book six silver grim encounter of achaeans and trojans was left to itself and the battle veered greatly now one way now and another over the plane as they guided their bronze spears at each other in the space between the waters of xanthos and simoys first telemonian ios that bastion of the akians broke the trojan battalions and brought light to his own company striking down the man who was far the best of the thracians achamas the huge and mighty the son of elsaros throwing first he struck the horn of the horse-haired helmet and the bronze spear point fixed in his forehead and drove inward through the bone and a mist of darkness clouded both his eyes diameters of the great war cry cut down axulos tothra's son who had been a dweller and strong-founded arisbe a man rich in substance and a friend to all humanity since in his house by the wayside he entertained all comers yet there was none of these now to stand before him and keep off the sad destruction and diameters stripped the life from both of them axolos and his henchmen callesios who was the driver guiding his horses so down to the underworld went both men now yurijalos slaughtered offeltos and dressos and went in pursuit of isopros and padasos those whom the nayad nymph had born to blameless blue color on bukolaon himself was the son of hottie leomidon eldest born but his mother conceived him in darkness and secrecy while shepherding his flocks he lay with the nymph and loved her and she conceiving bore him twin boys but now machistao's son on strong the strength of these and the limbs in their glory urialos and stripped the armor away from their shoulders polo poitus the stubborn in battle cut down asto allos qualo de sous slaughtered one from percote peditus with the bronze spear and the great aration was killed by tau cross nestor's son antillicus with a shining shaft killed ablaros the lord of men agamemnon brought death to el latos whose home had been on the shores of satnet or ace lovely waters sheer pedastos and latos the fighter caught full of course as he ran away and yuri pilos made an end of melanchols now manilas of the great war cry captured addressed us alive for his two horses bolting over the level land got entangled in a tamarisk growth and shattered the curving chariot at the tip of the pole so that they broken free went on toward the city where many beside stampeded in terror so adrestos was whirled beside the wheel from the chariot headlong into the dust on his face and the son of atreus menelaus with the foreshadowed spear in his hand stood over him but addressed us catching him by the knees supplicated take me alive son of atreus and take appropriate ransom in my rich father's house the treasures lie piled in abundance bronze is there and gold and difficulty wrought iron and my father would make you glad with abundant repayment for he to hear that i am alive by the ships of the achaeans so he spoke and moved the spirit inside menelaus and now he was on the point of handing him to a henchman to lead back to the fast akin ships but agamemnon came on the run to join him and spoke his word of argument dear brother menelaus are you concerned so tenderly with these people did you in your house get the best of treatment from the trojans no let not one of them go free of sudden death and our hands not the young man child that the mother carries still in her body not even he but let all of illion's people perish utterly blotted out and unmourned for the hero spoke like this and bent the heart of his brother since he urged justice menelaus shoved with his hand and dressed us the warrior back from him and powerful agamemnon stabbed him in the side and as he writhed over tradies setting his heel upon the midriff wrenched out the ash spear now store in a great voice cried out to the men of argos oh beloved on fighters henchmen of aries let no man anymore hang back with his eye on the plunder designing to take all the spoil he can gather back to the vessels let us kill the men now and afterwards at your leisure all along the plane you can plunder the perished corpses so he spoke and stirred the spirit and strength in each man then once more would the trojans have climbed back into illion's wall subdued by terror before the warlike achaeans had not priam's son hellenos best by far of the augurs stood beside aeneas and hector and spoken a word to them hector and aeneas on you beyond others is leaning the battle work of trojans and lycans since you are our greatest in every course we take whether it be in thought or in fighting stand your ground here visit your people everywhere hold them fast by the gates before they tumble into their women's arms and to come to our enemies a thing to take joy in afterwards when you have set all the battalions in motion the rest of us will stand fast here and fight with the denials though we are very hard hit indeed necessity forces us but you hector go back again to the city there tell your mother and mine to assemble all the ladies of honor that the temple of grey-eyed athena high on the citadel their opening with the key the door to the sacred chamber let her take a robe which seems to her the largest and loveliest