The Iliad (Audiobook) by Homer - Book 4

Book 4: The Truce is Broken
The gods debate the outcome. Athena tricks a Trojan into breaking the truce, and battle erupts once more.
Summary by Dream Audiobooks

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dream Audio Books presents the Iliad by Homer. Section four
of the Iliad by Homer, translated by Samuel Butler, Book
four a quarrel in Olympus. Minerva goes down and persuades
Pandarus to violate the oaths by wounding Menelaus with an arrow.
Agamemnon makes a speech and sends for Machaon. He then

(00:24):
goes out among his captains and upbraids Ulysses Thansthenalus, who
each of them retort fiercely. Diomed checks Theenalus, and the
two hosts then engage with great slaughter on either side.
Now the gods were sitting with Jove in council upon
the golden floor, while he bewent round, pouring out nectar
for them to drink, And as they pledged one another

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in their cups of gold, they look down upon the
town of Troy. The son of Saturn then began to
tease Juno, talking at her so as to provoke her.
Menelaia said he has two good friends among the goddesses,
Juno of Argos and Minerva of Alcmene. But they only
sit still and look on, while Venus keeps ever by

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Alexandraus's side to defend him in any danger. Indeed, she
has just rescued him, and he made sure that it
was all over with him, for the victory really did
lie with Menelaus. We must consider what we shall do
about all this. Shall we set them fighting anew or
make peace between them? If you will agree to this last,

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Menelaus can take back Helen, and the city of Priam
may remain still inhabited. Minerva and Juno muttered their discontent
as they sat side by side hatching mischief for the Trojans.
Minerva scowled at her father, for she was in a
furious passion with him, and said nothing. But Juno could
not contain herself. Dread son have sat and said she,

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what praise the meaning of all this is my trouble?
Then to go for nothing and the sweat that I
have sweated, to say nothing of my horses while getting
the people together either against Priam and his children. Do
as you will, but we other gods shall not all
of us approve your counsel. Jove was angry and answered,
my dear, what harm have Priam and his sons done

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you that you are so hotly bent on sacking the
city of Ilius? Will nothing do for you, But you
must go within their walls and eat Priam raw with
his sons and all the other Trojans to boot. Have
it your own way, then, for I would not have
this matter become a bone of contingent between us. I
say further, and lay my saying to your heart. If

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ever I want to sack a city belonging to friends
of yours, you must not try to stop me, for
you will have to let me do it, for I
am giving it to you sorely against my will. Of
all inhabited cities under the sun and stars of heaven,
there was none that I so much respected as ilias
with Priam and his whole people, equitable feast whenever wanting

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about my aldar, nor the savor of burning fat, which
is honor due to our sl My own three favorite cities,
answered Juno, are Argos, Sparta, and my sne Sack them
whenever you may be displeased with them. I shall not
defend them, and I shall not care even if I
did and tried to stay you. I should take nothing

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by it, for you are much stronger than I am.
But I will not have my own work wasted. I too,
am a God, and of the same race with yourself.
I am Satin's eldest daughter, and am honorable not on
this ground only, but also because I am your wife
and you are king over the gods. Let it be
a case then of give and take between us, and

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the rest of the gods will follow our lead. Tell
Minerva to go and take part in the fight at once,
and let her contrive that the Trojans shall be the
first to break their oaths and set upon the Achaeans.
The Sire of gods and men heeded her words and
said to Minerva, go at once into the Trojan and
Achaean hosts, and contrive that the Trojans shall be the

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first to break their oaths and set upon the Achaeans.
This was what Minerva was already eager to do. So
down she darted from the topmost summits of Olympus. She
shot through the sky as some brilliant meteor which the
son of scheming Satin has sent us a sign to
mariners or to some great army, and a fierce train

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of light follows in its wake. The Trojans and Achaeans
were struck with awe as they beheld, and one would
turn to his neighbor, saying, either we shall again have
war and dinner of combat, or Jove, the lord of battle,
will now make peace between us. Thus did they converse.
Then Minerva took the form of Leodochus, son of Antenor,

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and went through the ranks of the Trojans to find Pandarus,
the redoubtable son of Lesaon. She found him standing amongst
the stallwart heroes who had followed him from the banks
of the Uesopus. So she went close up to him
and said, brave son of Losaon, will you do as
I tell you? If you dare send an arrow at
men and Alaius, you will win honor and thanks from

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all the Trojans, and especially from Prince Alexandraus. He would
be the first to requite you very handsomely if he
could see Menelaeus 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 Zealee, you

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will offer a hecatome of firstling lambs in his honor.
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

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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 Achaean should set upon him before he had shot Menelaeus.
Then he opened the lid of his quiver and took
out a winged arrow that had not yet been shot.

