Complete Works of Homer Page 5

  To rule the public, is that king." Thus ruling, he restrained

  The host from flight; and then again the Council was maintained

  With such a concourse that the shore rung with the tumult made;

  As when the far-resounding sea doth in its rage invade

  His sandy confines, whose sides groan with his involved wave,

  And make his own breast echo sighs. All sate, and audience gave.

  Thersites only would speak all. A most disordered store

  Of words he foolishly poured out, of which his mind held more

  Than it could manage; anything with which he could procure

  Laughter, he never could contain. He should have yet been sure

  To touch no kings; t' oppose their states becomes not jesters' parts.

  But he the filthiest fellow was of all that had deserts

  In Troy's brave siege. He was squint-eyed, and lame of either foot;

  So crook-backed that he had no breast; sharp-headed, where did shoot

  (Here and there spersed) thin mossy hair. He most of all envied

  Ulysses and Aeacides, whom still his spleen would chide.

  Nor could the sacred King himself avoid his saucy vein;

  Against whom since he knew the Greeks did vehement hates sustain,

  Being angry for Achilles' wrong, he cried out, railing thus:

  “Atrides, why complaiu'st thou now? What wouldst thou more of us?

  Thy tents are full of brass; and dames, the choice of all, are thine,

  With whom we must present thee first, when any towns resign

  To our invasion. Want'st thou then, besides all this, more gold

  From Troy's knights to redeem their sons, whom to be dearly sold

  I or some other Greek must take? Or wouldst thou yet again

  Force from some other lord his prize, to soothe the lusts that reign

  In thy encroaching appetite 1 It fits no prince to be

  A prince of ill, andgovern us, or lead our progeny

  By rape to ruin. O base Greeks, deserving infamy,

  And ills eternal! Greekish girls, not Greeks, ye are! Come, flee

  Home with our ships; leave this man here to perish with his preys,

  And try if we helped him or not. He wronged a man that weighs

  Far more than he himself in worth. He forced from Thetis' son

  And keeps his prize still. Nor think I that mighty man hath won

  The style of wrathful worthily; he's soft, he's too remiss;

  Or else, Atrides, his had been thy last of injuries."

  Thus he the people's Pastor chid; but straight stood up to him

  Divine Ulysses, who, with looks exceeding grave and grim,

  This bitter check, gave : " Cease, vain fool, to vent thy railing vein

  On kings thus, though it serve thee well; nor think thou canst restrain

  With that thy railing faculty, their wills in least degree;

  For not a worse, of all this host, came with our King than thee,

  To Troy's great siege; then do not take into that mouth of thine

  The names of kings, much less revile the dignities that shine

  In their supreme states, wresting thus this motion for our home,

  To soothe thy cowardice; since ourselves yet know not what will come

  Of these designments, if it be our good to stay, or go.

