The Iliad: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) by Homer

Author:Homer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2011-10-11T00:00:00+00:00

Book 14

As Nestor was drinking wine in his hut, he noticed

the din of the battle outside, and he said to Macháon,

“Son of Asclépius, listen. The shouts keep getting

louder and louder. I wonder what we should do.

Stay here and drink your wine until Hecamédē

heats you a bath and washes the clotted blood off.

I will take a look and try to find out what has happened.”

*

With these words he picked up the shield of his son Thrasymédes,

who had taken his shield, and he picked up a heavy spear.

As soon as he was outside, he saw, to his horror,

that the wall had been breached and the Argives were fleeing in panic

and the Trojans relentlessly driving them toward the ships.

As 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?

And in the end, he decided that it would be best

to search for the son of Atreus. Meanwhile the armies

kept slaughtering ceaselessly, and the harsh bronze clanged

as they thrust at each other with swords and double-curved spear points.

*

And Nestor was met by the wounded kings: Diomedes,

Odysseus, and Agamemnon, as they were coming

up from their ships, which were stationed upon the seashore

far from the fighting. The first of the ships to arrive

had been hauled a good distance inland onto the plain,

and in front of their sterns the Achaeans had built their wall.

For as wide as the beach was, it could by no means contain

all the ships, and the men did not have enough room,

and so they had drawn the ships up in rows and had filled

the entire shore of the deep bay between the two headlands.

So these three were late in hearing the uproar of battle,

and they all came together, each leaning upon his spear,

and their hearts were in anguish. When the old warrior met them,

Lord Agamemnon went up to him, and he said,

“Son of Neleus, glory of the Achaeans,

why have you left the fighting and come back here?

I am much afraid that Hector will make good the threat

that he once announced in the Trojan assembly, saying

he would never go back to Ilion from the black ships

until he had set them on fire and slaughtered our men.

These were his words, and now they are coming true.”

*

Nestor said, “Yes. Indeed this has come upon us,

and not even Zeus the Thunderer can prevent it.

We thought that the wall would be an unyielding defense

for us and our fleet, but now it has been knocked over,

and the Trojans are fighting relentlessly by the ships,

and wherever you look, you cannot see which direction

the attack is coming from, so confused is the slaughter,

so great the chaos, an uproar rising to heaven.

We must think about what we should do now, if thought can do

anything. But you three shouldn’t enter the battle,

since no man can fight when he is wounded as you are.

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