Homer ILIAD : Rhapsody 18

Page 7

Him then the silver-footed goddess Thetis answered: "Certainly this is true, O son, nor is it an evil thing to avert utter destruction from our friends when afflicted. But thy beautiful arms, brazen and shining, are detained among the Trojans, which crest-tossing Hector himself, having on his shoulders, boasts of: yet I suspect that he will not long glory in them, for death is near to him. But do thou by no means enter the slaughter of Mars before thou beholdest me with thine eyes coming hither. For at dawn I will return with the rising sun, bearing beautiful armour from king Vulcan."

Thus having spoken, she turned round from her son, and being turned, addressed her marine sisters: "Enter ye now the broad bosom of the deep, about to behold the marine old man, and the mansions of my sire, and tell him all things; but I go to lofty Olympus, to Vulcan, the skilful artist, to try if he is willing to give my son illustrious, glittering armour."

Thus she spoke, but they immediately sank beneath the wave of the sea. But Thetis, the silver-footed goddess, again departed to Olympus, that she might bear the illustrious armour to her beloved son. Her, on the one hand, her feet bore towards Olympus: but the Greeks, flying with a heaven-sent uproar from man-slaughtering Hector, reached the ships and the Hellespont. Nor had the well-greaved Greeks drawn off the dead body of Patroclus, the attendant of Achilles, out of the reach of weapons; for now again both infantry and cavalry pursued him, and Hector, the son of Priam, like unto a flame in violence. Thrice did illustrious Hector seize him behind by the feet, eager to draw him away, and loudly shouted to the Trojans; and thrice did the two Ajaces, clad in impetuous might, forcibly repulse him from the corse; whilst he, with steady purpose, ever relying on his might, sometimes charged through the crowd, and sometimes again stopped, loudly shouting; but never retreated altogether. But as night-watching[579] shepherds are by no means able to drive away from a carcase a tawny lion, greatly hungering; so were the two warriors, the Ajaces, unable to drive away Hector, the son of Priam, from the body. And now indeed would he have dragged it off, and obtained great glory, had not fleet wind-footed Iris come as a messenger to the son of Peleus, running down from Olympus, that he should arm himself unknown to Jove and the other gods; for Juno sent her forth; and standing near, she addressed to him winged words:

[Footnote 579: Cf. Luke ii. 8, with the notes of Wetstein and Kypke. Although [Greek: agrauloi] may simply mean "dwelling in the fields," as in Apollon. Rh. iv. 317, it is better to follow the interpretation of Hesychius: [Greek: Oi en ayrois dianuktereyontes]. But cf. Alberti, t.i. p. 64.]

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