The Iliad (Wisehouse Classics Edition). Homer

on the plain.

      The king of kings, majestically tall,

      Towers o’er his armies, and outshines them all;

      Like some proud bull, that round the pastures leads

      His subject herds, the monarch of the meads,

      Great as the gods, the exalted chief was seen,

      His strength like Neptune, and like Mars his mien; ²⁴

      Jove o’er his eyes celestial glories spread,

      And dawning conquest played around his head.

      Say, virgins, seated round the throne divine,

      All-knowing goddesses! immortal nine! ²⁵

      Since earth’s wide regions, heaven’s umneasur’d height,

      And hell’s abyss, hide nothing from your sight,

      (We, wretched mortals! lost in doubts below,

      But guess by rumour, and but boast we know,)

      O say what heroes, fired by thirst of fame,

      Or urged by wrongs, to Troy’s destruction came.

      To count them all, demands a thousand tongues,

      A throat of brass, and adamantine lungs.

      Daughters of Jove, assist! inspired by you

      The mighty labour dauntless I pursue;

      What crowded armies, from what climes they bring,

      Their names, their numbers, and their chiefs I sing.

      The Catalogue of the Ships. ²⁶

      The hardy warriors whom Boeotia bred,

      Penelius, Leitus, Prothoenor, led:

      With these Arcesilaus and Clonius stand,

      Equal in arms, and equal in command.

      These head the troops that rocky Aulis yields,

      And Eteon’s hills, and Hyrie’s watery fields,

      And Schoenos, Scholos, Graea near the main,

      And Mycalessia’s ample piny plain;

      Those who in Peteon or Ilesion dwell,

      Or Harma where Apollo’s prophet fell;

      Heleon and Hyle, which the springs o’erflow;

      And Medeon lofty, and Ocalea low;

      Or in the meads of Haliartus stray,

      Or Thespia sacred to the god of day:

      Onchestus, Neptune’s celebrated groves;

      Copae, and Thisbe, famed for silver doves;

      For flocks Erythrae, Glissa for the vine;

      Platea green, and Nysa the divine;

      And they whom Thebe’s well-built walls inclose,

      Where Myde, Eutresis, Corone, rose;

      And Arne rich, with purple harvests crown’d;

      And Anthedon, Boeotia’s utmost bound.

      Full fifty ships they send, and each conveys

      Twice sixty warriors through the foaming seas. ²⁷

      To these succeed Aspledon’s martial train,

      Who plough the spacious Orchomenian plain.

      Two valiant brothers rule the undaunted throng,

      Ialmen and Ascalaphus the strong:

      Sons of Astyoche, the heavenly fair,

      Whose virgin charms subdued the god of war:

      (In Actor’s court as she retired to rest,

      The strength of Mars the blushing maid compress’d)

      Their troops in thirty sable vessels sweep,

      With equal oars, the hoarse-resounding deep.

      The Phocians next in forty barks repair;

      Epistrophus and Schedius head the war:

      From those rich regions where Cephisus leads

      His silver current through the flowery meads;

      From Panopea, Chrysa the divine,

      Where Anemoria’s stately turrets shine,

      Where Pytho, Daulis, Cyparissus stood,

      And fair Lilaea views the rising flood.

      These, ranged in order on the floating tide,

      Close, on the left, the bold Boeotians’ side.

      Fierce Ajax led the Locrian squadrons on,

      Ajax the less, Oileus’ valiant son;

      Skill’d to direct the flying dart aright;

      Swift in pursuit, and active in the fight.

      Him, as their chief, the chosen troops attend,

      Which Bessa, Thronus, and rich Cynos send;

      Opus, Calliarus, and Scarphe’s bands;

      And those who dwell where pleasing Augia stands,

      And where Boagrius floats the lowly lands,

      Or in fair Tarphe’s sylvan seats reside:

      In forty vessels cut the yielding tide.

      Euboea next her martial sons prepares,

      And sends the brave Abantes to the wars:

      Breathing revenge, in arms they take their way

      From Chalcis’ walls, and strong Eretria;

      The Isteian fields for generous vines renown’d,

      The fair Caristos, and the Styrian ground;

      Where Dios from her towers o’erlooks the plain,

      And high Cerinthus views the neighbouring main.

      Down their broad shoulders falls a length of hair;

      Their hands dismiss not the long lance in air;

      But with protended spears in fighting fields

      Pierce the tough corslets and the brazen shields.

      Twice twenty ships transport the warlike bands,

      Which bold Elphenor, fierce in arms, commands.

      Full fifty more from Athens stem the main,

      Led by Menestheus through the liquid plain.

      (Athens the fair, where great Erectheus sway’d,

      That owed his nurture to the blue-eyed maid,

      But from the teeming furrow took his birth,

      The mighty offspring of the foodful earth.

      Him Pallas placed amidst her wealthy fane,

      Adored with sacrifice and oxen slain;

      Where, as the years revolve, her altars blaze,

      And all the tribes resound the goddess’ praise.)

      No chief like thee, Menestheus! Greece could yield,

      To marshal armies in the dusty field,

      The extended wings of battle to display,

      Or close the embodied host in firm array.

      Nestor alone, improved by length of days,

      For martial conduct bore an equal praise.

      With these appear