Ἰλιάδος Ξ

Yet the battle-cry did not escape Nestor, though he was still drinking,

and he addressed the son of Asclepius with winged words:

"Take thought, godlike Machaon, how these things will turn out.

Greater now beside the ships rises the shout of vigorous young men.

But you sit here now and drink the gleaming wine

until well-tressed Hecamede has warmed hot bathwater

and washed the bloody gore from you.

I will go out and quickly look from a vantage point."

So he spoke, and took the well-made shield of his own son,

which lay in the hut of horse-taming Thrasymedes,

all gleaming with bronze; his son was holding his father's shield.

He took his stout spear, sharpened with keen bronze,

and stood outside the hut; soon he saw a shameful work:

some men routed, others driving them on from behind—

the high-hearted Trojans; and the Achaeans' wall lay fallen.

As when the great sea darkly heaves with a silent swell,

foreseeing the swift paths of the shrill winds,

but rolls forward toward neither side,

until some chosen wind comes down from Zeus,

so the old man pondered, divided in his heart,

between two ways: whether to enter the throng of swift-horsed Danaans

or go to Atreus' son Agamemnon, shepherd of the people.

As he thought on this, it seemed better to him

to go to Atreus' son. Meanwhile they slaughtered one another

as they fought; unyielding bronze rang about their bodies

as they stabbed with swords and double-pointed spears.

Then the Zeus-nurtured kings met Nestor

as they came up from the ships, all who had been struck by bronze:

the son of Tydeus, Odysseus, and Atreus' son Agamemnon.

For far away from the fighting their ships had been drawn

on the shore of the gray sea; the first ships they had hauled toward the plain,

then built the wall behind the sterns.

For even the shore, though broad, could not

hold all the ships, and the men were crowded close.

So they drew them up in stepped rows, and filled

the whole long mouth of shore enclosed between the headlands.

So, wanting a clear view of the battle-shout and war,

they came together, leaning on their spears; within their chests

their hearts were grieved. Then aged Nestor met them,

and the hearts of the Achaeans cowered within their chests.

Then the lord Agamemnon called to him and said:

"Nestor, son of Neleus, great glory of the Achaeans,

why have you left man-destroying battle and come here?

I fear mighty Hector may now fulfill the word he spoke,

the threat he once made while speaking among the Trojans:

that he would not return from the ships toward Ilion

before he burned the ships with fire and killed us too.

So he spoke; and now all this is being fulfilled.

Ah, can it be that the other well-greaved Achaeans too

cast anger against me in their hearts, just as Achilles does,

and will not fight beside the sterns of the ships?"

Then Nestor, the Gerenian horseman, answered him:

"These things indeed now stand accomplished, nor could

Zeus who thunders on high himself contrive them otherwise.

For the wall has fallen, the wall in which we trusted

to be an unbroken safeguard for the ships and for ourselves.

They keep unending battle at the swift ships,

without pause; no longer could you tell, though you watched closely,

from which side the Achaeans are routed and scattered,

so confusedly are they killed, while the cry reaches heaven.

let us then consider how these things shall be —

if counsel can accomplish anything. I do not urge us

to enter the war; there is no way for a wounded man to fight."

Then Agamemnon, lord of men, addressed him in turn:

"Nestor, since they are fighting at the very sterns of the ships,

and neither the well-built wall nor the trench has helped,

over which the Danaans labored greatly, hoping in their hearts

to be an unbroken safeguard for the ships and for ourselves.

So, it seems, it must be dear to Zeus, exceeding in might,

for the Achaeans to perish nameless here, far from Argos.

I knew when he willingly defended the Danaans,

and now I know that he glorifies the Trojans like the blessed gods

and has bound our fighting strength and our hands.

Come, then, let all of us obey as I shall say:

the ships first drawn up nearest the sea

let us haul down, and draw them all into the bright sea,

then moor them far out upon their anchors until

immortal night has come, if even then the Trojans cease from war.

Then we might draw down all the remaining ships.

There is no shame in fleeing ruin, not even through the night.

Better that a man flee and escape ruin than be taken."

Then, glaring at him from under his brows, Odysseus of many wiles spoke:

"Son of Atreus, what a word has escaped the barrier of your teeth!

Accursed man, you should have commanded some other, dishonored army

and not ruled us, to whom Zeus

has granted from youth even into old age the task of winding through

grievous wars, until each one of us perishes.

Are you truly bent on abandoning the broad-streeted city of Troy,

for whose sake we have suffered so many evils?

Be silent, lest some other Achaean hear

this speech, which no man would ever let pass his lips

if he knew in his mind how to speak what is sound,

who held a scepter, and whose people obeyed him,

so many as the Argives over whom you rule.

Now I wholly condemn your judgment for what you have said:

you order us, while war and the battle-shout close round us,

to haul the well-benched ships into the sea, so that still more

the Trojans' prayers may be fulfilled, though they prevail already,

and sheer destruction may tip upon us. For the Achaeans

will not hold to the battle while the ships are dragged seaward,

but will keep looking back and withdraw from combat.

Then your counsel will destroy us, marshal of the people."

Then Agamemnon, lord of men, answered him:

"Odysseus, you have struck deep into my heart with your rebuke,

harsh as it is. Yet I do not command the sons of the Achaeans

against their will to haul the well-benched ships into the sea.

Now let there be someone who can tell a better plan than this,

young or old; I would welcome it."

and among them Diomedes, good at the war-cry, spoke: