The Iliad - Homer (thriller book recommendations .txt) 📗

are fighting for
their country and harassing those who would attack it, we should soon
bear off Patroclus into Ilius. Could we get this dead man away and
bring him into the city of Priam, the Argives would readily give up the
armour of Sarpedon, and we should get his body to boot. For he whose
squire has been now killed is the foremost man at the ships of the
Achaeans--he and his close-fighting followers. Nevertheless you dared
not make a stand against Ajax, nor face him, eye to eye, with battle
all round you, for he is a braver man than you are."

Hector scowled at him and answered, "Glaucus, you should know better. I
have held you so far as a man of more understanding than any in all
Lycia, but now I despise you for saying that I am afraid of Ajax. I
fear neither battle nor the din of chariots, but Jove's will is
stronger than ours; Jove at one time makes even a strong man draw back
and snatches victory from his grasp, while at another he will set him
on to fight. Come hither then, my friend, stand by me and see indeed
whether I shall play the coward the whole day through as you say, or
whether I shall not stay some even of the boldest Danaans from fighting
round the body of Patroclus."

As he spoke he called loudly on the Trojans saying, "Trojans, Lycians,
and Dardanians, fighters in close combat, be men, my friends, and fight
might and main, while I put on the goodly armour of Achilles, which I
took when I killed Patroclus."

With this Hector left the fight, and ran full speed after his men who
were taking the armour of Achilles to Troy, but had not yet got far.
Standing for a while apart from the woeful fight, he changed his
armour. His own he sent to the strong city of Ilius and to the Trojans,
while he put on the immortal armour of the son of Peleus, which the
gods had given to Peleus, who in his age gave it to his son; but the
son did not grow old in his father's armour.

When Jove, lord of the storm-cloud, saw Hector standing aloof and
arming himself in the armour of the son of Peleus, he wagged his head
and muttered to himself saying, "A! poor wretch, you arm in the armour
of a hero, before whom many another trembles, and you reck nothing of
the doom that is already close upon you. You have killed his comrade so
brave and strong, but it was not well that you should strip the armour
from his head and shoulders. I do indeed endow you with great might
now, but as against this you shall not return from battle to lay the
armour of the son of Peleus before Andromache."

The son of Saturn bowed his portentous brows, and Hector fitted the
armour to his body, while terrible Mars entered into him, and filled
his whole body with might and valour. With a shout he strode in among
the allies, and his armour flashed about him so that he seemed to all
of them like the great son of Peleus himself. He went about among them
and cheered them on--Mesthles, Glaucus, Medon, Thersilochus,
Asteropaeus, Deisenor and Hippothous, Phorcys, Chromius and Ennomus the
augur. All these did he exhort saying, "Hear me, allies from other
cities who are here in your thousands, it was not in order to have a
crowd about me that I called you hither each from his several city, but
that with heart and soul you might defend the wives and little ones of
the Trojans from the fierce Achaeans. For this do I oppress my people
with your food and the presents that make you rich. Therefore turn, and
charge at the foe, to stand or fall as is the game of war; whoever
shall bring Patroclus, dead though he be, into the hands of the
Trojans, and shall make Ajax give way before him, I will give him one
half of the spoils while I keep the other. He will thus share like
honour with myself."

When he had thus spoken they charged full weight upon the Danaans with
their spears held out before them, and the hopes of each ran high that
he should force Ajax son of Telamon to yield up the body--fools that
they were, for he was about to take the lives of many. Then Ajax said
to Menelaus, "My good friend Menelaus, you and I shall hardly come out
of this fight alive. I am less concerned for the body of Patroclus, who
will shortly become meat for the dogs and vultures of Troy, than for
the safety of my own head and yours. Hector has wrapped us round in a
storm of battle from every quarter, and our destruction seems now
certain. Call then upon the princes of the Danaans if there is any who
can hear us."

Menelaus did as he said, and shouted to the Danaans for help at the top
of his voice. "My friends," he cried, "princes and counsellors of the
Argives, all you who with Agamemnon and Menelaus drink at the public
cost, and give orders each to his own people as Jove vouchsafes him
power and glory, the fight is so thick about me that I cannot
distinguish you severally; come on, therefore, every man unbidden, and
think it shame that Patroclus should become meat and morsel for Trojan
hounds."

Fleet Ajax son of Oileus heard him and was first to force his way
through the fight and run to help him. Next came Idomeneus and Meriones
his esquire, peer of murderous Mars. As for the others that came into
the fight after these, who of his own self could name them?

