[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
harnessed Xanthus and Balius, two horses that were the children, men said, of the West Wind, and
a led horse was harnessed beside them in the side traces. Meanwhile the two thousand men of
Achilles, who were called Myrmidons, had met in armour, five companies of four hundred apiece,
under five chiefs of noble names. Forth they came, as eager as a pack of wolves that have eaten a
great red deer and run to slake their thirst with the dark water of a well in the hills.
So all in close array, helmet touching helmet and shield touching shield, like a moving wall of
shining bronze, the men of Achilles charged, and Patroclus, in the chariot led the way. Down they
came at full speed on the flank of the Trojans, who saw the leader, and knew the bright armour and
the horses of the terrible Achilles, and thought that he had returned to the war. Then each Trojan
looked round to see by what way he could escape, and when men do that in battle they soon run by
the way they have chosen. Patroclus rushed to the ship of Protesilaus, and slew the leader of the
Trojans there, and drove them out, and quenched the fire; while they of Troy drew back from the
ships, and Aias and the other unwounded Greek princes leaped among them, smiting with sword
and spear. Well did Hector know that the break in the battle had come again; but even so he stood,
and did what he might, while the Trojans were driven back in disorder across the ditch, where the
poles of many chariots were broken and the horses fled loose across the plain.
The horses of Achilles cleared the ditch, and Patroclus drove them between the Trojans and the
wall of their own town, slaying many men, and, chief of all, Sarpedon, king of the Lycians; and
round the body of Sarpedon the Trojans rallied under Hector, and the fight swayed this way and
that, and there was such a noise of spears and swords smiting shields and helmets as when many
woodcutters fell trees in a glen of the hills. At last the Trojans gave way, and the Greeks stripped
the armour from the body of brave Sarpedon; but men say that Sleep and Death, like two winged
angels, bore his body away to his own country. Now Patroclus forgot how Achilles had told him
not to pursue the Trojans across the plain, but to return when he had driven them from the ships.
PAGE 24 OF 52
Free download at www.fabmart .com
On he raced, slaying as he went, even till he reached the foot of the wall of Troy. Thrice he tried to
climb it, but thrice he fell back.
Hector was in his chariot in the gateway, and he bade his squire lash his horses into the war, and
struck at no other man, great or small, but drove straight against Patroclus, who stood and threw a
heavy stone at Hector; which missed him, but killed his charioteer. Then Patroclus leaped on the
charioteer to strip his armour, but Hector stood over the body, grasping it by the head, while
Patroclus dragged at the feet, and spears and arrows flew in clouds around the fallen man. At last,
towards sunset, the Greeks drew him out of the war, and Patroclus thrice charged into the thick of
the Trojans. But the helmet of Achilles was loosened in the fight, and fell from the head of
Patroclus, and he was wounded from behind, and Hector, in front, drove his spear clean through his
body. With his last breath Patroclus prophesied: "Death stands near thee, Hector, at the hands of
noble Achilles." But Automedon was driving back the swift horses, carrying to Achilles the news
that his dearest friend was slain.
After Ulysses was wounded, early in this great battle, he was not able to fight for several days, and,
as the story is about Ulysses, we must tell quite shortly how Achilles returned to the war to take
vengeance for Patroclus, and how he slew Hector. When Patroclus fell, Hector seized the armour
which the Gods had given to Peleus, and Peleus to his son Achilles, while Achilles had lent it to
Patroclus that he might terrify the Trojans. Retiring out of reach of spears, Hector took off his own
armour and put on that of Achilles, and Greeks and Trojans fought for the dead body of Patroclus.
Then Zeus, the chief of the Gods, looked down and said that Hector should never come home out
of the battle to his wife, Andromache. But Hector returned into the fight around the dead Patroclus,
and here all the best men fought, and even Automedon, who had been driving the chariot of
Patroclus. Now when the Trojans seemed to have the better of the fight, the Greeks sent
Antilochus, a son of old Nestor, to tell Achilles that his friend was slain, and Antilochus ran, and
Aias and his brother protected the Greeks who were trying to carry the body of Patroclus back to
the ships.
Swiftly Antilochus came running to Achilles, saying: "Fallen is Patroclus, and they are fighting
round his naked body, for Hector has his armour." Then Achilles said never a word, but fell on the
floor of his hut, and threw black ashes on his yellow hair, till Antilochus seized his hands, fearing
that he would cut his own throat with his dagger, for very sorrow. His mother, Thetis, arose from
the sea to comfort him, but he said that he desired to die if he could not slay Hector, who had slain
his friend. Then Thetis told him that he could not fight without armour, and now he had none; but
she would go to the God of armour-making and bring from him such a shield and helmet and
breastplate as had never been seen by men.
Meanwhile the fight raged round the dead body of Patroclus, which was defiled with blood and
dust, near the ships, and was being dragged this way and that, and torn and wounded. Achilles
could not bear this sight, yet his mother had warned him not to enter without armour the battle
where stones and arrows and spears were flying like hail; and he was so tall and broad that he could
put on the arms of no other man. So he went down to the ditch as he was, unarmed, and as he stood
high above it, against the red sunset, fire seemed to flow from his golden hair like the beacon blaze
that soars into the dark sky when an island town is attacked at night, and men light beacons that
their neighbours may see them and come to their help from other isles. There Achilles stood in a
splendour of fire, and he shouted aloud, as clear as a clarion rings when men fall on to attack a
besieged city wall. Thrice Achilles shouted mightily, and thrice the horses of the Trojans shuddered
PAGE 25 OF 52
Free download at www.fabmart .com
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]