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Fraught with the pangs of death, he laid the arrow
on the string and paid to Lycie An Apollo, the
famous archer, vowing that when he got home to his
strong city of Zelaya, he would offer a hecatomb of
firstling lambs in his honor. He laid the notch of
the arrow on the ox hide bowstring, and drew both
notchan string to his breast till the arrow head was

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near the bow. Then, when the bow was arched into
a half circle. He let fly, and the bow twanged
and the strings sang as the arrow flew gladly on
over the heads of the throng. But the blessed gods
did not forget thee. O Menelaeus 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

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his skin as a mother whisks a fly from off
her child while it is sleeping. Sweetly, she guided it
to the part with the golden buckles of the belt
that passed over his double cuirass were fastened, so the
arrow struck the belt that went tightly round him. It
went right through this and through the cuirass of cunning
workmanship that also pierced the belt beneath it, which he

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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 the blood began flowing from the wound,
as when some woman of Myonia or a carrier strains
purple dye on to a piece of ivory, that is
to be the cheek piece of a horse, and is

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to be laid up in a treasure house. Many a
knight is vain to bear it, but the king keeps
it as an ornament of which both horse and driver
may be proud. Even so, omenilayas were your shapely thighs
and your legs, down to your fair ankles stained with blood.
When King Agamemnon saw the blood flowing from the wound,

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he was afraid, and so was brave Menelaus himself, till
he saw that the barbs of the arrow and the
three that bound the arrow head to the shaft was
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,

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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 fulfills it not here and now he will yet

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fulfill it hereafter, And they shall pay dearly with their
lives and with their wives and children. The day will
surely come when mighty Ilias shall be laid low with
Priam and Priam's people, when the son of Saturn, from
his high throne, shall overshadow them with his awful age,
as in punishment of their present treachery. This shall surely be.

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But how Menelaus, will I mourn you? If it be
your lot now to die? I should return to Argus
as a byword, 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,

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thus may Agamemnon wreak his vengeance. He brought his army
in vain. He's gone home to his own land with
empty ships, and has left Menelaeus behind him. Thus will
one of them say, and may the earth then swallow me?
But Menilaeus reassured him and said, take heart, and do

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not alarm the people. The arrow has not struck me
in a mortal part, for my outer belt of burnished metal
first stayed at and under this my cuirass, and the
belt of mail which the bronze smiths made me. And
Agamemnon answered, I trust Yourmenilaeus, that it may be even so.
But the surgeon shall examine your wound and lay herbs

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upon it to relieve your pain. He then said to Telphibius. Telphibius,
tell Malchaon, son to the great physician Esculapius, to come
and see Menelaeus immediately. Some Trojan or Lycian archer has
wounded him with an arrow, to our dismay and to
his own great glory. Alphibius did as he was told,

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and went about the host, trying to find Macheon. Presently
he found him standing amid the brave warriors who had
followed him from Trikka. Thereupon he went up to him
and said, son of Esculapius, King Agamemnon says you are
to come and see Menelaeus immediately. Some trojan or Lycian
archer has wounded him with an arrow, to our dismay

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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 men Alaius had been wounded
and was lying with the chieftains gathered in a circle
round him. Macheon passed into the middle of the ring
and at once drew the arrow from the belt, bending

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its barbes back. Through the force with which he pulled
it out, he undid the burnished belt, and beneath this
the cairass and the belt of mail which the Bronzemiths
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 Menelaeus,

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the Trojans came forward against them, for they had put
on their armor and now renewed the fight. He 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 Eurymadon, son of Ptolomaeus, the son of Piraeus,

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and bid 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 hastening to the front, he stood
by them and cheered them on. Argives, said he slacken
not one whit in your onset, Father Jove, will be
no helper of liars. The Trojans have been the first

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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 angry 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,

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when they can no longer scud over the plain, huddle
together but show no fight. You are as dazed and
spiritless as dere would you wait till the Trojans reach
the stones of our ships as they lie on the shore,
to see whether the son of Satin will hold his
hand over you to protect you. Thus did he go
about giving his orders among the ranks, coming round i Omenaeus,

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who was at their head, fierce as a wild boar.
While Mariones 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.

