The Iliad of Homer · Homer
BOOK XIV.
War’s toil and trouble are not ours alone,575 But ye shall perish also; mark the man— How sound he sleeps tamed by my conquering arm, Your fellow-warrior Promachus! the debt Of vengeance on my brother’s dear behalf Demanded quick discharge; well may the wish580 Of every dying warrior be to leave A brother living to avenge his fall. He ended, whom the Greeks indignant heard, But chiefly brave Peneleus; swift he rush’d On Acamas; but from before the force585 Of King Peneleus Acamas retired, And, in his stead, Ilioneus he pierced, Offspring of Phorbas, rich in flocks; and blest By Mercury with such abundant wealth As other Trojan none, nor child to him590 His spouse had borne, Ilioneus except. Him close beneath the brow to his eye-roots Piercing, he push’d the pupil from its seat, And through his eye and through his poll the spear Urged furious. He down-sitting on the earth595 Both hands extended; but, his glittering blade Forth-drawn, Peneleus through his middle neck Enforced it; head and helmet to the ground He lopp’d together, with the lance infixt Still in his eye; then like a poppy’s head600 The crimson trophy lifting, in the ears He vaunted loud of Ilium’s host, and cried. Go, Trojans! be my messengers!
Inform The parents of Ilioneus the brave That they may mourn their son through all their house,605 For so the wife of Alegenor’s son Bœotian Promachus must him bewail, Nor shall she welcome his return with smiles Of joy affectionate, when from the shores Of Troy the fleet shall bear us Grecians home.610 He said; fear whiten’d every Trojan cheek, And every Trojan eye with earnest look Inquired a refuge from impending fate. Say now, ye Muses, blest inhabitants Of the Olympian realms! what Grecian first615 Fill’d his victorious hand with armor stript From slaughter’d Trojans, after Ocean’s God Had, interposing, changed the battle’s course? First, Telamonian Ajax Hyrtius slew, Undaunted leader of the Mysian band.620 Phalces and Mermerus their arms resign’d To young Antilochus; Hyppotion fell And Morys by Meriones; the shafts Right-aim’d of Teucer to the shades dismiss’d Prothöus and Periphetes, and the prince625 Of Sparta, Menelaus, in his flank Pierced Hyperenor; on his entrails prey’d The hungry steel, and, through the gaping wound Expell’d, his spirit flew; night veil’d his eyes. But Ajax Oïliades the swift630 Slew most; him none could equal in pursuit Of tremblers scatter’d by the frown of Jove. Jove, awaking and seeing the Trojans routed, threatens Juno. He sends Iris to admonish Neptune to relinquish the battle, and Apollo to restore health to Hector. Apollo armed with the Ægis, puts to flight the Grecians; they are pursued home to their fleet, and Telamonian Ajax slays twelve Trojans bringing fire to burn it.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.