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30 ILIAD. II. 643–691
fair-haired Meleager was dead. 1 To him [Thoas,] therefore, was intrusted the
chief command, to rule the Ætolians, and with him forty dark ships followed.
Spear-renowned Idomeneus commanded the Cretans, those who possessed
Gnossus and well-walled Gortyna and Lyctos, and Miletus, and white Lycastus
and Phæstus, and Rhytium, well-inhabited cities; and others who inhabited
the hundred-towned Crete. These spear-famed Idomeneus commanded, and
Meriones, equal to man-slaying Mars: with these followed eighty dark ships.
But Tlepolemus, the brave and great descendant of Hercules, led from Rhodes
nine ships of the haughty Rhodians, those who inhabited Rhodes, arranged in
three bands, Lindus, and Ialyssus, and white Camirus. These spear-famed Tlepolemus
led, he whom Astyochea brought forth to the might of Hercules, 2 whom
[Astyochea] he [ Hercules] carried out of Ephyre, from the river Selleis, after having
laid waste many cities of nobly-descended youths. Now Tlepolemus, after
he had been trained up in the well-built palaces, straightway slew the beloved
uncle of his father, Licymnius, now grown old, a branch of Mars; and instantly
he built a fleet; and having collected many troops, he departed, 3 flying over the
ocean; for him the sons and grandsons of the might of Hercules had threatened.
And he indeed came wandering to Rhodes, suffering woes. And they, divided
into three parts, dwelt in tribes, and were beloved of Jove, who rules over gods
and men: and on them the son of Saturn poured down immense wealth.
Nireus moreover led three equal ships from Syme, Nireus son of Aglaea, and
king Charopus, Nireus, the fairest of men that came to Ilium, of all the other
Greeks, next to the unblemished son of Peleus. But he was feeble, and few
troops followed him.
But those who possessed Nisyrus, and Crapathus, and Casus, and Cos, the
city of Eurypylus, and the Calydnæ isles, Phidippus and Antiphus, both sons
of the Thessalian king, the son of Hercules, commanded. Thirty hollow ships of
these went in order.
But now, [O muse, recount] those, as many as inhabited Pelasgian Argos,
both those who dwelt in Alos and Alope, and Trechin, and those who possessed
Phthia, and Hellas famous for fair dames. But they are called Myrmidons, and
Hellenes, and Achæans: of fifty ships of these was Achilles chief. But they
remembered not dire-sounding war, for there was no one who might lead them
to their ranks. For swift-footed Achilles lay at the ships, enraged on account of
the fair-haired maid Brisëis, whom he carried away from Lyrnessus, after having
suffered many labors, and having laid waste Lyrnessus and the walls of Thebes;
1Grote, Hist. of Greece, vol. i. p. 197, after referring to the Homeric legend respecting
Meleager in Il. xi. 525, sqq., remarks that “though his death is here indicated only indirectly,
there seems little doubt Homer must have conceived the death of the hero as brought about by
the maternal curse; the unrelenting Erinnys executed to the letter the invocations of Althæa,
though she herself must have been willing to retract them.”
2As in the Odyssey, I prefer preserving the quaint simplicity of these antiquated periphrases.
3Grote, History of Greece, vol. i. p. 33, has collected the Homeric instances of exile “for
private or involuntary homicide,” observing, however, from the Schol. on Il. xi. 690, “that
Homer never once describes any of them to have either received or required purification for
the crime.”