Achilles (Mythological character); Classical literature; Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Trojan War
And Nestor answered, “Why should Achilles care to know how many
of the Achaeans may be wounded? He recks not of the dismay that
reigns in our host; our most valiant chieftains lie disabled,
brave Diomed, son of Tydeus, is wounded; so are Ulysses and
Agamemnon; Eurypylus has been hit with an arrow in the thigh, and
I have just been bringing this man from the field—he too wounded
with an arrow. Nevertheless, Achilles, so valiant though he be,
cares not and knows no ruth. Will he wait till the ships, do what
we may, are in a blaze, and we perish one upon the other? As for
me, I have no strength nor stay in me any longer; would that I
were still young and strong as in the days when there was a fight
between us and the men of Elis about some cattle-raiding. I then
killed Itymoneus, the valiant son of Hypeirochus, a dweller in
Elis, as I was driving in the spoil; he was hit by a dart thrown
by my hand while fighting in the front rank in defence of his
cows, so he fell and the country people around him were in great
fear. We drove off a vast quantity of booty from the plain, fifty
herds of cattle and as many flocks of sheep; fifty droves also of
pigs, and as many wide-spreading flocks of goats. Of horses,
moreover, we seized a hundred and fifty, all of them mares, and
many had foals running with them. All these did we drive by night
to Pylus, the city of Neleus, taking them within the city; and
the heart of Neleus was glad in that I had taken so much, though
it was the first time I had ever been in the field. At daybreak
the heralds went round crying that all in Elis to whom there was
a debt owing should come; and the leading Pylians assembled to
divide the spoils. There were many to whom the Epeans owed
chattels, for we men of Pylus were few and had been oppressed
with wrong; in former years Hercules had come, and had laid his
hand heavy upon us, so that all our best men had perished. Neleus
had had twelve sons, but I alone was left; the others had all
been killed. The Epeans presuming upon all this had looked down
upon us and had done us much evil. My father chose a herd of
cattle and a great flock of sheep—three hundred in all—and he
took their shepherds with him, for there was a great debt due to
him in Elis, to wit four horses, winners of prizes. They and
their chariots with them had gone to the games and were to run
for a tripod, but King Augeas took them, and sent back their
driver grieving for the loss of his horses. Neleus was angered by
what he had both said and done, and took great value in return,
but he divided the rest, that no man might have less than his
full share.
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