The Iliad of Homer - Homer (cheapest way to read ebooks TXT) 📗
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"As when from mountain tops the dusky clouds
Ascending, while the north wind sleeps, o'er-spread
Heav'n's cheerful face, the louring element
Scowls o'er the darkened landskip snow, or shower;
If chance the radiant sun with farewell sweet
Extend his evening beam, the fields revive,
The birds their notes renew and bleating herds
Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings."
Footnote 517:(return) Virg. Æn. i. 591:--"Vix ea fatus erat, cum circumfusa repente
Scindit se nubes, et in æthera purgat apertum."
Cf. Drakenb. on Silius, iii. 196; Kuinoel on Matth. iii. 16; Acts vii. 55.
Footnote 518:(return) Heyne would construe αἰχμῇ with περὶ, referring to viii. 86; xiii. 441, 570; Pind. Nem. viii. 40. Footnote 519:(return) On the adjective ἀμαιμακέτην, see intpp. on Soph. Œd. R. 176; Œd. Col. 127. Footnote 520:(return) I.e. "atra mors," Tibull. i. 3, 5. Cf. vs. 370: Θανάτου μέλαν νέφος.Then Peneleus and Lycon engaged in close combat, for they had missed each other with their spears, and both had hurled in vain; 521 therefore they ran on again with their swords; then Lycon on his part struck the cone of the horse-hair-crested helmet, and the sword was broken at the hilt.
Footnote 521:(return) On μέλεος see Kennedy. Suidas: Ὁ μὲν οιητὴς (i.e. Homer) ἐπὶ τοῦ ματαίου ἐνδέχεται τὸ Μέλεος οἱ δὲ τραγικοὶ, ἐπὶ τοῦ οἰκτροῦ· So Hesych. μέλεος' μάταιος.But Peneleus smote him in the neck below the ear, and the whole sword entered, and the skin alone retained it: the head hung down, and his limbs were relaxed.
Meriones also, overtaking him with rapid feet, wounded Acamas in the right shoulder, as he was about to ascend his chariot; and he fell from his chariot, and darkness was poured over his eyes.
But Idomeneus struck Erymas in the mouth with the pitiless brass; and the brazen weapon passed right through from the opposite side down under the brain, and then cleft the white bones. And his teeth were dashed out, and both eyes were filled with gore, which, gaping, he forced 522 out from his mouth and from his nostrils; and the black cloud of death enveloped him. Thus these leaders of the Greeks slew each a man. And as destructive wolves impetuously rush on lambs or kids, snatching them from the flocks, which are dispersed upon the mountains by the negligence of the shepherd; but they, perceiving them, immediately tear in pieces them, having an unwarlike heart: so did the Greeks rush upon the Trojans, but they were mindful of dire-sounding flight, and forgot resolute valour. But mighty Ajax ever longed to aim his javelin at brazen-armed Hector; but he, from his skill in war, covering himself as to his broad shoulders with a bull's-hide shield, watched the hissing of the arrows and the whizzing of the javelins. Already indeed he knew the victory of battle was inclining to the other side; yet even thus he remained, and saved his beloved companions.
Footnote 522:(return) Made to rush with a bubbling noise, the verb here "expressing the violent streaming of a liquid." See Buttm. Lexil. p. 484; and compare my note on Æsch. Ag. p. 137, n. 2, ed. Bohn.And as when from Olympus comes a cloud into heaven, 523 after a clear sky, when Jove stretches forth a whirlwind, thus was the clamour and rout of those [flying] from the ships. Nor did they repass [the trench] in seemly plight, but his fleet-footed steeds bore away Hector with his arms; and he deserted the Trojan people, whom against their will the deep trench detained. And many fleet car-drawing steeds left in the foss the chariots of their masters, broken at the extremity of the pole. But Patroclus pursued, vehemently cheering on 524 the Greeks, and devising destruction for the Trojans; but they, with clamour and rout, filled all the ways after they were dispersed. A storm [of dust] was tossed up beneath the clouds, and the solid-hoofed horses pressed back towards the city, from the ships and tents. But Patroclus, wherever he perceived the army in greatest confusion, thither directed [his steeds], exclaiming in a threatening manner; whilst beneath his axles men fell prone from their chariots, and the chariots were overturned. Then, from the opposite side, the fleet immortal steeds, which the gods had given as splendid presents to Peleus, eagerly pressing on, bounded quite across the trench; for his mind urged him against Hector, for he longed to strike him, but his swift horses kept bearing him away.
Footnote 523:(return) Heaven is here distinguished from Olympus, as in i. 597, and Tibull. iv. i. 131:--"Jupiter ipse levi vectus per inania curru
Adfuit, et cœlo vicinum liquit Olympum."
