<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410312" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Iliad: Book 8</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now when Morning, clad in her robe of saffron, had begun to suffuse<br>light over the earth, Jove called the gods in council on the topmost<br>crest of serrated Olympus. Then he spoke and all the other gods gave<br>ear. "Hear me," said he, "gods and goddesses, that I may speak even as<br>I am minded. Let none of you neither goddess nor god try to cross<br>me, but obey me every one of you that I may bring this matter to an<br>end. If I see anyone acting apart and helping either Trojans or<br>Danaans, he shall be beaten inordinately ere he come back again to<br>Olympus; or I will hurl him down into dark Tartarus far into the<br>deepest pit under the earth, where the gates are iron and the floor<br>bronze, as far beneath Hades as heaven is high above the earth, that<br>you may learn how much the mightiest I am among you. Try me and find<br>out for yourselves. Hangs me a golden chain from heaven, and lay<br>hold of it all of you, gods and goddesses together- tug as you will,<br>you will not drag Jove the supreme counsellor from heaven to earth;<br>but were I to pull at it myself I should draw you up with earth and<br>sea into the bargain, then would I bind the chain about some<br>pinnacle of Olympus and leave you all dangling in the mid firmament.<br>So far am I above all others either of gods or men."<br>They were frightened and all of them of held their peace, for he had<br>spoken masterfully; but at last Minerva answered, "Father, son of<br>Saturn, king of kings, we all know that your might is not to be<br>gainsaid, but we are also sorry for the Danaan warriors, who are<br>perishing and coming to a bad end. We will, however, since you so<br>bid us, refrain from actual fighting, but we will make serviceable<br>suggestions to the Argives that they may not all of them perish in<br>your displeasure."<br>Jove smiled at her and answered, "Take heart, my child,<br>Trito-born; I am not really in earnest, and I wish to be kind to you."<br>With this he yoked his fleet horses, with hoofs of bronze and<br>manes of glittering gold. He girded himself also with gold about the<br>body, seized his gold whip and took his seat in his chariot. Thereon<br>he lashed his horses and they flew forward nothing loth midway twixt<br>earth and starry heaven. After a while he reached many-fountained Ida,<br>mother of wild beasts, and Gargarus, where are his grove and<br>fragrant altar. There the father of gods and men stayed his horses,<br>took them from the chariot, and hid them in a thick cloud; then he<br>took his seat all glorious upon the topmost crests, looking down<br>upon the city of Troy and the ships of the Achaeans.<br>The Achaeans took their morning meal hastily at the ships, and<br>afterwards put on their armour. The Trojans on the other hand likewise<br>armed themselves throughout the city, fewer in numbers but<br>nevertheless eager perforce to do battle for their wives and children.<br>All the gates were flung wide open, and horse and foot sallied forth<br>with the tramp as of a great multitude.<br>When they were got together in one place, shield clashed with<br>shield, and spear with spear, in the conflict of mail-clad men. Mighty<br>was the din as the bossed shields pressed hard on one another-<br>death- cry and shout of triumph of slain and slayers, and the earth<br>ran red with blood.<br>Now so long as the day waxed and it was still morning their<br>weapons beat against one another, and the people fell, but when the<br>sun had reached mid-heaven, the sire of all balanced his golden<br>scales, and put two fates of death within them, one for the Trojans<br>and the other for the Achaeans. He took the balance by the middle, and<br>when he lifted it up the day of the Achaeans sank; the death-fraught<br>scale of the Achaeans settled down upon the ground, while that of<br>the Trojans rose heavenwards. Then he thundered aloud from Ida, and<br>sent the glare of his lightning upon the Achaeans; when they saw this,<br>pale fear fell upon them and they were sore afraid.