<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410299" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Iliad: Book 18</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus then did they fight as it were a flaming fire. Meanwhile the<br>fleet runner Antilochus, who had been sent as messenger, reached<br>Achilles, and found him sitting by his tall ships and boding that<br>which was indeed too surely true. "Alas," said he to himself in the<br>heaviness of his heart, "why are the Achaeans again scouring the plain<br>and flocking towards the ships? Heaven grant the gods be not now<br>bringing that sorrow upon me of which my mother Thetis spoke, saying<br>that while I was yet alive the bravest of the Myrmidons should fall<br>before the Trojans, and see the light of the sun no longer. I fear the<br>brave son of Menoetius has fallen through his own daring and yet I<br>bade him return to the ships as soon as he had driven back those<br>that were bringing fire against them, and not join battle with<br>Hector."<br>As he was thus pondering, the son of Nestor came up to him and<br>told his sad tale, weeping bitterly the while. "Alas," he cried,<br>"son of noble Peleus, I bring you bad tidings, would indeed that<br>they were untrue. Patroclus has fallen, and a fight is raging about<br>his naked body- for Hector holds his armour."<br>A dark cloud of grief fell upon Achilles as he listened. He filled<br>both hands with dust from off the ground, and poured it over his head,<br>disfiguring his comely face, and letting the refuse settle over his<br>shirt so fair and new. He flung himself down all huge and hugely at<br>full length, and tore his hair with his hands. The bondswomen whom<br>Achilles and Patroclus had taken captive screamed aloud for grief,<br>beating their breasts, and with their limbs failing them for sorrow.<br>Antilochus bent over him the while, weeping and holding both his hands<br>as he lay groaning for he feared that he might plunge a knife into his<br>own throat. Then Achilles gave a loud cry and his mother heard him<br>as she was sitting in the depths of the sea by the old man her father,<br>whereon she screamed, and all the goddesses daughters of Nereus that<br>dwelt at the bottom of the sea, came gathering round her. There were<br>Glauce, Thalia and Cymodoce, Nesaia, Speo, thoe and dark-eyed Halie,<br>Cymothoe, Actaea and Limnorea, Melite, Iaera, Amphithoe and Agave,<br>Doto and Proto, Pherusa and Dynamene, Dexamene, Amphinome and<br>Callianeira, Doris, Panope, and the famous sea-nymph Galatea,<br>Nemertes, Apseudes and Callianassa. There were also Clymene, Ianeira<br>and Ianassa, Maera, Oreithuia and Amatheia of the lovely locks, with<br>other Nereids who dwell in the depths of the sea. The crystal cave was<br>filled with their multitude and they all beat their breasts while<br>Thetis led them in their lament.<br>"Listen," she cried, "sisters, daughters of Nereus, that you may<br>hear the burden of my sorrows. Alas, woe is me, woe in that I have<br>borne the most glorious of offspring. I bore him fair and strong, hero<br>among heroes, and he shot up as a sapling; I tended him as a plant<br>in a goodly garden, and sent him with his ships to Ilius to fight<br>the Trojans, but never shall I welcome him back to the house of<br>Peleus. So long as he lives to look upon the light of the sun he is in<br>heaviness, and though I go to him I cannot help him. Nevertheless I<br>will go, that I may see my dear son and learn what sorrow has befallen<br>him though he is still holding aloof from battle."<br>She left the cave as she spoke, while the others followed weeping<br>after, and the waves opened a path before them. When they reached<br>the rich plain of Troy, they came up out of the sea in a long line<br>on to the sands, at the place where the ships of the Myrmidons were<br>drawn up in close order round the tents of Achilles. His mother went<br>up to him as he lay groaning; she laid her hand upon his head and<br>spoke piteously, saying, "My son, why are you thus weeping? What<br>sorrow has now befallen you? Tell me; hide it not from me. Surely Jove<br>has granted you the prayer you made him, when you lifted up your hands<br>and besought him that the Achaeans might all of them be pent up at<br>their ships, and rue it bitterly in that you were no longer with<br>them."<br>Achilles groaned and answered, "Mother, Olympian Jove has indeed<br>vouchsafed me the fulfilment of my prayer, but what boots it to me,<br>seeing that my dear comrade Patroclus has fallen- he whom I valued<br>more than all others, and loved as dearly as my own life? I have<br>lost him; aye, and Hector when he had killed him stripped the wondrous<br>armour, so glorious to behold, which the gods gave to Peleus when they<br>laid you in the couch of a mortal man. Would that you were still<br>dwelling among the immortal sea-nymphs, and that Peleus had taken to<br>himself some mortal bride. For now you shall have grief infinite by<br>reason of the death of that son whom you can never welcome home-<br>nay, I will not live nor go about among mankind unless Hector fall<br>by my spear, and thus pay me for having slain Patroclus son of<br>Menoetius."