The Iliad by Homer (ereader for textbooks .txt) 📕

was yet a child, when the army
of the Achaeans was cut to pieces before Thebes. Henceforth, however, I
must be your host in middle Argos, and you mine in Lycia, if I should
ever go there; let us avoid one another's spears even during a general
engagement; there are many noble Trojans and allies whom I can kill, if
I overtake them and heaven delivers them into my hand; so again with
yourself, there are many Achaeans whose lives you may take if you can;
we two, then, will exchange armour, that all present may know of the
old ties that subsist between us."

With these words they sprang from their chariots, grasped one another's
hands, and plighted friendship. But the son of Saturn made Glaucus take
leave of his wits, for he exchanged golden armour for bronze, the worth
of a hundred head of cattle for the worth of nine.

Now when Hector reached the Scaean gates and the oak tree, the wives
and daughters of the Trojans came running towards him to ask after
their sons, brothers, kinsmen, and husbands: he told them to set about
praying to the gods, and many were made sorrowful as they heard him.

Presently he reached the splendid palace of King Priam, adorned with
colonnades of hewn stone. In it there were fifty bedchambers--all of
hewn stone--built near one another, where the sons of Priam slept, each
with his wedded wife. Opposite these, on the other side the courtyard,
there were twelve upper rooms also of hewn stone for Priam's daughters,
built near one another, where his sons-in-law slept with their wives.
When Hector got there, his fond mother came up to him with Laodice the
fairest of her daughters. She took his hand within her own and said,
"My son, why have you left the battle to come hither? Are the Achaeans,
woe betide them, pressing you hard about the city that you have thought
fit to come and uplift your hands to Jove from the citadel? Wait till I
can bring you wine that you may make offering to Jove and to the other
immortals, and may then drink and be refreshed. Wine gives a man fresh
strength when he is wearied, as you now are with fighting on behalf of
your kinsmen."

And Hector answered, "Honoured mother, bring no wine, lest you unman me
and I forget my strength. I dare not make a drink-offering to Jove with
unwashed hands; one who is bespattered with blood and filth may not
pray to the son of Saturn. Get the matrons together, and go with
offerings to the temple of Minerva driver of the spoil; there, upon the
knees of Minerva, lay the largest and fairest robe you have in your
house--the one you set most store by; promise, moreover, to sacrifice
twelve yearling heifers that have never yet felt the goad, in the
temple of the goddess if she will take pity on the town, with the wives
and little ones of the Trojans, and keep the son of Tydeus from off the
goodly city of Ilius, for he fights with fury, and fills men's souls
with panic. Go, then, to the temple of Minerva, while I seek Paris and
exhort him, if he will hear my words. Would that the earth might open
her jaws and swallow him, for Jove bred him to be the bane of the
Trojans, and of Priam and Priam's sons. Could I but see him go down
into the house of Hades, my heart would forget its heaviness."

His mother went into the house and called her waiting-women who
gathered the matrons throughout the city. She then went down into her
fragrant store-room, where her embroidered robes were kept, the work of
Sidonian women, whom Alexandrus had brought over from Sidon when he
sailed the seas upon that voyage during which he carried off Helen.
Hecuba took out the largest robe, and the one that was most beautifully
enriched with embroidery, as an offering to Minerva: it glittered like
a star, and lay at the very bottom of the chest. With this she went on
her way and many matrons with her.

When they reached the temple of Minerva, lovely Theano, daughter of
Cisseus and wife of Antenor, opened the doors, for the Trojans had made
her priestess of Minerva. The women lifted up their hands to the
goddess with a loud cry, and Theano took the robe to lay it upon the
knees of Minerva, praying the while to the daughter of great Jove.
"Holy Minerva," she cried, "protectress of our city, mighty goddess,
break the spear of Diomed and lay him low before the Scaean gates. Do
this, and we will sacrifice twelve heifers that have never yet known
the goad, in your temple, if you will have pity upon the town, with the
wives and little ones of the Trojans." Thus she prayed, but Pallas
Minerva granted not her prayer.

While they were thus praying to the daughter of great Jove, Hector went
to the fair house of Alexandrus, which he had built for him by the
foremost builders in the land. They had built him his house,
storehouse, and courtyard near those of Priam and Hector on the
acropolis. Here Hector entered, with a spear eleven cubits long in his
hand; the bronze point gleamed in front of him, and was fastened to the
shaft of the spear by a ring of gold. He found Alexandrus within the
house, busied about his armour, his shield and cuirass, and handling
his curved bow; there, too, sat Argive Helen with her women, setting
them their several tasks; and as Hector saw him he rebuked him with
words of scorn. "Sir," said he, "you do ill to nurse this rancour; the
people perish fighting round this our town; you would yourself chide
one whom you saw shirking his part in the combat. Up then, or ere long
the city will be in a blaze."

