Book 9
Late Antiquity Quintus Smyrnaeus Greek- Now when the darkness was spent from the night, and Dawn awoke from the world's edge, and the boundless air shone immeasurable, then the warlike sons of the strong Argives gazed over the plain, and saw the height of Ilium cloudless; and they marvelled greatly at yesterday's great portent. But the Trojans no longer thought to stand before the steep wall in war; for great fear had seized them all, believing that the glorious son of Peleus still lived; and Antenor among them prayed to the lord of the gods: Zeus, ruler of Ida and of the gleaming heaven, hear me as I pray, and turn the mighty man from our city, the man who devises ruin in his heart, whether he be Achilles and has not gone to the house of Hades, or some other Achaean like to that man; for the people throughout the city of god-born Priam perish in numbers, and there is no respite from evil, but slaughter and doom ever increase the more; Father Zeus, do you take no thought at all for those cut down by the Achaeans, but you too, forgetful of your own son, godlike Dardanus, greatly aid the Argives. But if your heart longs for this within your breast, to destroy the Trojans wretchedly beneath the Argives, do it at once, and do not make our griefs last long. So he prayed greatly; and Zeus heard him from heaven; and the one thing he fulfilled at once, but the other he was not to fulfil; for he nodded that many of the Trojans should perish together with their children, but the wise son of Achilles he did not nod to turn away from the spacious city, but rather roused him the more, since now his heart bade him bring favour and glory to the kindly daughter of Nereus. So pondered he who is far the greatest of the other gods. And between the city and the wide Hellespont the Argives and Trojans were burning those slain in battle together with their horses; and the fight had ceased from slaughter, because the might of Priam had sent the herald Menoetes to Agamemnon and all the other Achaeans, entreating them to burn the dead with fire; and they consented, out of reverence for the slain; for no wrath attends the dead. And when they had made many pyres for the fallen, then the Argives came back to their huts, and the Trojans to the halls of Priam rich in gold, grieving very much for fallen Eurypylus; for they had honoured him equal to Priam's own children; therefore they buried him apart from the other slain before the Dardanian gate, where the long stream . . . of the eddying river pours on, swollen by the rain of Zeus. And the son of fearless Achilles came to his father's moss-grown tomb; and weeping he kissed the well-wrought pillar of his dead father; and groaning he spoke this word: Hail, father, even beneath the earth below; for I shall not forget you, gone to the house of Hades; would that I had found you alive among the Argives; then quickly, taking joy in each other in our hearts, we should have plundered from sacred Ilium its untold wealth; but now neither did you see your child, nor did I see you alive, though I longed to behold you. Yet even so, though you are gone and among the dead, your spear and your son the enemy greatly shudder at in battle, and the Danaans behold him with joy, so like to you in body and stature and in deeds. So speaking, he wiped the warm tear from his cheeks. And swiftly he went to the ships of his high-souled father, not alone; for with him went twelve men of the Myrmidons, and the old man Phoenix followed among them, mournfully groaning for glorious Achilles. And night came over the earth, and the stars rushed up to heaven; and they, having supped, took sleep; and Dawn awoke. And the Argives put on their armour; and far from them a gleam flashed, going up to the sky; and swiftly they rushed forth outside the gates, all together, like snowflakes, which fall thick from the clouds in the chill season of winter; so they poured out before the wall, and a cry arose, terrible; and the great earth groaned about them as they came. And the Trojans, when they heard the shout and saw the host, were amazed; and the heart within them all was broken, foreboding their doom; for like a cloud appeared the host of their foes; and the armour of the men clanged as they moved; and the dust rose unceasing beneath their feet. And then either some god cast courage within the heart of Deiphobus and made him very fearless, or his own spirit urged him to the fray, that from his fatherland he might drive the grievous host of foes beneath his spear; and he spoke a bold word among the Trojans: O friends, come now, set a warlike spirit within your breasts, remembering how many griefs the end of grievous war brings upon men taken captive by the spear; for the contest is not for Alexander alone, nor for Helen, but it is for our city and for ourselves and for our wives and dear children and honoured parents and all our splendour and our wealth and our lovely