HOMER'S ILIAD COMPLETE

Rhapsody 2

Literally Translated, with Explanatory Notes, by Theodore Alois Buckley

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Page 21

But those who possessed great Lacedaemon, full of clefts, and Pharis and Sparta, and dove-abounding Messa, and Brysiae, and pleasant Augeiae; and those who possessed Amyclae, and Helos, a maritime city; and those who possessed Laas, and dwelt round oetylus. Of these his brother Menelaus, brave in battle, commanded sixty ships, but they were armed apart [from Agamemnon's forces]. Amidst them he himself went, confiding in his valour, inciting them to war; but especially he desired in his soul to avenge the remorse of Helen and her groans.

Those who inhabited Pylos and pleasant Arene, and Thryos, by the fords of Alphoeus, and well-built AEpy, and Cyparesseis and Amphigenia, and Pteleum, and Helos, and Dorium: and there it was the Muses, meeting the Thracian Thamyris, as he was coming from oechalia, from oechalian Eurytus, caused him to cease his song; for he averred, boasting, that he could obtain the victory,[127] even though the Muses themselves, the daughters of aegis-bearing Jove, should sing. But they, enraged, made him blind, and moreover deprived him of his power of singing, and caused him to forget the minstrel-art. These the Gerenian horseman Nestor commanded: and with him ninety hollow ships proceeded in order.

Those who possessed Arcadia, under the breezy[128] mountain of Cyllene, near the tomb of AEpytus, where are close-fighting heroes; those who inhabited Pheneus, and sheep-abounding Orchomenus, and Ripe and Stratie, and wind-swept Enispe, and who possessed Tegea and pleasant Mantinea; and those who held Stymphalus, and dwelt in Parrhasie; of these king Agapenor, the son of Ancaeus, commanded sixty ships; but aboard each ship went many Arcadian heroes skilled in war. But the son of Atreus, Agamemnon himself, the king of heroes, gave them the well-benched ships, to pass over the dark sea; since they had no care of naval works.

[Footnote 127: Respecting the connection of this story with the early poetic contests, see Mueller, Gk. Lit. iv. 2, whose interesting remarks are, unfortunately, too long for a note.]

[Footnote 128: i. e. lofty.]

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