in the great house and that which is far her dearest possession and lay it along the knees of athena the lovely haired let her promise to dedicate within the shrine twelve heifers yearlings never broken if only she will have pity on the town of troy and the trojan wives and their innocent children so she might hold back from sacred illion the son of tight dares that wild spear fighter the strong one who drives men to thoughts of terror who i say now is become the strongest of all the achaeans but never did we so fear achilles even that leader of men who they say was born of a goddess this man has gone clean berserk so that no one can match his warcraft against him so he spoke and hector did not disobey his brother but at once in all his armor left to the ground from his chariot and shaking two sharp spears in his hands ranged over the whole host stirring them up to fight and waking the ghastly warfare so they whirled about and stood their ground against the achaeans and the archives gave way backward and stopped their slaughtering and thought some one of the immortals must have descended from the starry sky to stand with the trojans the way they rallied but hector lifted his voice and cried aloud to the trojans you high-hearted trojans and far renowned companions be men now dear friends and remember your furious valor until i can go back again to illion and there tell the elder men who sit as counselors and our own wives to make their prayer to the immortals and promise them hector tunes so spoke hector of the shining hill and departed and against his ankles as against his neck clashed the dark ox hide the rim running round the edge of the great shield massive in the middle now glaucos sprung of hippolocos and the son of tydeus came together in the space between the two armies battle bent now as these advancing came to one place and encountered first to speak was diameters of the great war cry who among mortal men are you good friend since never before have i seen you in the fighting where men win glory yet now you have come striding far out in front of all others in your great heart who have dared to stand up to my spear foreshadowing yet unhappy are those whose sons match warcraft against me but if you are someone of the immortals come down from the bright sky know that i will not fight against any god of heaven since even the son of dries like urgos the powerful did not live long he who tried to fight with the gods of the bright sky who once drove the fosterers of rapturous dionysus headlong down the sacred nicean hill and all of them shed and scattered their wands on the ground stricken with an ox goad by murderers like fergus while dionysus in terror dived into the salt surf and thetis took him to her bosom frightened with his strong shivers upon him at the man's blustering but the gods who live at their ease were angered with lycognus and son of chronos struck him to blindness nor did he live long afterwards he was hated by all the immortals therefore neither would i be willing to fight with the blessed gods but if you are one of those mortals who eat what the soil yields come nearer so that sooner you may reach your appointed destruction then in turn the shining sun of hippolocos answered i hearted son of tidalus why ask of my generation as is the generation of leaves so is that of humanity the wind scatters the leaves on the ground but the live timber virgins with leaves again in the season of spring returning so one generation of men will grow while another dies but if you wish to learn all this and be certain of my genealogy there are plenty of men who know it there is a city efure in the corner of horse pasturing argos there lived sisyphus that sharpest of all men sisyphus by your lost son and he had a son named glaucos and glaucos in turn sired belarofontes the blameless to belarofontes the gods granted beauty and desirable manhood but protoss in anger devised evil things against him and drove him out of his own domain since he was far greater from the archive country zeus had broken to the sway of his scepter beautiful antea the wife of protoss was stricken with passion to lie in love with him and yet she could not beguile valiant belarofontes whose will was virtuous so she went to protest the king and uttered her falsehood would you be killed opreutos then murder belarofontes who tried to lie with me in love though i was unwilling so she spoke and anger took hold of the king at her story he shrank from killing him since his heart was bored by such action but sent him away to like you and handed him murderous symbols which he inscribed in a folding tablet enough to destroy life and told him to show it to his wife's father that he might perish below fontes went to lykia in the blameless convoy of the gods when he came to the running stream of santhos and lakia the lord wide likely attended him full-hearted honor nine days he entertained him with sacrifice of nine oxen but afterwards when the rose fingers of the tenth dawn showed then he began to question him and asked to be shown the symbols whatever he might be carrying from his son-in-law protoss then after he had been given his son-in-law's