land, which I would rather have cover me, slain in the fray, than that I should behold my dear fatherland beneath the spears of foes; for I think there is no worse other calamity wrought among wretched men. Therefore, all of you, thrusting hateful fear from around me, brace yourselves for the relentless strife; for Achilles no longer lives to fight against us, since the deadly fire devoured him; and there is some other of the Achaeans who now rouses the host; and it is fitting that neither Achilles nor any other Achaean we should dread, when fighting for our fatherland; therefore let us not flee the toil of Ares, even if before this we have endured much in our suffering. Or do you not yet know this in your hearts, how to long-suffering men out of toil come feasting and prosperity, and out of grievous winds and dread winter Zeus brings to mortals through the air a fair-weather day, and out of deadly sickness comes strength, and out of battle peace? All these works are changed by time. So he spoke; and they, raging for Ares, made themselves ready hastily; and a clamour arose throughout the city everywhere, as the young men armed for the grievous fray. There for one his wife, trembling at the tumult, brought his armour as he went off, shedding tears; and for another his little sons, hurrying about their father, bore all his gear; and he at one moment grieved with them as they mourned, but at another smiled in turn, glorying in his sons; and his heart in battle the more was eager to toil for his children and for himself; and for another the old father with skilled hands set about his limbs the defences against the evil fray, greatly cheering his dear son not to yield to any in war, and showed his battered breast to his child, bearing many marks of an old fighting. But when at last they were all armed in their gear, they poured out of the city, greatly longing for war, the grievous war; and upon swift horsemen rushed the horsemen; and upon footmen the tribes of footmen fell; and chariots came against chariots; and the earth resounded as they sped to the fray; and each shouted to his own, calling on them; and at once they joined battle; and about them the armour clashed; and from both sides was mingled the cry, grievous; and many shafts swiftly flew, hurled from both sides; and beneath the spears the shields of men, struck, rang unbearably; and others beneath javelins and swords; and many men were wounded too by swift axes; and the gear of the warriors was fouled with blood. And the Trojan women watched from the wall the grievous strife of the young men; and the limbs of them all trembled as they prayed for their children and their husbands and their brothers; and along with them the grey-haired old men sat watching; and their hearts were eaten with anxiety for their dear sons; and Helen remained in the halls alone with her handmaids; for unspeakable shame held her back. And they toiled ceaselessly before the wall; and about them the Fates rejoiced; and baleful Strife, shouting long, urged on both sides with her cry; and the dust grew red with gore of the slain; and they perished through the fray, one here, one there. There Deiphobus slew the strong charioteer of Nestor, the son of Hippasus; and he from the swift chariot fell among the corpses; and grief seized his lord; for he feared lest, while his hands were on the reins, the noble son of Priam should slay him too; but Melanthius did not fail him; for upon the chariot he leapt swiftly, and called to the horses, shaking the long reins, and held no whip, but drove, striking with his spear. And the son of Priam left them, and came to the throng of others; and to many he gave a deadly day, hastening; for like a deadly storm ever he fell boldly upon his foes; and beneath his hands men past counting were slain; and the plain was crowded with corpses. And as when one springs along the great mountains into the hollows of a glen, a woodcutter, hurrying, lays low the freshly-flourishing wood, that he may burn charcoal, hiding beneath the earth with fire much timber; and it, falling this way and that, covers the headlands above, and the man takes joy in the work; so beneath the swift hands of Deiphobus the Achaeans, slain in droves, fell about one another. And some closed with the Trojans, and others fled to the wide stream of Xanthus; and into the water Deiphobus drove them, and did not cease from slaughter; and as when on the shores of the fish-filled Hellespont much-toiling fishermen draw out a net, bellied toward the land, and while it is still within the sea a young man leaps in, grasping a bent spear in his hands, to bring dread slaughter upon the swordfish, and one here, one there he lays low, whomever he overtakes, and the water grows red with slaughter; so beneath his hands about the streams of Xanthus the waters were reddened with blood, and crowded with corpses. Nor indeed did the Trojans toil without