<br>Idomeneus dared not stay nor yet Agamemnon, nor did the two<br>Ajaxes, servants of Mars, hold their ground. Nestor knight of Gerene<br>alone stood firm, bulwark of the Achaeans, not of his own will, but<br>one of his horses was disabled. Alexandrus husband of lovely Helen had<br>hit it with an arrow just on the top of its head where the mane begins<br>to grow away from the skull, a very deadly place. The horse bounded in<br>his anguish as the arrow pierced his brain, and his struggles threw<br>others into confusion. The old man instantly began cutting the<br>traces with his sword, but Hector's fleet horses bore down upon him<br>through the rout with their bold charioteer, even Hector himself,<br>and the old man would have perished there and then had not Diomed been<br>quick to mark, and with a loud cry called Ulysses to help him.<br>"Ulysses," he cried, "noble son of Laertes where are you flying<br>to, with your back turned like a coward? See that you are not struck<br>with a spear between the shoulders. Stay here and help me to defend<br>Nestor from this man's furious onset."<br>Ulysses would not give ear, but sped onward to the ships of the<br>Achaeans, and the son of Tydeus flinging himself alone into the<br>thick of the fight took his stand before the horses of the son of<br>Neleus. "Sir," said he, "these young warriors are pressing you hard,<br>your force is spent, and age is heavy upon you, your squire is naught,<br>and your horses are slow to move. Mount my chariot and see what the<br>horses of Tros can do- how cleverly they can scud hither and thither<br>over the plain either in flight or in pursuit. I took them from the<br>hero Aeneas. Let our squires attend to your own steeds, but let us<br>drive mine straight at the Trojans, that Hector may learn how<br>furiously I too can wield my spear."<br>Nestor knight of Gerene hearkened to his words. Thereon the<br>doughty squires, Sthenelus and kind-hearted Eurymedon, saw to Nestor's<br>horses, while the two both mounted Diomed's chariot. Nestor took the<br>reins in his hands and lashed the horses on; they were soon close up<br>with Hector, and the son of Tydeus aimed a spear at him as he was<br>charging full speed towards them. He missed him, but struck his<br>charioteer and squire Eniopeus son of noble Thebaeus in the breast<br>by the nipple while the reins were in his hands, so that he died there<br>and then, and the horses swerved as he fell headlong from the chariot.<br>Hector was greatly grieved at the loss of his charioteer, but let<br>him lie for all his sorrow, while he went in quest of another<br>driver; nor did his steeds have to go long without one, for he<br>presently found brave Archeptolemus the son of Iphitus, and made him<br>get up behind the horses, giving the reins into his hand.<br>All had then been lost and no help for it, for they would have<br>been penned up in Ilius like sheep, had not the sire of gods and men<br>been quick to mark, and hurled a fiery flaming thunderbolt which<br>fell just in front of Diomed's horses with a flare of burning<br>brimstone. The horses were frightened and tried to back beneath the<br>car, while the reins dropped from Nestor's hands. Then he was afraid<br>and said to Diomed, "Son of Tydeus, turn your horses in flight; see<br>you not that the hand of Jove is against you? To-day he vouchsafes<br>victory to Hector; to-morrow, if it so please him, he will again grant<br>it to ourselves; no man, however brave, may thwart the purpose of<br>Jove, for he is far stronger than any."<br>Diomed answered, "All that you have said is true; there is a grief<br>however which pierces me to the very heart, for Hector will talk among<br>the Trojans and say, 'The son of Tydeus fled before me to the<br>ships.' This is the vaunt he will make, and may earth then swallow<br>me."<br>"Son of Tydeus," replied Nestor, "what mean you? Though Hector say<br>that you are a coward the Trojans and Dardanians will not believe him,<br>nor yet the wives of the mighty warriors whom you have laid low."<br>So saying he turned the horses back through the thick of the battle,<br>and with a cry that rent the air the Trojans and Hector rained their<br>darts after them. Hector shouted to him and said, "Son of Tydeus,<br>the Danaans have done you honour hitherto as regards your place at<br>table, the meals they give you, and the filling of your cup with wine.