<br>Thetis wept and answered, "Then, my son, is your end near at hand-<br>for your own death awaits you full soon after that of Hector."<br>Then said Achilles in his great grief, "I would die here and now, in<br>that I could not save my comrade. He has fallen far from home, and<br>in his hour of need my hand was not there to help him. What is there<br>for me? Return to my own land I shall not, and I have brought no<br>saving neither to Patroclus nor to my other comrades of whom so many<br>have been slain by mighty Hector; I stay here by my ships a bootless<br>burden upon the earth, I, who in fight have no peer among the<br>Achaeans, though in council there are better than I. Therefore, perish<br>strife both from among gods and men, and anger, wherein even a<br>righteous man will harden his heart- which rises up in the soul of a<br>man like smoke, and the taste thereof is sweeter than drops of<br>honey. Even so has Agamemnon angered me. And yet- so be it, for it<br>is over; I will force my soul into subjection as I needs must; I<br>will go; I will pursue Hector who has slain him whom I loved so<br>dearly, and will then abide my doom when it may please Jove and the<br>other gods to send it. Even Hercules, the best beloved of Jove- even<br>he could not escape the hand of death, but fate and Juno's fierce<br>anger laid him low, as I too shall lie when I am dead if a like doom<br>awaits me. Till then I will win fame, and will bid Trojan and<br>Dardanian women wring tears from their tender cheeks with both their<br>hands in the grievousness of their great sorrow; thus shall they<br>know that he who has held aloof so long will hold aloof no longer.<br>Hold me not back, therefore, in the love you bear me, for you shall<br>not move me."<br>Then silver-footed Thetis answered, "My son, what you have said is<br>true. It is well to save your comrades from destruction, but your<br>armour is in the hands of the Trojans; Hector bears it in triumph upon<br>his own shoulders. Full well I know that his vaunt shall not be<br>lasting, for his end is close at hand; go not, however, into the press<br>of battle till you see me return hither; to-morrow at break of day I<br>shall be here, and will bring you goodly armour from King Vulcan."<br>On this she left her brave son, and as she turned away she said to<br>the sea-nymphs her sisters, "Dive into the bosom of the sea and go<br>to the house of the old sea-god my father. Tell him everything; as for<br>me, I will go to the cunning workman Vulcan on high Olympus, and ask<br>him to provide my son with a suit of splendid armour."<br>When she had so said, they dived forthwith beneath the waves,<br>while silver-footed Thetis went her way that she might bring the<br>armour for her son.<br>Thus, then, did her feet bear the goddess to Olympus, and<br>meanwhile the Achaeans were flying with loud cries before murderous<br>Hector till they reached the ships and the Hellespont, and they<br>could not draw the body of Mars's servant Patroclus out of reach of<br>the weapons that were showered upon him, for Hector son of Priam<br>with his host and horsemen had again caught up to him like the flame<br>of a fiery furnace; thrice did brave Hector seize him by the feet,<br>striving with might and main to draw him away and calling loudly on<br>the Trojans, and thrice did the two Ajaxes, clothed in valour as<br>with a garment, beat him from off the body; but all undaunted he would<br>now charge into the thick of the fight, and now again he would stand<br>still and cry aloud, but he would give no ground. As upland<br>shepherds that cannot chase some famished lion from a carcase, even so<br>could not the two Ajaxes scare Hector son of Priam from the body of<br>Patroclus.<br>And now he would even have dragged it off and have won<br>imperishable glory, had not Iris fleet as the wind, winged her way<br>as messenger from Olympus to the son of Peleus and bidden him arm. She<br>came secretly without the knowledge of Jove and of the other gods, for<br>Juno sent her, and when she had got close to him she said, "Up, son of<br>Peleus, mightiest of all mankind; rescue Patroclus about whom this<br>fearful fight is now raging by the ships. Men are killing one another,<br>the Danaans in defence of the dead body, while the Trojans are<br>trying to hale it away, and take it to wind Ilius: Hector is the<br>most furious of them all; he is for cutting the head from the body and<br>fixing it on the stakes of the wall. Up, then, and bide here no<br>longer; shrink from the thought that Patroclus may become meat for the<br>dogs of Troy. Shame on you, should his body suffer any kind of<br>outrage."