The Trojan army was now split into two divisions, one of which was
flying across the plain towards the city, while Achilles drove the
other before him towards the banks of Scamander. Into the stream they
flocked, without pausing in their flight, like a cloud of locusts
driven by a fire to seek refuge in the nearest water; and Scamander's
bed was choked by a huddled multitude of horses and men.
Leaning his spear against a plane-tree, Achilles leapt into the river,
sword in hand, and struck right and left, until the waters were
crimsoned with blood. And as a shoal of fish flies before the onset of
a dolphin, seeking the shallow waters near the shore, so shrank the
Trojans from the sword of Achilles, and hid themselves under the
arching banks. Then he remembered his promise to Patroclus, and,
choosing twelve comely youths from that panic-stricken throng, he drove
them before him, and gave them, bound, to his men to be brought alive
to the ships. This done, he went back to continue the work of
slaughter; and as he reached the river's brink he saw a Trojan, who had
just left the water, and was preparing to fly towards the city. "Aha!
are we met again?" cried Achilles, recognising in the fugitive a
certain Lycaon, one of the numerous family of Priam, whom once before
he had taken prisoner, having caught him during a night foray, when the
luckless youth was busy cutting the young shoots of the olive, to make
a rim for a chariot. On that occasion he had spared his life, and sold
him into captivity to the King of Lemnos, from whom he had been
ransomed by a friend of Priam, and so found his way back to Troy. For
eleven days since his return from Lemnos he had taken his pleasure
among his friends, and on the twelfth his fate threw him into the hands
of Achilles for the second and last time.
Lycaon had flung away shield and helmet and spear, that he might be
lightened in the race for his life. But Achilles was upon him before
he was aware, threatening him with uplifted spear. "So thou hast
returned from Lemnos?" he said mockingly. "We will now send thee on a
longer journey, and we will see if thou come back again this time."
The wretched youth flung himself down, and avoiding the spear-point
crawled on his knees to Achilles, and clinging to him said: "Have pity
on me, great warrior, and have respect for the sacred tie between host
and guest; for I was thy guest, illustrious chieftain, and have broken
bread under thy roof, on the day when thou madest me captive. Thou
hast no cause to hate me, for I was not born of the same mother as
Hector, who slew thy friend."
But there was no sign of relenting in the stern face which was bent
over him, and he received a foretaste of the pangs of death as he heard
the answer of Achilles. "Talk not to me," said he, "of ransom or
redemption. As long as Patroclus was alive I was well pleased to make
prisoners and release them for a price, but now not one shall escape of
all those who fall into my hands, and least of all the sons of Priam.
Thou must die, my friend! Why seems it to thee so hard? Patroclus met
his fate with the rest, and he was a far better man than thou art.
Look upon me; am I not a tall and proper man? Yet the shadow of death
is creeping nearer and ever nearer to me, and soon the hour of my doom
shall strike, whether at morn, or at noon, or at eventide."
At these words Lycaon's heart froze within him, and leaving hold of the
spear he sank down on his knees, stretching out both his hands in mute
entreaty. Then Achilles lifted up his sword, and clove him to the
waist, and seizing his body by the foot flung it into the river. "Lie
there among the fishes!" cried that ruthless man: "They will tend thy
wounds, until Scamander bears thee to the deep, where thou shalt find
fit burial in some sea monster's maw. Death, death to all your
accursed race! Naught shall avail you your silver-eddying stream, to
whose deity ye offer sacrifice of bulls and horses, but ye shall pay
threefold and fourfold the debt of blood which ye owe me for the lives
of the Greeks whom ye have slain."
The river-god heard him, and, waxing exceeding wroth, began to consider
how he should stop the murderous career of Achilles. And while he was
still debating within himself Achilles was confronted by Asteropæus, a
brave Thracian chieftain, and the son of the presiding deity of Axius,
a broad and noble stream. This man now barred the way of Achilles,
brandishing a spear in each hand. "Whence and what art thou?" cried
Achilles, amazed that anyone should dare to oppose him; for he knew not
that Scamander had steeled the heart of Asteropæus to do this deed.
"Art thou weary of thy life?" he asked again, as the Thracian still
came on. "I will tell thee what I am," answered Asteropæus boldly: "I
am the son of a deity, even as thou art, and my father was Axius, the
fairest river on earth. Now let us fight, great son of Thetis."
With that he flung both spears at once, for he was equally skilled with
both hands; and one of the spears struck against the shield of
Achilles, but could not penetrate it, while the other grazed his right
arm, and drew blood. Then Achilles hurled his spear, which missed
Asteropæus, and buried itself to half its length in the river bank.
