Achilles (Mythological character); Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Trojan War
But after the fugitives had crossed both the ramparts and the trench,
and many were subdued by the hands of the Greeks, the rest were at
length detained, waiting beside their chariots, pallid with fear, and
terrified. But Jove arose on the summits of Ida, from beside
golden-throned Juno; and starting up, he stood and beheld the Trojans
and Greeks, those indeed in confusion, and the Greeks throwing them
into confusion in the rear; and amongst them king Neptune. Hector he
beheld lying upon the plain, and his companions sat round him: 483 but
he was afflicted with grievous difficulty of respiration, and devoid of
his senses, 484 vomiting blood, for it was not the weakest of the
Greeks who had wounded him. The father of men and gods, seeing, pitied
him, and sternly regarding Juno, severely addressed her:
“O Juno, of evil arts, impracticable, thy stratagem has made noble
Hector cease from battle, and put his troops to flight. Indeed I know
not whether again thou mayest not be the first to reap the fruits of
thy pernicious machinations, and I may chastise thee with stripes. Dost
thou not remember when thou didst swing from on high, and I hung two
anvils from thy feet, and bound a golden chain around thy hands, that
could not be broken? And thou didst hang in the air and clouds, and the
gods commiserated thee throughout lofty Olympus; but standing around,
they were not able to release thee; but whomsoever I caught, seizing, I
hurled from the threshold [of heaven], till he reached the earth,
hardly breathing. Nor even thus did my vehement anger, through grief
for divine Hercules, leave me; whom thou, prevailing upon the storms,
with the north wind, didst send over the unfruitful sea, designing
evils, and afterwards bore him out of his course, to well-inhabited
Cos. I liberated him, indeed, and brought him back thence to
steed-nourishing Argos, although having accomplished many toils. These
things will I again recall to thy memory, that thou mayest cease from
deceits; in order that thou mayest know whether the intercourse and a
couch will avail thee, in which thou wast mingled, coming apart from
the gods, and having deceived me.”
Footnote 483: (return) Δὴ here has the force of _demum_.
Footnote 484: (return) Ἐξεστηκὼς τῇ ψυχῇ.—Scholiast.
Thus he spoke; but venerable large-eyed Juno shuddered, and, addressing
him, spoke winged words:
“Be witness now, Earth, and boundless Heaven above, and the water of
Styx gliding beneath, which is the greatest and most dreaded oath
amongst the blessed gods; likewise thy sacred head, and our own nuptial
couch, by which I would not rashly swear at any time, that it is not by
my instigation that earth-shaking Neptune harasses the Trojans and
Hector, and aids the other side; but certainly his own mind incites and
orders him; for, beholding the Greeks oppressed at the ships, he took
compassion on them. And even him would I advise to go there, where
thou, O Cloud-collector, mayest command.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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