<br>And Achilles said, "Iris, which of the gods was it that sent you<br>to me?"<br>Iris answered, "It was Juno the royal spouse of Jove, but the son of<br>Saturn does not know of my coming, nor yet does any other of the<br>immortals who dwell on the snowy summits of Olympus."<br>Then fleet Achilles answered her saying, "How can I go up into the<br>battle? They have my armour. My mother forbade me to arm till I should<br>see her come, for she promised to bring me goodly armour from<br>Vulcan; I know no man whose arms I can put on, save only the shield of<br>Ajax son of Telamon, and he surely must be fighting in the front<br>rank and wielding his spear about the body of dead Patroclus."<br>Iris said, 'We know that your armour has been taken, but go as you<br>are; go to the deep trench and show yourelf before the Trojans, that<br>they may fear you and cease fighting. Thus will the fainting sons of<br>the Achaeans gain some brief breathing-time, which in battle may<br>hardly be."<br>Iris left him when she had so spoken. But Achilles dear to Jove<br>arose, and Minerva flung her tasselled aegis round his strong<br>shoulders; she crowned his head with a halo of golden cloud from which<br>she kindled a glow of gleaming fire. As the smoke that goes up into<br>heaven from some city that is being beleaguered on an island far out<br>at sea- all day long do men sally from the city and fight their<br>hardest, and at the going down of the sun the line of beacon-fires<br>blazes forth, flaring high for those that dwell near them to behold,<br>if so be that they may come with their ships and succour them- even so<br>did the light flare from the head of Achilles, as he stood by the<br>trench, going beyond the wall- but he aid not join the Achaeans for he<br>heeded the charge which his mother laid upon him.<br>There did he stand and shout aloud. Minerva also raised her voice<br>from afar, and spread terror unspeakable among the Trojans. Ringing as<br>the note of a trumpet that sounds alarm then the foe is at the gates<br>of a city, even so brazen was the voice of the son of Aeacus, and when<br>the Trojans heard its clarion tones they were dismayed; the horses<br>turned back with their chariots for they boded mischief, and their<br>drivers were awe-struck by the steady flame which the grey-eyed<br>goddess had kindled above the head of the great son of Peleus.<br>Thrice did Achilles raise his loud cry as he stood by the trench,<br>and thrice were the Trojans and their brave allies thrown into<br>confusion; whereon twelve of their noblest champions fell beneath<br>the wheels of their chariots and perished by their own spears. The<br>Achaeans to their great joy then drew Patroclus out of reach of the<br>weapons, and laid him on a litter: his comrades stood mourning round<br>him, and among them fleet Achilles who wept bitterly as he saw his<br>true comrade lying dead upon his bier. He had sent him out with horses<br>and chariots into battle, but his return he was not to welcome.<br>Then Juno sent the busy sun, loth though he was, into the waters<br>of Oceanus; so he set, and the Achaeans had rest from the tug and<br>turmoil of war.<br>Now the Trojans when they had come out of the fight, unyoked their<br>horses and gathered in assembly before preparing their supper. They<br>kept their feet, nor would any dare to sit down, for fear had fallen<br>upon them all because Achilles had shown himself after having held<br>aloof so long from battle. Polydamas son of Panthous was first to<br>speak, a man of judgement, who alone among them could look both before<br>and after. He was comrade to Hector, and they had been born upon the<br>same night; with all sincerity and goodwill, therefore, he addressed<br>them thus:-<br>"Look to it well, my friends; I would urge you to go back now to<br>your city and not wait here by the ships till morning, for we are<br>far from our walls. So long as this man was at enmity with Agamemnon<br>the Achaeans were easier to deal with, and I would have gladly<br>camped by the ships in the hope of taking them; but now I go in<br>great fear of the fleet son of Peleus; he is so daring that he will<br>never bide here on the plain whereon the Trojans and Achaeans fight<br>with equal valour, but he will try to storm our city and carry off our<br>women. Do then as I say, and let us retreat. For this is what will<br>happen. The darkness of night will for a time stay the son of<br>Peleus, but if he find us here in the morning when he sallies forth in<br>full armour, we shall have knowledge of him in good earnest. Glad<br>indeed will he be who can escape and get back to Ilius, and many a<br>Trojan will become meat for dogs and vultures may I never live to hear<br>it. If we do as I say, little though we may like it, we shall have<br>strength in counsel during the night, and the great gates with the<br>doors that close them will protect the city. At dawn we can arm and<br>take our stand on the walls; he will then rue it if he sallies from<br>the ships to fight us. He will go back when he has given his horses<br>their fill of being driven all whithers under our walls, and will be<br>in no mind to try and force his way into the city. Neither will he<br>ever sack it, dogs shall devour him ere he do so."