  Nor is it that thou stand'st on; thou revil'st our General so,

  Only because he hath so much, not given by such as thou

  But our heroes. Therefore this thy rude vein makes me vow

  (Which shall be curiously observed) if ever I shall hear

  This madness from thy mouth again, let not Ulysses bear

  This head, nor be the father called of young Telemachus,

  If to thy nakedness I take and strip thee not, and thus

  Whip thee to fleet from council; send, with sharp stripes, weeping hence

  This glory thou affect'st to rail." This said, his insolence

  He settled with his sceptre; struck his back and shoulders so

  That bloody wales rose. He shrunk round; and from his eyes did flow

  Moist tears, and, looking filthily, he sate, feared, smarted, dried

  His blubbered cheeks; and all the prease, though grieved to be denied

  Their wish'd retreat for home, yet laughed delightsomely, and spake

  Either to other : " O ye Gods, how infinitely take

  Ulysses' virtues in our good! Author of counsels, great

  In ordering armies, how most well this act became his heat,

  To beat from council this rude fool. I think his saucy spirit

  Hereafter will not let his tongue abuse the sovereign merit,

  Exempt from such base tongues as his." Thus spake the people; then

  The city-razer Ithacus stood up to speak again,

  Holding his sceptre. Close to him grey-eyed Minerva stood,

  And, like a herald, silence caused, that all the Achive brood

  (From first to last) might hear and know the counsel; when, inclined

  To all their good, Ulysses said : " Atrides, now I find

  These men would render thee the shame of all men; nor would pay

  Their own vows to thee, when they took their free and honoured way

  From Argos hither, that, till Troy were by their brave hands razed,

  They would not turn home. Yet, like babes, and widows, now they haste

  To that base refuge. 'Tis a spite to see men melted so

  In womanish changes; though 'tis true, that if a man do go

  Only a month to sea, and leave his wife far off, and he,

  Tortured with winter's storms, and tossed with a tumultuous sea,

  Grows heavy, and would home. Us then, to whom the thrice three year

  Hath filled his revoluble orl? since our arrival here,

  I blame not to wish home much more; yet all this time to stay,

  Out of our judgments, for our end, and now to take our way

  Without it, were absurd and vile. Sustain then, friends; abide

  The time set to our object; try if Calchas prophesied

  True of the time or not. We know, ye all can witness well,

  (Whom these late death-conferring fates have failed to send to hell)

  That when in Aulis, all our fleet assembled with a freight

  Of ills to Ilion and her friends, beneath the fair grown height

  A platane bore, about a fount, whence crystal water flowed,

  And near our holy altar, we upon the Gods bestowed

  Accomplished hecatombs; and there appeared a huge portent,

  A dragon with a bloody scale, horrid to sight, and sent

  To light by great Olympius; which, crawling from beneath

  The altar, to the platane climbed, and ruthless crashed to death

  A sparrow's young, in number eight, that in a top-bough lay

  Hid under leaves, the dam the ninth, that hovered every way,

  Mourning her loved birth, till at length the serpent, watching her,

  Her wing caught, and devoured her too. This dragon Jupiter,

  That brought him forth, turned to a. stone, and made a powerful mean

  To stir our zeals up, that admired, when of a fact so clean

  Of all ill as our sacrifice, so fearful an ostent

  Should be the issue. Calchas, then, thus prophesied th' event:

  1 Why are ye dumb-struck, fair-haired Greeks? Wise Jove is he hath shown

  This strange ostent to us. 'Twas late, and passing lately done,

  But that grace it foregoes to us, for suffering all the state

  Of his appearance (being so slow) nor time shall end, nor fate.

  As these eight sparrows, and the dam (that made the ninth) were eat

  By this stern serpent; so nine years we are t' endure the heat

  Of ravenous war, and, in the tenth, take in this broad-wayed town.'

 
Thus he interpreted this sign; and all things have their crown

  As he interpreted, till now. The rest, then, to succeed

  Believe as certain. Stay we all, till, that most glorious deed

  Of taking this rich town, our hands are honoured with." This said,

  The Greeks gave an unmeasured shout; which back the ships repaid

  With terrible echoes, in applause of that persuasion

  Divine Ulysses used; which yet held no comparison

  With Nestor's next speech, which was this : " O shameful thing! Ye talk

  Like children all, that know not war. In what air's region walk

  Our oaths, and covenants? Now, I see the fit respects of men

  Are vanished quite; our right hands given, our faiths, our counsels vain

  Our sacrifice with wine, all fled in that profaned flame

  We made to bind all; for thus still we vain persuasions frame,

  And strive to work our end witb words, not joining stratagems

  And bands together, though, thus long, the power of our extremes

  Hath urged us to them. Atreus' sou! Firm as at first hour stand;

  Make good thy purpose; talk no more in councils, but command

  In active field. Let two or three, that by themselves advise,

  Faint in their crowning; they are such as are not truly wise;

  They will for Argos, ere they know if that which Jove hath said

  Be false or true. I tell them all that high Jove bowed his head,

  As first we went aboard our fleet, for sign we should confer

  These Trojans their due fate and death; almighty Jupiter

  All that day darting forth his flames, in an unmeasured light,

  On our right hands. Let therefore none once dream of coward flight,

  Till (for his own) some wife of Troy he sleeps withal, the rape

  Of Helen wreaking, and our sighs enforced for her escape.

