The Iliad. Гомер

enter’d at the palace gate,

      The maids officious round their mistress wait;

      Then, all dispersing, various tasks attend;

      The queen and goddess to the prince ascend.

      Full in her Paris’ sight, the queen of love

      Had placed the beauteous progeny of Jove;

      Where, as he view’d her charms, she turn’d away

      Her glowing eyes, and thus began to say:

      “Is this the chief, who, lost to sense of shame,

      Late fled the field, and yet survives his fame?

      O hadst thou died beneath the righteous sword

      Of that brave man whom once I call’d my lord!

      The boaster Paris oft desired the day

      With Sparta’s king to meet in single fray:

      Go now, once more thy rival’s rage excite,

      Provoke Atrides, and renew the fight:

      Yet Helen bids thee stay, lest thou unskill’d

      Shouldst fall an easy conquest on the field.”

      The prince replies: “Ah cease, divinely fair,

      Nor add reproaches to the wounds I bear;

      This day the foe prevail’d by Pallas’ power:

      We yet may vanquish in a happier hour:

      There want not gods to favour us above;

      But let the business of our life be love:

      These softer moments let delights employ,

      And kind embraces snatch the hasty joy.

      Not thus I loved thee, when from Sparta’s shore

      My forced, my willing heavenly prize I bore,

      When first entranced in Cranae’s isle I lay,

      Mix’d with thy soul, and all dissolved away!”

      Thus having spoke, the enamour’d Phrygian boy

      Rush’d to the bed, impatient for the joy.

      Him Helen follow’d slow with bashful charms,

      And clasp’d the blooming hero in her arms.

      While these to love’s delicious rapture yield,

      The stern Atrides rages round the field:

      So some fell lion whom the woods obey,

      Roars through the desert, and demands his prey.

      Paris he seeks, impatient to destroy,

      But seeks in vain along the troops of Troy;

      Even those had yielded to a foe so brave

      The recreant warrior, hateful as the grave.

      Then speaking thus, the king of kings arose,

      “Ye Trojans, Dardans, all our generous foes!

      Hear and attest! from Heaven with conquest crown’d,

      Our brother’s arms the just success have found:

      Be therefore now the Spartan wealth restor’d,

      Let Argive Helen own her lawful lord;

      The appointed fine let Ilion justly pay,

      And age to age record this signal day.”

      He ceased; his army’s loud applauses rise,

      And the long shout runs echoing through the skies.

BOOK IV

      Argument

      The Breach of The Truce,

      and The First Battle

      The gods deliberate in council concerning the Trojan war: they agree upon the continuation of it, and Jupiter sends down Minerva to break the truce. She persuades Pandarus to aim an arrow at Menelaus, who is wounded, but cured by Machaon. In the meantime some of the Trojan troops attack the Greeks. Agamemnon is distinguished in all the parts of a good general; he reviews the troops, and exhorts the leaders, some by praises and others by reproof. Nestor is particularly celebrated for his military discipline. The battle joins, and great numbers are slain on both sides.

      The same day continues through this as through the last book (as it does also through the two following, and almost to the end of the seventh book). The scene is wholly in the field before Troy.

      And now Olympus’ shining gates unfold;

      The gods, with Jove, assume their thrones of gold:

      Immortal Hebe, fresh with bloom divine,

      The golden goblet crowns with purple wine:

      While the full bowls flow round, the powers employ

      Their careful eyes on long-contended Troy.

      When Jove, disposed to tempt Saturnia’s spleen,

      Thus waked the fury of his partial queen,

      “Two powers divine the son of Atreus aid,

      Imperial Juno, and the martial maid;

      But high in heaven they sit, and gaze from far,

      The tame spectators of his deeds of war.

      Not thus fair Venus helps her favour’d knight,

      The queen of pleasures shares the toils of fight,

      Each danger wards, and constant in her care,

      Saves in the moment of the last despair.

      Her act has rescued Paris’ forfeit life,

      Though great Atrides gain’d the glorious strife.

      Then say, ye powers! what signal issue waits

      To crown this deed, and finish all the fates!

      Shall Heaven by peace the bleeding kingdoms spare,

      Or rouse the furies, and awake the war?

      Yet, would the gods for human good provide,

      Atrides soon might gain his beauteous bride,

      Still Priam’s walls in peaceful honours grow,

      And through his gates the crowding nations flow.”

      Thus while he spoke, the queen of heaven, enraged,

      And queen of war, in close consult engaged:

      Apart they sit, their deep designs employ,

      And meditate the future woes of Troy.

      Though secret anger swell’d Minerva’s breast,

      The prudent goddess yet her wrath suppress’d;

      But Juno, impotent of passion, broke

      Her sullen silence, and with fury spoke:

      “Shall then, O tyrant of the ethereal reign!

      My schemes, my labours, and my hopes be vain?

      Have I, for this, shook Ilion with alarms,

      Assembled nations, set two worlds in arms?

      To spread the war, I flew from shore to shore;

      The immortal coursers scarce the labour bore.

      At length ripe vengeance o’er their heads impends,

      But Jove himself the faithless race defends.

      Loth as thou