Achilles (Mythological character); Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Trojan War
Then each man gave in charge his horses to his charioteer, to hold them
in by the fosse, well and orderly, and themselves as heavy men at arms
were hasting about, being harnessed in their gear, and unquenchable the
cry arose into the Dawn. And long before the charioteers were they
arrayed at the fosse, but after them a little way came up the drivers.
And among them the son of Kronos aroused an evil din, and from above
rained down dew danked with blood out of the upper air, for that he was
about to send many strong men down to Hades.
But the Trojans on the other side, on the high ground of the plain,
gathered them around great Hector, and noble Polydamus, and Aineias
that as a god was honoured by the people of the Trojans, and the three
sons of Antenor, Polybos, and noble Agenor, and young Akamas like unto
the Immortals. And Hector in the foremost rank bare the circle of his
shield. And as from amid the clouds appeareth glittering a baneful
star, and then again sinketh within the shadowy clouds, even so Hector
would now appear among the foremost ranks, and again would be giving
command in the rear, and all in bronze he shone, like the lightning of
aegis-bearing father Zeus.
And even as when reapers over against each other drive their swaths
through a rich man’s field of wheat or barley, and thick fall the
handfuls, even so the Trojans and Achaians leaped upon each other,
destroying, and neither side took thought of ruinous flight; and equal
heads had the battle, and they rushed on like wolves. And woful Discord
was glad at the sight, for she alone of the gods was with them in the
war; for the other gods were not beside them, but in peace they sat
within their halls, where the goodly mansion of each was builded in the
folds of Olympus. And they all were blaming the son of Kronos, lord of
the storm-cloud, for that he willed to give glory to the Trojans. But
of them took the father no heed, but aloof from the others he sat
apart, glad in his glory, looking toward the city of the Trojans, and
the ships of the Achaians, and the glitter of bronze, and the slayers
and the slain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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