  If any yet dare dote on home, let his dishonoured haste

  His black and well-built bark but touch, that (as he first disgraced

  His country's spirit) fate and death may first his spirit let go.

  But be thou wise, king, do not trust thyself but others. Know

  I will not use an abject word. See all thy men arrayed

  In tribes and nations, that tribes tribes, nations may nations, aid.

  Which doing, thou shalt know what chiefs, what soldiers, play the men,

  And what the cowards; for they all will fight in several then,

  Easy for note. And then shalt thou, if thou destroy'st not Troy,

  Know if the prophecy's defect, or men thou dost employ

  In their approved arts want in war, or lack of that brave heat

  Fit for the vent'rous spirits of Greece, was cause to thy defeat."

  To this the king of men replied: " O father! all the sons

  Of Greece thou conquerest in the strife of consultations.

  I would to Jove, Athenia, and Phoebus, I could make,

  Of all, but ten such counsellors; then instantly would shake

  King Priam's city, by our hands laid hold on and laid waste.

  But Jove hath ordered I should grieve, and to that end hath cast

  My life into debates past end. Myself, and Thetis' son,

  Like girls, in words fought for a girl, and I th' offence begun.

  But if we ever talk as friends, Troy's thus deferred fall

  Shall never vex us more one hour. Come then, to victuals all,

  That strong Mars all may bring to field. Each man his lance's steel

  See sharpened well, his shield well lined, his horses meated well,

  His chariot carefully made strong, that these affairs of death

  We all day may hold fiercely out. No man must rest, or breathe;

  The bosoms of our targeteers must all be steeped in sweat;

  The lancer's arm must fall dissolved; our chariot-horse with heat

  Must seem to melt. But if I find one soldier take the chase,

  Or stir from fight, or fight not still fixed in his enemy's face,

  Or hid a-shipboard, all the world, for force, nor price, shall save

  His hated life, but fowls and dogs be his abhorred grave."

  He said; and such a murmur rose as on a lofty shore

  The waves make when the south wind comes and tumbles them before

  Against a rock, grown near the strand, which diversely beset

  Is never free, but, here and there, with varied uproars beat.

  All rose then, rushing to the fleet, perfumed their tents, and eat;

  Each off'ring to th' immortal Gods, and praying to 'scape th' heat

  Of war and death. The king of men an ox of five years' spring

  Th' almighty .Jove slew, called .the peers; first Nestor; then the king

  Idomenseus; after them the Ajaces; and the son

  Of Tydeus; Ithacus the sixth, in counsel paragon

  To Jove himself. All these he bade; but at a martial-cry

  Good Menelaus, since he saw his brother busily

  Employed at that time, would not stand on invitation,

  But of himself came. All about the offering overthrown

  Stood round, took salt cakes, and the king himself thus prayed for all:

  “O Jove, most great, most glorious, that, in that starry hall,

  Sitt'st drawing dark clouds up to air, let not the sun go down,

  Darkness supplying it, till my hands the palace and the town

  Of Priam overthrow and burn, the arms on Hector's breast

  Dividing, spoiling with my sword thousands, in interest

  Of his bad quarrel, laid by him in dust, and eating earth."

