<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410308" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Iliad: Book 4</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now the gods were sitting with Jove in council upon the golden floor<br>while Hebe went round pouring out nectar for them to drink, and as<br>they pledged one another in their cups of gold they looked down upon<br>the town of Troy. The son of Saturn then began to tease Juno,<br>talking at her so as to provoke her. "Menelaus," said he, "has two<br>good friends among the goddesses, Juno of Argos, and Minerva of<br>Alalcomene, but they only sit still and look on, while Venus keeps<br>ever by Alexandrus' side to defend him in any danger; indeed she has<br>just rescued him when he made sure that it was all over with him-<br>for the victory really did lie with Menelaus. We must consider what we<br>shall do about all this; shall we set them fighting anew or make peace<br>between them? If you will agree to this last Menelaus can take back<br>Helen and the city of Priam may remain still inhabited."<br>Minerva and Juno muttered their discontent as they sat side by<br>side hatching mischief for the Trojans. Minerva scowled at her father,<br>for she was in a furious passion with him, and said nothing, but<br>Juno could not contain herself. "Dread son of Saturn," said she,<br>"what, pray, is the meaning of all this? Is my trouble, then, to go<br>for nothing, and the sweat that I have sweated, to say nothing of my<br>horses, while getting the people together against Priam and his<br>children? Do as you will, but we other gods shall not all of us<br>approve your counsel."<br>Jove was angry and answered, "My dear, what harm have Priam and<br>his sons done you that you are so hotly bent on sacking the city of<br>Ilius? Will nothing do for you but you must within their walls and eat<br>Priam raw, with his sons and all the other Trojans to boot? Have it<br>your own way then; for I would not have this matter become a bone of<br>contention between us. I say further, and lay my saying to your heart,<br>if ever I want to sack a city belonging to friends of yours, you<br>must not try to stop me; you will have to let me do it, for I am<br>giving in to you sorely against my will. Of all inhabited cities under<br>the sun and stars of heaven, there was none that I so much respected<br>as Ilius with Priam and his whole people. Equitable feasts were<br>never wanting about my altar, nor the savour of burning fat, which<br>is honour due to ourselves."<br>"My own three favourite cities," answered Juno, "are Argos,<br>Sparta, and Mycenae. Sack them whenever you may be displeased with<br>them. I shall not defend them and I shall not care. Even if I did, and<br>tried to stay you, I should take nothing by it, for you are much<br>stronger than I am, but I will not have my own work wasted. I too am a<br>god and of the same race with yourself. I am Saturn's eldest daughter,<br>and am honourable not on this ground only, but also because I am<br>your wife, and you are king over the gods. Let it be a case, then,<br>of give-and-take between us, and the rest of the gods will follow<br>our lead. Tell Minerva to go and take part in the fight at once, and<br>let her contrive that the Trojans shall be the first to break their<br>oaths and set upon the Achaeans."<br>The sire of gods and men heeded her words, and said to Minerva,<br>"Go at once into the Trojan and Achaean hosts, and contrive that the<br>Trojans shall be the first to break their oaths and set upon the<br>Achaeans."<br>This was what Minerva was already eager to do, so down she darted<br>from the topmost summits of Olympus. She shot through the sky as<br>some brilliant meteor which the son of scheming Saturn has sent as a<br>sign to mariners or to some great army, and a fiery train of light<br>follows in its wake. The Trojans and Achaeans were struck with awe<br>as they beheld, and one would turn to his neighbour, saying, "Either<br>we shall again have war and din of combat, or Jove the lord of<br>battle will now make peace between us."<br>Thus did they converse. Then Minerva took the form of Laodocus,<br>son of Antenor, and went through the ranks of the Trojans to find<br>Pandarus, the redoubtable son of Lycaon. She found him standing<br>among the stalwart heroes who had followed him from the banks of the<br>Aesopus, so she went close up to him and said, "Brave son of Lycaon,<br>will you do as I tell you? If you dare send an arrow at Menelaus you<br>will win honour and thanks from all the Trojans, and especially from<br>prince Alexandrus- he would be the first to requite you very<br>handsomely if he could see Menelaus mount his funeral pyre, slain by<br>an arrow from your hand. Take your home aim then, and pray to Lycian<br>Apollo, the famous archer; vow that when you get home to your strong<br>city of Zelea you will offer a hecatomb of firstling lambs in his<br>honour."