Iliad Page #11

The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy (Ilium) by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles.

• Poetry

								

  Him, as their chief, the chosen troops attend,
  Which Bessa, Thronus, and rich Cynos send;
  Opus, Calliarus, and Scarphe's bands;
  And those who dwell where pleasing Augia stands,
  And where Boagrius floats the lowly lands,
  Or in fair Tarphe's sylvan seats reside:
  In forty vessels cut the yielding tide.

  Euboea next her martial sons prepares,
  And sends the brave Abantes to the wars:
  Breathing revenge, in arms they take their way
  From Chalcis' walls, and strong Eretria;
  The Isteian fields for generous vines renown'd,
  The fair Caristos, and the Styrian ground;
  Where Dios from her towers o'erlooks the plain,
  And high Cerinthus views the neighbouring main.
  Down their broad shoulders falls a length of hair;
  Their hands dismiss not the long lance in air;
  But with protended spears in fighting fields
  Pierce the tough corslets and the brazen shields.
  Twice twenty ships transport the warlike bands,
  Which bold Elphenor, fierce in arms, commands.

  Full fifty more from Athens stem the main,
  Led by Menestheus through the liquid plain.
  (Athens the fair, where great Erectheus sway'd,
  That owed his nurture to the blue-eyed maid,
  But from the teeming furrow took his birth,
  The mighty offspring of the foodful earth.
  Him Pallas placed amidst her wealthy fane,
  Adored with sacrifice and oxen slain;
  Where, as the years revolve, her altars blaze,
  And all the tribes resound the goddess' praise.)
  No chief like thee, Menestheus! Greece could yield,
  To marshal armies in the dusty field,
  The extended wings of battle to display,
  Or close the embodied host in firm array.
  Nestor alone, improved by length of days,
  For martial conduct bore an equal praise.

  With these appear the Salaminian bands,
  Whom the gigantic Telamon commands;
  In twelve black ships to Troy they steer their course,
  And with the great Athenians join their force.

  Next move to war the generous Argive train,
  From high Troezene, and Maseta's plain,
  And fair Ćgina circled by the main:
  Whom strong Tyrinthe's lofty walls surround,
  And Epidaure with viny harvests crown'd:
  And where fair Asinen and Hermoin show
  Their cliffs above, and ample bay below.
  These by the brave Euryalus were led,
  Great Sthenelus, and greater Diomed;
  But chief Tydides bore the sovereign sway:
  In fourscore barks they plough the watery way.

  The proud Mycene arms her martial powers,
  Cleone, Corinth, with imperial towers,(103)
  Fair Araethyrea, Ornia's fruitful plain,
  And Ćgion, and Adrastus' ancient reign;
  And those who dwell along the sandy shore,
  And where Pellene yields her fleecy store,
  Where Helice and Hyperesia lie,
  And Gonoessa's spires salute the sky.
  Great Agamemnon rules the numerous band,
  A hundred vessels in long order stand,
  And crowded nations wait his dread command.
  High on the deck the king of men appears,
  And his refulgent arms in triumph wears;
  Proud of his host, unrivall'd in his reign,
  In silent pomp he moves along the main.

  His brother follows, and to vengeance warms
  The hardy Spartans, exercised in arms:
  Phares and Brysia's valiant troops, and those
  Whom Lacedaemon's lofty hills inclose;
  Or Messe's towers for silver doves renown'd,
  Amyclae, Laas, Augia's happy ground,
  And those whom OEtylos' low walls contain,
  And Helos, on the margin of the main:
  These, o'er the bending ocean, Helen's cause,
  In sixty ships with Menelaus draws:
  Eager and loud from man to man he flies,
  Revenge and fury flaming in his eyes;
  While vainly fond, in fancy oft he hears
  The fair one's grief, and sees her falling tears.

  In ninety sail, from Pylos' sandy coast,
  Nestor the sage conducts his chosen host:
  From Amphigenia's ever-fruitful land,
  Where Ćpy high, and little Pteleon stand;
  Where beauteous Arene her structures shows,
  And Thryon's walls Alpheus' streams inclose:
  And Dorion, famed for Thamyris' disgrace,
  Superior once of all the tuneful race,
  Till, vain of mortals' empty praise, he strove
  To match the seed of cloud-compelling Jove!
  Too daring bard! whose unsuccessful pride
  The immortal Muses in their art defied.
  The avenging Muses of the light of day
  Deprived his eyes, and snatch'd his voice away;
  No more his heavenly voice was heard to sing,
  His hand no more awaked the silver string.

  Where under high Cyllene, crown'd with wood,
  The shaded tomb of old Ćpytus stood;
  From Ripe, Stratie, Tegea's bordering towns,
  The Phenean fields, and Orchomenian downs,
  Where the fat herds in plenteous pasture rove;
  And Stymphelus with her surrounding grove;
  Parrhasia, on her snowy cliffs reclined,
  And high Enispe shook by wintry wind,
  And fair Mantinea's ever-pleasing site;
  In sixty sail the Arcadian bands unite.
  Bold Agapenor, glorious at their head,
  (Ancaeus' son) the mighty squadron led.
  Their ships, supplied by Agamemnon's care,
  Through roaring seas the wondering warriors bear;
  The first to battle on the appointed plain,
  But new to all the dangers of the main.

  Those, where fair Elis and Buprasium join;
  Whom Hyrmin, here, and Myrsinus confine,
  And bounded there, where o'er the valleys rose
  The Olenian rock; and where Alisium flows;
  Beneath four chiefs (a numerous army) came:
  The strength and glory of the Epean name.
  In separate squadrons these their train divide,
  Each leads ten vessels through the yielding tide.
  One was Amphimachus, and Thalpius one;
  (Eurytus' this, and that Teatus' son;)
  Diores sprung from Amarynceus' line;
  And great Polyxenus, of force divine.

  But those who view fair Elis o'er the seas
  From the blest islands of the Echinades,
  In forty vessels under Meges move,
  Begot by Phyleus, the beloved of Jove:
  To strong Dulichium from his sire he fled,
  And thence to Troy his hardy warriors led.

  Ulysses follow'd through the watery road,
  A chief, in wisdom equal to a god.
  With those whom Cephalenia's line inclosed,
  Or till their fields along the coast opposed;
  Or where fair Ithaca o'erlooks the floods,
  Where high Neritos shakes his waving woods,
  Where Ćgilipa's rugged sides are seen,
  Crocylia rocky, and Zacynthus green.
  These in twelve galleys with vermilion prores,
  Beneath his conduct sought the Phrygian shores.

  Thoas came next, Andraemon's valiant son,
  From Pleuron's walls, and chalky Calydon,
  And rough Pylene, and the Olenian steep,
  And Chalcis, beaten by the rolling deep.
  He led the warriors from the Ćtolian shore,
  For now the sons of OEneus were no more!
  The glories of the mighty race were fled!
  OEneus himself, and Meleager dead!
  To Thoas' care now trust the martial train,
  His forty vessels follow through the main.

  Next, eighty barks the Cretan king commands,
  Of Gnossus, Lyctus, and Gortyna's bands;
  And those who dwell where Rhytion's domes arise,
  Or white Lycastus glitters to the skies,
  Or where by Phaestus silver Jardan runs;
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