Achilles (Mythological character); Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Trojan War
Thus she spoke, nor did the father of gods and men disobey; but he
poured down upon the earth bloody dew-drops, 531 honouring his beloved
son, whom Patroclus was about to slay in fertile-soiled Troy, far away
from his native land.
Footnote 531: (return) There is a similar prodigy in Hesiod, Scut.
Here. 384: Κάδδ’ ἄρ’ ἀπ’ ουρανόθεν ψιάδας βάλεν αἱματοέσσας, Σῆμα
τιθεὶς πολέμοιο ἑῷ μεγαθαρσέϊ παιδί. Tzetzes there refers to the
present passage, regarding it as ominous of the death of Sarpedon. Cf.
Lomeier, De Lustrationibus, xii. p. 143.
But when, advancing, they were now near each other, then indeed
Patroclus [struck] illustrious Thrasymelus, who was the brave companion
of king Sarpedon, him he struck upon the lower part of the belly, and
relaxed his limbs. Then Sarpedon, attacking second, missed him with his
splendid javelin; but he wounded his horse Pedasus, with his spear, in
the right shoulder; but he groaned, breathing out his life, and fell in
the dust, moaning, and his spirit fled from him. But the two [other
steeds] leaped asunder, and the yoke crashed, and the reins were
entangled about them, when the side horse lay in the dust. But
spear-renowned Automedon found an end of this. Drawing his long sword
from his robust thigh, rising, he cut away the farther horse, nor did
he act slothfully. And the two [remaining horses] were set aright, and
were directed by the reins; and they [the men] again engage in
life-devouring combat.
Then again Sarpedon missed [him] with his shining spear, and the point
of the weapon passed over the left shoulder of Patroclus, nor did it
wound him. But Patroclus rushed on with his javelin, and the weapon did
not escape in vain from his hand, for he struck him where the midriff
encloses the compact 532 heart. And he fell, as when falls some oak, or
poplar, or lofty pine, which the workmen fell in the mountains with
newly-sharpened axes, to be a naval timber: so he lay stretched out
before his horses and chariot, gnashing with his teeth, grasping the
bloody dust. As a lion slays a bull, coming among a herd, tawny,
noble-spirited, among the stamping 533 oxen, and he perishes,
bellowing, beneath the jaws of the lion; so the leader of the shielded
Lycians was indignant, 534 being slain by Patroclus, and addressed his
dear companion by name:
Footnote 532: (return) “By comparing the different uses of ἀδινὸς
together, one thing is clear, that all the meanings which can occur in
them, proceed from one, which is that in the epithet of the heart,
_dense_ or _compact_, which physical idea the word retains, according
to the Homeric usage, in Od. τ. 516, as a fixed epithet of the heart,
although there its physical state has nothing to do with the context.”
Buttm. Lexil. p. 33.
Footnote 533: (return) See Buttm. Lexil. p. 267.
Footnote 534: (return) “Indignata anima gemebat,”—Heyne, comparing Æn.
xii. Ult. “Vitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata sub umbras.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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