<br>His fool's heart was persuaded, and he took his bow from its case.<br>This bow was made from the horns of a wild ibex which he had killed as<br>it was bounding from a rock; he had stalked it, and it had fallen as<br>the arrow struck it to the heart. Its horns were sixteen palms long,<br>and a worker in horn had made them into a bow, smoothing them well<br>down, and giving them tips of gold. When Pandarus had strung his bow<br>he laid it carefully on the ground, and his brave followers held their<br>shields before him lest the Achaeans should set upon him before he had<br>shot Menelaus. Then he opened the lid of his quiver and took out a<br>winged arrow that had yet been shot, fraught with the pangs of<br>death. He laid the arrow on the string and prayed to Lycian Apollo,<br>the famous archer, vowing that when he got home to his strong city<br>of Zelea he would offer a hecatomb of firstling lambs in his honour.<br>He laid the notch of the arrow on the oxhide bowstring, and drew<br>both notch and string to his breast till the arrow-head was near the<br>bow; then when the bow was arched into a half-circle he let fly, and<br>the bow twanged, and the string sang as the arrow flew gladly on<br>over the heads of the throng.<br>But the blessed gods did not forget thee, O Menelaus, and Jove's<br>daughter, driver of the spoil, was the first to stand before thee<br>and ward off the piercing arrow. She turned it from his skin as a<br>mother whisks a fly from off her child when it is sleeping sweetly;<br>she guided it to the part where the golden buckles of the belt that<br>passed over his double cuirass were fastened, so the arrow struck<br>the belt that went tightly round him. It went right through this and<br>through the cuirass of cunning workmanship; it also pierced the belt<br>beneath it, which he wore next his skin to keep out darts or arrows;<br>it was this that served him in the best stead, nevertheless the<br>arrow went through it and grazed the top of the skin, so that blood<br>began flowing from the wound.<br>As when some woman of Meonia or Caria strains purple dye on to a<br>piece of ivory that is to be the cheek-piece of a horse, and is to<br>be laid up in a treasure house- many a knight is fain to bear it,<br>but the king keeps it as an ornament of which both horse and driver<br>may be proud- even so, O Menelaus, were your shapely thighs and your<br>legs down to your fair ancles stained with blood.<br>When King Agamemnon saw the blood flowing from the wound he was<br>afraid, and so was brave Menelaus himself till he saw that the barbs<br>of the arrow and the thread that bound the arrow-head to the shaft<br>were still outside the wound. Then he took heart, but Agamemnon heaved<br>a deep sigh as he held Menelaus's hand in his own, and his comrades<br>made moan in concert. "Dear brother, "he cried, "I have been the death<br>of you in pledging this covenant and letting you come forward as our<br>champion. The Trojans have trampled on their oaths and have wounded<br>you; nevertheless the oath, the blood of lambs, the drink-offerings<br>and the right hands of fellowship in which have put our trust shall<br>not be vain. If he that rules Olympus fulfil it not here and now,<br>he. will yet fulfil it hereafter, and they shall pay dearly with their<br>lives and with their wives and children. The day will surely come when<br>mighty Ilius shall be laid low, with Priam and Priam's people, when<br>the son of Saturn from his high throne shall overshadow them with<br>his awful aegis in punishment of their present treachery. This shall<br>surely be; but how, Menelaus, shall I mourn you, if it be your lot now<br>to die? I should return to Argos as a by-word, for the Achaeans will<br>at once go home. We shall leave Priam and the Trojans the glory of<br>still keeping Helen, and the earth will rot your bones as you lie here<br>at Troy with your purpose not fulfilled. Then shall some braggart<br>Trojan leap upon your tomb and say, 'Ever thus may Agamemnon wreak his<br>vengeance; he brought his army in vain; he is gone home to his own<br>land with empty ships, and has left Menelaus behind him.' Thus will<br>one of them say, and may the earth then swallow me."<br>But Menelaus reassured him and said, "Take heart, and do not alarm<br>the people; the arrow has not struck me in a mortal part, for my outer<br>belt of burnished metal first stayed it, and under this my cuirass and<br>the belt of mail which the bronze-smiths made me."