Commonplaces from The Iliad: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) by Homer
Posted on July 29th, 2014
They were like a steep cliff at the edge of the restless sea, which stands firm against the swift paths of the whistling winds and the swollen waves that keep pounding against the shore: just so did the Argives withstand the fierce Trojan onslaught. But Hector charged in among them, blazing with fury, and fell on the mass of men like a towering wave whipped up by a storm, which crashes over a ship and hides it in spray, and the violent blast of the wind howls against the mast, and the hearts of the sailors tremble with fear as they try to move out of death's reach: just so stirred up was the heart of every Achaean.
View Original Image2014-08-21 @ 03:41 AM • Page 246eanwhile Hera looked down from the top of Olympus and saw her brother and brother-in-law as he bustled about and urged on the troops, and she was happy. Then she saw Zeus as he sat on the highest peak of Mount Ida, and suddenly hatred surged through her heart, and she pondered how she could trick him and help the Achaeans. g And in the end, she decided that the best way was to seduce him by making herself so alluring that he would be overwhelmed by desire for her and want to make love; and afterward she could pour a warm, gentle sleep on his eyelids and cunning mind. She went to her room, which her son Hephaestus with great skill had fashioned, fitting its massive doors to the doorposts with a secret lock, which no other god could open, and she entered the room and closed the great doors behind her. First she cleansed all the stains from her lovely body 160 with ambrosia, then she rubbed herselfwith perfumed olive oil. (Its fragrance filled earth and heaven as she moved about in the bronze-paved palace of Zeus.) After she rubbed this all over her beautiful skin she combed her long hair and braided the glistening locks ethen put on a dress that Athena had made for her, richl mbroidered with many images, and she pinned it s e as reasd a ta golden brooch, and around her waist and in at was hung with a hundred tassels, the pierced lobes of h jewels that hun d 042 er ears she put earrings with brilliant 170 She covered her he du m triple drops, gleaming with beauty. that had never b with a shawl of the finest linen and onto her feet e tied hnd was pure white a
View Original Image2014-08-12 @ 03:52 AM • Page 220But Idómeneus did not flee like an untested boy; he stood firm, confident as a wild boar in the mountains who faces a rabble of hunters coming straight at him in some desolate place; the bristles stand up on his back, his eyes blaze, and he gnashes his knife-sharp tusks in his fury, eager to fight off the dogs and men: just so did Idómeneus stand without giving way as Aeneas attacked.
View Original Image2014-08-12 @ 02:16 AM • Page 205Then they all clashed in close fighting around the body of Alcáthoüs, and the bronze on their chests rang out terribly as the sharp-pointed spears hit their mark
View Original Image2014-08-12 @ 02:18 AM • Page 206There the spear plunged, and Ádamas gripped the shaft, writhing and bucking like some wild bull in the mountain that herdsmen have caught with ropes and are dragging av just so did he writhe-a little while, not for long. And Meriones came up and stood beside him and pulled the spear from his flesh, and darkness covered his eyes.
View Original Image2014-08-12 @ 02:24 AM • Page 208There the spear plunged, and Ádamas gripped the shaft, writhing and bucking like some wild bull in the mountains that herdsmen have caught with ropes and are dragging away: just so did he writhe-a little while, not for long. And Meriones came up and stood beside him and pulled the spear from his flesh, and darkness covered his eyes.
View Original Image2014-08-12 @ 02:32 AM • Page 208. Hélenus hit Menelaus on the front of his breastplate, but the keen arrow bounced off. As when on a threshing floor the black beans or the chickpeas leap from the shovel, under the whistling wind: just so from the breastplate of Menelaus the arrow bounced off and flew a great distance before it fell
View Original Image2014-08-12 @ 02:33 AM • Page 208A man cannot fight beyond his strength no matter how willing he is.
View Original Image2014-08-12 @ 03:30 AM • Page 213He charged ahead, and the other Achaeans followed, wherever most Trojans were running away in panic. Foot soldiers cut down foot soldiers, charioteers killed charioteers--a dust cloud rose from them, churned into the air by the horses' thundering hoovesand everywhere there was slaughter, bronze against bronze. And Lord Agamemnon kept charging ahead and killing wherever he went and urging the Argives to follow. And as a fire spreads through the thick dry woodland, and the high winds carry it everywhere, and the bushes blaze up and fall as the ravaging flames overwhelm them: just so did the Trojan troops fall, and many horses pulled empty chariots that rattled across the plain, and they longed for their drivers; but these lay dead on the ground far dearer now to the vultures than to their wives.