<br>Hector looked fiercely at him and answered, "Polydamas, your words<br>are not to my liking in that you bid us go back and be pent within the<br>city. Have you not had enough of being cooped up behind walls? In<br>the old-days the city of Priam was famous the whole world over for its<br>wealth of gold and bronze, but our treasures are wasted out of our<br>houses, and much goods have been sold away to Phrygia and fair Meonia,<br>for the hand of Jove has been laid heavily upon us. Now, therefore,<br>that the son of scheming Saturn has vouchsafed me to win glory here<br>and to hem the Achaeans in at their ships, prate no more in this<br>fool's wise among the people. You will have no man with you; it<br>shall not be; do all of you as I now say;- take your suppers in your<br>companies throughout the host, and keep your watches and be wakeful<br>every man of you. If any Trojan is uneasy about his possessions, let<br>him gather them and give them out among the people. Better let<br>these, rather than the Achaeans, have them. At daybreak we will arm<br>and fight about the ships; granted that Achilles has again come<br>forward to defend them, let it be as he will, but it shall go hard<br>with him. I shall not shun him, but will fight him, to fall or<br>conquer. The god of war deals out like measure to all, and the<br>slayer may yet be slain."<br>Thus spoke Hector; and the Trojans, fools that they were, shouted in<br>applause, for Pallas Minerva had robbed them of their understanding.<br>They gave ear to Hector with his evil counsel, but the wise words of<br>Polydamas no man would heed. They took their supper throughout the<br>host, and meanwhile through the whole night the Achaeans mourned<br>Patroclus, and the son of Peleus led them in their lament. He laid his<br>murderous hands upon the breast of his comrade, groaning again and<br>again as a bearded lion when a man who was chasing deer has robbed him<br>of his young in some dense forest; when the lion comes back he is<br>furious, and searches dingle and dell to track the hunter if he can<br>find him, for he is mad with rage- even so with many a sigh did<br>Achilles speak among the Myrmidons saying, "Alas! vain were the<br>words with which I cheered the hero Menoetius in his own house; I said<br>that I would bring his brave son back again to Opoeis after he had<br>sacked Ilius and taken his share of the spoils- but Jove does not give<br>all men their heart's desire. The same soil shall be reddened here<br>at Troy by the blood of us both, for I too shall never be welcomed<br>home by the old knight Peleus, nor by my mother Thetis, but even in<br>this place shall the earth cover me. Nevertheless, O Patroclus, now<br>that I am left behind you, I will not bury you, till I have brought<br>hither the head and armour of mighty Hector who has slain you.<br>Twelve noble sons of Trojans will I behead before your bier to<br>avenge you; till I have done so you shall lie as you are by the ships,<br>and fair women of Troy and Dardanus, whom we have taken with spear and<br>strength of arm when we sacked men's goodly cities, shall weep over<br>you both night and day."<br>Then Achilles told his men to set a large tripod upon the fire<br>that they might wash the clotted gore from off Patroclus. Thereon they<br>set a tripod full of bath water on to a clear fire: they threw<br>sticks on to it to make it blaze, and the water became hot as the<br>flame played about the belly of the tripod. When the water in the<br>cauldron was boiling they washed the body, anointed it with oil, and<br>closed its wounds with ointment that had been kept nine years. Then<br>they laid it on a bier and covered it with a linen cloth from head<br>to foot, and over this they laid a fair white robe. Thus all night<br>long did the Myrmidons gather round Achilles to mourn Patroclus.<br>Then Jove said to Juno his sister-wife, "So, Queen Juno, you have<br>gained your end, and have roused fleet Achilles. One would think<br>that the Achaeans were of your own flesh and blood."