<br>Henceforth they will despise you, for you are become no better than<br>a woman. Be off, girl and coward that you are, you shall not scale our<br>walls through any Hinching upon my part; neither shall you carry off<br>our wives in your ships, for I shall kill you with my own hand."<br>The son of Tydeus was in two minds whether or no to turn his<br>horses round again and fight him. Thrice did he doubt, and thrice<br>did Jove thunder from the heights of. Ida in token to the Trojans that<br>he would turn the battle in their favour. Hector then shouted to<br>them and said, "Trojans, Lycians, and Dardanians, lovers of close<br>fighting, be men, my friends, and fight with might and with main; I<br>see that Jove is minded to vouchsafe victory and great glory to<br>myself, while he will deal destruction upon the Danaans. Fools, for<br>having thought of building this weak and worthless wall. It shall<br>not stay my fury; my horses will spring lightly over their trench, and<br>when I am BOOK at their ships forget not to bring me fire that I may<br>burn them, while I slaughter the Argives who will be all dazed and<br>bewildered by the smoke."<br>Then he cried to his horses, "Xanthus and Podargus, and you Aethon<br>and goodly Lampus, pay me for your keep now and for all the<br>honey-sweet corn with which Andromache daughter of great Eetion has<br>fed you, and for she has mixed wine and water for you to drink<br>whenever you would, before doing so even for me who am her own<br>husband. Haste in pursuit, that we may take the shield of Nestor,<br>the fame of which ascends to heaven, for it is of solid gold, arm-rods<br>and all, and that we may strip from the shoulders of Diomed. the<br>cuirass which Vulcan made him. Could we take these two things, the<br>Achaeans would set sail in their ships this self-same night."<br>Thus did he vaunt, but Queen Juno made high Olympus quake as she<br>shook with rage upon her throne. Then said she to the mighty god of<br>Neptune, "What now, wide ruling lord of the earthquake? Can you find<br>no compassion in your heart for the dying Danaans, who bring you<br>many a welcome offering to Helice and to Aegae? Wish them well then.<br>If all of us who are with the Danaans were to drive the Trojans back<br>and keep Jove from helping them, he would have to sit there sulking<br>alone on Ida."<br>King Neptune was greatly troubled and answered, "Juno, rash of<br>tongue, what are you talking about? We other gods must not set<br>ourselves against Jove, for he is far stronger than we are."<br>Thus did they converse; but the whole space enclosed by the ditch,<br>from the ships even to the wall, was filled with horses and<br>warriors, who were pent up there by Hector son of Priam, now that<br>the hand of Jove was with him. He would even have set fire to the<br>ships and burned them, had not Queen Juno put it into the mind of<br>Agamemnon, to bestir himself and to encourage the Achaeans. To this<br>end he went round the ships and tents carrying a great purple cloak,<br>and took his stand by the huge black hull of Ulysses' ship, which<br>was middlemost of all; it was from this place that his voice would<br>carry farthest, on the one hand towards the tents of Ajax son of<br>Telamon, and on the other towards those of Achilles- for these two<br>heroes, well assured of their own strength, had valorously drawn up<br>their ships at the two ends of the line. From this spot then, with a<br>voice that could be heard afar, he shouted to the Danaans, saying,<br>"Argives, shame on you cowardly creatures, brave in semblance only;<br>where are now our vaunts that we should prove victorious- the vaunts<br>we made so vaingloriously in Lemnos, when we ate the flesh of horned<br>cattle and filled our mixing-bowls to the brim? You vowed that you<br>would each of you stand against a hundred or two hundred men, and<br>now you prove no match even for one- for Hector, who will be ere<br>long setting our ships in a blaze. Father Jove, did you ever so ruin a<br>great king and rob him so utterly of his greatness? yet, when to my<br>sorrow I was coming hither, I never let my ship pass your altars<br>without offering the fat and thigh-bones of heifers upon every one<br>of them, so eager was I to sack the city of Troy. Vouchsafe me then<br>this prayer- suffer us to escape at any rate with our lives, and let<br>not the Achaeans be so utterly vanquished by the Trojans."