The Trojans with Hector at their head charged in a body. As a great
wave that comes thundering in at the mouth of some heaven-born river,
and the rocks that jut into the sea ring with the roar of the breakers
that beat and buffet them--even with such a roar did the Trojans come
on; but the Achaeans in singleness of heart stood firm about the son of
Menoetius, and fenced him with their bronze shields. Jove, moreover,
hid the brightness of their helmets in a thick cloud, for he had borne
no grudge against the son of Menoetius while he was still alive and
squire to the descendant of Aeacus; therefore he was loth to let him
fall a prey to the dogs of his foes the Trojans, and urged his comrades
on to defend him.

At first the Trojans drove the Achaeans back, and they withdrew from
the dead man daunted. The Trojans did not succeed in killing any one,
nevertheless they drew the body away. But the Achaeans did not lose it
long, for Ajax, foremost of all the Danaans after the son of Peleus
alike in stature and prowess, quickly rallied them and made towards the
front like a wild boar upon the mountains when he stands at bay in the
forest glades and routs the hounds and lusty youths that have attacked
him--even so did Ajax son of Telamon passing easily in among the
phalanxes of the Trojans, disperse those who had bestridden Patroclus
and were most bent on winning glory by dragging him off to their city.
At this moment Hippothous brave son of the Pelasgian Lethus, in his
zeal for Hector and the Trojans, was dragging the body off by the foot
through the press of the fight, having bound a strap round the sinews
near the ancle; but a mischief soon befell him from which none of those
could save him who would have gladly done so, for the son of Telamon
sprang forward and smote him on his bronze-cheeked helmet. The plumed
headpiece broke about the point of the weapon, struck at once by the
spear and by the strong hand of Ajax, so that the bloody brain came
oozing out through the crest-socket. His strength then failed him and
he let Patroclus' foot drop from his hand, as he fell full length dead
upon the body; thus he died far from the fertile land of Larissa, and
never repaid his parents the cost of bringing him up, for his life was
cut short early by the spear of mighty Ajax. Hector then took aim at
Ajax with a spear, but he saw it coming and just managed to avoid it;
the spear passed on and struck Schedius son of noble Iphitus, captain
of the Phoceans, who dwelt in famed Panopeus and reigned over much
people; it struck him under the middle of the collar-bone the bronze
point went right through him, coming out at the bottom of his
shoulder-blade, and his armour rang rattling round him as he fell
heavily to the ground. Ajax in his turn struck noble Phorcys son of
Phaenops in the middle of the belly as he was bestriding Hippothous,
and broke the plate of his cuirass; whereon the spear tore out his
entrails and he clutched the ground in his palm as he fell to earth.
Hector and those who were in the front rank then gave ground, while the
Argives raised a loud cry of triumph, and drew off the bodies of
Phorcys and Hippothous which they stripped presently of their armour.

The Trojans would now have been worsted by the brave Achaeans and
driven back to Ilius through their own cowardice, while the Argives, so
great was their courage and endurance, would have achieved a triumph
even against the will of Jove, if Apollo had not roused Aeneas, in the
likeness of Periphas son of Epytus, an attendant who had grown old in
the service of Aeneas' aged father, and was at all times devoted to
him. In his likeness, then, Apollo said, "Aeneas, can you not manage,
even though heaven be against us, to save high Ilius? I have known men,
whose numbers, courage, and self-reliance have saved their people in
spite of Jove, whereas in this case he would much rather give victory
to us than to the Danaans, if you would only fight instead of being so
terribly afraid."

Aeneas knew Apollo when he looked straight at him, and shouted to
Hector saying, "Hector and all other Trojans and allies, shame on us if
we are beaten by the Achaeans and driven back to Ilius through our own
cowardice. A god has just come up to me and told me that Jove the
supreme disposer will be with us. Therefore let us make for the
Danaans, that it may go hard with them ere they bear away dead
Patroclus to the ships."

As he spoke he sprang out far in front of the others, who then rallied
and again faced the Achaeans. Aeneas speared Leiocritus son of Arisbas,
a valiant follower of Lycomedes, and Lycomedes was moved with pity as
he saw him fall; he therefore went close up, and speared Apisaon son of
Hippasus shepherd of his people in the liver under the midriff, so that
he died; he had come from fertile Paeonia and was the best man of them
all after Asteropaeus. Asteropaeus flew forward to avenge him and
attack the Danaans, but this might no longer be, inasmuch as those
about Patroclus were well covered by their shields, and held their
spears in front of them, for Ajax had given them strict orders that no
man was either to give ground, or to stand out before the others, but
all were to hold well together about the body and fight hand to hand.
Thus did huge Ajax bid them, and the earth ran red with blood as the
corpses fell thick on one another alike on the side of the Trojans and