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

are only a
mortal like myself, and if I were to hit you in the middle of your
shield with my spear, however strong and self-confident you may be, I
should soon vanquish you, and you would yield your life to Hades of the
noble steeds."

On this the son of Menoetius rebuked him and said, "Meriones, hero
though you be, you should not speak thus; taunting speeches, my good
friend, will not make the Trojans draw away from the dead body; some of
them must go under ground first; blows for battle, and words for
council; fight, therefore, and say nothing."

He led the way as he spoke and the hero went forward with him. As the
sound of woodcutters in some forest glade upon the mountains--and the
thud of their axes is heard afar--even such a din now rose from
earth-clash of bronze armour and of good ox-hide shields, as men smote
each other with their swords and spears pointed at both ends. A man had
need of good eyesight now to know Sarpedon, so covered was he from head
to foot with spears and blood and dust. Men swarmed about the body, as
flies that buzz round the full milk-pails in spring when they are
brimming with milk--even so did they gather round Sarpedon; nor did
Jove turn his keen eyes away for one moment from the fight, but kept
looking at it all the time, for he was settling how best to kill
Patroclus, and considering whether Hector should be allowed to end him
now in the fight round the body of Sarpedon, and strip him of his
armour, or whether he should let him give yet further trouble to the
Trojans. In the end, he deemed it best that the brave squire of
Achilles son of Peleus should drive Hector and the Trojans back towards
the city and take the lives of many. First, therefore, he made Hector
turn fainthearted, whereon he mounted his chariot and fled, bidding the
other Trojans fly also, for he saw that the scales of Jove had turned
against him. Neither would the brave Lycians stand firm; they were
dismayed when they saw their king lying struck to the heart amid a heap
of corpses--for when the son of Saturn made the fight wax hot many had
fallen above him. The Achaeans, therefore stripped the gleaming armour
from his shoulders and the brave son of Menoetius gave it to his men to
take to the ships. Then Jove lord of the storm-cloud said to Apollo,
"Dear Phoebus, go, I pray you, and take Sarpedon out of range of the
weapons; cleanse the black blood from off him, and then bear him a long
way off where you may wash him in the river, anoint him with ambrosia,
and clothe him in immortal raiment; this done, commit him to the arms
of the two fleet messengers, Death, and Sleep, who will carry him
straightway to the rich land of Lycia, where his brothers and kinsmen
will inter him, and will raise both mound and pillar to his memory, in
due honour to the dead."

Thus he spoke. Apollo obeyed his father's saying, and came down from
the heights of Ida into the thick of the fight; forthwith he took
Sarpedon out of range of the weapons, and then bore him a long way off,
where he washed him in the river, anointed him with ambrosia and
clothed him in immortal raiment; this done, he committed him to the
arms of the two fleet messengers, Death, and Sleep, who presently set
him down in the rich land of Lycia.

Meanwhile Patroclus, with many a shout to his horses and to Automedon,
pursued the Trojans and Lycians in the pride and foolishness of his
heart. Had he but obeyed the bidding of the son of Peleus, he would
have escaped death and have been scatheless; but the counsels of Jove
pass man's understanding; he will put even a brave man to flight and
snatch victory from his grasp, or again he will set him on to fight, as
he now did when he put a high spirit into the heart of Patroclus.

Who then first, and who last, was slain by you, O Patroclus, when the
gods had now called you to meet your doom? First Adrestus, Autonous,
Echeclus, Perimus the son of Megas, Epistor and Melanippus; after these
he killed Elasus, Mulius, and Pylartes. These he slew, but the rest
saved themselves by flight.

The sons of the Achaeans would now have taken Troy by the hands of
Patroclus, for his spear flew in all directions, had not Phoebus Apollo
taken his stand upon the wall to defeat his purpose and to aid the
Trojans. Thrice did Patroclus charge at an angle of the high wall, and
thrice did Apollo beat him back, striking his shield with his own
immortal hands. When Patroclus was coming on like a god for yet a
fourth time, Apollo shouted to him with an awful voice and said, "Draw
back, noble Patroclus, it is not your lot to sack the city of the
Trojan chieftains, nor yet will it be that of Achilles who is a far
better man than you are." On hearing this, Patroclus withdrew to some
distance and avoided the anger of Apollo.

Meanwhile Hector was waiting with his horses inside the Scaean gates,
in doubt whether to drive out again and go on fighting, or to call the
army inside the gates. As he was thus doubting Phoebus Apollo drew near
him in the likeness of a young and lusty warrior Asius, who was
Hector's uncle, being own brother to Hecuba, and son of Dymas who lived
in Phrygia by the waters of the river Sangarius; in his likeness Jove's
son Apollo now spoke to Hector saying, "Hector, why have you left off
fighting? It is ill done of you. If I were as much better a man than
you, as I am worse, you should soon rue your slackness. Drive straight
towards Patroclus, if so be that Apollo may grant you a triumph over
him, and you may rule him."