<br>Thus did he pray, and father Jove pitying his tears vouchsafed him<br>that his people should live, not die; forthwith he sent them an eagle,<br>most unfailingly portentous of all birds, with a young fawn in its<br>talons; the eagle dropped the fawn by the altar on which the<br>Achaeans sacrificed to Jove the lord of omens; When, therefore, the<br>people saw that the bird had come from Jove, they sprang more fiercely<br>upon the Trojans and fought more boldly.<br>There was no man of all the many Danaans who could then boast that<br>he had driven his horses over the trench and gone forth to fight<br>sooner than the son of Tydeus; long before any one else could do so he<br>slew an armed warrior of the Trojans, Agelaus the son of Phradmon.<br>He had turned his horses in flight, but the spear struck him in the<br>back midway between his shoulders and went right through his chest,<br>and his armour rang rattling round him as he fell forward from his<br>chariot.<br>After him came Agamemnon and Menelaus, sons of Atreus, the two<br>Ajaxes clothed in valour as with a garment, Idomeneus and his<br>companion in arms Meriones, peer of murderous Mars, and Eurypylus<br>the brave son of Euaemon. Ninth came Teucer with his bow, and took his<br>place under cover of the shield of Ajax son of Telamon. When Ajax<br>lifted his shield Teucer would peer round, and when he had hit any one<br>in the throng, the man would fall dead; then Teucer would hie back<br>to Ajax as a child to its mother, and again duck down under his<br>shield.<br>Which of the Trojans did brave Teucer first kill? Orsilochus, and<br>then Ormenus and Ophelestes, Daetor, Chromius, and godlike<br>Lycophontes, Amopaon son of Polyaemon, and Melanippus. these in turn<br>did he lay low upon the earth, and King Agamemnon was glad when he saw<br>him making havoc of the Trojans with his mighty bow. He went up to him<br>and said, "Teucer, man after my own heart, son of Telamon, captain<br>among the host, shoot on, and be at once the saving of the Danaans and<br>the glory of your father Telamon, who brought you up and took care<br>of you in his own house when you were a child, bastard though you<br>were. Cover him with glory though he is far off; I will promise and<br>I will assuredly perform; if aegis-bearing Jove and Minerva grant me<br>to sack the city of Ilius, you shall have the next best meed of honour<br>after my own- a tripod, or two horses with their chariot, or a woman<br>who shall go up into your bed."<br>And Teucer answered, "Most noble son of Atreus, you need not urge<br>me; from the moment we began to drive them back to Ilius, I have never<br>ceased so far as in me lies to look out for men whom I can shoot and<br>kill; I have shot eight barbed shafts, and all of them have been<br>buried in the flesh of warlike youths, but this mad dog I cannot hit."<br>As he spoke he aimed another arrow straight at Hector, for he was<br>bent on hitting him; nevertheless he missed him, and the arrow hit<br>Priam's brave son Gorgythion in the breast. His mother, fair<br>Castianeira, lovely as a goddess, had been married from Aesyme, and<br>now he bowed his head as a garden poppy in full bloom when it is<br>weighed down by showers in spring- even thus heavy bowed his head<br>beneath the weight of his helmet.<br>Again he aimed at Hector, for he was longing to hit him, and again<br>his arrow missed, for Apollo turned it aside; but he hit Hector's<br>brave charioteer Archeptolemus in the breast, by the nipple, as he was<br>driving furiously into the fight. The horses swerved aside as he<br>fell headlong from the chariot, and there was no life left in him.