army]; and astonishment seized the horse-breaking Trojans and the well-greaved Greeks, looking on. And thus would one say, looking at some other near him:
"Doubtless evil war and dreadful battle-din will take place again, or Jove is establishing friendship between both sides, he who has been ordained the arbiter of war amongst men." 172
Footnote 172: (return) Duport, Gnom. Hom. p. 20, compares the words of Belisarius in Procop. Vandal. i. Μαχονται μεν ανθρωποι, βραζευει δε ο Θεος οπως ποτε αυτω δοκει, και το του πολεμου δίδωσι κρατος.
Thus then did some one of the Greeks and Trojans say; but she like a hero entered the host of the Trojans, the brave warrior Laodocus, son of Antenor, seeking godlike Pandarus, if anywhere she might find him. She found the blameless and valiant son of Lycaon standing, and around him the brave ranks of shielded warriors, who had followed him from the streams of Æsepus; and standing near, she thus to him spoke winged words:
"Wouldst thou now hearken to me in anything, O warlike son of Lycaon? Thou wouldst venture then to aim a swift arrow at Menelaus. Doubtless thou wouldst bear away both thanks and glory from all the Trojans, but of all, chiefly from the prince Alexander, from whom, indeed, first of all, thou wouldst receive splendid gifts, if he should see martial Menelaus, the son of Atreus, subdued by this weapon, ascending the sad pile. But come, aim an arrow at renowned Menelaus; and vow to Lycian-born 173 Apollo, the renowned archer, that thou wilt sacrifice a splendid hecatomb of firstling lambs, having returned home to the city of sacred Zeleia."
Footnote 173: (return) This is probably the true interpretation, and is given by the Scholiast, Hesychius, and others. But Heraclides, Alleg. § 6, says that Apollo is so called επειδη του κατα την ορθριον ωραν λυκαυγους εστιν αιτιοι, η οτι λυκαζαντα γεννα, τουτεστι τον ενιαυτον. Cf. Macrob. Sat. i. 17; Serv. on Æn. iv. 377.
Thus spoke Minerva, and she persuaded his mind for him, unthinking one. Straightway he uncased his well-polished bow, made from [the horn of] a wild, bounding goat, which he indeed surprising once on a time in ambush, as it was coming out of a cavern, struck, aiming at it beneath the breast; but it fell supine on the rock. Its horns had grown sixteen palms from its head; and these the horn-polishing artist, having duly prepared, fitted together, and when he had well smoothed all, added a golden tip. And having bent the bow, he aptly lowered it, having inclined it against the ground; but his excellent companions held their shields before him, lest the martial sons of the Greeks should rise against him, before warlike Menelaus, the chief of the Greeks, was wounded. Then he drew off the cover of his quiver, and took out an arrow, fresh, winged, a cause of gloomy ills. Forthwith he fitted the bitter arrow to the string, and vowed to Lycian-born Apollo, the renowned archer, that he would sacrifice a splendid hecatomb of firstling lambs, having returned home to the city of sacred Zeleia. Having seized them, he drew together the notch [of the arrow] and the ox-hide string; the string, indeed, he brought near to his breast, and the barb to the bow. But after he had bent the great bow into a circle, the bow twanged, the bowstring rang loudly, and the sharp-pointed shaft bounded forth, impatient to wing its flight through the host.
Nor did the blessed immortal gods forget thee, O Menelaus; 174 but chiefly the spoil-hunting daughter of Jove, who, standing before thee, averted the deadly weapon. She as much repelled it from thy body, as a mother repels a fly from her infant, when it shall have laid itself down in sweet sleep. But she herself guided it to that part where the golden clasps of the girdle bound it, and the double-formed corslet met. 175 The bitter arrow fell on his well-fitted belt, and through the deftly-wrought belt was it driven, and it stuck in the variegated corslet and the brazen-plated belt which he wore, the main defence of his body, a guard against weapons, which protect him most; through even this did it pass onwards, and the arrow grazed the surface of the hero's skin, and straightway black gore flowed from the wound. And as when some Mæonian 176 or Carian woman tinges ivory with purple colour, to be a cheek-trapping for steeds; in her chamber it lies, and many charioteers desire to bear it, but it lies by as an ornament for the king, both as a decoration to the steed, and a glory to the rider: so, Menelaus, were thy well-proportioned thighs, and legs, and fair feet below, stained with gore.
Footnote 174: (return) It is elegantly observed by Coleridge, p. 160, that "it is principally owing to our sense of the dramatic probability of the action of the divinities in the Iliad that the heroes do not seem dwarfed by their protectors; on the contrary, the manifest favourite of the gods stands out in a dilated and more awful shape before our imagination, and seems, by the association, to be lifted up into the demigod."
Footnote 175: (return) "Occurrebat sagittæ, obvius erat ei penetranti."--Heyne. But it is better to understand, "where the plates of the cuirass meet and overlay the ζωμα]."--Arnold.
Footnote 176: (return) I.e. Lydian.
Then Agamemnon, the king of men, shuddered, as he beheld the black gore flowing from the wound, and Mars-beloved Menelaus himself shuddered. But when he saw the string 177 and the barbs still outside, his courage was once more collected in his breast. But Agamemnon, deeply sighing, and holding Menelaus with his hand, spoke thus amidst them, and all his companions kept groaning with him:
Footnote 177: (return) With which the iron head was fastened to the shaft.
"Ο dear brother, now have I ratified a treaty which will prove thy death, exposing thee alone to fight with the Trojans for the Greeks; since the Trojans have thus wounded thee, and trampled on the faithful league. But by no means shall the league and the blood of the lambs be in vain, and the pure libations, and the right hands in which we confided. For even although Olympian Jove has not immediately brought them to pass, he will however bring them to pass at last; and at a great price have they paid the penalty, 178 to wit, with their own heads, and their wives and children. For this I know well in mind and soul. A day will be, when sacred Ilium shall perish, and Priam, and the people of ashen-speared Priam; and when Saturnian Jove, lofty-throned, dwelling in the æther, will himself shake his gloomy ægis over all, wrathful on account of this treachery. These things, indeed, shall not be unaccomplished; but to me there will be grief on thy account, O Menelaus, if thou shalt die and fulfil the fate of life; then, indeed, branded with shame, shall I return to much longed-for Argos. For quickly the Greeks will bethink themselves of their fatherland, and we shall leave Argive Helen a boast to Priam and to the Trojans, and the earth will rot thy bones lying in Troy, near to an unfinished work. And thus will some one of the haughty Trojans exclaim, leaping upon the tomb of glorious Menelaus: 'Would that Agamemnon thus wreaked his vengeance against all, as even now he has led hither an army of the Greeks in vain, and has now returned home into his dear native land, with empty ships, having left behind him brave Menelaus.' Thus will some one hereafter say: then may the wide earth yawn for me."
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