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When Morning, clad in her robe of saffron, had begun to suffuse light over the earth, Jove [Enlil] called the gods in council on the topmost crest of serrated Olympus.
Hear me, alien gods and goddesses. Obey me that I may bring this matter to an end.
If I see anyone acting apart and helping either Trojans or Danaans, he shall be beaten inordinately and come back again to Olympus.
I will hurl him down into dark Tartarus far into the deepest pit under the earth, where the gates are iron and the floor bronze, as far beneath Hades as heaven is high above the earth, that you may learn how much the mightiest I am among you.
Try me and find out for yourselves.
They were frightened and all of them of held their peace, for he had spoken masterfully.
With this he yoked his fleet horses, with hoofs of bronze and manes of glittering gold [light-based propulsion].
He girded himself also with gold about the body, seized his gold whip and took his seat in his chariot.
Thereon he lashed his horses and they flew forward between earth and the starry heaven.
After a while he reached mount Ida and its peak Gargarus, where are his grove and fragrant altar.
There, Jove men stayed his horses [propulsion], took them from the chariot, and hid them in a thick cloud.
- Then he took his seat all glorious upon the topmost crests, looking down on the city of Troy and the ships of the Achaeans.
The Achaeans took their morning meal hastily at the ships, and then put on their armour.
The Trojans likewise armed themselves throughout the city, fewer in numbers but nevertheless eager perforce to do battle for their wives and children.
All the gates were flung wide open, and horse and foot sallied forth.
Shield clashed with shield, and spear with spear, in the conflict of mail-clad men.
- The earth ran red with blood.
Jove balanced his golden scales, and put two fates of death within them:
- one for the Trojans
- the other for the Achaeans
He took the balance by the middle, and when he lifted it up the day of the Achaeans sank.
The death-fraught scale of the Achaeans settled down upon the ground, while that of the Trojans rose heavenwards.
Then he thundered aloud from Ida, and sent the glare of his lightning on the Achaeans.
When they saw this, pale fear fell upon them and they were sore afraid.
Idomeneus dared not stay nor yet Agamemnon, nor did the two Ajaxes, servants of Mars, hold their ground.
Alexandrus, husband of lovely Helen, had hit one of Nestor’s horses with an arrow and disabled it.
- The horse bounded in his anguish as the arrow pierced his brain, and his struggles threw others into confusion.
The old man instantly began cutting the traces with his sword.
Diomed with a loud cry called Ulysses to help him.
Ulysses, noble son of Laertes where are you flying to, with your back turned like a coward?
See that you are not struck with a spear between the shoulders. Stay here and help me to defend Nestor from this man’s furious onset.
Ulysses would not listen, but sped to the ships of the Achaeans. Hector flung himself alone into the thick of the fight.
Sir, these young warriors are pressing you hard. Your force is spent, and age is heavy on you, your squire is naught, and your horses are slow to move.
Mount my chariot and see what the horses of Tros can do. I took them from the hero Aeneas.
Let our squires attend to your own steeds, but let us drive mine straight at the Trojans, that Hector may learn how furiously I too can wield my spear.
Nestor knight of Gerene hearkened to his words.
Thereon the doughty squires, Sthenelus and kind-hearted Eurymedon, saw to Nestor’s horses, while the two both mounted Diomed’s chariot.
Nestor took the reins in his hands and lashed the horses on. They were soon close up with Hector, and Diomed aimed a spear at him as he was charging full speed towards them.
He missed him, but struck his charioteer and squire Eniopeus, son of noble Thebaeus, in the breast by the nipple while the reins were in his hands, so that he died there and then.
- The horses swerved as he fell headlong from the chariot.
Hector was greatly grieved at the loss of his charioteer, but let him lie for all his sorrow, while he went in quest of another driver; nor did his steeds have to go long without one, for he presently found brave Archeptolemus the son of Iphitus, and made him get up behind the horses, giving the reins into his hand.