View Original Image2014-07-29 @ 02:39 AM • Page 161Just as a river swollen by winter rains hurtles down from the mountains, its headlong current tearing up mighty oak and pine trees and sweeping huge piles of driftwood out to the sea: so Ajax swept through the wide plain slaughtering men and horses.
View Original Image2014-07-29 @ 03:42 AM • Page 169Hot tears flowed from their eyes and fell to the ground as they mourned for their charioteer, who was gone forever, and their long, luxuriant manes became filthy and tr
View Original Image2014-09-12 @ 03:10 AM • Page 285But I know that everything rests in the hands of the gods. I will throw my spear, and Zeus will decide the outcom
View Original Image2014-09-12 @ 03:19 AM • Page 287Meanwhile the Myrmidons, greatly exhilarated, advanced with Patroclus leading and charged at the Trojans, swarming out all at once like wasps on a roadside that boys, in their childish sport, have stirred up to anger, poking them over and over again in their nest, the little fools, creating a public nuisance for many people; and if a man passing by jostles the nest and disturbs them, they all fly out in a seething rage to attack him and fight for their young: with a spirit like this, the Myrmidons all swarmed out from the ships, and their furious battle cries filled the heaven
View Original Image2014-09-04 @ 01:58 AM • Page 256The Trojans attacked like the blast of a sudden squall that swoops down to earth with lightning and thunder, churning the dark sea into a fury, and countless waves surge and toss on its surface, high-arched and white-capped, and crash down onto the seashore in endless ranks: just so did the Trojans charge in their ranks, each battalion packed close together and glittering in the sunlight
View Original Image2014-08-12 @ 03:31 AM • Page 214As when the sea surges and heaves with a silent groundswell and watches out for the rush of the whistling winds and does not break or roll its waves this way or that until some deciding blast sweeps down from the heavens: just so did the old king ponder, divided between two courses of action-should he move forward into the mass of fighters, or look for King Agamemnon?
View Original Image2014-08-12 @ 03:33 AM • Page 216but Automedon saw it coming and ducked to avoid it, and behind him the spear point stuck in the ground, and the butt end 520 quivered, until at last its fury was spe
View Original Image2014-09-12 @ 03:21 AM • Page 287Father Zeus, save us. Lift this terrible darkness; make the sky clear, bring light, so that at least we can see what we are doing. Go ahead, kill us if that is your will, as long as you do it in sunlight." His tears fell as he prayed, and the Father took pity, and at once he scattered the mist and dispelled the darkness, 64 and the sun broke through, and the battle came into sigh
View Original Image2014-09-12 @ 03:47 AM • Page 290mmediately he killed him, slashing his neck with his sword, and the blade grew warm with his b
View Original Image2014-09-04 @ 02:03 AM • Page 258With this Menelaus left them, looking around like an eagle, which of all winged creatures (men say) has the keenest sight, and though he is far above, he can spot the quick-footed hare as it lies crouching under a bush, and he swoops down and seizes it in his deadly claws and tears the life out of its body: just so did your eyes, Menelaus, scan up and down the ranks of all your comrades-in-arms to see if Nestor's son was still alive somewhere. And quickly 670 you caught sight of him on the left of the battlefield, cheering his men on and encouraging them to fight
View Original Image2014-09-12 @ 03:49 AM • Page 291And Penéleos and Lycon rushed at each other; they had missed with their spears, so each drew his sword and charged, and Lycon's sword struck the ridge of the Argive's helmet and shattered. And quickly Penéleos sliced through his neck 300 under the ear, and the whole blade sank in, and only a flap of skin kept the head attached, and it dangled to one side for a moment, and then he crumpled to earth. And Meriones ran down Ácamas with long strides and stabbed him in the right shoulder as he was fleeing; as he fell from his chariot, mist poured over his eyes. And Idómeneus then stabbed Érymas in the mouth with his pitiless spear, and the point passed all the way through, up under the brain, and smashed the white bones; his teeth were knocked out, and a stream of blood gushed from both eyes, 310 and he spurted blood through his nostrils and gaping mouth as he gasped for breath, and death in a black cloud took him
View Original Image2014-09-04 @ 02:06 AM • Page 258So each of these Danäan leaders dispatched his man. And like ravening wolves that fall upon lambs or kids when they are alone on the hillside, apart from their mothers through the carelessness of the shepherd, and seeing them defenseless, the wolves pounce quickly and tear them to pieces: usd losthe Danaans fell on the Trojans, who panicked eir nerve and scattered with a shrill uproar
View Original Image2014-09-04 @ 02:07 AM • Page 258Achilles said, "May I die soon then, since I allowed my beloved friend to be killed when I could have saved him. Far from his home he died, and it was my fault. And because I will never return to my own dear country and haven't been able to save Patroclus or help the many other companions who have been cut down by Hector, while I--a man who is without equal . among the Achaean warriors-I have sat here idly, a useless burden upon the earth ... N If only strife could vanish from gods and mortals, and anger, which makes even sensible men flare up and get caught in violent quarrels and which, far sweeter than trickling honey, expands in the breast like smoke: such is the anger that Agamemnon has caused me. But all this is over and done with, so let it be; however it hurts, I must force down my bitter heart's passion. Now I will go out to find the man who destroyed the life of my dearest friend. As for my own death, whenever Zeus and the other immortal gods wish it to come, I will welcome it.
