Ἰλιάδος Λ

Dawn, from her bed beside glorious Tithonus,

rose, to bring light to immortals and to mortals;

and Zeus sent Strife to the swift ships of the Achaeans,

grievous, holding in her hands the sign of war.

and stood upon Odysseus' huge black ship,

which lay at the middle, so a shout could carry both ways,

toward the huts of Ajax, son of Telamon,

and toward Achilles'; these had drawn their balanced ships

at the farthest ends, trusting in their manhood and the strength of their hands.

Standing there, the goddess gave a great and terrible cry,

high-pitched; and into every Achaean she poured great strength,

into his heart, to wage war and fight without cease.

At once war became sweeter to them than to return

in the hollow ships to their own dear native land.

The son of Atreus shouted and ordered the Argives to arm;

and he himself put on the flashing bronze.

First he set greaves about his shins,

fine ones, fitted with silver ankle-pieces;

next he put the corselet about his chest,

which Cinyras once had given him as a guest-gift.

For he had heard in Cyprus the great report, that the Achaeans

were soon to sail in ships to Troy;

therefore he gave it to him, seeking to please the king.

On it were ten bands of dark-blue inlay,

twelve of gold and twenty of tin;

and dark-blue serpents reared up toward the neck,

three on either side, like the rainbows the son of Cronos

sets firm in cloud, a sign for mortal men.

About his shoulders he slung a sword; its golden studs

shone all around, while the sheath about it was

silver, hung from golden straps.

He lifted his man-enclosing, richly wrought battle-shield,

beautiful, with ten circles of bronze around its rim;

and on it were twenty bosses of tin,

white, and at their center one of dark-blue inlay.

And crowning it was the grim-faced Gorgon,

glaring terribly, with Terror and Rout around her.

Its carrying strap was silver; upon it

a dark-blue serpent coiled, with three heads

twisting each way, sprung from a single neck.

Upon his head he set the double-crested, four-bossed helmet,

with a horsehair crest; and terribly the plume nodded above it;

and he took two strong spears, tipped with bronze,

sharp; far from them, into heaven, the bronze

flashed; and Athena and Hera thundered above,

honoring the king of gold-rich Mycenae.

Then each man ordered his own charioteer

to hold the horses well and in due order there beside the trench,

while they themselves, foot fighters armed in their war gear,

rushed forward; and at dawn an unquenchable shout arose.

Marshaled by the trench, they were far ahead of the horsemen,

who followed a little behind; and among them an evil din

the son of Cronos stirred, and from on high sent down a dew

drenched in blood from the clear sky, because he meant

to hurl many mighty heads down to Hades.

The Trojans, on the other side, upon a rise of the plain,

stood round great Hector and blameless Polydamas,

and Aeneas, honored like a god among the Trojan people,

and Antenor's three sons, Polybus and godlike Agenor

and young Acamas, like the immortals.

In the front ranks Hector carried his shield, round on every side.

As a baneful star emerges from the clouds,

blazing bright, then sinks again into shadowy clouds,

so Hector now appeared among the foremost,

now among the last, urging them on; and his whole body in bronze

flashed like lightning from father Zeus who bears the aegis.

And as reapers facing one another

drive their swath across a rich man's field

of wheat or barley, and the thick handfuls fall,

so Trojans and Achaeans, leaping upon one another,

slew; neither side thought of ruinous flight.

The battle held their heads level, and like wolves

they rushed; and Strife of many groans rejoiced to watch.

For she alone of the gods was there among the fighters;

the other gods were not among them, but sat at ease

in their own halls, where for each of them

a fair house was built among the folds of Olympus.

And all blamed the dark-clouded son of Cronos,

because he wished to grant glory to the Trojans.

But the father paid them no heed; withdrawing apart,

far from the others, he sat exulting in his glory,

gazing on Troy's city and the ships of the Achaeans,

the flash of bronze, and men killing and being killed.

As long as morning lasted and the sacred day grew stronger,

the weapons struck both sides, and the people fell.

But when a woodcutter makes ready his meal

in the mountain glens, when he has wearied his hands

cutting tall trees, and weariness comes upon his spirit,

and desire for sweet food grips his heart,

then by their own valor the Danaans broke the battalions,

calling to their comrades down the ranks; and among them Agamemnon

sprang first and slew a man, Bienor, shepherd of the people,

him, and then his companion Oileus, driver of horses.

He leapt down from his chariot and stood facing him;

and as he rushed straight on, Agamemnon stabbed him in the forehead with the sharp spear,

nor did the bronze-heavy helmet-rim hold back the spear,

but it passed through it and through the bone, and all the brain

within was spattered; and he brought him down as he charged.

And Agamemnon, lord of men, left them there,

their bare chests gleaming, once he had stripped away their tunics;

then he went to strip Isus and Antiphus,

two sons of Priam, one bastard, one legitimate,

both in a single chariot: the bastard drove the team,

while renowned Antiphus rode beside him. Once Achilles

had bound them on Ida's slopes with pliant willow-twigs,

catching them as they tended sheep, and freed them for ransom.

Then the wide-ruling lord Agamemnon

struck one with his spear in the chest above the nipple,

and Antiphus he struck beside the ear with his sword and hurled from the chariot.

In haste he stripped the fine armor from them,