Asteropæus grasped the shaft, and strove with all his might to tear the
weapon from the ground. Failing in this, he next tried to break it in
the middle, to use as a club; but by this time Achilles was upon him,
and with one stroke of his sword clove him almost in twain. "Thou hast
found thy match, thou river's brood!" he cried, stripping off the
bloodstained armour. "Fool, that comparest thyself with me, whose
fathers sprang in a direct line from Jove! He, methinks, is mightier
than any river, yea, mightier than Oceanus, the great father of floods,
who trembles before the red lightning, and the voice of the thunder,
when it crashes through the skies."
So saying he lightly plucked out the embedded spear, and went in
pursuit of the men of Asteropæus, who were crouching in terror along
the river's banks. Seven of them he slew, and was about to continue
the work of carnage when he received a check. From the depths of the
stream a mysterious voice arose, in tones of protest and complaint:
"Achilles, thine arm is exceeding mighty, and thy prowess more than
mortal; for the gods are ever near to aid thee. If Zeus hath given
thee leave to slaughter all the Trojans, at least drive them away from
my bed and butcher them on the plain. My waters are choked with
corpses, and I cannot roll my current any longer towards the holy sea,
because my channel is straitened by the multitude of thy miserable
victims. Give place, great chieftain, and cumber me no more."
"It shall be as thou sayest, thou god revered," answered Achilles.
"But suffer me yet a little while until my task is done." And without
further parley he sprang down again into the river bed. Then the god
was wroth, and prepared to expel that daring intruder from his domain.
He gathered all his waters, which rose up in surging billows, and
washed the corpses ashore; and to the living he gave shelter, hiding
them away in great hollow eddies. Then, collecting himself in one
towering wave, he rushed upon Achilles, buffeting his shield, and
eating away the ground under his feet. Achilles grasped an elm, a tall
and stately tree, and clung to it for support; but the torrent had
undermined its roots, and the next moment it fell, tearing a huge gap
in the bank, and damming back the waters with its leafy boughs. Then
he leaped from the yellow, swirling torrent, and darted across the
plain in head-long flight; for he was sore afraid. But Scamander
followed hard at his heels, roaring and arching his crest. In vain
Achilles ran and doubled, and doubled and ran; the river pursued him
everywhere, until his strength began to fail him; and if he stood still
for a moment the waves rose instantly as high as his shoulders,
threatening to swallow him up. Then he gave himself up for lost, and
with a groan he gazed upward to the broad heaven, and uttered this
despairing cry for help: "O all ye gods, is this then to be my end? Am
I to perish thus, drowned like some nameless churl, who is swept away
while crossing a ford in winter?"
Some friendly power heard his wild appeal, and lent him new strength
and courage to continue the struggle. So on he panted across the
plain, which by this time was covered with floating corpses, helmets,
and shields. But Scamander raged the more furiously when he saw his
prey still eluding his clutch, and he called aloud to Simocis, his
brother stream, to join in the pursuit. And Simocis answered to his
call, and mustered all his waters from every fountainhead and every
tributary stream. Then the twin rivers roared together in unison, and
came down upon him, battering him with uprooted trees and rolling
rocks, which they swept along in their course, "We will quell thee,"
they shouted, "thou godless man, for all thy beauty and thy strength,
and thou and thy gleaming panoply shall be wrapped in a thick shroud of
mud, at the bottom of our blackest and deepest pool. Thy dirge shall
be sung by our rolling waters, and thy monument none shall behold."
Achilles was now in extremity, and would surely have ended as ignobly
as the river-god had said, if another power had not come to his aid.
"Where art thou, my son, Hephæstus?" cried Hera, seeing that Achilles
could hold out no longer. "Thou art he who should save our champion in
this strait, for thou and Scamander are natural enemies. Haste thee to
the rescue, armed with thy proper element; and I will summon the blasts
of the West and the South to fan thy flames. Let fire fight with
water, and spare not, nor cease thy fury until I give thee the signal
to desist."
Hephæstus made haste to obey his mother, and forthwith he caused a
sheet of fire to sweep across the plain, burning the corpses, and
drying up the flood. Then he turned his flames upon the river himself,
and all the trees which fringed his banks--elms, and willows, and
plane-trees--were soon ablaze. Speedily the fire spread to the rushes
and water plants, and at last the very waters began to grow hot, so
that the fishes leapt into the air in their agony, and Scamander
himself was in dire distress.
"It is enough," he cried, yielding to a superior power. "Torment me no
more, Hephæstus! Let Achilles destroy the whole nation of Trojans, if
he will--I will not seek to prevent him."
By this time the waters were beginning to boil and bubble, and clouds
of steam rose into the air. Seeing that the river was thoroughly
quelled, Hera gave the signal, and Hephæstus drew off his forces, and
left Scamander in peace.