And Alexandrus answered, "Hector, your rebuke is just; listen
therefore, and believe me when I tell you that I am not here so much
through rancour or ill-will towards the Trojans, as from a desire to
indulge my grief. My wife was even now gently urging me to battle, and
I hold it better that I should go, for victory is ever fickle. Wait,
then, while I put on my armour, or go first and I will follow. I shall
be sure to overtake you."

Hector made no answer, but Helen tried to soothe him. "Brother," said
she, "to my abhorred and sinful self, would that a whirlwind had caught
me up on the day my mother brought me forth, and had borne me to some
mountain or to the waves of the roaring sea that should have swept me
away ere this mischief had come about. But, since the gods have devised
these evils, would, at any rate, that I had been wife to a better
man--to one who could smart under dishonour and men's evil speeches.
This fellow was never yet to be depended upon, nor never will be, and
he will surely reap what he has sown. Still, brother, come in and rest
upon this seat, for it is you who bear the brunt of that toil that has
been caused by my hateful self and by the sin of Alexandrus--both of
whom Jove has doomed to be a theme of song among those that shall be
born hereafter."

And Hector answered, "Bid me not be seated, Helen, for all the goodwill
you bear me. I cannot stay. I am in haste to help the Trojans, who miss
me greatly when I am not among them; but urge your husband, and of his
own self also let him make haste to overtake me before I am out of the
city. I must go home to see my household, my wife and my little son,
for I know not whether I shall ever again return to them, or whether
the gods will cause me to fill by the hands of the Achaeans."

Then Hector left her, and forthwith was at his own house. He did not
find Andromache, for she was on the wall with her child and one of her
maids, weeping bitterly. Seeing, then, that she was not within, he
stood on the threshold of the women's rooms and said, "Women, tell me,
and tell me true, where did Andromache go when she left the house? Was
it to my sisters, or to my brothers' wives? or is she at the temple of
Minerva where the other women are propitiating the awful goddess?"

His good housekeeper answered, "Hector, since you bid me tell you
truly, she did not go to your sisters nor to your brothers' wives, nor
yet to the temple of Minerva, where the other women are propitiating
the awful goddess, but she is on the high wall of Ilius, for she had
heard the Trojans were being hard pressed, and that the Achaeans were
in great force: she went to the wall in frenzied haste, and the nurse
went with her carrying the child."

Hector hurried from the house when she had done speaking, and went down
the streets by the same way that he had come. When he had gone through
the city and had reached the Scaean gates through which he would go out
on to the plain, his wife came running towards him, Andromache,
daughter of great Eetion who ruled in Thebe under the wooded slopes of
Mt. Placus, and was king of the Cilicians. His daughter had married
Hector, and now came to meet him with a nurse who carried his little
child in her bosom--a mere babe. Hector's darling son, and lovely as a
star. Hector had named him Scamandrius, but the people called him
Astyanax, for his father stood alone as chief guardian of Ilius. Hector
smiled as he looked upon the boy, but he did not speak, and Andromache
stood by him weeping and taking his hand in her own. "Dear husband,"
said she, "your valour will bring you to destruction; think on your
infant son, and on my hapless self who ere long shall be your
widow--for the Achaeans will set upon you in a body and kill you. It
would be better for me, should I lose you, to lie dead and buried, for
I shall have nothing left to comfort me when you are gone, save only
sorrow. I have neither father nor mother now. Achilles slew my father
when he sacked Thebe the goodly city of the Cilicians. He slew him, but
did not for very shame despoil him; when he had burned him in his
wondrous armour, he raised a barrow over his ashes and the mountain
nymphs, daughters of aegis-bearing Jove, planted a grove of elms about
his tomb. I had seven brothers in my father's house, but on the same
day they all went within the house of Hades. Achilles killed them as
they were with their sheep and cattle. My mother--her who had been
queen of all the land under Mt. Placus--he brought hither with the
spoil, and freed her for a great sum, but the archer-queen Diana took
her in the house of your father. Nay--Hector--you who to me are father,
mother, brother, and dear husband--have mercy upon me; stay here upon
this wall; make not your child fatherless, and your wife a widow; as
for the host, place them near the fig-tree, where the city can be best
scaled, and the wall is weakest. Thrice have the bravest of them come
thither and assailed it, under the two Ajaxes, Idomeneus, the sons of
Atreus, and the brave son of Tydeus, either of their own bidding, or
because some soothsayer had told them."

And Hector answered, "Wife, I too have thought