Homer ILIAD : Rhapsody 8

Page 9

Thus he said: and the Sire[274] pitied him weeping, and granted to him that the army should be safe, and not perish. And forthwith he sent an eagle, the most perfect[275] of birds, holding a fawn in his talons, the offspring of a swift deer: and near the very beauteous altar of Jove he cast down the fawn, where the Greeks were sacrificing to Panomphaean[276] Jove.

When, therefore, they saw that the bird had come from Jove, they rushed the more against the Trojans, and were mindful of battle. Then none of the Greeks, numerous as they were, could have boasted that he had driven his swift steeds before Diomede, and urged them beyond the ditch, and fought against [the enemy]; for far the first he slew a helmeted Trojan hero, Agelaus, son of Phradmon. He, indeed, was turning his horses for flight; but as he was turning, Diomede fixed his spear in his back, between his shoulders, and drove it through his breast. He fell from his chariot, and his arms rattled upon him. After him the sons of Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus; after them the Ajaces, clad in impetuous valour; after them, Idomeneus and Meriones, the armour-bearer of Idomeneus, equal to man-slaughtering Mars; and after them Eurypylus, the illustrious son of Evaemon. Teucer came the ninth, stretching his bent[277] bow, and stood under the shield of Telamonian Ajax. Then Ajax, indeed, kept moving the shield aside, and the hero looking around, when shooting, he had hit any one in the crowd, the one[278] falling there, lost his life. But he[279] retiring like a child to his mother, sheltered himself beneath Ajax, and he covered him with his splendid shield. Then what Trojan first did blameless Teucer slay? Orsilochus first, and Ormenus, and Ophelestes, and Daetor, and Chromius, and godlike Lycophontes, and Amopaon, son of Polyaemon, and Melanippus—all, one after the other, he stretched upon the bounteous earth. But Agamemnon, king of men, rejoiced at seeing him destroying the phalanxes of the Trojans with his stout bow. And advancing near him he stood, and thus addressed him:

[Footnote 274: See my note on Aesch. Prom. p. 3, n. 3, ed. Bohn.]

[Footnote 275: I. e. with reference to augury. Hesych. p. 1360, explains it by [Greek: epitelestikotaton] (see Alberti). The eagle is said to have foretold Jove's own sovereignty, and hence to have been placed among the constellations. Cf. Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. 16; Eratosthen. Catast. 30; Serv. on AEn. ix. 564.]

[Footnote 276: So called, as being the author of all augury.]

[Footnote 277: I. e. prepared for action.]

[Footnote 278: I. e. the wounded man.]

[Footnote 279: Teucer.]

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