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ans were struck with awe as they beheld, and one would turn to his neighbour,
saying, ‘Either we shall again have war and din of combat, or Jove the lord of
battle will now make peace between us.’ Thus did they converse. Then Minerva
took the form of Laodocus, son of Antenor, and went through the ranks of the
Trojans to find Pandarus, the redoubtable son of Lycaon. She found him standing
among the stalwart heroes who had followed him from the banks of the Aesopus, so
she went close up to him and said, ‘Brave son of Lycaon, will you do as I tell
you? If you dare send an arrow at Menelaus you will win honour and thanks from
all the Trojans, and especially from prince Alexandrus—he would be the first to
requite you very handsomely if he could see Menelaus mount his funeral pyre,
slain by an arrow from your hand. Take your home aim then, and pray to Lycian
Apollo, the famous archer; vow that when you get home to your strong city of
Zelea you will offer a hecatomb of firstling lambs in Free eBooks at Planet
eBook.com 65 his honour.’ His fool’s heart was persuaded, and he took his bow
from its case. This bow was made from the horns of a wild ibex which he had
killed as it was bounding from a rock; he had stalked it, and it had fallen as
the arrow struck it to the heart. Its horns were sixteen palms long, and a
worker in horn had made them into a bow, smoothing them well down, and giving
them tips of gold. When Pandarus had strung his bow he laid it carefully on the
ground, and his brave followers held their shields before him lest the Achaeans
should set upon him before he had shot Menelaus. Then he opened the lid of his
quiver and took out a winged arrow that had not yet been shot, fraught with the
pangs of death. He laid the arrow on the string and prayed to Lycian Apollo, the
famous archer, vowing that when he got home to his strong city of Zelea he would
offer a hecatomb of firstling lambs in his honour. He laid the notch of the
arrow on the oxhide bowstring, and drew both notch and string to his breast till
the arrow-head was near the bow; then when the bow was arched into a half-circle
he let fly, and the bow twanged, and the string sang as the arrow flew gladly on
over the heads of the throng. But the blessed gods did not forget thee, O
Menelaus, and Jove’s daughter, driver of the spoil, was the first to stand
before thee and ward off the piercing arrow. She turned it from his skin as a
mother whisks a fly from off her child when it is sleeping sweetly; she guided
it to the part where the golden buckles of the belt that passed over his double
cuirass were fastened, so the arrow struck the belt that went 66 The Iliad
tightly round him. It went right through this and through the cuirass of cunning
workmanship; it also pierced the belt beneath it, which he wore next his skin to
keep out darts or arrows; it was this that served him in the best stead,
nevertheless the arrow went through it and grazed the top of the skin, so that
blood began flowing from the wound. As when some woman of Meonia or Caria
strains purple dye on to a piece of ivory that is to be the cheek-piece of a
horse, and is to be laid up in a treasure house—many a knight is fain to bear
it, but the king keeps it as an ornament of which both horse and driver may be
proud—even so, O Menelaus, were your shapely thighs and your legs down to your
fair ancles stained with blood. When King Agamemnon saw the blood flowing from
the wound he was afraid, and so was brave Menelaus himself till he saw that the
barbs of the arrow and the thread that bound the arrow-head to the shaft were
still outside the wound. Then he took heart, but Agamemnon heaved a deep sigh as
he held Menelaus’s hand in his own, and his comrades made moan in concert. ‘Dear
brother,’ he cried, ‘I have been the death of you in pledging this covenant and
letting you come forward as our champion. The Trojans have trampled on their
oaths and have wounded you; nevertheless the oath, the blood of lambs, the
drink-offerings and the right hands of fellowship in which we have put our trust
shall not be vain. If he that rules Olympus fulfil it not here and now, he will
yet fulfil it hereafter, and they shall pay dearly with their lives and with
their wives and children. The day will surely come when mighty Ilius shall be
laid low, with Priam Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 67 and Priam’s people, when
the son of Saturn from his high throne shall overshadow them with his awful
aegis in punishment of their present treachery. This shall surely be; but how,