Footnote 524:(return) From this sense of κελεύω arises its nautical meaning, also κελευστὴς, the man who gives the signal and cheers on the rowers. See Mollus on Long. Past. iii. 14. So Athenæus, xii. p. 535: Χρυσόγονος μὲν ἤυλει τὸ τριηρικόν. Καλλιπίδης δὲ ὁ τραγῳδὸς ἐκέλευε.And as beneath a whirlwind the whole dark earth is oppressed on an autumnal day, when Jove pours forth his most violent stream; when, forsooth, enraged he gives vent to his wrath against men, who by violence decree perverse judgments in the assembly, and drive out justice, not regarding the vengeance of the gods; and all their rivers are flooded as they flow, and the torrents sever asunder many mountains, and flowing headlong into the dark sea, roar mightily, and the husbandry-works 525 of men are diminished; so loudly moaned the Trojan mares running along. But Patroclus, when he had cut off the first phalanxes, drove them back again towards the ships, and did not permit them, desiring it, to ascend towards the city; but, pressing on, he slew them between the ships, and the river, and the lofty wall, and he exacted revenge for many. Then indeed he smote with his shining spear Pronous first, bared as to his breast beside the shield, and relaxed his limbs: and falling, he gave a crash. But next, attacking Thestor, son of Enops (who indeed sat huddled in his well-polished chariot, for he was panic-struck in his mind, and the reins had then dropped from his hands), he standing near, smote him with his spear on the right cheek, and drove it through his teeth. Then catching the spear, he dragged him over the rim [of the chariot]; as when a man, sitting upon a jutting rock, [draws] with a line and shining brass 526 a large fish entirely out of the sea; so he dragged from his chariot with his shining spear, him gaping. Then he hurled him upon his mouth, and life left him as he fell. Then next he struck with a stone on the middle of the head, Eryalus, rushing against him, and it was totally split asunder into two parts in his strong helmet. He therefore fell prone upon the earth, and fatal death was diffused around him. Afterwards Erymas, and Amphoterus, Epaltes, and Tlepolemus, son of Damastor, Echius and Pyris, Icheus, Euïppus, and Polymelus, son of Argeus, all one over the other he heaped upon the fertile earth.
Footnote 525:(return) For this agricultural use of ἔργα cf. Oppian, Cyn. ii. 151: άντη δ' ἔργα βοῶν. Nicander, Ther. 473: ἔργα νομέων. Virg. Georg. i. 325: "Et pluvia ingenti sata læta, boumque labores diluit." Footnote 526:(return) I.e. the hook. So "ære, the brass cutwater," Virg. Æn. i. 35.But when Sarpedon perceived his loose-girt 527 companions subdued by the hands of Patroclus, the son of Menœtius, exhorting, he shouted to the godlike Lycians:
"Oh shame! Lycians, where do ye fly? 528 Now be strenuous: for I will oppose this man, that I may know who he is who is victorious: and certainly he has done many evils to the Trojans, since he has relaxed the limbs of many and brave men."
He spoke, and leaped from his chariot with his armour to the ground; but Patroclus, on the other side, when he beheld him, sprang from his car. Then they, as bent-taloned, crook-beaked vultures, loudly screaming, fight upon a lofty rock, so they, shouting, rushed against each other. But the son of the wily Saturn, beholding them, felt compassion, and addressed Juno, his sister and wife: 529
"O woe is me, because it is fated that Sarpedon, most dear to me of men, shall be subdued by Patroclus, the son of Menœtius. But to me, revolving it in my mind, my heart is impelled with a twofold anxiety, 530 either that having snatched him alive from the mournful battle, I may place him among the rich people of Lycia, or now subdue him beneath the hands of the son of Menœtius."
Footnote 527:(return) Τοὺς μὴ ὑποζωννυμένους μίτρας τοῖς χιτῶσιν.--Eustath. Footnote 528:(return) Tzetzes on Hesiod, Opp. 184, reads ἐστόν, observing that it is τὸ δυϊκὸν ἀντὶ τοῦ πληθυντικοῦ. Footnote 529:(return) Virg. Æn. i. 50: "Jovisque et soror et conjux." Hor. Od. iii. 3, 64: "Conjuge me Jovis et sorore." Aθson. 343, 4: "Et soror et conjux fratris regina dearum." Footnote 530:(return) Cf. Virg. Æn. iv. 285:--"Atque animum nunc huc celerem, nune dividit illuc,
In partesque rapit varias, perque omnia versat."
x. 680. Ter. Andr. i. 5, 25. Ovid, Met. vii. 19; x. 373. Plato, Rep. iii. p. 433, B. ed. Læm. finds great fault with Homer for thus debasing the character of Jove. His remarks are reiterated by Clemens Alexandr. Protr. p. 16, 50, and Minucius Felix, § 22.Then the large-eyed, venerable Juno answered: "Most dread son of Saturn, what a word hast thou spoken? Whether dost thou wish to liberate from sad death a mortal man long since doomed to fate? Do so; but all we, the other gods, will not assent to it. But another thing I will tell thee, and do thou revolve it in thy mind. If indeed thou sendest this Sarpedon safe home, reflect whether some other of the gods may not also wish to send his beloved son [safe home] from the violent conflict; for many sons of immortals fight round the great city of Priam, upon whom thou wilt bring heavy wrath. If, however, he be dear to thee, and thy heart pities him, let him indeed be subdued in the violent conflict, beneath the hands of Patroclus, the son of Menœtius: but when his spirit and life shall have left him, send death and sweet sleep to bear him until they reach the people of expansive Lycia. There will his brethren and
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