bloodshed, but the mighty son of Achilles cut them down among the other battalions; and Thetis, watching, took joy in her grandson, as much as she had grieved for the son of Peleus; for beneath his ashen spear a great host in the dust fell together with the horses; and he, following, made havoc. There he slew far-famed Amides, who, seated upon his horse, met with him, and had no joy of his lovely horsemanship; for he struck him with his shining spear in the belly, and the point passed through to his back; and his entrails poured out; and deadly Doom seized him swiftly, fallen beside the feet of the swift horse. And he took Ascanius and Oenops, driving the one with his spear through the gullet to the mouth, the other beneath the throat, where most of all death comes mortally to men. And he slew others ever, all whom he overtook; who could tell of those men, how many perished in the fray beneath the hands of Neoptolemus? for never did his hand grow weary; and as when one of the young men in a flourishing field all day long, toiling with strong hands, pours down to the earth the boundless fruit of the olive, driving it with his rod, and covers the ground above; so beneath his hands the great throng fell down. And the son of Tydeus on the other side, and Agamemnon of the good ashen spear, and others among the Danaans, the chiefs, toiled eagerly through the relentless strife; nor among the noble leaders of the Trojans was there fear, but they too fought from the heart, and ever held back the men who gave way; yet many, heedless of their lords, fled from the war, dreading the might of the Achaeans. And at last he marked, about the outpourings of Scamander, the Danaans perishing, the strong son of Aeacus' son, ever in greater numbers; he left those whom before he was slaying there, fleeing toward the city, and bade Automedon drive there, where the great host of the Achaeans was being slain. And he obeyed at once, and with the whip drove on the might of the immortal horses toward the fray; and they flew swiftly through the slain, bearing their strong lord. And as Ares goes alone into man-destroying war, mounted upon his horses, and the earth trembles as he rushes on, and about the god's breast his divine armour rings, flashing like fire; such was the son of strong Achilles as he went against noble Deiphobus; and much dust rose up about the horses' feet; and the valiant man, Automedon, saw and knew who it was; and at once to his lord he spoke this word, declaring the glorious man: O lord, this is the host of Deiphobus, who himself once before trembled at your father; but now some noble god or spirit has cast courage beneath his heart. So he spoke; but the other answered nothing, but still more urged the horses to be driven, that as quickly as possible he might ward off unseemly doom from the perishing Danaans. But when at last they came very near to each other, then Deiphobus, though greatly longing for war, stood still, like dread fire when it comes near to water; and he marvelled, beholding the horses of the strong-hearted son of Aeacus, and the gigantic son, in no way less than his father. And his heart within his breast pondered now to flee, now to fight against the man face to face; and as when in the mountains a boar from her newborn young drives off the jackals, and a lion appears on the other side, rushing from somewhere, and the boar's boundless rush is stayed, neither eager to go forward any more nor backward, and she whets her foaming teeth beneath her jaws; so the son of Priam stayed with chariot and horses, much troubled in his heart, and fingering the spear in his hands. And the son of relentless Achilles spoke to him: Son of Priam, why now do you rage so against the Argives, the weaker men, who, dreading your war-cry, fled as you rushed on, while you fancied yourself by far the best? But if there is might beneath your heart, make trial of our irresistible spear amid the fray. So speaking, he sprang on like a lion against a stag, mounted upon his father's horses and chariot; and now he would quickly have slain him with the spear, charioteer and all, had not Apollo at once poured a dark cloud about him from somewhere out of Olympus, and from the deadly fray snatched him away, and set him within the city, where the other Trojans were going in flight; and he, striking the empty air with his spear, the son of Peleus spoke this word: O dog, you have escaped my might; nor did your own valour, for all your eagerness, defend you, but some god, who hid you, casting night above, and drew you out of disaster. So he spoke; and the dark cloud above the son of Cronos straightway dispersed like mist; and it melted into the wide air; and at once appeared the plain and all the earth about. And he saw the Trojans, being far off, about the Scaean gates; and he went, like his father, against the foe, who dreaded him as he came; as when sailors dread a grievous wave rushing