All had then been lost and no help for it, for they would have been penned up in Ilius like sheep, had not the sire of gods and men been quick to mark, and hurled a fiery flaming thunderbolt which fell just in front of Diomed’s horses with a flare of burning brimstone.
The horses were frightened and tried to back beneath the car, while the reins dropped from Nestor’s hands.
Then he was afraid and said to Diomed:
Son of Tydeus, turn your horses in flight. Do you not see that the hand of Jove is against you?
Today he vouchsafes victory to Hector. Tomorrow, if it so please him, he will again grant it to ourselves; no man, however brave, may thwart the purpose of Jove, for he is far stronger than any.
Nestor turned the horses back through the thick of the battle, and with a cry that rent the air the Trojans and Hector rained their darts after them.
Diomed, the Danaans have done you honour hitherto as regards your place at table, the meals they give you, and the filling of your cup with wine.
Henceforth they will despise you, for you are become no better than a woman. Be off, girl and coward that you are, you shall not scale our walls through any flinching upon my part; neither shall you carry off our wives in your ships, for I shall kill you with my own hand.”
Diomed could not decide whether to turn his horses round again and fight him.
Thrice did he doubt, and thrice did Jove thunder from the heights of Ida in token to the Trojans that he would turn the battle in their favour.
Hector then shouted to them and said:
Trojans, Lycians, and Dardanians, lovers of close fighting, be men, my friends, and fight with might and with main. Jove is minded to vouchsafe victory and great glory to myself, while he will deal destruction upon the Danaans.
Fools, for having thought of building this weak and worthless wall. It shall not stay my fury; my horses will spring lightly over their trench, and when I am at their ships forget not to bring me fire that I may burn them, while I slaughter the Argives who will be all dazed and bewildered by the smoke.”
Then he cried to his horses:
Xanthus and Podargus, and you Aethon and goodly Lampus, pay me for your keep now and for all the honey-sweet corn with which Andromache daughter of great Eetion has fed you, and for she has mixed wine and water for you to drink whenever you would, before doing so even for me who am her own husband.
Haste in pursuit, that we may take the shield of Nestor, the fame of which ascends to heaven, for it is of solid gold, arm-rods and all, and that we may strip from the shoulders of Diomed the cuirass which Vulcan made him. Could we take these two things, the Achaeans would set sail in their ships this self-same night.”
Thus did he vaunt, but Queen Juno [Ninlil] made high Olympus quake as she shook with rage upon her throne.
Then said she to the mighty god of Neptune [Enki]:
King Neptune was greatly troubled and answered:
The whole space enclosed by the ditch, from the ships even to the wall, was filled with horses and warriors, who were pent up there by Hector son of Priam, now that the hand of Jove was with him.
He would even have set fire to the ships and burned them, had not Queen Juno put it into the mind of Agamemnon to encourage the Achaeans.
To this end he went round the ships and tents carrying a great purple cloak, and took his stand by the huge black hull of Ulysses’ ship, which was middlemost of all.
It was from this place that his voice would carry farthest:
- on the one hand towards the tents of Ajax
- on the other towards those of Achilles
These 2 heroes had valorously drawn up their ships at the two ends of the line.
From this spot then, with a voice that could be heard afar, he shouted to the Danaans, saying:
Argives, shame on you cowardly creatures, brave in semblance only; where are now our vaunts that we should prove victorious—the vaunts we made so vaingloriously in Lemnos, when we ate the flesh of horned cattle and filled our mixing-bowls to the brim?
You vowed that you would each of you stand against 100-200 men. Now you prove no match even for one—for Hector, who will be ere long setting our ships in a blaze.
Father Jove, did you ever so ruin a great king and rob him so utterly of his greatness?
Yet, when to my sorrow I was coming hither, I never let my ship pass your altars without offering the fat and thigh-bones of heifers upon every one of them, so eager was I to sack the city of Troy. Vouchsafe me then this prayer—suffer us to escape at any rate with our lives, and let not the Achaeans be so utterly vanquished by the Trojans.”
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