Achilles (Mythological character); Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Trojan War
Footnote 542: (return) Schneider on Nicander, Ther. 264-9, p. 229,
observes: “In Homerica Iliade fuerunt olim qui Σκαιὰς πύλας, quæ alibi
Dardaniæ dicuntur, interpretabantur obliquas, teste Hesychio: ἢ διὰ τὸ
σκολιὰς εἶναι κατὰ τὴν εἰσβολήν. Plane uti Servius ad Æn. iii. 351:
‘Scæa porta dicta est—nec ab itinere ingressis scævo id est sinistro,
quod ingressi non recto sed sinistro eunt itinere, sed a cadavere
Laomedontis, hoc est scæomate, quod in ejus fuerit superliminio.’ Ita
Vitruvius, i. 5, 2; unde vides, quomodo notio _sinistri_ et _obliqui_
in hac voce coaluerit. Notio ipsa serius tandem invaluisse videtur:
antiquiorem enim Nicandreo locum ignore.”
“Hector, why dost thou cease from battle? Nor does it at all become
thee. Would that I were so much superior to thee as I am inferior; then
indeed wouldst thou quickly have retired from the battle to thy loss.
But come, direct thy solid-hoofed steeds against Patroclus, if
perchance thou mayest slay him, and Apollo may give thee glory.” So
saying, the god on his part went again through the labour of men; but
illustrious Hector on his part commanded warlike Cebriones to lash on
his steeds to the battle, whilst Apollo, proceeding, entered the
throng; and sent an evil tumult among the Greeks; but gave glory to the
Trojans and Hector. Then indeed did Hector neglect the other Greeks,
nor slew them; but directed his solid-hoofed horses against Patroclus.
But Patroclus, on the other side, leaped from his chariot to the
ground, in his left hand holding his spear; but in the other he seized
a stone, white, rugged, which his hand embraced around. Putting his
force to it, he hurled it; nor did it err far from the man, nor was the
weapon hurled in vain, 543 for in the forehead with the sharp stone he
smote the charioteer of Hector, Cebriones, the illegitimate son of
illustrious Priam, whilst holding the reins of the horses. But the
stone crushed both his eyebrows, nor did the bone sustain it, and his
eyes fell amid the dust upon the ground before his feet. But he then,
like unto a diver, fell from the well-formed chariot-seat, and life
left his bones. But him insulting, thou didst address, O equestrian
Patroclus:
Footnote 543: (return) See Kennedy. Others make βέλος the accusative,
and take ἁλίωσε transitively.
“O gods! truly he is a very active man! how nimbly he dives! if indeed
he were anywhere in the fishy sea, this man, groping for oysters, might
have satisfied many, plunging from his ship, although it might be
stormy; so easily now in the plain does he dive from his chariot!
Without doubt there are divers among the Trojans.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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