<br>And Juno answered, "Dread son of Saturn, why should you say this<br>thing? May not a man though he be only mortal and knows less than we<br>do, do what he can for another person? And shall not I- foremost of<br>all goddesses both by descent and as wife to you who reign in<br>heaven- devise evil for the Trojans if I am angry with them?"<br>Thus did they converse. Meanwhile Thetis came to the house of<br>Vulcan, imperishable, star-bespangled, fairest of the abodes in<br>heaven, a house of bronze wrought by the lame god's own hands. She<br>found him busy with his bellows, sweating and hard at work, for he was<br>making twenty tripods that were to stand by the wall of his house, and<br>he set wheels of gold under them all that they might go of their own<br>selves to the assemblies of the gods, and come back again- marvels<br>indeed to see. They were finished all but the ears of cunning<br>workmanship which yet remained to be fixed to them: these he was now<br>fixing, and he was hammering at the rivets. While he was thus at<br>work silver-footed Thetis came to the house. Charis, of graceful<br>head-dress, wife to the far-famed lame god, came towards her as soon<br>as she saw her, and took her hand in her own, saying, "Why have you<br>come to our house, Thetis, honoured and ever welcome- for you do not<br>visit us often? Come inside and let me set refreshment before you."<br>The goddess led the way as she spoke, and bade Thetis sit on a<br>richly decorated seat inlaid with silver; there was a footstool also<br>under her feet. Then she called Vulcan and said, "Vulcan, come here,<br>Thetis wants you"; and the far-famed lame god answered, "Then it is<br>indeed an august and honoured goddess who has come here; she it was<br>that took care of me when I was suffering from the heavy fall which<br>I had through my cruel mother's anger- for she would have got rid of<br>me because I was lame. It would have gone hardly with me had not<br>Eurynome, daughter of the ever-encircling waters of Oceanus, and<br>Thetis, taken me to their bosom. Nine years did I stay with them,<br>and many beautiful works in bronze, brooches, spiral armlets, cups,<br>and chains, did I make for them in their cave, with the roaring waters<br>of Oceanus foaming as they rushed ever past it; and no one knew,<br>neither of gods nor men, save only Thetis and Eurynome who took care<br>of me. If, then, Thetis has come to my house I must make her due<br>requital for having saved me; entertain her, therefore, with all<br>hospitality, while I put by my bellows and all my tools."<br>On this the mighty monster hobbled off from his anvil, his thin legs<br>plying lustily under him. He set the bellows away from the fire, and<br>gathered his tools into a silver chest. Then he took a sponge and<br>washed his face and hands, his shaggy chest and brawny neck; he donned<br>his shirt, grasped his strong staff, and limped towards the door.<br>There were golden handmaids also who worked for him, and were like<br>real young women, with sense and reason, voice also and strength,<br>and all the learning of the immortals; these busied themselves as<br>the king bade them, while he drew near to Thetis, seated her upon a<br>goodly seat, and took her hand in his own, saying, "Why have you<br>come to our house, Thetis honoured and ever welcome- for you do not<br>visit us often? Say what you want, and I will do it for you at once if<br>I can, and if it can be done at all."<br>Thetis wept and answered, "Vulcan, is there another goddess in<br>Olympus whom the son of Saturn has been pleased to try with so much<br>affliction as he has me? Me alone of the marine goddesses did he<br>make subject to a mortal husband, Peleus son of Aeacus, and sorely<br>against my will did I submit to the embraces of one who was but<br>mortal, and who now stays at home worn out with age. Neither is this<br>all. Heaven vouchsafed me a son, hero among heroes, and he shot up<br>as a sapling. I tended him as a plant in a goodly garden and sent<br>him with his ships to Ilius to fight the Trojans, but never shall I<br>welcome him back to the house of Peleus. So long as he lives to look<br>upon the light of the sun, he is in heaviness, and though I go to<br>him I cannot help him; King Agamemnon has made him give up the<br>maiden whom the sons of the Achaeans had awarded him, and he wastes<br>with sorrow for her sake. Then the Trojans hemmed the Achaeans in at<br>their ships' sterns and would not let them come forth; the elders,<br>therefore, of the Argives besought Achilles and offered him great<br>treasure, whereon he refused to bring deliverance to them himself, but<br>put his own armour on Patroclus and sent him into the fight with<br>much people after him. All day long they fought by the Scaean gates<br>and would have taken the city there and then, had not Apollo<br>vouchsafed glory to Hector and slain the valiant son of Menoetius<br>after he had done the Trojans much evil. Therefore I am suppliant at<br>your knees if haply you may be pleased to provide my son, whose end is<br>near at hand, with helmet and shield, with goodly greaves fitted<br>with ancle-clasps, and with a breastplate, for he lost his own when<br>his true comrade fell at the hands of the Trojans, and he now lies<br>stretched on earth in the bitterness of his soul."