Menelaus, shall I mourn you, if it be your lot now to die? I should return to
Argos as a by-word, for the Achaeans will at once go home. We shall leave Priam
and the Trojans the glory of still keeping Helen, and the earth will rot your
bones as you lie here at Troy with your purpose not fulfilled. Then shall some
braggart Trojan leap upon your tomb and say, ‘Ever thus may Agamemnon wreak his
vengeance; he brought his army in vain; he is gone home to his own land with
empty ships, and has left Menelaus behind him.’ Thus will one of them say, and
may the earth then swallow me.’ But Menelaus reassured him and said, ‘Take
heart, and do not alarm the people; the arrow has not struck me in a mortal
part, for my outer belt of burnished metal first stayed it, and under this my
cuirass and the belt of mail which the bronze-smiths made me.’ And Agamemnon
answered, ‘I trust, dear Menelaus, that it may be even so, but the surgeon shall
examine your wound and lay herbs upon it to relieve your pain.’ He then said to
Talthybius, ‘Talthybius, tell Machaon, son to the great physician, Aesculapius,
to come and see Menelaus immediately. Some Trojan or Lycian archer has wounded
him with an arrow to our dismay, and to his own great glory.’ Talthybius did as
he was told, and went about the host trying to find Machaon. Presently he found
standing amid the brave warriors who had followed him from Tricca; 68 The Iliad
thereon he went up to him and said, ‘Son of Aesculapius, King Agamemnon says you
are to come and see Menelaus immediately. Some Trojan or Lycian archer has
wounded him with an arrow to our dismay and to his own great glory.’ Thus did he
speak, and Machaon was moved to go. They passed through the spreading host of
the Achaeans and went on till they came to the place where Menelaus had been
wounded and was lying with the chieftains gathered in a circle round him.
Machaon passed into the middle of the ring and at once drew the arrow from the
belt, bending its barbs back through the force with which he pulled it out. He
undid the burnished belt, and beneath this the cuirass and the belt of mail
which the bronze-smiths had made; then, when he had seen the wound, he wiped
away the blood and applied some soothing drugs which Chiron had given to
Aesculapius out of the good will he bore him. While they were thus busy about
Menelaus, the Trojans came forward against them, for they had put on their
armour, and now renewed the fight. You would not have then found Agamemnon
asleep nor cowardly and unwilling to fight, but eager rather for the fray. He
left his chariot rich with bronze and his panting steeds in charge of Eurymedon,
son of Ptolemaeus the son of Peiraeus, and bade him hold them in readiness
against the time his limbs should weary of going about and giving orders to so
many, for he went among the ranks on foot. When he saw men hasting to the front
he stood by them and cheered them on. ‘Argives,’ said he, ‘slacken not one Free
eBooks at Planet eBook.com 69 whit in your onset; father Jove will be no helper
of liars; the Trojans have been the first to break their oaths and to attack us;
therefore they shall be devoured of vultures; we shall take their city and carry
off their wives and children in our ships.’ But he angrily rebuked those whom he
saw shirking and disinclined to fight. ‘Argives,’ he cried, ‘cowardly miserable
creatures, have you no shame to stand here like frightened fawns who, when they
can no longer scud over the plain, huddle together, but show no fight? You are
as dazed and spiritless as deer. Would you wait till the Trojans reach the
sterns of our ships as they lie on the shore, to see whether the son of Saturn
will hold his hand over you to protect you?’ Thus did he go about giving his
orders among the ranks. Passing through the crowd, he came presently on the
Cretans, arming round Idomeneus, who was at their head, fierce as a wild boar,
while Meriones was bringing up the battalions that were in the rear. Agamemnon
was glad when he saw him, and spoke him fairly. ‘Idomeneus,’ said he, ‘I treat
you with greater distinction than I do any others of the Achaeans, whether in
war or in other things, or at table. When the princes are mixing my choicest
wines in the mixing-bowls, they have each of them a fixed allowance, but your
cup is kept always full like my own, that you may drink whenever you are minded.
Go, therefore, into battle, and show yourself the man you have been always proud
to be.’ Idomeneus answered, ‘I will be a trusty comrade, as I 70 The Iliad
promised you from thc