<br>And Agamemnon answered, "I trust, dear Menelaus, that it may be even<br>so, but the surgeon shall examine your wound and lay herbs upon it<br>to relieve your pain."<br>He then said to Talthybius, "Talthybius, tell Machaon, son to the<br>great physician, Aesculapius, to come and see Menelaus immediately.<br>Some Trojan or Lycian archer has wounded him with an arrow to our<br>dismay, and to his own great glory."<br>Talthybius did as he was told, and went about the host trying to<br>find Machaon. Presently he found standing amid the brave warriors<br>who had followed him from Tricca; thereon he went up to him and<br>said, "Son of Aesculapius, King Agamemnon says you are to come and see<br>Menelaus immediately. Some Trojan or Lycian archer has wounded him<br>with an arrow to our dismay and to his own great glory."<br>Thus did he speak, and Machaon was moved to go. They passed<br>through the spreading host of the Achaeans and went on till they<br>came to the place where Menelaus had been wounded and was lying with<br>the chieftains gathered in a circle round him. Machaon passed into the<br>middle of the ring and at once drew the arrow from the belt, bending<br>its barbs back through the force with which he pulled it out. He undid<br>the burnished belt, and beneath this the cuirass and the belt of<br>mail which the bronze-smiths had made; then, when he had seen the<br>wound, he wiped away the blood and applied some soothing drugs which<br>Chiron had given to Aesculapius out of the good will he bore him.<br>While they were thus busy about Menelaus, the Trojans came forward<br>against them, for they had put on their armour, and now renewed the<br>fight.<br>You would not have then found Agamemnon asleep nor cowardly and<br>unwilling to fight, but eager rather for the fray. He left his chariot<br>rich with bronze and his panting steeds in charge of Eurymedon, son of<br>Ptolemaeus the son of Peiraeus, and bade him hold them in readiness<br>against the time his limbs should weary of going about and giving<br>orders to so many, for he went among the ranks on foot. When he saw<br>men hasting to the front he stood by them and cheered them on.<br>"Argives," said he, "slacken not one whit in your onset; father Jove<br>will be no helper of liars; the Trojans have been the first to break<br>their oaths and to attack us; therefore they shall be devoured of<br>vultures; we shall take their city and carry off their wives and<br>children in our ships."<br>But he angrily rebuked those whom he saw shirking and disinclined to<br>fight. "Argives," he cried, "cowardly miserable creatures, have you no<br>shame to stand here like frightened fawns who, when they can no longer<br>scud over the plain, huddle together, but show no fight? You are as<br>dazed and spiritless as deer. Would you wait till the Trojans reach<br>the sterns of our ships as they lie on the shore, to see, whether<br>the son of Saturn will hold his hand over you to protect you?"<br>Thus did he go about giving his orders among the ranks. Passing<br>through the crowd, he came presently on the Cretans, arming round<br>Idomeneus, who was at their head, fierce as a wild boar, while<br>Meriones was bringing up the battalions that were in the rear.<br>Agamemnon was glad when he saw him, and spoke him fairly. "Idomeneus,"<br>said he, "I treat you with greater distinction than I do any others of<br>the Achaeans, whether in war or in other things, or at table. When the<br>princes are mixing my choicest wines in the mixing-bowls, they have<br>each of them a fixed allowance, but your cup is kept always full<br>like my own, that you may drink whenever you are minded. Go,<br>therefore, into battle, and show yourself the man you have been always<br>proud to be."<br>Idomeneus answered, "I will be a trusty comrade, as I promised you<br>from the first I would be. Urge on the other Achaeans, that we may<br>join battle at once, for the Trojans have trampled upon their<br>covenants. Death and destruction shall be theirs, seeing they have<br>been the first to break their oaths and to attack us."<br>The son of Atreus went on, glad at heart, till he came upon the<br>two Ajaxes arming themselves amid a host of foot-soldiers. As when a<br>goat-herd from some high post watches a storm drive over the deep<br>before the west wind- black as pitch is the offing and a mighty<br>whirlwind draws towards him, so that he is afraid and drives his flock<br>into a cave- even thus did the ranks of stalwart youths move in a dark<br>mass to battle under the Ajaxes, horrid with shield and spear. Glad<br>was King Agamemnon when he saw them. "No need," he cried, "to give<br>orders to such leaders of the Argives as you are, for of your own<br>selves you spur your men on to fight with might and main. Would, by<br>father Jove, Minerva, and Apollo that all were so minded as you are,<br>for the city of Priam would then soon fall beneath our hands, and we<br>should sack it."