<br>And Vulcan answered, "Take heart, and be no more disquieted about<br>this matter; would that I could hide him from death's sight when his<br>hour is come, so surely as I can find him armour that shall amaze<br>the eyes of all who behold it."<br>When he had so said he left her and went to his bellows, turning<br>them towards the fire and bidding them do their office. Twenty bellows<br>blew upon the melting-pots, and they blew blasts of every kind, some<br>fierce to help him when he had need of them, and others less strong as<br>Vulcan willed it in the course of his work. He threw tough copper into<br>the fire, and tin, with silver and gold; he set his great anvil on its<br>block, and with one hand grasped his mighty hammer while he took the<br>tongs in the other.<br>First he shaped the shield so great and strong, adorning it all over<br>and binding it round with a gleaming circuit in three layers; and<br>the baldric was made of silver. He made the shield in five<br>thicknesses, and with many a wonder did his cunning hand enrich it.<br>He wrought the earth, the heavens, and the sea; the moon also at her<br>full and the untiring sun, with all the signs that glorify the face of<br>heaven- the Pleiads, the Hyads, huge Orion, and the Bear, which men<br>also call the Wain and which turns round ever in one place, facing.<br>Orion, and alone never dips into the stream of Oceanus.<br>He wrought also two cities, fair to see and busy with the hum of<br>men. In the one were weddings and wedding-feasts, and they were<br>going about the city with brides whom they were escorting by<br>torchlight from their chambers. Loud rose the cry of Hymen, and the<br>youths danced to the music of flute and lyre, while the women stood<br>each at her house door to see them.<br>Meanwhile the people were gathered in assembly, for there was a<br>quarrel, and two men were wrangling about the blood-money for a man<br>who had been killed, the one saying before the people that he had paid<br>damages in full, and the other that he had not been paid. Each was<br>trying to make his own case good, and the people took sides, each<br>man backing the side that he had taken; but the heralds kept them<br>back, and the elders sate on their seats of stone in a solemn<br>circle, holding the staves which the heralds had put into their hands.<br>Then they rose and each in his turn gave judgement, and there were two<br>talents laid down, to be given to him whose judgement should be deemed<br>the fairest.<br>About the other city there lay encamped two hosts in gleaming<br>armour, and they were divided whether to sack it, or to spare it and<br>accept the half of what it contained. But the men of the city would<br>not yet consent, and armed themselves for a surprise; their wives<br>and little children kept guard upon the walls, and with them were<br>the men who were past fighting through age; but the others sallied<br>forth with Mars and Pallas Minerva at their head- both of them wrought<br>in gold and clad in golden raiment, great and fair with their armour<br>as befitting gods, while they that followed were smaller. When they<br>reached the place where they would lay their ambush, it was on a<br>riverbed to which live stock of all kinds would come from far and near<br>to water; here, then, they lay concealed, clad in full armour. Some<br>way off them there were two scouts who were on the look-out for the<br>coming of sheep or cattle, which presently came, followed by two<br>shepherds who were playing on their pipes, and had not so much as a<br>thought of danger. When those who were in ambush saw this, they cut<br>off the flocks and herds and killed the shepherds. Meanwhile the<br>besiegers, when they heard much noise among the cattle as they sat<br>in council, sprang to their horses, and made with all speed towards<br>them; when they reached them they set battle in array by the banks<br>of the river, and the hosts aimed their bronze-shod spears at one<br>another. With them were Strife and Riot, and fell Fate who was<br>dragging three men after her, one with a fresh wound, and the other<br>unwounded, while the third was dead, and she was dragging him along by<br>his heel: and her robe was bedrabbled in men's blood. They went in and<br>out with one another and fought as though they were living people<br>haling away one another's dead.