who clutched beneath his shield

  his good bronze ax with its cleaving blade

  set on a long smooth olive haft--

  A clash!

  Both fighters at one great stroke

  chopped at each other--Pisander hacked the horn

  of the horsehair-crested helmet right at its ridge,

  lunging as Menelaus hacked Pisander between the eyes,

  the bridge of the nose, and bone cracked, blood sprayed

  and both eyes dropped at his feet to mix in the dust--

  he curled and crashed. Digging a heel in his chest

  Menelaus stripped his gear and vaunted out in glory,

  "So home you'll run from our racing ships, by god,

  all as corpses--see, you death-defying Trojans?

  Never sated with shattering war cries, are you?

  Nor do you lack the other brands of outrage,

  all that shame you heaped on me, you rabid dogs!

  No fear in your hearts for the quaking rage of Zeus,

  the thundering god of host and welcome stranger--

  one day he'll raze your lofty city for you.

  You Trojans who stole away my wedded wife

  and hoards of riches too--for no reason, none--

  my queen of the realm who hosted you with kindness.

  And now you rampage on among our deep-sea ships,

  wild to torch our hulls and kill our heroes--well,

  you'll be stopped, somewhere, mad as you are for combat!

  Zeus, Father Zeus, they say you excel all others ...

  all men and gods, in wisdom clear and calm--

  but all this brutal carnage comes from you.

  Look how you favor them, these reckless Trojans,

  their fury always in uproar--no one can ever slake

  their thirst for blood, for the great leveler, war!

  One can achieve his fill of all good things,

  even of sleep, even of making love ...

  rapturous song and the beat and sway of dancing.

  A man will yearn for his fill of all these joys

  before his fill of war. But not these Trojans--

  no one can glut their lust for battle!"

  So he cried

  and staunch Atrides stripped the gear from the corpse

  and heaving the bloody bronze to eager comrades

  swung to attack again, frontline assault.

  There--

  Harpalion charged Menelaus--King Pylaemenes' son

  who'd followed his father into war at Troy

  but he never reached his fatherland again.

  He closed on Atrides, spear stabbing his shield

  right on the boss but the bronze could not drive through,

  so back he drew to his ranks, dodging death, glancing

  left and right, fearing a lance would graze his flesh.

  But Meriones caught him in full retreat, he let fly

  with a bronze-tipped arrow, hitting his right buttock

  up under the pelvic bone so the lance pierced the bladder.

  He sank on the spot, hunched in his dear companion's arms,

  gasping out his life as he writhed along the ground

  like an earthworm stretched out in death, blood pooling,

  soaking the earth dark red. Hardy Paphlagonians,

  working over him, hoisting him onto a chariot,

  bore him back to the sacred walls of Troy ...

  deep in grief while his father, weeping freely,

  walked beside them now. No blood-price came his way.

  Not for his son who breathed his last in battle.

  But Paris flared in rage at his comrade's death,

  his friend and guest among all the Paphlagonians.

  Incensed, he let loose with a bronze-tipped arrow

  aimed at one Euchenor, son of the prophet Polyidus,

  a decent, wealthy man who made his home in Corinth.

  Well Euchenor knew that boarding the ships for Troy

  meant certain death: his father told him so ...

  Time and again the strong old prophet said

  he'd die in his own halls of a fatal plague

  or go with the ships and die at Trojan hands.

  So off Euchenor sailed, both to save his wealth

  from the heavy fine the Argives made deserters pay

  and himself from wasting illness--no slow plague for him.

  Suddenly Paris struck him under the jaw and ear--

  and life flew from his limbs

  and the hateful darkness had him in its grip.

  The rest fought on like a mass of whirling fire.

  But Hector dear to Zeus had no idea, Hector

  heard nothing of how his men, left of the ships,

  were torn and mauled in the Argives' rough response.

  The glory might even have gone to them at any moment,

  so intent was the god who grips and shakes the earth

  as he surged his Argives on and the god surged too,

  adding his own immortal force in their defense.

  But Hector kept on driving too--just at the point

  where he first broke through the gates and wall he charged,

  he smashed the Achaean lines, dense with armed men,

  there where Protesilaus' and giant Ajax' ships

  lay hauled up in the breaking, churning surf

  and the wall to landward dipped low to the ground,

  the weakest point where the fiercest fighting raged--

  waves of Trojans, Trojan horse in assault.