<br>Hector was greatly grieved at the loss of his charioteer, but for<br>all his sorrow he let him lie where he fell, and bade his brother<br>Cebriones, who was hard by, take the reins. Cebriones did as he had<br>said. Hector thereon with a loud cry sprang from his chariot to the<br>ground, and seizing a great stone made straight for Teucer with intent<br>kill him. Teucer had just taken an arrow from his quiver and had<br>laid it upon the bow-string, but Hector struck him with the jagged<br>stone as he was taking aim and drawing the string to his shoulder;<br>he hit him just where the collar-bone divides the neck from the chest,<br>a very deadly place, and broke the sinew of his arm so that his<br>wrist was less, and the bow dropped from his hand as he fell forward<br>on his knees. Ajax saw that his brother had fallen, and running<br>towards him bestrode him and sheltered him with his shield.<br>Meanwhile his two trusty squires, Mecisteus son of Echius, and<br>Alastor, came up and bore him to the ships groaning in his great pain.<br>glad when he saw<br>Jove now again put heart into the Trojans, and they drove the<br>Achaeans to their deep trench with Hector in all his glory at their<br>head. As a hound grips a wild boar or lion in flank or buttock when he<br>gives him chase, and watches warily for his wheeling, even so did<br>Hector follow close upon the Achaeans, ever killing the hindmost as<br>they rushed panic-stricken onwards. When they had fled through the set<br>stakes and trench and many Achaeans had been laid low at the hands<br>of the Trojans, they halted at their ships, calling upon one another<br>and praying every man instantly as they lifted up their hands to the<br>gods; but Hector wheeled his horses this way and that, his eyes<br>glaring like those of Gorgo or murderous Mars.<br>Juno when she saw them had pity upon them, and at once said to<br>Minerva, "Alas, child of aegis-bearing Jove, shall you and I take no<br>more thought for the dying Danaans, though it be the last time we ever<br>do so? See how they perish and come to a bad end before the onset of<br>but a single man. Hector the son of Priam rages with intolerable fury,<br>and has already done great mischief."<br>Minerva answered, "Would, indeed, this fellow might die in his own<br>land, and fall by the hands of the Achaeans; but my father Jove is mad<br>with spleen, ever foiling me, ever headstrong and unjust. He forgets<br>how often I saved his son when he was worn out by the labours<br>Eurystheus had laid on him. He would weep till his cry came up to<br>heaven, and then Jove would send me down to help him; if I had had the<br>sense to foresee all this, when Eurystheus sent him to the house of<br>Hades, to fetch the hell-hound from Erebus, he would never have come<br>back alive out of the deep waters of the river Styx. And now Jove<br>hates me, while he lets Thetis have her way because she kissed his<br>knees and took hold of his beard, when she was begging him to do<br>honour to Achilles. I shall know what to do next time he begins<br>calling me his grey-eyed darling. Get our horses ready, while I go<br>within the house of aegis-bearing Jove and put on my armour; we<br>shall then find out whether Priam's son Hector will be glad to meet us<br>in the highways of battle, or whether the Trojans will glut hounds and<br>vultures with the fat of their flesh as they he dead by the ships of<br>the Achaeans."<br>Thus did she speak and white-armed Juno, daughter of great Saturn,<br>obeyed her words; she set about harnessing her gold-bedizened<br>steeds, while Minerva daughter of aegis-bearing Jove flung her<br>richly vesture, made with her own hands, on to the threshold of her<br>father, and donned the shirt of Jove, arming herself for battle.<br>Then she stepped into her flaming chariot, and grasped the spear so<br>stout and sturdy and strong with which she quells the ranks of<br>heroes who have displeased her. Juno lashed her horses, and the<br>gates of heaven bellowed as they flew open of their own accord-<br>gates over which the Hours preside, in whose hands are heaven and<br>Olympus, either to open the dense cloud that hides them or to close<br>it. Through these the goddesses drove their obedient steeds.<br>But father Jove when he saw them from Ida was very angry, and sent<br>winged Iris with a message to them. "Go," said he, "fleet Iris, turn<br>them back, and see that they do not come near me, for if we come to<br>fighting there will be mischief. This is what I say, and this is<br>what I mean to do. I will lame their horses for them; I will hurl them<br>from their chariot, and will break it in pieces. It will take them all<br>ten years to heal the wounds my lightning shall inflict upon them;<br>my grey-eyed daughter will then learn what quarrelling with her father<br>means. I am less surprised and angry with Juno, for whatever I say she<br>always contradicts me."