wicked symbols first he sent him away with orders to kill the shimira none might approach a thing of immortal make not human lying fronted and snake behind a goat in the middle and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire he killed the shamira obeying the portents of the immortals next after this he fought against the glorious solemoid and this he thought was the strongest battle with men that he entered the third he slaughtered the amazons who fight men in battle now as he came back the king spun another entangling treachery for choosing the bravest men in wide lykia he laid a trap but these men never came home thereafter since all of them were killed by blameless bellerophontes and when the king knew him for the powerful stock of the god he detained him there and offered him the hand of his daughter and gave him half of all the kingly privilege there too the men of lykia cut out a piece of land surpassing all others fine plow land and orchard for him to administer his bride bore three children to valley and belarus fontes is andros and hippolocos and leia dania leoda maya lay in love besides zeus of the councils and before him god-like sarpedan of the brazen helmet but after belarus was hated by all the immortals he wandered alone about the plane of a laos eating his heart out skulking aside from the trodden track of humanity as for his andros his son aerys the insatia to fight and killed him in close battle against the glorious solomon while artemis of the golden reigns killed the daughter in anger but hippolocos begot me and i claim that he is my father he sent me to troy and urged upon me repeated injunctions to be always among the bravest and hold my head above others not shaming the generation of my fathers who were the greatest men in ephrata and again in wide like yeah such is my generation and the blood i claim to be born from he spoke and diamonds of the great war cry was gladdened he drove his spear deep into the prospering earth and in winning words of friendliness he spoke to the shepherd of the people see now you are my guest friend from far in the time of our fathers brilliant once was host to belarus the blameless in his pauls and twenty days he detained him and they still gave to each other fine gifts and token of friendship oy neos gave his guest a war belt bright with the red dye bella rofontes a golden and double-handled drinking cup a thing i left behind in my house when i came on my journey thai deus though i cannot remember since i was little when he left me that time the people of the akins perished in cebe therefore i am your friend and host in the heart of argos you are mine in lyq when i come to your country let us avoid each other's spears even in the close fighting there are plenty of trojans and famed companions in battle for me to kill whom the god sends me for those i run down with my swift feet but many akins for you to slaughter if you can do it but let us exchange our armor so that these others may know how we claim to be guests and friends from the days of our fathers so they spoke and both springing down from behind their horses gripped each other's hands and exchanged the promise of friendship but zeus the son of chronos stole away the wheats of glaucus who exchanged with diameters the sum of tidal's armor of gold for bronze for nine oxens worth the worth of a hundred now as hector had come to the sky and gates and the oak tree all the wives of the trojans and their daughters came running about him to ask after their sons after their brothers and neighbors their husbands and he told them to pray to the immortals all in turn but there were sorrows in store for many now he entered the wonderfully built palace of priam this was fashioned with smooth stone cloister walks and within it were embodied 50 sleeping chambers of smooth stone built so as to connect with each other and within these slept each beside his own wedded wife the sons of pryan in the same inner court on the opposite side to face these lay the twelve close smooth stone sleeping chambers of his daughters built so as to connect with each other and within these slept each by his own modest wife the lords of the daughters of pryan there there came to meet hector his bountiful mother with leo dickey the loveliest looking of all her daughters she clung to his hand and called him by name and spoke to him why then child have you come here and left behind the bold battle surely it is these accursed sons of the akins who wear you out as they fight close to the city and the spirits stirred you to return and from the peak of the citadel lift your hands praying to zeus but stay while i bring you honey sweet wine to pour out a libation to father zeus and the other immortals first and afterwards if you will drink yourself be strengthened in a tired man wine will bring back his strength to its bigness in a man tired as you are tired defending your neighbors tall hector of the shining helm spoke to her answering my honored mother lived not to me the kindly sweet wine for fear you stagger my strength and make me forget my courage and with hands unwashed i would take shame to pour the glittering wine to zeus there is