Homer ILIAD : Rhapsody 7

Page 6

Thus speaking, the hero dissuaded his brother's mind, advising him rightly; and he obeyed. His joyful attendants then stripped the armour from his shoulders. Then Nestor arose amidst the Greeks, and said:

"O gods, surely great grief comes upon the Grecian land. Certainly the aged knight Peleus, the excellent counsellor and adviser of the Myrmidons, will greatly lament, who formerly interrogated me, greatly rejoiced in his palace, inquiring the race and offspring of all the Greeks. If he now heard of them all crouching down under Hector, often indeed would he uplift his hands to the immortals, [praying] that his soul, [separated] from his limbs, might depart into the house of Pluto. For would, O father Jove, and Minerva, and Apollo, I were young, as when the assembled Pylians and the spear-skilled Arcadians fought by the rapid Celadon, at the walls of Phaea, about the streams of Jardan. With them Ereuthalion, god-like hero, stood in the van, bearing on his shoulders the armour of king Areithous, of noble Areithous, whom men and beauteous-girt women called by surname Corynetes, since he fought not with a bow, nor with a long spear, but used to break the phalanxes with an iron club. Him Lycurgus slew by stratagem, not by strength, in a narrow defile, where his iron club did not ward off destruction from him; for Lycurgus, anticipating, pierced him right through the waist with his spear, and he was dashed to the ground on his back; and he spoiled him of the armour which brazen Mars had given him, and he indeed afterwards bore them himself in the battle of Mars. But when Lycurgus had grown old in his palaces, he gave them to his beloved attendant Ereuthalion, to be borne: and he, having his armour, challenged all the bravest: but these trembled and feared very much: nor did any one dare [to withstand him]. But my bold mind, by its confidence, urged me on to fight him: now I was the youngest of them all; and I fought with him, and Minerva gave me glory. And I slew this most mighty and valiant hero, for vast he lay stretched out on this side and on that. Would that [now] I were thus young, and my strength entire—so quickly should crest-tossing Hector meet with a contest. But those of you who are the bravest of all the Greeks, not even you promptly desire to go against Hector."

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Rhapsody 7

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