Achilles (Mythological character); Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Trojan War
Thus he spoke, but the Argives shouted aloud, as when a wave [roars]
against the steep shore, when the south wind urges it, coming against
an out-jutting rock; for this the billows from all kinds of winds never
forsake, when they may be here or there. And rising up, the people
hastened forth, scattered from ship to ship, and raised up smoke among
the tents, and took repast. And one sacrificed to some one of the
immortal gods, and [another to another,] praying to escape death and
the slaughter of war. But king Agamemnon offered up a fat ox, of five
years old, to the powerful son of Saturn, and summoned the elder chiefs
of all the Greeks, Nestor first of all, and king Idomeneus, but next
the two Ajaxes, 112 and the son of Tydeus, and sixth Ulysses, of equal
weight with Jove in council. But Menelaus, valiant in the din 113 of
war, came of his own accord, 114 for he knew his brother in his heart,
how he was oppressed. Then they stood around the ox, and raised up the
pounded barley cakes: and king Agamemnon, praying amidst them, said:
Footnote 110: (return) Schol. εύτρεπισάτω.
Footnote 111: (return) These shields were so large, that they covered
nearly the whole person.
Footnote 112: (return) One the son of Telamon, the other the son of
Oïleus.
Footnote 113: (return) This translation is, I think, far bolder than
“loud-voiced,” or “good in the battle-shout.” Βοῂ contains the whole
idea of the tumultuous noise heard in the heat of battle, and thence
the battle itself. Thus the Schol. ὁ ἐv τῷ πολἐμω γενναἲος; and Hesych.
κατὰ τῂν μάχην ανδρεἲος.
Footnote 114: (return) Opposed to κλητὸς, as in Oppian, Hal. iii. 360,
κλητοί τ’ αύτό μολοί τε. See Plato Sympos. p. 315, G. Læm. Why Menelaus
did so, is no matter to us, and probably was no mystery to his brother.
“O Jove, most glorious, most great dark-cloud-collector, dwelling in
the air, may not the sun set, nor darkness come on, before I have laid
prostrate Priam’s hall, blazing, and consumed its gates with the
hostile fire; and cut away Hector’s coat of mail around his breast,
split asunder with the brass; and around him may many comrades, prone
in the dust, seize the earth with their teeth.”
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