With this the god went back into the hurly-burly, and Hector bade
Cebriones drive again into the fight. Apollo passed in among them, and
struck panic into the Argives, while he gave triumph to Hector and the
Trojans. Hector let the other Danaans alone and killed no man, but
drove straight at Patroclus. Patroclus then sprang from his chariot to
the ground, with a spear in his left hand, and in his right a jagged
stone as large as his hand could hold. He stood still and threw it, nor
did it go far without hitting some one; the cast was not in vain, for
the stone struck Cebriones, Hector's charioteer, a bastard son of
Priam, as he held the reins in his hands. The stone hit him on the
forehead and drove his brows into his head for the bone was smashed,
and his eyes fell to the ground at his feet. He dropped dead from his
chariot as though he were diving, and there was no more life left in
him. Over him did you then vaunt, O knight Patroclus, saying, "Bless my
heart, how active he is, and how well he dives. If we had been at sea
this fellow would have dived from the ship's side and brought up as
many oysters as the whole crew could stomach, even in rough water, for
he has dived beautifully off his chariot on to the ground. It seems,
then, that there are divers also among the Trojans."

As he spoke he flung himself on Cebriones with the spring, as it were,
of a lion that while attacking a stockyard is himself struck in the
chest, and his courage is his own bane--even so furiously, O Patroclus,
did you then spring upon Cebriones. Hector sprang also from his chariot
to the ground. The pair then fought over the body of Cebriones. As two
lions fight fiercely on some high mountain over the body of a stag that
they have killed, even so did these two mighty warriors, Patroclus son
of Menoetius and brave Hector, hack and hew at one another over the
corpse of Cebriones. Hector would not let him go when he had once got
him by the head, while Patroclus kept fast hold of his feet, and a
fierce fight raged between the other Danaans and Trojans. As the east
and south wind buffet one another when they beat upon some dense forest
on the mountains--there is beech and ash and spreading cornel; the top
of the trees roar as they beat on one another, and one can hear the
boughs cracking and breaking--even so did the Trojans and Achaeans
spring upon one another and lay about each other, and neither side
would give way. Many a pointed spear fell to ground and many a winged
arrow sped from its bow-string about the body of Cebriones; many a
great stone, moreover, beat on many a shield as they fought around his
body, but there he lay in the whirling clouds of dust, all huge and
hugely, heedless of his driving now.

So long as the sun was still high in mid-heaven the weapons of either
side were alike deadly, and the people fell; but when he went down
towards the time when men loose their oxen, the Achaeans proved to be
beyond all forecast stronger, so that they drew Cebriones out of range
of the darts and tumult of the Trojans, and stripped the armour from
his shoulders. Then Patroclus sprang like Mars with fierce intent and a
terrific shout upon the Trojans, and thrice did he kill nine men; but
as he was coming on like a god for a time, then, O Patroclus, was the
hour of your end approaching, for Phoebus fought you in fell earnest.
Patroclus did not see him as he moved about in the crush, for he was
enshrouded in thick darkness, and the god struck him from behind on his
back and his broad shoulders with the flat of his hand, so that his
eyes turned dizzy. Phoebus Apollo beat the helmet from off his head,
and it rolled rattling off under the horses' feet, where its horse-hair
plumes were all begrimed with dust and blood. Never indeed had that
helmet fared so before, for it had served to protect the head and
comely forehead of the godlike hero Achilles. Now, however, Zeus
delivered it over to be worn by Hector. Nevertheless the end of Hector
also was near. The bronze-shod spear, so great and so strong, was
broken in the hand of Patroclus, while his shield that covered him from
head to foot fell to the ground as did also the band that held it, and
Apollo undid the fastenings of his corslet.

On this his mind became clouded; his limbs failed him, and he stood as
one dazed; whereon Euphorbus son of Panthous a Dardanian, the best
spearman of his time, as also the finest horseman and fleetest runner,
came behind him and struck him in the back with a spear, midway between
the shoulders. This man as soon as ever he had come up with his chariot
had dismounted twenty men, so proficient was he in all the arts of
war--he it was, O knight Patroclus, that first drove a weapon into you,
but he did not quite overpower you. Euphorbus then ran back into the
crowd, after drawing his ashen spear out of the wound; he would not
stand firm and wait for Patroclus, unarmed though he now was, to attack
him; but Patroclus unnerved, alike by the blow the god had given him
and by the spear-wound, drew back under cover of his men in fear for
his life. Hector on this, seeing him to