Ἰλιάδος Ζ

The grim battle-din of Trojans and Achaeans was left alone;

and over the plain the fighting drove now here, now there,

as they aimed their bronze-shod spears at one another

between the streams of Simois and Xanthus.

First Telamonian Ajax, bulwark of the Achaeans,

broke the Trojan line and made light for his comrades

by striking a man who proved the best among the Thracians,

Acamas, son of Eussorus, both noble and tall.

him he struck first on the ridge of his horsehair helmet,

and fixed the point in his forehead, and the bronze spearhead

drove through the bone within; and darkness covered his eyes.

Then Diomedes, good at the war-cry, killed Axylus,

son of Teuthranus, who lived in well-built Arisbe,

rich in livelihood and dear to men.

For he welcomed everyone, his house standing beside the road.

Yet not one of them then stood between him and bitter death

to meet his killer face to face; he robbed both men of life,

Axylus himself and his attendant Calesius, who then

served as his charioteer; and both sank beneath the earth.

Euryalus slew Dresus and Opheltius;

then went after Aesepus and Pedasus, whom once the nymph

Abarbarea, a naiad, bore to blameless Bucolion.

Bucolion was the son of glorious Laomedon,

the eldest by birth, but his mother bore him in secret.

While shepherding among the sheep, he joined with her in love and bed;

she conceived and gave birth to twin sons.

The strength and shining limbs of both were then unstrung

by the son of Mecisteus, who stripped the armor from their shoulders.

Steadfast-in-battle Polypoetes killed Astyalus;

Odysseus slew Pidytes of Percote

with his bronze spear, and Teucer slew godlike Aretaon.

Antilochus, Nestor's son, killed Ablerus with his shining spear,

and Agamemnon, lord of men, killed Elatus;

he lived beside the banks of the fair-flowing Satnioeis,

in steep Pedasus. The hero Leitus took Phylacus

as he fled, and Eurypylus slew Melanthius.

Then Menelaus, good at the war-cry, took Adrastus

alive; for his horses, bolting wildly across the plain,

were caught in a tamarisk branch and smashed the curved chariot

at the pole's end; the pair ran on

toward the city, where the rest were fleeing in panic,

but he rolled from the chariot beside the wheel

headfirst, face in the dust; and beside him stood

Menelaus, son of Atreus, holding his long-shadowed spear.

Adrastus grasped his knees and begged him:

"Take me alive, son of Atreus, and accept a worthy ransom.

Many treasures lie in my wealthy father's house:

bronze and gold and iron wrought with toil.

From these my father would grant you boundless ransom

if he heard that I was alive beside the ships of the Achaeans."

So he spoke, and began to persuade the heart in Menelaus's breast;

and soon Menelaus was about to have him led to the Achaeans' swift ships

by giving him to his attendant; but Agamemnon

ran to meet him and called out in rebuke:

"Dear Menelaus, why do you care so much

for men? Have the Trojans treated you so well in your own house?

Let not one of them escape sheer destruction

at our hands, not even the boy an expectant mother

carries in her womb; let not even he escape, but all together

perish from Ilion, unmourned and wiped away."

So speaking, the hero turned his brother's mind

by urging what was due; Menelaus shoved away with his hand

the hero Adrastus; then the lord Agamemnon

stabbed him in the flank. He toppled backward, and the son of Atreus

planted a heel on his chest and wrenched out the ash spear.

Then Nestor called to the Argives with a far-carrying shout:

"Friends, hero Danaans, henchmen of Ares,

let no man fall upon spoils now and linger behind

so that he may reach the ships carrying the greatest haul.

Let us kill the men; afterward, at your ease,

you may strip the dead bodies across the plain."

So he spoke and stirred the strength and spirit of every man.

Then the Trojans would again, beneath the Achaeans dear to Ares,

have climbed back into Ilion, broken by their weakness,

had not Helenus stood beside Aeneas and Hector and spoken,

Priam's son, by far the best reader of bird-signs:

"Aeneas and Hector, since the labor falls chiefly on you

among Trojans and Lycians, because you are the best

in every undertaking, both in fighting and in counsel,

stand here and hold the people back before the gates,

ranging everywhere, before they flee and fall again into their wives' arms

and become a delight to their enemies.

But when you two have roused all the battle-lines,

we will stand our ground here and fight the Danaans,

though sorely worn; for necessity presses hard.

But Hector, go into the city and then speak

to your mother and mine; let her gather the elder women

at the temple of bright-eyed Athena on the city's height,

open the doors of the sacred house with the key,

and take the robe she thinks the loveliest and largest

in her hall, the one by far most dear to her herself,

and lay it across lovely-haired Athena's knees,

and promise her twelve cattle in her temple,

yearling heifers, unbroken to the goad, to sacrifice if she will pity

the town and the Trojan wives and helpless children,

so that she may hold the son of Tydeus back from sacred Ilion,

that savage spearman, mighty deviser of rout,

whom I say has proved the strongest of the Achaeans.

Never did we fear Achilles so, marshal of men,

though they say he was born of a goddess; but this man rages beyond measure,

and no one can match his fury."

So he spoke, and Hector did not disobey his brother.

and at once he leapt to the ground from his chariot in his armor,

and, brandishing his sharp spears, went everywhere through the army,

urging them to fight, and stirred the dreadful din of battle.

They wheeled about and stood facing the Achaeans;

the Argives gave ground and ceased from slaughter,

thinking that one of the immortals from starry heaven

had come down to defend the Trojans, such was their rally.

Then Hector called to the Trojans with a far-carrying shout:

"High-hearted Trojans and far-famed allies,

be men, my friends, and remember your furious valor,