<br>With this he left them and went onward to Nestor, the facile speaker<br>of the Pylians, who was marshalling his men and urging them on, in<br>company with Pelagon, Alastor, Chromius, Haemon, and Bias shepherd<br>of his people. He placed his knights with their chariots and horses in<br>the front rank, while the foot-soldiers, brave men and many, whom he<br>could trust, were in the rear. The cowards he drove into the middle,<br>that they might fight whether they would or no. He gave his orders<br>to the knights first, bidding them hold their horses well in hand,<br>so as to avoid confusion. "Let no man," he said, "relying on his<br>strength or horsemanship, get before the others and engage singly with<br>the Trojans, nor yet let him lag behind or you will weaken your<br>attack; but let each when he meets an enemy's chariot throw his<br>spear from his own; this be much the best; this is how the men of<br>old took towns and strongholds; in this wise were they minded."<br>Thus did the old man charge them, for he had been in many a fight,<br>and King Agamemnon was glad. "I wish," he said to him, that your limbs<br>were as supple and your strength as sure as your judgment is; but age,<br>the common enemy of mankind, has laid his hand upon you; would that it<br>had fallen upon some other, and that you were still young."<br>And Nestor, knight of Gerene, answered, "Son of Atreus, I too<br>would gladly be the man I was when I slew mighty Ereuthalion; but<br>the gods will not give us everything at one and the same time. I was<br>then young, and now I am old; still I can go with my knights and<br>give them that counsel which old men have a right to give. The<br>wielding of the spear I leave to those who are younger and stronger<br>than myself."<br>Agamemnon went his way rejoicing, and presently found Menestheus,<br>son of Peteos, tarrying in his place, and with him were the<br>Athenians loud of tongue in battle. Near him also tarried cunning<br>Ulysses, with his sturdy Cephallenians round him; they had not yet<br>heard the battle-cry, for the ranks of Trojans and Achaeans had only<br>just begun to move, so they were standing still, waiting for some<br>other columns of the Achaeans to attack the Trojans and begin the<br>fighting. When he saw this Agamemnon rebuked them and said, "Son of<br>Peteos, and you other, steeped in cunning, heart of guile, why stand<br>you here cowering and waiting on others? You two should be of all<br>men foremost when there is hard fighting to be done, for you are<br>ever foremost to accept my invitation when we councillors of the<br>Achaeans are holding feast. You are glad enough then to take your fill<br>of roast meats and to drink wine as long as you please, whereas now<br>you would not care though you saw ten columns of Achaeans engage the<br>enemy in front of you."<br>Ulysses glared at him and answered, "Son of Atreus, what are you<br>talking about? How can you say that we are slack? When the Achaeans<br>are in full fight with the Trojans, you shall see, if you care to do<br>so, that the father of Telemachus will join battle with the foremost<br>of them. You are talking idly."<br>When Agamemnon saw that Ulysses was angry, he smiled pleasantly at<br>him and withdrew his words. "Ulysses," said he, "noble son of Laertes,<br>excellent in all good counsel, I have neither fault to find nor orders<br>to give you, for I know your heart is right, and that you and I are of<br>a mind. Enough; I will make you amends for what I have said, and if<br>any ill has now been spoken may the gods bring it to nothing."<br>He then left them and went on to others. Presently he saw the son of<br>Tydeus, noble Diomed, standing by his chariot and horses, with<br>Sthenelus the son of Capaneus beside him; whereon he began to<br>upbraid him. "Son of Tydeus," he said, "why stand you cowering here<br>upon the brink of battle? Tydeus did not shrink thus, but was ever<br>ahead of his men when leading them on against the foe- so, at least,<br>say they that saw him in battle, for I never set eyes upon him myself.<br>They say that there was no man like him. He came once to Mycenae,<br>not as an enemy but as a guest, in company with Polynices to recruit<br>his forces, for they were levying war against the strong city of<br>Thebes, and prayed our people for a body of picked men to help them.