The Iliad (Wisehouse Classics Edition). Homer

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СКАЧАТЬ wealthy valleys till, ³¹

      Fast by the foot of Ida’s sacred hill,

      Or drink, AEsepus, of thy sable flood,

      Were led by Pandarus, of royal blood;

      To whom his art Apollo deign’d to show,

      Graced with the presents of his shafts and bow.

      From rich Apaesus and Adrestia’s towers,

      High Teree’s summits, and Pityea’s bowers;

      From these the congregated troops obey

      Young Amphius and Adrastus’ equal sway;

      Old Merops’ sons; whom, skill’d in fates to come,

      The sire forewarn’d, and prophesied their doom:

      Fate urged them on! the sire forewarn’d in vain,

      They rush’d to war, and perish’d on the plain.

      From Practius’ stream, Percote’s pasture lands,

      And Sestos and Abydos’ neighbouring strands,

      From great Arisba’s walls and Selle’s coast,

      Asius Hyrtacides conducts his host:

      High on his car he shakes the flowing reins,

      His fiery coursers thunder o’er the plains.

      The fierce Pelasgi next, in war renown’d,

      March from Larissa’s ever-fertile ground:

      In equal arms their brother leaders shine,

      Hippothous bold, and Pyleus the divine.

      Next Acamas and Pyrous lead their hosts,

      In dread array, from Thracia’s wintry coasts;

      Round the bleak realms where Hellespontus roars,

      And Boreas beats the hoarse-resounding shores.

      With great Euphemus the Ciconians move,

      Sprung from Troezenian Ceus, loved by Jove.

      Pyraechmes the Paeonian troops attend,

      Skill’d in the fight their crooked bows to bend;

      From Axius’ ample bed he leads them on,

      Axius, that laves the distant Amydon,

      Axius, that swells with all his neighbouring rills,

      And wide around the floating region fills.

      The Paphlagonians Pylaemenes rules,

      Where rich Henetia breeds her savage mules,

      Where Erythinus’ rising cliffs are seen,

      Thy groves of box, Cytorus! ever green,

      And where AEgialus and Cromna lie,

      And lofty Sesamus invades the sky,

      And where Parthenius, roll’d through banks of flowers,

      Reflects her bordering palaces and bowers.

      Here march’d in arms the Halizonian band,

      Whom Odius and Epistrophus command,

      From those far regions where the sun refines

      The ripening silver in Alybean mines.

      There mighty Chromis led the Mysian train,

      And augur Ennomus, inspired in vain;

      For stern Achilles lopp’d his sacred head,

      Roll’d down Scamander with the vulgar dead.

      Phorcys and brave Ascanius here unite

      The Ascanian Phrygians, eager for the fight.

      Of those who round Maeonia’s realms reside,

      Or whom the vales in shades of Tmolus hide,

      Mestles and Antiphus the charge partake,

      Born on the banks of Gyges’ silent lake.

      There, from the fields where wild Maeander flows,

      High Mycale, and Latmos’ shady brows,

      And proud Miletus, came the Carian throngs,

      With mingled clamours and with barbarous tongues. ³²

      Amphimachus and Naustes guide the train,

      Naustes the bold, Amphimachus the vain,

      Who, trick’d with gold, and glittering on his car,

      Rode like a woman to the field of war.

      Fool that he was! by fierce Achilles slain,

      The river swept him to the briny main:

      There whelm’d with waves the gaudy warrior lies

      The valiant victor seized the golden prize.

      The forces last in fair array succeed,

      Which blameless Glaucus and Sarpedon lead

      The warlike bands that distant Lycia yields,

      Where gulfy Xanthus foams along the fields.

      ¹ Plato, Rep. iii. p. 437, was so scandalized at this deception of Jupiter’s, and at his other attacks on the character of the gods, that he would fain sentence him to an honourable banishment. (See Minucius Felix, Section 22.) Coleridge, Introd. p. 154, well observes, that the supreme father of gods and men had a full right to employ a lying spirit to work out his ultimate will. Compare “Paradise Lost,” v. 646:

      “And roseate dews disposed

      All but the unsleeping eyes of God to rest.”

      ² Dream ought to be spelt with a capital letter, being, I think, evidently personified as the god of dreams. See Anthon and others.

      “When, by Minerva sent, a fraudful Dream

      Rush’d from the skies, the bane of her and Troy.”

      Dyce’s “Select Translations from Quintus Calaber,” p.10.

       ³

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