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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 promised you from the first. I

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would be urge on the other Achaeans that we may
join battle at once, For the Trojans have trampled upon
their covenants. Death and destruction shall be theirs. Seeing they
have been the first to break their oaths and to
attack us. Savitrius went on glad at heart till he
came upon the two Ajaxes, arming themselves amid a host

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of foot soldiers, as when a goatherd from some high
post watches a storm drive over the deep before the
west wind black as pitch is the offing, and a
mighty whirl when draws towards him, so that he is afraid,
and drives his flock into a cave. Even thus did
the ranks of stalwart youths move in a dark mass
to battle under the Ajaxes. Horrid with shield and spear

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glad was King Agamemnon. When he saw them no need.
He cried to give orders to such leaders of the
Argives as you are, for of your own selves, you
spur your men on to fight with might and main
would by Father, Jove, Minerva and Apollo, that all was
so minded as you are, for the city of Prime
would then soon fall beneath our hands, and we should

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sack it. With this, he left them and went onwards
to Nesta, the facile speaker of the Pylians, who was
marshaling his men and urging them on. In company with Pelagon,
A last or, Chromius, Himon and Bias, Shepherd of his people.
He placed his knights with their chariots and horses in
the front rank, while the foot soldiers, brave men, and

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many whom he could trust, were in the rear. The
cowards he drove into the middle, that they might fight,
whether they would or no. He gave his orders to
the knights first, bidding them hold their horses well in hand,
so as to avoid confusion. Let no man, he said,
relying on his strength or horsemanship, get before the others,
and engage singly with the trojans. Nor yet let him

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lag behind, or you will weaken your attack. But let each,
when he meets an enemy's chariot, throw his spear from
his own. This be much the best. This is how
the men of old took towns and strongholds. In this
wise were they minded? Thus did the old man charge them,
for he had been in many a fight, and King
Agamemnon was glad I wish. He said to them that

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your limbs were as supple, and your strength as sure
as your judgment is. But age the common enemy of
mankind as laidy's hand upon you, would that it had
fallen upon some other, and that you were still young.
A nestor, knight of Zirene, answered son of Atreus, I
too would gladly be the man I was when I
slew mighty Eurythalion. But the gods will not give us

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everything at one and the same time. I was then young,
and now I am old. Still I can go with
my knights and give them that counsel which old men
have a right to give. The wielding of the spear
I leave to those who were younger and stronger than myself.
Agamemnon went his way rejoicing, and presently found Menestheus, son

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of Petios, tarring in his place, and with him were
the Athenians, loud of tongue in battle. Near him, also
tarried cunning Ulysses with his sturdy Cephellenians round him. They
had not yet heard the battle cry, for the ranks
of Trojans and Achaeans had only just begun to move,
so they were standing still, waiting for some other columns

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of the Achaeans to attack the Trojans and begin the fighting.
When he saw this, Agamemnon rebuked them and said, son
of Petios, and you are the steeped in cunning heart
of guile. Why stand you here cowering and waiting on others?
You two should be of all men foremost where there
is hard fighting to be done, for you are ever

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foremost to accept my invitation. When we counselors of the
Achaeans are holding feast. You are glad enough then to
take your fill of roast meats and to drink wine
as long as you please, whereas now you would not
care though you saw ten columns of Achaeans engage the
enemy in front of you. Ulysses glad at him and answered,
son of Atreus, what are you talking about? How can

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you say that we are slack When the Achaeans are
in full fight with the Trojans. You shall see, if
you care to do so, that the father of Telemachus
will join battle with the foremost of them. You are
talking idly. When Agamemnon saw that Ulysses was angry, he
smiled pleasantly at him and withdrew his words. Ulysses said, he, noble,

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son of Laotes, excellent in all good counsel, I have
neither fault to find nor orders to give you, For
I know your heart is right, and that you and
I are of a mind enough. I will make you
amends for what I have said, And if any ill
has now been spoken, May the gods bring it to nothing.
He then left them and went on to others. Presently

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he saw the son of Tedious, noble Diomed, standing by
his chariot and horses, with Thenolus, the son of Capernaeus,
beside him. Whereon he began to upbraid him, son of Tedious,
He said, I stand you cowering here upon the brink
of battle. Tedius did not shrink thus, but was ever
ahead of his men when leading them on against the foe.