<br>The men of Mycenae were willing to let them have one, but Jove<br>dissuaded them by showing them unfavourable omens. Tydeus,<br>therefore, and Polynices went their way. When they had got as far<br>the deep-meadowed and rush-grown banks of the Aesopus, the Achaeans<br>sent Tydeus as their envoy, and he found the Cadmeans gathered in<br>great numbers to a banquet in the house of Eteocles. Stranger though<br>he was, he knew no fear on finding himself single-handed among so<br>many, but challenged them to contests of all kinds, and in each one of<br>them was at once victorious, so mightily did Minerva help him. The<br>Cadmeans were incensed at his success, and set a force of fifty youths<br>with two captains- the godlike hero Maeon, son of Haemon, and<br>Polyphontes, son of Autophonus- at their head, to lie in wait for<br>him on his return journey; but Tydeus slew every man of them, save<br>only Maeon, whom he let go in obedience to heaven's omens. Such was<br>Tydeus of Aetolia. His son can talk more glibly, but he cannot fight<br>as his father did."<br>Diomed made no answer, for he was shamed by the rebuke of Agamemnon;<br>but the son of Capaneus took up his words and said, "Son of Atreus,<br>tell no lies, for you can speak truth if you will. We boast<br>ourselves as even better men than our fathers; we took seven-gated<br>Thebes, though the wall was stronger and our men were fewer in number,<br>for we trusted in the omens of the gods and in the help of Jove,<br>whereas they perished through their own sheer folly; hold not, then,<br>our fathers in like honour with us."<br>Diomed looked sternly at him and said, "Hold your peace, my<br>friend, as I bid you. It is not amiss that Agamemnon should urge the<br>Achaeans forward, for the glory will be his if we take the city, and<br>his the shame if we are vanquished. Therefore let us acquit<br>ourselves with valour."<br>As he spoke he sprang from his chariot, and his armour rang so<br>fiercely about his body that even a brave man might well have been<br>scared to hear it.<br>As when some mighty wave that thunders on the beach when the west<br>wind has lashed it into fury- it has reared its head afar and now<br>comes crashing down on the shore; it bows its arching crest high<br>over the jagged rocks and spews its salt foam in all directions-<br>even so did the serried phalanxes of the Danaans march steadfastly<br>to battle. The chiefs gave orders each to his own people, but the<br>men said never a word; no man would think it, for huge as the host<br>was, it seemed as though there was not a tongue among them, so<br>silent were they in their obedience; and as they marched the armour<br>about their bodies glistened in the sun. But the clamour of the Trojan<br>ranks was as that of many thousand ewes that stand waiting to be<br>milked in the yards of some rich flockmaster, and bleat incessantly in<br>answer to the bleating of their lambs; for they had not one speech nor<br>language, but their tongues were diverse, and they came from many<br>different places. These were inspired of Mars, but the others by<br>Minerva- and with them came Panic, Rout, and Strife whose fury never<br>tires, sister and friend of murderous Mars, who, from being at first<br>but low in stature, grows till she uprears her head to heaven,<br>though her feet are still on earth. She it was that went about among<br>them and flung down discord to the waxing of sorrow with even hand<br>between them.<br>When they were got together in one place shield clashed with<br>shield and spear with spear in the rage of battle. The bossed<br>shields beat one upon another, and there was a tramp as of a great<br>multitude- death-cry and shout of triumph of slain and slayers, and<br>the earth ran red with blood. As torrents swollen with rain course<br>madly down their deep channels till the angry floods meet in some<br>gorge, and the shepherd the hillside hears their roaring from afar-<br>even such was the toil and uproar of the hosts as they joined in<br>battle.<br>First Antilochus slew an armed warrior of the Trojans, Echepolus,<br>son of Thalysius, fighting in the foremost ranks. He struck at the<br>projecting part of his helmet and drove the spear into his brow; the<br>point of bronze pierced the bone, and darkness veiled his eyes;<br>headlong as a tower he fell amid the press of the fight, and as he<br>dropped King Elephenor, son of Chalcodon and captain of the proud<br>Abantes began dragging him out of reach of the darts that were falling<br>around him, in haste to strip him of his armour. But his purpose was<br>not for long; Agenor saw him haling the body away, and smote him in<br>the side with his bronze-shod spear- for as he stooped his side was<br>left unprotected by his shield- and thus he perished. Then the fight<br>between Trojans and Achaeans grew furious over his body, and they flew<br>upon each other like wolves, man and man crushing one upon the other.