The Iliad. Homer
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Ephyra, by Selles' stream.
Rear'd in the royal house, Tlepolemus,
In early youth, his father's uncle slew,
A warrior once, but now in life's decline,
Lycimnius; then in haste a fleet he built,
Muster'd a num'rous host; and fled, by sea,
The threaten'd vengeance of the other sons
And grandsons of the might of Hercules.
Long wand'rings past, and toils and perils borne,
To Rhodes he came; his followers, by their tribes,
Three districts form'd; and so divided, dwelt,
Belov'd of Jove, the King of Gods and men,
Who show'r'd upon them boundless store of wealth.
Nireus three well-trimm'd ships from Syme brought;
Nireus, to Charops whom Aglaia bore;
Nireus, the goodliest man of all the Greeks,
Who came to Troy, save Peleus' matchless son:
But scant his fame, and few the troops he led.
Who in Nisyrus dwelt, and Carpathus,
And Cos, the fortress of Eurypylus,
And in the Casian and Calydnian Isles,
Were by Phidippus led, and Antiphus,
Two sons of Thessalus, Alcides' son;
With them came thirty ships in order due.
Next those who in Pelasgian Argos dwelt,
And who in Alos, and in Alope,
Trachys, and Phthia, and in Hellas fam'd
For women fair; of these, by various names,
Achaians, Myrmidons, Hellenes, known,
In fifty ships, Achilles was the chief.
But from the battle-strife these all abstain'd,
Since none there was to marshal their array.
For Peleus' godlike son, the swift of foot,
Lay idly in his tent, the loss resenting
Of Brises' fair-hair'd daughter; whom himself
Had chosen, prize of all his warlike toil,
When he Lyrnessus and the walls of Thebes
O'erthrew, and Mynes and Epistrophus
Struck down, bold warriors both, Evenus' sons,
Selepius' royal heir; for her in wrath,
He held aloof, but soon again to appear.
Those in the flow'ry plain of Pyrrhasus,
To Ceres dear, who dwelt; in Phylace,
In Iton, rich in flocks, and, by the sea,
In Antron, and in Pteleon's grass-clad meads;
These led Protesilaus, famed in arms,
While yet he liv'd; now laid beneath the sod.
In Phylace were left his weeping wife,
And half-built house; him, springing to the shore,
First of the Greeks, a Dardan warrior slew.
Nor were his troops, their leader though they mourn'd,
Left leaderless; the post of high command
Podarces claim'd of right, true plant of Mars,
Iphiclus' son, the rich Phylacides;
The brother of Protesilaus he,
Younger in years, nor equal in renown;
Yet of a chief no want the forces felt,
Though much they mourn'd their valiant leader slain.
In his command came forty dark-ribb'd ships.
Those who from Pherae came, beside the lake
Boebeis, and who dwelt in Glaphyrae,
In Boebe, and Iolcos' well-built fort,
These in eleven ships Eumelus led,
Whom Pelias' daughter, fairest of her race,
Divine Alcestis to Admetus bore.
Who in Methone and Thaumacia dwelt,
In Meliboea and Olizon's rock;
These Philoctetes, skilful archer, led.
Sev'n ships were theirs, and ev'ry ship was mann'd
By fifty rowers, skilful archers all.
But he, their chief, was lying, rack'd with pain,
On Lemnos' sacred isle; there left perforce
In torture from a venomous serpent's wound:
There he in anguish lay: nor long, ere Greeks
Of royal Philoctetes felt their need.
Yet were his troops, their leader though they mourn'd,
Not leaderless: Oileus' bastard son,
Medon, of Rhene born, their ranks array'd.
Who in OEchalia, Eurytus' domain,
In Tricca, and in rough Ithome dwelt,
These Podalirius and Machaon led,
Two skilful leeches, AEsculapius' sons.
Of these came thirty ships in order due.
Who in Ormenium and Asterium dwelt,
By Hypereia's fount, and on the heights
Of Titanum's white peaks, of these was chief
Eurypylus, Euaemon's gallant son;
In his command came forty dark-ribb'd ships.
Who in Argissa and Gyrtona dwelt,
Ortha, Elone, and the white-wall'd town
Of Oloosson, Polypoetes led;
Son of Pirithous, progeny of Jove,
A warrior bold; Hippodamia fair
Him to Pirithous bore, what time he slew
The shaggy Centaurs, and from Pelion's heights
For refuge 'mid the rude AEthices drove.
Nor he alone; with him to Troy there came
A scion true of Mars, Leonteus, heir
Of nobly-born Coronus, Caeneus' son.
In their command came forty dark-ribb'd ships.
With two and twenty vessels Gouneus came
From Cythus; he the Enienes led,
And the Peraebians' warlike tribes, and those
Who dwelt around Dodona's wintry heights,
Or till'd the soil upon the lovely banks
Of Titaresius, who to Peneus pours
The tribute of his clearly-flowing stream;
Yet mingles not with Peneus' silver waves,
But on the surface floats like oil, his source
From Styx deriving, in whose awful name
Both Gods and men by holiest oaths are bound.
Magnesia's troops, who dwelt by Peneus' stream,
Or beneath Pelion's leafy-quiv'ring shades,
Swift-footed Prothous led, Tenthredon's son;
In his command came forty dark-ribb'd ships.
These were the leaders and the chiefs of Greece:
Say, Muse, of these, who with th' Atridae came,
Horses and men, who claim'd the