View Original Image2014-09-16 @ 02:04 AM • Page 296Then Menelaus stabbed Hyperénor below the ribs, in the side; the bronze point's thrust made his innards gush out as it ripped them, then the life force came rushing out through the deep wound, and darkness covered his eyes.
View Original Image2014-08-13 @ 02:48 AM • Page 229But for now, while I am alive, let me win glory and inake many Trojan and many Dardánian women wipe the tears from their tender cheeks with both hands as they wail in their endless grief, so that they know how long it has been that I have held back from the fighting. iig And Mother, although you love me, do not attempt to hold me back any further. I will not listen
View Original Image2014-09-16 @ 02:06 AM • Page 297He leaped to the ground from his chariot, in full armor, and Patroclus too, when he saw him,leaped to the ground. And as two eagles, with curved beaks and crooked talons clash high above some towering rock face, screaming· just so with loud screams did the two men rush at each other.
View Original Image2014-09-04 @ 02:15 AM • Page 260s he said these words, death covered his eyes and nostrils. And Patroclus, bracing his foot on his chest, drew out the spear from his flesh, and the lungs too came wrapped around it as he pulled the point out, and with it Sarpedon's life The Myrmidons held his horses in place, as they snorted 460 and strained to run off, since they knew that they had no driver.
View Original Image2014-09-04 @ 02:23 AM • Page 262At this Zeus said to Apollo,"Dear Phoebus, go and lift Sarpedon out of range of the missiles, wipe off the blood, take him away and wash him with ambrosia, dress him in robes that will never decay, and give him into the care of the swift escorts Sleep and Death, those twin brothers, who quickly will bring him back to his home amid the rich fields of Lycia, . 610 where his family and kinsmen will bury him in all honor." When he heard this, Apollo did as his father had asked. He flew from the heights of Mount Ida into the battle, and immediately he lifted Sarpedon out of range of the missiles, took him away and washed him with ambrosia, dressed him in robes that would never decay, and gave him into the care of the swift escorts Sleep and Death, those twin brothers, who quickly brought him back to his home amid the rich fields of Lycia
View Original Image2014-09-04 @ 02:42 AM • Page 267He fell on them like a murderous lion attacking a herd of cows as they graze, too many to count, at the bottom of some low-lying marsh, and among them is a herdsman who does not know how to fight off a wild beast from an animal's carcass; he walks alongside the cattle in front or alongside the ones in back, but the lion charges the middle and leaps on a cow and devours it as the others stampede: just so did the Danäans flee from Hector and Father Zeus in unearthly dread.
View Original Image2014-08-21 @ 03:43 AM • Page 246And just as beneath a storm the dark earth is heavy on an autumn day when Lord Zeus sends violent rain, because he is angry at men who give crooked verdicts in the assembly and drive out justice, with no fear about being punished for it by the gods, and then all their rivers fill, overflowing their banks, and many hillsides are cut off and look like islands in the torrents that headlong rush from the mountains, roaring down to the turbulent sea, and the tilled fields are ruined: so loud were the Trojan chariots as they fled.
View Original Image2014-09-04 @ 02:11 AM • Page 259As Zeus sends a shimmering rainbow across the sky to warn mankind of a war or a chilling rainstorm 540 that halts men's work on the land and troubles the flocks: just so Athena, wrapped in a shimmering mist, strode into the battle and stirred up the Danäans' courage
View Original Image2014-09-12 @ 03:24 AM • Page 288while the two of us keep close behind you and drive back the Trojans. We are one in heart, as in name; often before this we have fought side by side and stood firm in the thick of battle."