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So at least, say they that saw him in battle.
For I never set eyes upon him myself. They say
that there was no man like him. He came once
to Mycenae, not as an enemy, but as a guest,
in company with Polinices, to recruit his forces, For they
were leving war against the strong city of Thebes, and
prayed our people for a body of picked men to

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help them. The men of Mycenae were willing to let
them have one, but Jove persuaded them by showing them
unfavorable omens. Tedious therefore and Polinices went their way. When
they had got as far as the deep meadowed and
rush grown banks of the Aesopus. The Achaeans sent Titious
as their envoy, and he found the Cadmians gathered in

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great numbers to a banquet in the house of Ettiocles.
Stranger though he was, he knew no fear on finding
himself single handed among so many, but challenged them to
contests of all kinds, and in each one of them
was at once victorious. So mightily did Minerva help him.
The Cadmians were incensed at his success and set a

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force of fifty youths, with two captains, the godlike hero
mae On, son of Aimon, and by Telephantis, son of Atophanus,
at their head, to lay in wait for him on
his return journey. But Tedious slew every man of them,
save only Maeon, whom he let go in obedience to
Heaven's omens. Such was Tedious of Aetolia. His son can

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talk more glibly, but he cannot fight as his father did.
Diomed made no answer, for he was ashamed by the
rebuke of Agamemnon. But the son of Capernaeus took up
his words and said, son of Atreus, tell no lies,
for you can speak truth if you will. We boast
ourselves as even better men than our fathers. We took

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seven gated thebes, though the will was stronger and our
men were fewer in number, for we trusted in the
omens of the gods and in the help of Jove,
whereas they perished through their own sheer folly, hold not
than our fathers in like honor with us. Diomed looked
sternly at him and said, hold your peace, my friend,
as I bid you, it is not amiss that Agamemnon

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should arn the Achaeans forward, for the glory will be
his if we take the city, and his the shame
if we are vanquished. Therefore, let us acquit ourselves with valor.
As he spoke, he sprang from his chariot, and his
armor rang so fiercely about his body that even a
brave man might well have been scared to hear it,

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As when some mighty wave that thunders on the beach,
when the west wind has lashed it into fury, it
has reared its head afar, and now comes crashing down
on the shore. It bows its arching crest high over
the jagged rocks, and spews its salt foam in all directions.
Even so did the serried phalanxes of the Danaans march
steadfastly to battle. The chiefs gave orders each to his

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own people, but the men said never a word. No
man would think it, For huge as the host was,
it seemed as though there was not a tongue among them,
so silent were they in their obedience. And as they marched,
the armor about their bodies glistened in the sun. But
the clamor of the trope and ranks was as that
of many thousand ewes that stand waiting to be milked

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in the yard of some rich flock master, and bleaked
incessantly in answer to the bleating of their lambs. For
they had not one speech nor language, but their tongues
were diverse, and they came from many different places. These
were inspired of Mars, but the others by Minerva, and
with them came panic, rout, and strife, whose fury never tires.

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Sister and friend of Murderer's Mars, who, from being at
first but low in stature, grows till she uprears her
head to heaven, though her feet are still on earth.
She it was that went about among them and flung
down discord to the waxing of sorrow with even hand
between them. When they were got together in one place,

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shield clashed with shield and spear with spear. In the
rage of battle, the bossed shields beat one upon another,
and there was a tramp as of a great multitude,
death cry and shout of triumph of slain and slayers.
And the earth ran red with blood, as torrents swollen
with rain course madly down their deep channels, till the

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angry floods meet in some gorge, and the shepherd on
the hillside hears there roaring from afar. Even such was
the toil and uproar of the hosts as they joined
in battle. First and Ilocus slew, an armed warrior of
the Trojans Ecapollus, son of Thllysius, fighting in the foremost ranks.
He struck at the projecting part of his helmet and