on, which, roused by the wind, is borne very wide and high, and the sea rages with the squall; so an evil fear seized the Trojans as he came on. And he spoke this word, urging on his comrades: Hear, friends, and cast courage into your breasts, fearless, such as it befits brave men to bear, longing to win glorious victory with their hands and renown from grievous war; come then, with hearts set firm, let us toil beyond our strength, until we sack the famed city of Troy and fulfil our desire; for it is a shame, remaining here a very long time, to be without achievement and feeble, like women; for I would rather die than be called no warrior. So he spoke; and they rushed still more to the work of Ares boldly, and ran upon the Trojans; and these too fought eagerly about the city, and at another time from within the gates from the wall; nor did dread Ares cease, the Trojans longing to drive off the dread host of foes, and the strong Argives to lay waste the city; and deadly misery held them all. And then, longing to bring aid to the Trojans, the son of Leto darted from Olympus, veiled in clouds; and at once swift gusts bore him, adorned in golden armour; and about him the long paths gleamed like lightning as he came down; and about him his quiver clashed; and the air resounded wondrously, and the earth cried out greatly, when he set his unwearied feet beside the stream of Xanthus; and he shouted out terribly, and cast boldness into the Trojans, but fear into the Achaeans, to stand fast in the bloody fray. Nor did the mighty Earth-shaker fail to know it; and he breathed might into the Achaeans, already hard pressed; and a destroying battle was made by the will of the immortals; and countless tribes of the young men perished on both sides. And Apollo, in his wrath against the Argives, was minded to strike the bold son of Achilles there, where before he had struck Achilles; but his heart the birds held back, crying on the left, and many other signs; and his wrath was no longer willing to obey the portents; but it did not escape the Dark-haired one; . . . veiled in wondrous mist; and about the feet of the lord as he came on the dark earth was stirred; and he spoke this word, longing to restrain him: Stay your wrath, and do not in any way slay the gigantic son of Achilles; for not even the Olympian himself, were he slain, will rejoice; and great grief will be to me and to all the gods of the sea, as before for Achilles; but draw back to the divine air, lest you anger me, and at once, breaking open a deep chasm of the great earth, Ilium itself, with all its walls, I shall set straightway beneath the wide gloom; and grief will be to you yourself. So he spoke; and the other, greatly revering the brother of his own father, and fearing for the city and for the strong people at once, drew back to the wide heaven, and Poseidon to the sea. And they fought, slaying one another, and Strife took delight in the battle, until at last, by the counsels of Calchas, the Achaeans drew back to their ships and forgot the fray; for it was not fated that the city of Ilium be subdued, before the strength of Philoctetes should come to the host of the Achaeans, skilled in tearful war. And this either he learned from the good birds, or he had seen it in the entrails; for not ignorant of prophecy was he; like a god he knew all things. Trusting in him, withdrawing from the grievous war, the sons of Atreus sent forth to well-built Lemnos the mighty son of Tydeus and war-steadfast Odysseus in a swift ship; and at once to the city of Hephaestus they came through the broad flood of the Aegean sea, to vine-clad Lemnos, where once dread destruction the women devised for their wedded husbands, fiercely wroth, since they no longer honoured them, but lay beside slave women, Thracian women, whom by the spear and their manhood they had won when once they sacked the land of the war-loving Thracians; and the women, with great jealousy fallen upon their hearts, swelled with fury in their spirit, and the dear husbands throughout their halls they slew pitilessly, beneath their hands, nor did they pity them, wedded though they were; for greatly does the heart rage of man and of woman, when with a jealous sickness it is stricken; for strong anguish urges it on; but they cast ruin upon their own husbands in a single night, and widowed the whole city, setting in their breasts a fearless heart and great strength. And when they came to sacred Lemnos and to the cave of stone, where lay the son of glorious Poeas, then amazement came upon them, when they beheld the man groaning over his grievous pains, laid upon the harsh ground; and about him many feathers of birds were strewn about his bed; and others were sewn together about his body, a defence against the grievous winter; for whenever joyless hunger seized him, he loosed an irresistible shaft, where his mind directed; and some of these he devoured, and with the