View Original Image2014-09-12 @ 03:51 AM • Page 292Then, with no hint of fear, Diomedes said, "You weakling, you girl-crazed seducer, you perfumed sissy, why don't you step out and fight me now man to man, directly, without the help of your cowardly arrows? You are boasting in vain. You have barely scratched me. Your sho is no more painful than if a woman had hit me or a child; a half-wit's arrow has a dull point. When Iwound a man, it is fatal. Even a slight touch of my spear can strike a man dead on the spot, and his widow's nails tear her cheeks in her desolation, and his children are orphans; he reddens the ground with his blo and rots there; and carrion birds, not women, surround him."
View Original Image2014-07-29 @ 03:29 AM • Page 167"Death was too quick for you, Socus; you haven't escaped it. Poor fool, your father and mother are far away and won't come to Troy to close your eyes, and the vultures will hack at your flesh as they sit on you, flapping their wings. But I, when I die, will be burned with all the due honors."
View Original Image2014-07-29 @ 03:35 AM • Page 168They found Odysseus, and all around him the Trojans were swarming, like jackals who close in around a huge stag that a hunter's arrow has wounded; the stag has escaped, running as long as the warm blood flows and his legs can carry him; but at last his strength is depleted, and he falls in a shadowy grove in the mountains, and soon the jackals tear him to pieces; but some god sends a marauding lion; the jackals scatter in fear, and the lion stands there, feasting upon the carcass: just so did the Trojans close in on Odysseus from all sides as, constantly lunging and feinting, he kept death at bay; but when Ajax came up, his body-shield like a tower, and stood beside him, the Trojans took fright and scattered
View Original Image2014-07-29 @ 03:37 AM • Page 169He fell on the enemy like a rampaging storm that swoops down onto the sea and lashes the dark-blue waters into a fury, and many huge waves shoot up, and high in the air the spray is flung in the howl of the wandering wind: so thick and fast did the men fall in Hector's attack
View Original Image2014-07-29 @ 03:27 AM • Page 465Paris jumped out from his hiding place and exulted: "My arrow flew straight! You are wounded! I only wish I had pierced your heart or your guts and taken you down, so that we, who shudder before you like bleating goats in front of a lion, could have a brief rest from this slaughter."
View Original Image2014-07-29 @ 03:27 AM • Page 167And while he pondered, the ranks of the Trojans advanced and surrounded him, but soon they came to regret it. As dogs and hunters crowd a wild boar from all sides when he charges out of a thicket, whetting his tusks, and as they rush to surround him they hear his tusks gn
View Original Image2014-07-29 @ 03:32 AM • Page 167ome of the enemy spears bit into his shield, ut ny spears, hungry to glut themselves on his flesh, the ground before they could ever reach him.
View Original Image2014-07-29 @ 03:49 AM • Page 171The Trojans charged in a mass, with Hector in front. He drove with the force of a boulder that thunders down the side of some mountain, torn out by winter floods which have washed away the small rocks that held it in place, and headlong it crashes down through the forest, smashing everything in its path and gathering speed till it reaches the level ground; it slows then; it stops; it can move no farther, however strongly it wants to: just so, for a while, did Hector threaten to crash right to the sea through the Danäan huts and ships
View Original Image2014-08-06 @ 03:49 AM • Page 196nd as soon as the Trojans saw Idómeneus coming, as powerful as a flame, with his lieutenant, wearing their massive armor, they gave a tremendous battle cry and moved toward them, and furious hand-to-hand fighting took place by the ships. As when gusts keep swirling under the whistling winds on a day when the dust lies thick on the roads, and it rises and hangs in the air for hours in a dense cloud: just so did the armies collide, and the men were eager to kill one another amid the thick press of battle. The fighting bristled with long-shadowed, flesh-tearing spears, and eyes went blind in the endless dazzle of bronze helmets and new-polished breastplates and glittering shields as the armies clashed there. Only a bold-hearted man could rejoice at that sight and not be stricken with terror.
View Original Image2014-08-06 @ 04:06 AM • Page 202He fought his best, but Idómeneus was too quick; he punched the spear through his throat, just under the chin, and Ásius fell like an oak tree or a white poplar or a pine that carpenters, with new-whetted axes, cut down in the mountains and hew into planks for a ship: just so did he lie stretched out in front of his horses, choking to death and clawing the blood-soaked dust.