<br>With this Iris went her way, fleet as the wind, from the heights<br>of Ida to the lofty summits of Olympus. She met the goddesses at the<br>outer gates of its many valleys and gave them her message. "What,"<br>said she, "are you about? Are you mad? The son of Saturn forbids<br>going. This is what he says, and this is he means to do, he will<br>lame your horses for you, he will hurl you from your chariot, and will<br>break it in pieces. It will take you all ten years to heal the<br>wounds his lightning will inflict upon you, that you may learn,<br>grey-eyed goddess, what quarrelling with your father means. He is less<br>hurt and angry with Juno, for whatever he says she always<br>contradicts him but you, bold bold hussy, will you really dare to<br>raise your huge spear in defiance of Jove?"<br>With this she left them, and Juno said to Minerva, "Of a truth,<br>child of aegis-bearing Jove, I am not for fighting men's battles<br>further in defiance of Jove. Let them live or die as luck will have<br>it, and let Jove mete out his judgements upon the Trojans and<br>Danaans according to his own pleasure."<br>She turned her steeds; the Hours presently unyoked them, made them<br>fast to their ambrosial mangers, and leaned the chariot against the<br>end wall of the courtyard. The two goddesses then sat down upon<br>their golden thrones, amid the company of the other gods; but they<br>were very angry.<br>Presently father Jove drove his chariot to Olympus, and entered<br>the assembly of gods. The mighty lord of the earthquake unyoked his<br>horses for him, set the car upon its stand, and threw a cloth over it.<br>Jove then sat down upon his golden throne and Olympus reeled beneath<br>him. Minerva and Juno sat alone, apart from Jove, and neither spoke<br>nor asked him questions, but Jove knew what they meant, and said,<br>"Minerva and Juno, why are you so angry? Are you fatigued with killing<br>so many of your dear friends the Trojans? Be this as it may, such is<br>the might of my hands that all the gods in Olympus cannot turn me; you<br>were both of you trembling all over ere ever you saw the fight and its<br>terrible doings. I tell you therefore-and it would have surely been- I<br>should have struck you with lighting, and your chariots would never<br>have brought you back again to Olympus."<br>Minerva and Juno groaned in spirit as they sat side by side and<br>brooded mischief for the Trojans. Minerva sat silent without a word,<br>for she was in a furious passion and bitterly incensed against her<br>father; but Juno could not contain herself and said, "What, dread<br>son of Saturn, are you talking about? We know how great your power is,<br>nevertheless we have compassion upon the Danaan warriors who are<br>perishing and coming to a bad end. We will, however, since you so<br>bid us, refrain from actual fighting, but we will make serviceable<br>suggestions to the Argives, that they may not all of them perish in<br>your displeasure."<br>And Jove answered, "To-morrow morning, Juno, if you choose to do so,<br>you will see the son of Saturn destroying large numbers of the<br>Argives, for fierce Hector shall not cease fighting till he has roused<br>the son of Peleus when they are fighting in dire straits at their<br>ships' sterns about the body of Patroclus. Like it or no, this is<br>how it is decreed; for aught I care, you may go to the lowest depths<br>beneath earth and sea, where Iapetus and Saturn dwell in lone Tartarus<br>with neither ray of light nor breath of wind to cheer them. You may go<br>on and on till you get there, and I shall not care one whit for your<br>displeasure; you are the greatest vixen living."<br>Juno made him no answer. The sun's glorious orb now sank into<br>Oceanus and drew down night over the land. Sorry indeed were the<br>Trojans when light failed them, but welcome and thrice prayed for<br>did darkness fall upon the Achaeans.