Achilles (Mythological character); Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Trojan War
Now there is an ample cave 413 in the recesses of the deep sea, between
Tenedos and rugged Imbrus. There earth-shaking Neptune stopped his
horses, loosing them from the chariot, and cast beside [them] ambrosial
fodder to eat. And round their feet he threw golden fetters,
irrefragable, indissoluble, that they might there steadily await their
king returning, but he departed towards the army of the Greeks.
Footnote 412: (return) So I have ventured to render κήτεα. Nonius
Marcell. v. Cetarii—“cete in mari majora sunt piscium genera.” Thus
Quintus Calaber, v. 94, imitating this passage, has δελφινες, and
Hesychius defines κητών by θύννων φορά, the word evidently meaning any
huge fish. Cf. Buttm. Lexil. p. 378, sq.
Footnote 413: (return) Compare the description of the cave of Nereus,
in Apoll. Rhod. iv. 771, sqq., and of the river Peneus, in Virg. Georg.
iv. 359, sqq., with my note on Æsch. Prom. p. 11, ed. Bohn.
The Trojans, however, in crowds, like unto a flame or a whirlwind,
followed Hector, the son of Priam, with insatiable ardour, shouting
loudly, and exclaiming; for they hoped to capture the ships of the
Greeks, and slay all the Greeks beside them. But earth-ruling,
earth-shaking Neptune, coming from the deep sea, aroused the Greeks,
assimilating his person and indefatigable voice to Calchas. The Ajaces
he first addressed, though themselves were earnest:
“Ye Ajaces, ye indeed, mindful of valour, not of direful flight, will
preserve the people of the Greeks. For in any other place, indeed, I do
not dread the audacious hands of the Trojans, who in great numbers have
surmounted the great wall, because the well-greaved Greeks will sustain
them all. But in that place I grievously fear lest we suffer any thing,
where infuriated Hector, like unto a flame, leads on who boasts to be
the son of almighty Jove. But may some of the gods thus put it in your
minds, that ye stand firmly yourselves, and exhort others; thus may ye
drive him, although impetuous, from the swift-sailing ships, even if
Jove himself excites him.”
He said, and earth-ruling Neptune, striking both with his sceptre,
filled them with violent might, and made their limbs light and their
feet and hands above. But he, like as a swift-winged hawk is impelled
to fly, which, lifted up from a rugged, lofty rock, has hastened to
pursue another bird over the plain; so darted earth-shaking Neptune
from them. But fleet Ajax, the son of Oïleus, recognized him first of
the two, and straightway addressed Ajax, the son of Telamon:
“O Ajax, since some one of the gods, who possess Olympus, likening
himself to the soothsayer, exhorts us to fight beside the ships
(neither is this Calchas, the prophesying augur; for I readily
recognized the traces of his feet and legs when departing; for the gods
are easily distinguished), even to myself, the soul within my bosom is
more incited to war and to fight, and my feet beneath and hands above
eagerly desire it.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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