  Bulked against them,

  Boeotian troops, Ionian troops with their long war-shirts,

  Locrians, Phthians and men of Epea famed in battle

  fought to stop this Hector hurtling at the ships.

  Nothing they did could thrust him off their lines,

  Prince Hector roaring on like a torch--not even

  the picked Athenians led by Menestheus, Peteos' son

  and backing him came Phidas, Stichius, brave Bias,

  then the Epean units led by Meges, Phyleus' son,

  Amphion, Dracius, and leading the Phthian ranks

  came Medon flanking Podarces tough in skirmish.

  Medon the bastard son of royal King Oileus,

  Little Ajax' brother, but Medon lived in Phylace,

  banished from native land--he'd killed a kinsman

  dear to Oileus' wife, his stepmother Eriopis--

  but Iphiclus son of Phylacus bore Podarces ...

  Brothers-in-arms, he and Medon led the Phthians,

  out in the forefront of those gallant soldiers

  fighting beside Boeotians now to save the ships.

  But Oileus' son the racing Ajax--not for a moment,

  not at all would he leave his giant brother Ajax,

  shoulder-to-shoulder they fought together here:

  close as a brace of wine-dark oxen matched in power,

  dragging a bolted plow through packed fallow land

  and the sweat rushes up at the roots of both their horns

  and only the width of polished yoke keeps both beasts apart,

  struggling up the furrow to cut the field's last strip.

  So both men stood their ground, bracing man-to-man

  and a flock of comrades, hardened combat veterans

  followed the Great Ajax, ready to take his shield

  whenever sweat and labor sapped his knees.

  But no Locrians followed the hearty Little Ajax.

  They had no love for stand-and-fight encounters--

  had no crested bronze helmets to guard their heads,

  no balanced shields in their grasp, no ashen spears,

  only their bows and slings of springy, twisted wool.

  Trusting these, they followed their chief to
Troy,

  shooting with these, salvo on pelting salvo,

  they tore the Trojan battle lines to pieces.

  So the men in heavy armor fought at the front,

  they grappled Trojans and Hector helmed in bronze

  while Locrians slung from the rear, safe, out of range,

  till the Trojan troops forgot their lust for blood

  as showering arrows raked their ranks with panic.

  Deadly going--

  then and there the Trojans might have been rolled back,

  far away from the ships and tents to wind-torn Troy

  if Polydamas had not rushed to headstrong Hector:

  "Impossible man! Won't you listen to reason?

  Just because some god exalts you in battle

  you think you can beat the rest at tactics too.

  How can you hope to gamer all the gifts at once?

  One man is a splendid fighter--a god has made him so--

  one's a dancer, another skilled at lyre and song,

  and deep in the next man's chest farseeing Zeus

  plants the gift of judgment, good clear sense.

  And many reap the benefits of that treasure:

  troops of men he saves, as he himself knows best.

  So now I will tell you what seems best to me. Look,

  the battle bums like a swirling crown around your head

  but our valiant Trojans, once they scaled the wall--

  some fall back from the front, idling in armor,

  others soldier on, squads against mass formations,

  scattering helter-skelter round the hulls.

  Draw back now!

  Call the best of our captains here, this safe ground.

  Then we can all fall in and plan our tactics well:

  whether we fling ourselves against the ships--

  if Zeus would care to hand us victory now--

  or beat retreat from the beach and cut our losses.

  I fear they'll pay us back for yesterday's triumph.

  He waits by the ships, a man never sated with battle ...

  I doubt he'll keep from the fighting any longer,

  not with all his war-lust!"

  So he urged. His plan won Hector over--

  less danger, more success--and down he leapt

  from his chariot fully armed and hit the ground,

  calling out to Polydamas brisk, winged orders:

  "You stay here, hold back our captains here.

  I'm on my way over there to meet this new assault--

  I'll soon be back, once I've given them clear commands."

  And out like a flashing snowcapped peak he moved,

  shouting, sweeping on through his ranks and Trojan allies.

  Squads of others swarmed and rallied around Polydamas,

  Panthous' friendly son--they'd heard Hector's orders.

  But Hector ranged the front to find his leaders,

  hunting Deiphobus and the rugged warlord Helenus,

  Adamas, Asius' son, and Asius son of Hyrtacus.

  Where could he find them now? Find them he did,

  no longer free of wounds, unhurt--not at all ...

  Adamas, Asius, both sprawled at Achaea's stems,

  dead at the Argives' hands. The others at home,

  behind the walls, were gouged by shaft or sword.