The Iliad: Book 15

I wouldn't be surprised, my Queen, if you were the first
to reap the pernicious whirlwind you have sown

And the mighty gods on steep Olympus raged away,
impotent—what could they do to set you free?

You with the North Wind's help had coaxed the gales
to send him scudding over the barren salt sea

Down from the gods you came to waylay me

Earth be my witness now, the vaulting Sky above
and the dark cascading waters of the Styx—I swear
by the greatest, grimmest oath that binds the happy gods!

Now, if in the years to come
you will accord with me, my wide-eyed Queen,
throned with me in the gods' decisive sessions,
then Poseidon, bent as he is to go his own way,
must change at once and wrench his will to ours,
to yours and mine united.

You know his rage yourself. So rigid, unrelenting.

With those bleak words Queen Hera took her seat.

What's your pleasure? To fill your own cup of pain
then slink back to Olympus, whipped and fuming—forced?

Ah but how it galls me, it wounds me to the quick
when the Father tries to revile me with brute abuse

But Thoas son of Andraemon spurred them on,
Aetolia's best by far, skilled with the spear,
superb at cut-and-thrust
and few Achaeans could put him down in debate
when the young men vie and struggle over points.

Teucer, Meriones and Meges a match for Ares
closed tight for the onset, calling all their best
to brace and face Prince Hector and Hector's Trojans.

But packed in a mass the Trojans came on pounding,
Hector leading the way with long, leaping strides
and heading the van in person came the god Apollo,
shoulders wrapped in cloud, gripping the storm-shield,
the tempest terror, dazzling, tassels flaring along its front

But none as rapt as Nestor, Achaea's watch and ward,
who stretched his hands to the starry skies and prayed

Trojans from lurching cars but Achaeans from high decks

Trojans from lurching cars but Achaeans from high decks
scrambling aloft black hulls, lunged down with the long pikes—
jointed and clinched and tipped with ripping bronze

But Hector, seeing Teucer's arrows in disarray,
let fly a resounding shout to all his units

Easy to see what help Zeus lends to mortals,
either to those he gives surpassing glory
or those he saps and wastes, refuses to defend

He'll leave behind him wife and sons unscathed,
his house and estate unharmed

Dolops quickly went for Meges at close range,
he speared his bulging shield
but the solid breastplate warded off the blow

But Hector rebuked him now, shouting out his name:
"Melanippus—how can we take things lying down this way?..."

Antilochus hit Hicetaon's son,
impetuous Melanippus sweeping into battle

Quick as that fighter was, he could not hold his ground,
not there—he turned tail and broke like a rogue beast
that's done some serious damage

The foam flecked his mouth and his eyes shot flame

Ajax skilled as a show-rider, a virtuoso horseman
who picks from the herd four stallions, yokes them tight
and galloping off the plain comes racing toward a large city