HOMER'S ILIAD COMPLETE

Rhapsody 11

Literally Translated, with Explanatory Notes, by Theodore Alois Buckley

Homer Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Homer in Print

Page 20

Thus he spoke, and Patroclus was obedient to his dear comrade, and hastened to run to the tents and ships of the Greeks.

But when they came to the tent of the son of Neleus, they themselves descended to the fertile earth, and Eurymedon, the attendant of the old man, unyoked the mares from the chariot; whilst they refreshed themselves from the sweat upon their tunics,[380] standing towards the breeze beside the shore of the sea, and afterwards, entering the tent, they sat down upon couches. But for them fair-curled Hecamede prepared a mixture, she whom the old man had brought from Tenedos, when Achilles laid it waste, the daughter of magnanimous Arsinoues, whom the Greeks selected for him, because he surpassed all in counsel. First she set forward for them a handsome, cyanus-footed, well-polished table; then upon it a brazen tray, and on it an onion, a relish[381] for the draught, as well as new honey, and beside it the fruit of sacred corn. Likewise a splendid cup[382] near them, which the old man had brought from home, studded with golden nails. Its handles were four, and around each were two golden pigeons feeding, and under it were two bottoms. Another indeed would have removed it with difficulty from the table, being full; but aged Nestor raised it without difficulty. In it the woman, like unto the goddesses, had mixed for them Pramnian wine, and grated over it a goat's-milk cheese with a brazen rasp, and sprinkled white flour upon it: then bade them drink, as soon as she had prepared the potion. But when drinking they had removed parching thirst, they amused themselves, addressing each other in conversation. And Patroclus stood at the doors, a godlike hero.

[Footnote 380: "Construe [Greek: apeps. kata ton idroxit]. I.e. refreshed—cooled—themselves, by standing in front of the breeze and drying off the perspiration with which their garments were saturated."—Kennedy.]

[Footnote 381: Probably the onion acted as a stimulant to drinking, as anchovies and olives are now used.]

[Footnote 382: It was an [Greek: amphikypellon]. Cf. i. 584, and Buttm. Lexil. p. 93. There were two doves round each handle, making eight in all.]

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