feathers he wrapped himself. And leaves lay beside him, which over his deadly wound he set above as a defence against black anguish. And his hair lay matted about his head like a deadly beast, whom the snare of a grievous hunt catches as it goes by night on swift foot, and it, under constraint, in its distress, with cruel teeth gnaws off the tip of its foot, and comes to its own cave, and about its heart hunger together wears it and grievous cares; so beneath the wide cave an evil anguish wasted him utterly; and all his body was withered, and about his bones was only skin, and a deadly squalor lay over his cheeks as he wallowed wretchedly; and grievous pain subdued him; and hollow beneath his brows were the man's eyes as he was sorely worn; and lamentation never left him, because his black wound, reaching even to the bone, festering above, the grievous anguish ate away beneath. And as when on the headlands of the much-washed sea the brine of the boundless deep wears down a rugged rock, cutting it from below, though it be very hard, and as it is struck by wind and furious storm hollows are scooped, eaten away by the sea; so the wound on his foot grew greater as it festered from the shaft, which the deadly water-snake had pressed into him with its cruel teeth, the snake which they say is incurable and hateful, when the strength of the sun dries it as it goes along the dry land; so it wore down the greatest of men, subdued by pains hard to heal; and from his wound, ever flowing to the ground, the ichor spattered the floor of the spacious cave, a great wonder to men and to those who should come after. And beside his couch leaned a long quiver full of arrows; and some were for the hunt, and others for his foes, which the deadly venom of the snake of dread doom encompassed; and before him his great bow lay near, fitted with bent horns, wrought by the unwearied hands of Heracles. And when he saw them coming to the wide cave, he sprang up hastily to draw against them both his grievous shafts, remembering his dread wrath, because before they had left him, groaning greatly, alone on the desolate shores of the sea. And now he would quickly have done what his bold heart wished, had not Athena dispersed his grievous wrath as he gazed at the men, his comrades; and they near him came, like men in grief; and both of them, sitting beside him on either side within the hollow cave, asked him about his deadly wound and his grievous pains; and he told them his anguish. And they cheered him; and they said that his grievous wound they would heal of its deadly trouble and pain, if he came to the Achaean host, which they said was itself greatly troubled beside the ships, and the sons of Atreus themselves along with them; and they said that none of the Achaeans in the host was to blame for his ills, but the grievous Fates, far from whom no man walks the earth, but ever, unseen, over wretched men they move all their days, harming the race of mortals at one time in their relentless heart, and at another time glorifying them from afar; for all things for mortals those Fates contrive, both grievous and gentle, just as they themselves will. And he, hearing Odysseus and godlike Diomedes, at once his spirit easily ceased from its grievous wrath, fiercely wroth before for all that he had suffered. And they quickly to the ship and the loud-thundering shores exulting bore him together with his shafts; and they washed his body and his relentless wound with a well-pierced sponge, and bathed it with much water. And he revived a little; and at once, hastening, they made him a good meal, eager though he was; and they too feasted within the ship. And ambrosial night came on, and sleep rushed upon them; and they remained until the Dawn-goddess by the shores of sea-girt Lemnos; but with the dawn they raised the cables together with the well-bent anchor-stones from outside, hastening; and Athena sent forth behind them a wind, blowing on the long-prowed ship. And at once they spread the sails on both the sheets, guiding straight the well-benched ship; and it beneath the rushing sped over the broad flood; and the dark wave moaned about it, breaking; and the grey foam seethed all about; and about it the dolphins thronged in shoals, swiftly traversing the paths of the grey sea. And at once they came to the fish-filled Hellespont, where the other ships were; and the Achaeans rejoiced, when they saw those they had longed for through the host. And they from the ship gladly stepped down; and the bold son of Poeas held out his weak hands upon the men, who both led him, painfully limping, to the divine land, leaning upon the strong hands of both; as when in the thickets an oak cut halfway through by the force of the woodman, or a rich pine still standing a little, as much as the woodcutter left, cutting the rich stem below, that it may become a torch, pitch subdued by fire among the mountains, and it, grievously