  He prayed; Jove heard him not, but made more plentiful the birth

  Of his sad toils, yet took his gifts. Prayers past, cakes on they threw;

  The ox then, to the altar drawn, they killed, and from him drew

  His hide, then cut him up, his thighs, in two hewn, dubbed with fat

  Pricked on the sweetbreads, and with wood, leaveless, and kindled at

  Apposed fire, they burn the. thighs; which done, the inwards, slit,

  They broiled on coals and eat; the rest, in giggots cut, they spit,

  Roast cunningly, draw, sit, and feast. Nought lacked to leave allayed

  Each temperate appetite; which served, Nestor began and said :

  "Atrides, most graced king of men, now no more words allow,

  No more defer the deed Jove vows. Let heralds summon now

  The brazen-coated Greeks, and us range everywhere the host,

  To stir a strong war quickly up." This speech no syllable lost;

  The high-voiced heralds instantly he charged to call to arms

  The curled-head Greeks; they called; the Greeks straight answered their alar:

  The Jove-kept kings about the king all gathered, with their aid

  Ranged all in tribes and nations. With them the gray-eyed Maid

  Great ^Egis (Jove's bright shield) sustained, that can be never old,

  Never corrupted, fringed about with serpents forged of gold,

  As many as sufficed to make an hundred fringes, worth

  An hundred oxen, every snake all sprawling, all set forth

  With wondrous spirit. Through the host with this the Goddess ran,

  In fury casting round her eyes, and furnished every man

  With strength, exciting all to arms, and fight incessant. None

  Now liked their loved homes like the wars; and as a fire upon

  A huge wood, on the heights of hills, that far off hurls his light,

  So the divine brass shined on these, thus thrusting on for fight.

  Their splendour through the air reached heaven; and as about the flood

  Calster, in an Asian mead, flocks of the airy brood,

  Cranes, geese, or long-necked swans, here, there, proud of their pinions fly,

  And in their falls lay out such t
hroats, that with their spiritful cry

  The meadow shrieks again; so here, these many-nationed men

  Flowed over the Scamandrian field, from tents and ships; the din

  Was dreadful that the feet of men and horse beat out of earth;

  And in the flourishing mead they stood, thick as the odorous birth

  Of flowers, or leaves bred in the spring; or thick as swarms of flies

  Throng then to sheep-cotes, when each swarm his erring wing applies

  To milk dewed on the milk-maid's pails; all eagerly disposed

  To give to ruin th' Ilians. And as in rude heaps closed,

  Though huge goatherds are at their food, the goatherds easily yet

  Sort into sundry herds; so here the chiefs in battle set

  Here tribes, here nations, ordering all. Amongst whom shined the king

  With eyes like lightning-loving Jove, his forehead answering,

  In breast like Neptune, Mars in waist; and as a goodly bull

  Most eminent of all a herd, most strong, most masterful,

  So Agamemnon Jove that day made overheighten clear

  That heaven-bright army, and preferred to all th' heroes there.

  Now tell me, Muses, you that dwell in heavenly roofs, (for you

  Are Goddesses, are present here, are wise, and all things know,

  We only trust the voice of fame, know nothing,) who they were

  That here were captains of the Greeks, commanding princes hero.

  The multitude exceed my song; though fitted to my choice

  Ten tongues were, hardened palates ten, a breast of brass, a voice

  Infract and trump-like; that great work, unless the seed of Jove

  (The deathless Muses) undertake, maintains a pitch above

  All mortal powers. The princes then, and navy that did bring

  These so inenarrable troops, and all their soils, I sing.

  THE CATALOGUE OF THE GRECIAN SHIPS AND CAPTAINS.

  Peneleus, and Leitus, all that Bceotia bred,

  Arcesilaus, Clonius, and Prothoenor, led;

  Th' inhabitants of Hyria, and stony Aulida,

  Schajne, Scole, the hilly Eteon, and holy Thespia,

  Of Grasa, and great Mycalesse, that hath the ample plain,

  Of Harma, and Ilesius, and all that did remain

  In Eryth, and in Eleon, in Hylen, Peteona,

  In fair Ocalea, and, the town well-builded, Medeona,

  Copas, Eutresis, Thisbe, that for pigeons doth surpass,

  Of Coroneia, Haliart, that hath such store of grass,

  All those that in Platea dwelt, that Glissa did possess,

  And Hypothebs, whose well-built walls are rare and fellowless,