The Iliad

Stunned by his words, the gods all held their tongues. His speech had been so forceful. But at last 30 40 the goddess with the bright gray eyes, Athena, said, “Mighty father, greatest son of Cronus, we do know that you are invincible. Yet we are sorry for the brave Greek spearmen, in so much pain and dying dreadful deaths. We will draw back from war, as you command. But we will give the Greeks some good advice, so that your rage will not destroy them all.” Smiling at her, cloud-gathering Zeus replied, “Dear daughter, born of Triton, do not worry. 50 I was not being serious. I love you. 40 I want to treat you kindly.”

Come, mount my chariot, 140 and see the caliber of Trojan horses, able to gallop all across the plain, swerving at top speed in pursuit or flight. I took them from Aeneas a while ago.

With this, he called his horses, saying to them, “Now Swiftfoot, Blondie, Flame, and godlike Sparkle, repay me for the food Andromache, daughter of Eetion, once gave to you in such abundance, feeding you on grain as sweet as honey.

Now Gorgythion 410 slumped his head sideways—like a garden poppy, weighted with seed and springtime showers of rain— so drooped his head, weighed down by his heavy helmet.

At these words, Hera and Athena hissed. They sat beside each other, forming schemes for ruining the Trojans. But Athena did not speak out against her father Zeus.

Powerful Hector will not leave the fighting until Achilles, son of Peleus, rises on swift feet from beside his ships, the day the Greeks are trapped beside their fleet, desperately fighting for the dead Patroclus.

I know I was deluded when I yielded to my destructive impulse. So I want 120 to make amends with lavish gifts of friendship.

When they had reached the area in which the Myrmidons had beached their ships and pitched their tents, they found him cheering himself with music. He was playing a well-tuned lyre of ornate craftsmanship, whose bridge was silver, which he got as war loot 240 when he destroyed the town of Eetion.

And when their hunger and their thirst were sated, then Ajax gave a nod to Phoenix, but Odysseus observed him doing it and filled a cup of wine and raised a toast, saying,

A man who fights his hardest in the war gets just the same as one who stays behind. Cowards and heroes have the same reward. 320 Do everything or nothing—death still comes.

To me, no wealth is worth a person’s life.

My silver-footed goddess mother Thetis says that there are two ways my death may come. If I stay here and fight, besieging Troy, my chance of ever going home is lost, but I shall have a name that lasts forever. Or if I go home to my own dear country, I lose my glory but I gain long life.

It will be much harder to save the ships once they are set alight.

And when he left the town of Thebes, my father managed to massacre a multitude, 290 thanks to your presence at his side, great goddess.

and every time the son of Tydeus approached a man and killed him with his sword, Odysseus would grab the victim’s foot and drag him to the side, because he wanted to make sure that the splendid long-maned horses would pass through easily and not be spooked by stepping on the corpses of the dead. 620 They were not yet accustomed to dead bodies.

So there he fell and slept the sleep of bronze. This poor man came to help his countrymen, and died a long way from his wife, his bride, and never lived to benefit from her, despite the marriage gifts he paid for her. He had already brought a hundred cattle, and vowed a thousand other animals, 320 mixed flocks of sheep and goats. His herds were countless. But Agamemnon, son of Atreus, slaughtered him, stripped away his splendid armor, and strode all through the Greek crowd wearing it.

But when the wound dried up, after the blood stopped flowing, Agamemnon, the son of Atreus, was pierced by pain. 350 As when a piercing, cruel arrow strikes a woman in the agony of labor, 270 shot by the goddesses of labor pangs, the Eileithuias, who are Hera’s daughters, in charge of cruel birth-pangs—even so sharp pains pierced Agamemnon.

Odysseus spoke to his own proud heart in his confusion. 530 “What will become of me?

At once, Achilles called out to Patroclus, his friend, who came out from the tent, like Ares— and that was the beginning of his ruin.

But if his goddess mother has advised him about the will of Zeus, and if his heart holds back because of some divine intention, go forth yourself, and let the Myrmidons march with you. Be a light to help the Greeks. And let him give you his own splendid armor. The Trojans may believe that you are him 800 and keep away from battle, and meanwhile, 1040 the weary sons of Greece can catch their breath. Respite in war is only ever brief.

So Nestor stirred up the pride and courage in his heart.

Apollo moved the mouths 30 of all these rivers so they flowed together and for nine days they flowed upon the wall. And all the while, Zeus rained, and soon the fragments were turned to jetsam floating on the sea.

Poseidon and Apollo would do this one day. But in the meantime, screams and fighting blazed round the well-built wall, whose wooden timbers resounded as the weapons clashed against them.

Meanwhile, fighters fought around the other gates—so many battles, it would be difficult for me to tell of every conflict, as a god could do.

This stone was so enormous that a man could scarcely lift it, even with both hands, 470 even a very sturdy, strong young man— of modern times.

As when in summertime, the whole black earth is battered by a storm—torrential rain gushing from Zeus, when he is furious with men who force false judgments at a council, and drive out justice, and ignore the eyes of gods—the rivers all begin to flow 390 in full flood—rushing streams of water cleave the hills and slopes and with a mighty roar 500 burst out and join the glittering salty sea, cascading headlong from the mountain peaks— the work of human beings turns to nothing— so loudly cried the Trojan mares in flight. Patroclus intercepted the front line of warriors and forced them to turn back towards the ships.

If you convey Sarpedon to his home 570 alive, watch out! Some other gods may also decide to take their offspring from the battle. Around the mighty town of Priam fight numerous sons of other deathless gods, who may do likewise—and incur your rage.

Around Cebriones the weapons clustered— sharp spears drove deep inside their targets, arrows flew forth from bowstrings on their restless wings, and big stones thudded against shields. They fought around the monumental man, who lay 970 in whirling dust, his horsemanship forgotten.