weighed down, the wind and its own weakness leans upon the flourishing young trees, and they bear it as it presses heavy; so the man, weighed down with unbearable pain, the bold heroes bore as he leaned upon them to the warlike throng of the Argives; and they, beholding, all greatly pitied the far-shooting man, worn by his grievous wound; but firm and free of sickness swifter than swift thought made him Podaleirius, like the heavenly gods, well sprinkling many drugs upon the wound, and well calling upon the name of his father; and swiftly the Achaeans shouted, all glorifying together the son of Asclepius. And they cleansed him, and anointed him with oil eagerly; and the deadly dejection and misery by the will of the immortals was destroyed; and in their hearts they took joy as they watched; and he revived from his wretchedness; and the flush came over his pallor, and over his grievous weakness great strength; and all his limbs grew strong. And as when a field grows fat with its ears of corn, which before, withering, the rain of dread winter had flooded as it bore down, and it, growing in the winds, smiles, flourishing in the much-toiled meadow; so the body of Philoctetes, worn before, swiftly bloomed again; and in the well-rounded hollow ship he left behind all the cares that had been wearing his heart. And the sons of Atreus, seeing the man returning as if from death, marvelled; for they thought it the work of the immortals; and so it was in truth, as they perceived; for greatness and splendour were poured over him by noble Tritogeneia; and at once he appeared such as he had been before among the Argives, ere he was subdued by his ills. And then to the hut of wealthy Agamemnon all the chiefs together led the son of Poeas; and glorifying him they honoured him with feasts. But when they had taken their fill of drink and good food, then Agamemnon of the good ashen spear spoke to him: O friend, since by the will of the gods we once left you in sea-girt Lemnos, harmed in our judgement, do not now cast dread wrath within your heart; for not without the blessed ones did we do this, but somehow the immortals themselves wished to lay many ills upon us while you were away, since you know how with your arrows to subdue our foes, when they fight against you. For the paths of much-wandering life for men over all the mainland and over the long sea are unseen, by the will of the Fates, and many-branched, close-set and crooked, turning this way and that; and along them the young men are borne by the destiny of fate, like leaves beneath the blasts of the wind that drive them; and the good man often falls upon an evil path, and the bad upon a good one; and these neither to avoid nor of his own will to choose can any earthly man; but the prudent man must, even if he is borne by the storms along a grievous path, with a firm mind endure his misery. But since we erred and went astray in this deed, we will appease you again with boundless gifts, if ever we take the well-built city of the Trojans; but now take seven women and twenty swift horses, prize-winners, and twelve tripods, with which your heart you shall delight all your days; and in my huts ever beside the feast a royal portion shall be yours. So speaking, he gave the hero very beautiful gifts. And the strong-hearted son of Poeas answered him: O friend, I am no longer angry with you, nor with any other of the Argives, even if any still erred on my account; for I know how the mind of good men is changeable, nor is it right ever to be harsh or arrogant, but at one time to be fierce, at another to be gentle. But now let us go to bed, since for a man eager to fight it is better to sleep than to feast at length. So speaking, he sprang up and came to the hut of his comrades; and they quickly for the war-loving king made ready a bed, greatly rejoicing in their hearts; and he gladly lay down until the dawn. And the divine night drew back; and the light reddened the hills of the sun, and all mortals busied themselves with their works. And the Argives, greatly longing for the deadly war, some whetted their well-polished spears, and others their shafts, and others their javelins; and with the dawn they prepared a meal for themselves and for the horses; and all partook of food. And to them the mighty son of blameless Poeas spoke this word, urging them on to labour: Come now, let us take thought for the war; and let none of us remain by the ships, before we have loosed the famed walls of well-towered Troy, and burned the city. So he spoke; and their hearts within their breasts were greatly warmed; and they put on their armour and shields; and out of the ships all together, equipped with ashen spears, they rushed, and with shields of oxhide and double-crested helmets; and one pressed upon another along the ranks; nor would you say, as they rushed on, that one was far from another; so close-thronged they went, fitted to one another.