<br>Then Hector led the Trojans back from the ships, and held a<br>council on the open space near the river, where there was a spot ear<br>corpses. They left their chariots and sat down on the ground to hear<br>the speech he made them. He grasped a spear eleven cubits long, the<br>bronze point of which gleamed in front of it, while the ring round the<br>spear-head was of gold Spear in hand he spoke. "Hear me," said he,<br>"Trojans, Dardanians, and allies. I deemed but now that I should<br>destroy the ships and all the Achaeans with them ere I went back to<br>Ilius, but darkness came on too soon. It was this alone that saved<br>them and their ships upon the seashore. Now, therefore, let us obey<br>the behests of night, and prepare our suppers. Take your horses out of<br>their chariots and give them their feeds of corn; then make speed to<br>bring sheep and cattle from the city; bring wine also and corn for<br>your horses and gather much wood, that from dark till dawn we may burn<br>watchfires whose flare may reach to heaven. For the Achaeans may try<br>to fly beyond the sea by night, and they must not embark scatheless<br>and unmolested; many a man among them must take a dart with him to<br>nurse at home, hit with spear or arrow as he is leaping on board his<br>ship, that others may fear to bring war and weeping upon the<br>Trojans. Moreover let the heralds tell it about the city that the<br>growing youths and grey-bearded men are to camp upon its<br>heaven-built walls. Let the women each of them light a great fire in<br>her house, and let watch be safely kept lest the town be entered by<br>surprise while the host is outside. See to it, brave Trojans, as I<br>have said, and let this suffice for the moment; at daybreak I will<br>instruct you further. I pray in hope to Jove and to the gods that we<br>may then drive those fate-sped hounds from our land, for 'tis the<br>fates that have borne them and their ships hither. This night,<br>therefore, let us keep watch, but with early morning let us put on our<br>armour and rouse fierce war at the ships of the Achaeans; I shall then<br>know whether brave Diomed the son of Tydeus will drive me back from<br>the ships to the wall, or whether I shall myself slay him and carry<br>off his bloodstained spoils. To-morrow let him show his mettle,<br>abide my spear if he dare. I ween that at break of day, he shall be<br>among the first to fall and many another of his comrades round him.<br>Would that I were as sure of being immortal and never growing old, and<br>of being worshipped like Minerva and Apollo, as I am that this day<br>will bring evil to the Argives."<br>Thus spoke Hector and the Trojans shouted applause. They took<br>their sweating steeds from under the yoke, and made them fast each<br>by his own chariot. They made haste to bring sheep and cattle from the<br>city, they brought wine also and corn from their houses and gathered<br>much wood. They then offered unblemished hecatombs to the immortals,<br>and the wind carried the sweet savour of sacrifice to heaven- but<br>the blessed gods partook not thereof, for they bitterly hated Ilius<br>with Priam and Priam's people. Thus high in hope they sat through<br>the livelong night by the highways of war, and many a watchfire did<br>they kindle. As when the stars shine clear, and the moon is bright-<br>there is not a breath of air, not a peak nor glade nor jutting<br>headland but it stands out in the ineffable radiance that breaks<br>from the serene of heaven; the stars can all of them be told and the<br>heart of the shepherd is glad- even thus shone the watchfires of the<br>Trojans before Ilius midway between the ships and the river Xanthus. A<br>thousand camp-fires gleamed upon the plain, and in the glow of each<br>there sat fifty men, while the horses, champing oats and corn beside<br>their chariots, waited till dawn should come.</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=410312" data-title="The Iliad: Book 8 de Homer" data-description="Now when Morning, clad in her robe of saffron, had begun to suffuse/light over the earth, Jove called the gods in council on the topmost/crest of serrated Olympus. Then he spoke and all the other gods gave/ear. "Hear me," said he, "gods and goddes..."></div> </div> </div>

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