View Original Image2014-08-06 @ 04:15 AM • Page 203"This is the way you Trojans will leave our ships, you arrogant fools, who are always yearning for bloodshed. You will bring down death on yourselves and will bring as well the disgrace that you brought on me, you cowardly dogs, since you had no fear in your hearts of the punishing rage of Zeus, who holds sacred the bond between host and guest and will therefore destroy your city. You carried away my wife and much of my treasure, with no regard for decency, even though she received you with kindness and you were her honored guests. And now you are trying to fling fire onto our ships and slaughter our men. But you will be stopped, however determined you are. Zeus our father, they say that you surpass all others in wisdom, both men and gods, and from you
View Original Image2014-08-12 @ 02:36 AM • Page 209these things have come lence knows no bounds? those lawless men, whose vio even with sleep ch their limit with everything Men rea 042and beautiful dance, and lovemaking and swet e ud ire for such pleasures r th t a va b these Trojans just long for more fighting." And Menelaus stripped off the blood-stained armor from the dead body and gave it to his companions; then he went out to rejoin the front ranks of the fighters
View Original Image2014-08-12 @ 02:37 AM • Page 210But as he retreated, Meriones aimed and shot and pierced him in the right buttock, and the keen arrow pushed up under the bone, straight into his bladder. And sinking down on the spot, in the arms of his comrades he breathed out his life and lay there stretched on the earth like a dead worm; and the ground was soaked with his blood. And the Páphlagónians gathered around and put him , onto a car and carried him sadly to Troy, and his father, weeping bitterly, walked by their side; but no blood-price would ever be paid to avenge the killing.
View Original Image2014-08-12 @ 02:39 AM • Page 210Next, he rushed straight at Thestor, the son of Enops, who was huddled up in his chariot, out of his mind with terror; the reins had slipped from his hands, and Patroclus came up and stabbed him on the right side of his jaw and drove the spear through his teeth. Then, gripping the spear he pivoted back and lifted him over the rail like a fisherman who sits on a jutting boulder and hauls a tremendous fish up out of the sea at the end of his line, caught on the bright bronze hook: just so did Patroclus haul him up out of his car, mouth gaping around the spear point, and tossed him down on his face, and he lay there flopping until life left him
View Original Image2014-09-04 @ 02:13 AM • Page 260Zeus bowed his head and did as his wife had told him, but he sent a shower of bloody raindrops to Earth to honor his son, whom Patroclus was now to kill on the plain of Ilion, far from his own dear country.
View Original Image2014-09-04 @ 02:18 AM • Page 261Sarpedon then threw his spear ud missed, but hit the horse Pédasus in the right shoulder; it shrieked as it gasped out its life, then fell in the dirt, whinnying, and its spirit fluttered away.
View Original Image2014-09-04 @ 02:20 AM • Page 261But after he fmished h e nes, why keep talking? fyou are s end,no insult will make the Trojans Believe me, from Sarpedon's body. Before pull back one inch f them will be covered in dirt. they do that, many o rds for the council; battles are won deedn sa r woeed now isn't more talk, but more fighting." As he said this he led the way, and Meriones followed. 1I . And as a crashing arises when men cut timber in a mountain glade, and from far off the noise can be heard: just so from the earth arose the thud and the clang of bronze striking bronze and tearing through oxhide shields as themenkept thrustingwithswordsand double-curved spear points. 580 Even sharp eyes would never have known Sarpedon as he lay dead on the ground there, completely covered with weapons and blood and dirt, from his head to his feet; and men swarmed around the body like buzzing flies in a sheepfold in spring, when milk overflows the buckets. Lord Zeus did not turn his eyes from the brutal combat but kept looking down at it, pondering in his heart hen he should kill Patroclus. Should it be now, m the battle over Sarpedon, that Hector's sword would cut him down and h or should he increase th is armor would be stripped off, 590 And in the end, he decided thow of even more men? for Patroclus to drive the at it would be best back toward the ci Trojans and Hector far awardice into the e ake more lives. So he put 1 mto his chariot and turned Hector, who jumped and called to the it around to flee that the scales in the han to follow him, for he knew t even the Lyc of Zeus were ti ran when th ians could stand fi pping against him. And at oncee saw that Hector's corm now; the whole army from S e Achaeans st rage had failed. 600 arpedon's cg rlPPed the li to take it and rpse'and Patroc g ttering armor carryit back to the A lus told his companions rgive ships.