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drove the spear into his brow. The point of bronze
pierced the bone, and darkness veiled his eyes headlong as
a tower. He fell amid the press of the fight,
and as he dropped, King elephan Or, King of Chalcedon
and captain of the proud Abantes, began dragging him out
of reach of the darts that were falling around him
in haste to strip him of his armor. But his

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purpose was not for long. Again Or saw him hailing
the body away, and smote him in the side with
his bronzod spear, for as he stooped, his side was
left unprotected by his shield, and thus he perished. Then
the fight between Trojans and a key and screw furious
over his body, and they flew upon each other like wolves,
man and man, crushing one upon another. Forthwith Ajax, son

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of Telamon, slew the fair youth Simiasis, son of Anthemion,
whom his mother bore by the banks of the Semos
as she was coming down from Mount Ida, which she
had been with her parents to see their flocks. Therefore
he was named Simiasis. But he did not live to
pay his parents for his rearing, for he was cut
off untimely by the spear of mighty Ajax, who struck

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him in the breast by the right nipple as he
was coming on among the foremost fighters. The spear went
right through his shoulder, and he fell. As a poplar
that has grown straight and tall in a meadow by
some mirr and its top is thick with branches. Then
the wheelwright lays his axe to its roots, that he
may fashion a fallow for the w wheel of some
goodly chariot, and it lies seasoning by the water's side.

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In such wise did Ajax fell to earth Simuasius, son
of Anthemion. There on, Antifas of the gleaming Corselet, son
of Priam, hurled a spirit Ajax from amid the crowd,
and missed him. But he hit Lucas, the brave comrade
of Ulyssus, in the groin, as he was dragging the
body of Simuasius over to the other side. So he

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fell upon the body and loosed his hold upon it.
Ulysses was furious when he saw Lucas slain, and strode
in full armor through the front ranks till he was
quite close. Then he glared round about him and took aim,
and the Trojans fell back as he did so. His
dart was not sped in vain, for it struck demaco On,
the bastard son of Priam, who had come to him

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from Abydos, where he had charge of his father's mares. Ulysses,
infuriated by the death of his comrade, hit him with
his spear on one temple, and the bronze point came
through on the other side of his forehead. There un
darkness veiled his eyes, and his armor rang rattling round him.
As he fell heavily to the ground. Hector and they

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that were in front then gave round, while the Argives
raised a shout and drew off the dead, pressing further
forward as they did so. But Apollo looked down from
Pergamus and called aloud to the Trojans, for he was displeased. Trojans,
he cried, rush on the foe, and do not let
yourselves be thus beaten by the Argives. Their skins are

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not stone nor iron, that when you hit them, you
do them no harm. Moreover, Achilles, the son of lovely Thetis,
is not fighting, but is nursing his anger at the ships.
Thus spoke the mighty God, crying to them from the city,
while Joe's redoubtable daughter, the trito Born, went about among
the hoast of Achaeans and urged them forward whenever she

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beheld them slackening. Then fate fell upon Diories, son of Amerinsius,
for he was struck by a jagged stone near the
ankle of his right leg. He that hurled it was Perros,
son of Imbrasus, captain of the Thracians, who had come
from Aenus. The bones and both attendants were crushed by
the pitiless stone. He fell to the ground on his back,

(27:14):
and in his death throws stretched out his hand towards
his comrades. But Paroas, who had wounded him, sprang on
him and thrust a spear into his belly, so that
his bows came gushing out upon the ground, and darkness
veiled his eyes. As he was leaving the body, tho
As of Vitolia struck him in the chest, near the nipple,

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and the point fixed itself in his lungs. Thoas came
close up to him, pulled the spear out of his chest,
and then, drawing his sword, smote him in the middle
of the belly, so that he died. But he did
not strip him of his armor, for his Thracian comrades,
men who wear their hair and a tuft at the
top of their heads, stood round the body and kept
him off with their long spears. For all his great

(27:55):
stature and valor, so he was driven back. Thus the
two corpses lay stretched on earth near to one another,
the one captain of the Thracians and the other of
the Apeans, and many another fell round them. And now
no man would have made light of the fighting if
he could have gone about among its scathless and unwounded,

(28:16):
with Minerva leading him by the hand and protecting him
from the storm of spears and arrows. For many Trojans
and Achaeans on that day lay stretched side by side,
face downwards upon the earth. End of Section four. Dream
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