<br>Forthwith Ajax, son of Telamon, slew the fair youth Simoeisius,<br>son of Anthemion, whom his mother bore by the banks of the Simois,<br>as she was coming down from Mt. Ida, where she had been with her<br>parents to see their flocks. Therefore he was named Simoeisius, but he<br>did not live to pay his parents for his rearing, for he was cut off<br>untimely by the spear of mighty Ajax, who struck him in the breast<br>by the right nipple as he was coming on among the foremost fighters;<br>the spear went right through his shoulder, and he fell as a poplar<br>that has grown straight and tall in a meadow by some mere, and its top<br>is thick with branches. Then the wheelwright lays his axe to its roots<br>that he may fashion a felloe for the wheel of some goodly chariot, and<br>it lies seasoning by the waterside. In such wise did Ajax fell to<br>earth Simoeisius, son of Anthemion. Thereon Antiphus of the gleaming<br>corslet, son of Priam, hurled a spear at Ajax from amid the crowd<br>and missed him, but he hit Leucus, the brave comrade of Ulysses, in<br>the groin, as he was dragging the body of Simoeisius over to the other<br>side; so he fell upon the body and loosed his hold upon it. Ulysses<br>was furious when he saw Leucus slain, and strode in full armour<br>through the front ranks till he was quite close; then he glared<br>round about him and took aim, and the Trojans fell back as he did<br>so. His dart was not sped in vain, for it struck Democoon, the bastard<br>son of Priam, who had come to him from Abydos, where he had charge<br>of his father's mares. Ulysses, infuriated by the death of his<br>comrade, hit him with his spear on one temple, and the bronze point<br>came through on the other side of his forehead. Thereon darkness<br>veiled his eyes, and his armour rang rattling round him as he fell<br>heavily to the ground. Hector, and they that were in front, then<br>gave round while the Argives raised a shout and drew off the dead,<br>pressing further forward as they did so. But Apollo looked down from<br>Pergamus and called aloud to the Trojans, for he was displeased.<br>"Trojans," he cried, "rush on the foe, and do not let yourselves be<br>thus beaten by the Argives. Their skins are not stone nor iron that<br>when hit them you do them no harm. Moreover, Achilles, the son of<br>lovely Thetis, is not fighting, but is nursing his anger at the<br>ships."<br>Thus spoke the mighty god, crying to them from the city, while<br>Jove's redoubtable daughter, the Trito-born, went about among the host<br>of the Achaeans, and urged them forward whenever she beheld them<br>slackening.<br>Then fate fell upon Diores, son of Amarynceus, for he was struck<br>by a jagged stone near the ancle of his right leg. He that hurled it<br>was Peirous, son of Imbrasus, captain of the Thracians, who had come<br>from Aenus; the bones and both the tendons were crushed by the<br>pitiless stone. He fell to the ground on his back, and in his death<br>throes stretched out his hands towards his comrades. But Peirous,<br>who had wounded him, sprang on him and thrust a spear into his<br>belly, so that his bowels came gushing out upon the ground, and<br>darkness veiled his eyes. As he was leaving the body, Thoas of Aetolia<br>struck him in the chest near the nipple, and the point fixed itself in<br>his lungs. Thoas came close up to him, pulled the spear out of his<br>chest, and then drawing his sword, smote him in the middle of the<br>belly so that he died; but he did not strip him of his armour, for his<br>Thracian comrades, men who wear their hair in a tuft at the top of<br>their heads, stood round the body and kept him off with their long<br>spears for all his great stature and valour; so he was driven back.<br>Thus the two corpses lay stretched on earth near to one another, the<br>one captain of the Thracians and the other of the Epeans; and many<br>another fell round them.<br>And now no man would have made light of the fighting if he could<br>have gone about among it scatheless and unwounded, with Minerva<br>leading him by the hand, and protecting him from the storm of spears<br>and arrows. For many Trojans and Achaeans on that day lay stretched<br>side by side face downwards upon the earth.</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=410308" data-title="The Iliad: Book 4 de Homer" data-description="Now the gods were sitting with Jove in council upon the golden floor/while Hebe went round pouring out nectar for them to drink, and as/they pledged one another in their cups of gold they looked down upon/the town of Troy. The son of Saturn then b..."></div> </div> </div>

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