no means for a man to pray to the dark misted son of chronos with blood and muck all spattered upon him but go yourself to the temple of the spoiler athena assembling the ladies of honor and with things to be sacrificed and take a robe which seems to you the largest and loveliest to the great house and that which is far your dearest possession lay this along the knees of athena the lovely haired also promised to dedicate within the shrine 12 heifers yearlings never broken if only she will have pity on the town of troy and the trojan wives and their innocent children if she will hold back from sacred illion the son of tydeus that wild spear fighter the strong one who drives men to thoughts of terror so go yourself to the temple of the spoiler athena while i go in search of paris to call him if he will listen to anything i tell him how i wish at this moment the earth might open beneath him the olympian let him live a great sorrow to the trojans and high-hearted priam and all of his children if only i could see him gone down to the house of the death god then i could say my heart had forgotten its joyless affliction so he spoke and she going into the great house called out to her handmaidens who assembled throughout the city the high highborne women while she descended into the fragrant store chamber there lay the elaborately wrought robes the work of sidonian women whom alexandros himself the godlike had brought home from the land of sidon crossing the wide sea on that journey when he brought back also gloriously descended helen hekabe lifted out one and took it as a gift to athena that which was the loveliest in design and the largest and shawn like a star it lay beneath the others she went on her way and a throng of noble women hastened about her when these had come to athena's temple on the peak of the citadel therano of the fair cheeks opened the door for them daughter of kissels and wife of antenor breaker of horses she whom the trojans had established to be athena's priestess with a wailing cry all lifted up their hands to athena and there are no of the fair cheeks taking up the robe laded along the knees of athena the lovely hair and praying she supplicated the daughter of powerful zeus o lady athena our city's defenders shining among goddesses break the spear of diomedes and grant that the man be hurled on his face in front of the sky and gates so may we instantly dedicate within your shrine 12 efforts yearlings never broken if only you will have pity on the town of troy and the trojan wives and their innocent children she spoke in prayer but palace athena turned her head from her so they made their prayer to the daughter of zeus the powerful but hector went away to the house of alexandros a splendid place he had built himself with the men who at that time were the best men for craftsmanship in the generous troad who had made him a sleeping room and a hall and a courtyard near the houses of hector and priam on the peak of the citadel there entered hector beloved of zeus in his hand holding the 11 cubit long spear whose shaft was tipped with a shining bronze spearhead and a ring of gold was hooped to hold it he found the man in his chamber busy with his splendid armor the courselet and the shield and turning in his hands the curved bow while helen of argos was sitting among her attendant women directing the magnificent work done by her handmaidens but hector saw him and in words of shame he rebuked him strange man it is not fair to keep in your heart this coldness the people are dying around the city and around the steep wall as they fight hard and it is for you that this war with its climber has flared up about our city you yourself would fight with another whom you saw anywhere hanging back from the hateful encounter up then to keep our town from burning at once in the hot fire then an answer the godlike alexandros spoke to him hector seeing you have scolded me rightly not beyond measure therefore i will tell and you in turn understand and listen it was not so much in coldness and bitter will toward the trojan that i sat in my room but i wish to give myself over to sorrow but just now with soft words my wife was winning me over and urging me into the fight in that way seems to me also the better one victory passes back and forth between men come then wait for me now while i put on my armor of battle or go and i will follow and i think i can overtake you he spoke but hector of the shining helm gave him no answer but helen spoke to him in words of endearment brother by marriage to me who am a nasty [ __ ] evil intriguing how i wish that on that day when my mother first bore me the foul whirlwind of the storm had caught me away and swept me to the mountain or into the wash of the sea deep thundering with waves would have swept me away before all these things had happened that since the gods had broadened about that these vile things must be i wish i had been the wife of a better man than this is one who knew modesty and all things of shame that men say but this man's heart is no steadfast thing nor yet will it be so ever hereafter for that i think he shall take the consequence but come now come in and rest