<br>He wrought also a fair fallow field, large and thrice ploughed<br>already. Many men were working at the plough within it, turning<br>their oxen to and fro, furrow after furrow. Each time that they turned<br>on reaching the headland a man would come up to them and give them a<br>cup of wine, and they would go back to their furrows looking forward<br>to the time when they should again reach the headland. The part that<br>they had ploughed was dark behind them, so that the field, though it<br>was of gold, still looked as if it were being ploughed- very curious<br>to behold.<br>He wrought also a field of harvest corn, and the reapers were<br>reaping with sharp sickles in their hands. Swathe after swathe fell to<br>the ground in a straight line behind them, and the binders bound<br>them in bands of twisted straw. There were three binders, and behind<br>them there were boys who gathered the cut corn in armfuls and kept<br>on bringing them to be bound: among them all the owner of the land<br>stood by in silence and was glad. The servants were getting a meal<br>ready under an oak, for they had sacrificed a great ox, and were<br>busy cutting him up, while the women were making a porridge of much<br>white barley for the labourers' dinner.<br>He wrought also a vineyard, golden and fair to see, and the vines<br>were loaded with grapes. The bunches overhead were black, but the<br>vines were trained on poles of silver. He ran a ditch of dark metal<br>all round it, and fenced it with a fence of tin; there was only one<br>path to it, and by this the vintagers went when they would gather<br>the vintage. Youths and maidens all blithe and full of glee, carried<br>the luscious fruit in plaited baskets; and with them there went a<br>boy who made sweet music with his lyre, and sang the Linus-song with<br>his clear boyish voice.<br>He wrought also a herd of homed cattle. He made the cows of gold and<br>tin, and they lowed as they came full speed out of the yards to go and<br>feed among the waving reeds that grow by the banks of the river. Along<br>with the cattle there went four shepherds, all of them in gold, and<br>their nine fleet dogs went with them. Two terrible lions had<br>fastened on a bellowing bull that was with the foremost cows, and<br>bellow as he might they haled him, while the dogs and men gave<br>chase: the lions tore through the bull's thick hide and were gorging<br>on his blood and bowels, but the herdsmen were afraid to do<br>anything, and only hounded on their dogs; the dogs dared not fasten on<br>the lions but stood by barking and keeping out of harm's way.<br>The god wrought also a pasture in a fair mountain dell, and large<br>flock of sheep, with a homestead and huts, and sheltered sheepfolds.<br>Furthermore he wrought a green, like that which Daedalus once made<br>in Cnossus for lovely Ariadne. Hereon there danced youths and<br>maidens whom all would woo, with their hands on one another's<br>wrists. The maidens wore robes of light linen, and the youths well<br>woven shirts that were slightly oiled. The girls were crowned with<br>garlands, while the young men had daggers of gold that hung by<br>silver baldrics; sometimes they would dance deftly in a ring with<br>merry twinkling feet, as it were a potter sitting at his work and<br>making trial of his wheel to see whether it will run, and sometimes<br>they would go all in line with one another, and much people was<br>gathered joyously about the green. There was a bard also to sing to<br>them and play his lyre, while two tumblers went about performing in<br>the midst of them when the man struck up with his tune.<br>All round the outermost rim of the shield he set the mighty stream<br>of the river Oceanus.<br>Then when he had fashioned the shield so great and strong, he made a<br>breastplate also that shone brighter than fire. He made helmet,<br>close fitting to the brow, and richly worked, with a golden plume<br>overhanging it; and he made greaves also of beaten tin.<br>Lastly, when the famed lame god had made all the armour, he took<br>it and set it before the mother of Achilles; whereon she darted like a<br>falcon from the snowy summits of Olympus and bore away the gleaming<br>armour from the house of Vulcan.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Homer">Homer</a>, translated by Samuel Butler<div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410299" data-title="The Iliad: Book 18 de Homer" data-description="Thus then did they fight as it were a flaming fire. Meanwhile the/fleet runner Antilochus, who had been sent as messenger, reached/Achilles, and found him sitting by his tall ships and boding that/which was indeed too surely true. "Alas," said he ..."></div> </div> </div>

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