on this chair my brother since it is on your heart beyond all that the hard work has fallen for the sake of dishonored me and the blind act of alexandros us too on whom zeus sent a vile destiny so that hereafter we shall be made into things of song for men of the future then tall hector of the shining helm answered her do not helen make me sit with you though you love me you will not persuade me already my heart within is hastening me to defend the trojans who when i am away long greatly to have me rather rouse this man and let himself also be swift to action so he may overtake me while i am still in the city for i am going first to my own house so i can visit my own people my beloved wife and my son who is little since i do not know if ever again i shall come back this way or whether the gods will strike me down at the hands of your kids so speaking hector of the shining helm departed and in speed made his way to his own well-established dwelling but failed to find in the house and drama kay of the white arms for she with the child and followed by one fair-robed attendant had taken her place on the tower in lamentation and tearful when he saw no sign of his perfect wife within the house hector stopped in his way on the threshold and spoke among the handmaidens come then tell me truthfully as you may have maidens where has andromeda gave the white arms gone is she with any of the sisters of her lord for the wives of his brothers or has she gone to the house of athena where all the other lovely haired women of troy propitiate the grim goddess then in turn the hard-working housekeeper gave him an answer hector since you have urged me to tell you the truth she is not with any of the sisters of her lord or the wives of his brothers nor has she gone to the house of athena where all the other lovely haired women of troy propitiate the grim goddess but she has gone to the great bastion of alien because she heard that the trojans [Music] were losing and great grew the strength of the achaeans therefore she has gone in speed to the wall like a woman gone mad and the nurse attending her carries the baby so the housekeeper spoke and hector hastened from his home backward by the way he had come through the well-laid streets so as he had come to the gates on his way through the great city the sky in gates whereby he would issue into the plane there at last his own generous wife came running to meet him and drama kay the daughter of high-hearted aetheon who had dwelt underneath wooden plaques it was his daughter who was given to hector of the bronze helm she came to him there and beside her went an attendant carrying the boy in the fold of her bosom a little child only a baby hector's son the admired beautiful as a star shiny whom hector called skamandre but all of the others astayanaks lord of the city since hector alone saved illion hector smiled in silence as he looked on his son but she and drummake stood close beside him letting her tears fall and clung to his hand and called him by name and spoke to him dearest with your own great strength will you be our death and you have no pity on your little son nor on me ill-starred who soon must be your widow for presently the achaeans gathering together will set upon you and kill you and for me it would be far better to sink into the earth when i have lost you for there is no other consolation for me after you have gone to your destiny only grief since i have no father no honored mother it was brilliant achilles who slew my father aetheon when he stormed the strong founded citadel of the killikians theybe of the towering gates he killed aetheon but did not strip his armor for his heart respected the dead man but burn the body and all this elaborate war gear and pile the grave mound over it then the nymphs of the mountains daughters of zeus of the aegis planted elm trees about it and they who were my seven brothers in the great house all went upon a single day down into the house of the death god for swift-footed brilliant achilles slaughtered all of them as they were tending their white sheep and their lumbering oxen and when he had led my mother who was queen under wooded placos here along with all his other possessions achilles released her again accepting ransom beyond count but artemis of the showering arrows struck her down in the halls of her father hector bless you are father to me and my honored mother you are my brother and you it is who are my young husband please take pity upon me and stay here on the rampart that you may not leave your child an orphan your wife a widow but draw your people up by the fig tree there where the city is openest to attack and where the wall may be mounted three times their bravest came that way and fought there to storm it about the two iontes and renona de domineus about the two are trade i and the fighting son of tydeus either some man well skilled in prophetic arts had spoken or the very spirit within themselves and stirred them to onslaught then tall hector the shining hell answered her [Music] all these things are in my mind also lady yet i would feel deep shame before the trojans and the trojan women with their trailing garments if like a coward i were to shrink aside from the fighting and the spirit will not let me since i have learned to be valiant and to fight always among the foremost ranks of the trojans winning for my own self great glory and for my father for i know this thing well in my heart and my mind knows it there will come a day when sacred illion shall perish and brian and the people of priam of the great ash spear but it is not so much the pain to come of the trojans that troubles me not even of prime the king nor hekabay not the thought of my brothers who in their numbers and valor shall drop in the dust under the hands of men who hate them as troubles neither thought of you when some bronze armor decaying leads you off taking away your day of liberty in tears and in argos you must work the loom of another and carry water from the spring messaius or hyperraia all unwilling but strong will be the necessity upon you and someday seeing you shedding tears a man will save you this is the wife of hector who was ever the bravest fighter of all the trojans breakers of horses in the days when they fought about ilion so one will speak of you and for you it will be a fresh grief to be widowed such a man who could fight off the day of your slavery but may i be dead and the piled earth hide me under before i hear you crying and know by this that they dragged you captive so speaking glorious hector held out his arms to his baby who shrank back to his fair girdled nurse's bosom screaming and frightened at the aspect of his own father terrified as he saw the bronze and the crest with his horse hair nodding dreadfully as he thought from the peak of the helmet then his beloved father laughed out and his honored mother and at once glorious hector lifted from his head the helmet and laid it in all its shining upon the ground then taking up his dear son he tossed him about in his arms and kissed him and lifted his voice in prayer to zeus and the other immortals zeus and you are the immortals grant that this boy who is my son may be as i am preeminent among the trojans great in strength as i am and rule strongly over alien and someday let them save him he is better by far than his father as he comes in from the fighting and let him kill his enemy and bring home the blooded spoils and delight the heart of his mother so speaking he set his child again in the arms of his beloved wife who took him back again to her fragrant bosom smiling in her tears and her husband saw and took pity upon her and stroked her with his hand and called her by name and spoke to her poor andromache why does your heart sorrow so much for me no man is going to hurl me to hades unless it is fatal but as for fate i think that no man yet has escaped it once it has taken its first form neither brave man nor coward go therefore back to our house and take up your own work the loom and the distaff and see to it that your handmaidens fly their work also but the men must see to the fighting all men who are the people of ilion but i beyond others so glorious hector spoke and again took up the helmet with its crest of horse hair while his beloved wife went homeward turning to look back on the way letting the live tears fall and as she came in speed into the well-settled household of hector the slayer of men she found numbers of handmaidens within and her coming stirred all of them into lamentation so they mourned in his house over hector while he was living still for they thought he would never again come back from the fighting alive escaping the aquian hands and their violence but paris in turn did not linger long in his high house but when he had put on his glorious armor with bronze elaborate he ran in the confidence of his quick feet through the city as when some stalled horse who has been corn fed at the manger breaking free of his rope gallops over the plane in thunder to here's a custom bathing place in a sweet running river and in the pride of his strength holes high his head and the maid floats over his shoulders sure of his glorious strength the quick knees carry him to the loved places and the pastor of horses so from uttermost pergamos came paris the son of priam shining in all his armor of war as the sun shines laughing aloud and his quick feet carried him suddenly thereafter he came on brilliant hector his brother where he yet lingered before turning away from the place where he had talked with his lady it was alexandros the godlike who spoke first to him brother i fear that i have held back your haste by being slow on the way not coming in time as you commanded me then tall hector of the shining helm spoke to him and strange man there is no way that one giving judgment in fairness could dishonor your work in battle since you are a strong man but of your own accord you hang back unwilling and my heart is grieved in its thought when i hear shameful things spoken about you by the trojans who undergo hard fighting for your sake let us go now someday hereafter we will make it all right with the immortal gods in the sky if zeus ever granted setting up to them in our houses the wine bowl of liberty after we have driven out of troy the strong grieved accused end of book six