“Vix ea fatus erat, cum circumfusa repente
Scindit se nubes, et in æthera purgat apertum.”
Cf. Drakenb. on Silius, iii. 196; Kuinoel on Matth. iii. 16; Acts
vii. 55.
Footnote 518: (return) Heyne would construe αἰχμῇ with περὶ, referring
to viii. 86; xiii. 441, 570; Pind. Nem. viii. 40.
Footnote 519: (return) On the adjective ἀμαιμακέτην, see intpp. on
Soph. Œd. R. 176; Œd. Col. 127.
Footnote 520: (return) _I.e._ “atra mors,” Tibull. i. 3, 5. Cf. vs.
370: Θανάτου μέλαν νέφος.
Then Peneleus and Lycon engaged in close combat, for they had missed
each other with their spears, and both had hurled in vain; 521
therefore they ran on again with their swords; then Lycon on his part
struck the cone of the horse-hair-crested helmet, and the sword was
broken at the hilt.
Footnote 521: (return) On μέλεος see Kennedy. Suidas: Ὁ μὲν οιητὴς
(_i.e._ Homer) ἐπὶ τοῦ ματαίου ἐνδέχεται τὸ Μέλεος οἱ δὲ τραγικοὶ, ἐπὶ
τοῦ οἰκτροῦ· So Hesych. μέλεος’ μάταιος.
But Peneleus smote him in the neck below the ear, and the whole sword
entered, and the skin alone retained it: the head hung down, and his
limbs were relaxed.
Meriones also, overtaking him with rapid feet, wounded Acamas in the
right shoulder, as he was about to ascend his chariot; and he fell from
his chariot, and darkness was poured over his eyes.
But Idomeneus struck Erymas in the mouth with the pitiless brass; and
the brazen weapon passed right through from the opposite side down
under the brain, and then cleft the white bones. And his teeth were
dashed out, and both eyes were filled with gore, which, gaping, he
forced 522 out from his mouth and from his nostrils; and the black
cloud of death enveloped him. Thus these leaders of the Greeks slew
each a man. And as destructive wolves impetuously rush on lambs or
kids, snatching them from the flocks, which are dispersed upon the
mountains by the negligence of the shepherd; but they, perceiving them,
immediately tear in pieces them, having an unwarlike heart: so did the
Greeks rush upon the Trojans, but they were mindful of dire-sounding
flight, and forgot resolute valour. But mighty Ajax ever longed to aim
his javelin at brazen-armed Hector; but he, from his skill in war,
covering himself as to his broad shoulders with a bull’s-hide shield,
watched the hissing of the arrows and the whizzing of the javelins.
Already indeed he knew the victory of battle was inclining to the other
side; yet even thus he remained, and saved his beloved companions.
Footnote 522: (return) Made to rush with a bubbling noise, the verb
here “expressing the _violent streaming_ of a liquid.” See Buttm.
Lexil. p. 484; and compare my note on Æsch. Ag. p. 137, n. 2, ed. Bohn.
And as when from Olympus comes a cloud into heaven, 523 after a clear
sky, when Jove stretches forth a whirlwind, thus was the clamour and
rout of those [flying] from the ships. Nor did they repass [the trench]
in seemly plight, but his fleet-footed steeds bore away Hector with his
arms; and he deserted the Trojan people, whom against their will the
deep trench detained. And many fleet car-drawing steeds left in the
foss the chariots of their masters, broken at the extremity of the
pole. But Patroclus pursued, vehemently cheering on 524 the Greeks, and
devising destruction for the Trojans; but they, with clamour and rout,
filled all the ways after they were dispersed. A storm [of dust] was
tossed up beneath the clouds, and the solid-hoofed horses pressed back
towards the city, from the ships and tents. But Patroclus, wherever he
perceived the army in greatest confusion, thither directed [his
steeds], exclaiming in a threatening manner; whilst beneath his axles
men fell prone from their chariots, and the chariots were overturned.
Then, from the opposite side, the fleet immortal steeds, which the gods
had given as splendid presents to Peleus, eagerly pressing on, bounded
quite across the trench; for his mind urged him against Hector, for he
longed to strike him, but his swift horses kept bearing him away.
Footnote 523: (return) Heaven is here distinguished from Olympus, as
in i. 597, and Tibull. iv. i. 131:—
“Jupiter ipse levi vectus per inania curru
Adfuit, et cœlo vicinum liquit Olympum.”
Footnote 524: (return) From this sense of κελεύω arises its nautical
meaning, also κελευστὴς, the man who gives the signal and cheers on the
rowers. See Mollus on Long. Past. iii. 14. So Athenæus, xii. p. 535:
Χρυσόγονος μὲν ἤυλει τὸ τριηρικόν. Καλλιπίδης δὲ ὁ τραγῳδὸς ἐκέλευε.
And as beneath a whirlwind the whole dark earth is oppressed on an
autumnal day, when Jove pours forth his most violent stream; when,
forsooth, enraged he gives vent to his wrath against men, who by
violence decree perverse judgments in the assembly, and drive out
justice, not regarding the vengeance of the gods; and all their rivers
are flooded as they flow, and the torrents sever asunder many
mountains, and flowing headlong into the dark sea, roar mightily, and
the husbandry-works 525 of men are diminished; so loudly moaned the
Trojan mares running along. But Patroclus, when he had cut off the
first phalanxes, drove them back again towards the ships, and did not
permit them, desiring it, to ascend towards the city; but, pressing on,
he slew them between the ships, and the river, and the lofty wall, and
he exacted revenge for many. Then indeed he smote with his shining
spear Pronous first, bared as to his breast beside the shield, and
relaxed his limbs: and falling, he gave a crash. But next, attacking
Thestor, son of Enops (who indeed sat huddled in his well-polished
chariot, for he was panic-struck in his mind, and the reins had then
dropped from his hands), he standing near, smote him with his spear on
the right cheek, and drove it through his teeth. Then catching the
spear, he dragged him over the rim [of the chariot]; as when a man,
sitting upon a jutting rock, [draws] with a line and shining brass 526
a large fish entirely out of the sea; so he dragged from his chariot
with his shining spear, him gaping. Then he hurled him upon his mouth,
and life left him as he fell. Then next he struck with a stone on the
middle of the head, Eryalus, rushing against him, and it was totally
split asunder into two parts in his strong helmet. He therefore fell
prone upon the earth, and fatal death was diffused around him.
Afterwards Erymas, and Amphoterus, Epaltes, and Tlepolemus, son of
Damastor, Echius and Pyris, Icheus, Euïppus, and Polymelus, son of
Argeus, all one over the other he heaped upon the fertile earth.
Footnote 525: (return) For this agricultural use of ἔργα cf. Oppian,
Cyn. ii. 151: άντη δ’ ἔργα βοῶν. Nicander, Ther. 473: ἔργα νομέων.
Virg. Georg. i. 325: “Et pluvia ingenti sata læta, boumque labores
diluit.”
Footnote 526: (return) _I.e._ the hook. So “ære, the brass cutwater,”
Virg. Æn. i. 35.
But when Sarpedon perceived his loose-girt 527 companions subdued by
the hands of Patroclus, the son of Menœtius, exhorting, he shouted to
the godlike Lycians:
“Oh shame! Lycians, where do ye fly? 528 Now be strenuous: for I will
oppose this man, that I may know who he is who is victorious: and
certainly he has done many evils to the Trojans, since he has relaxed
the limbs of many and brave men.”
He spoke, and leaped from his chariot with his armour to the ground;
but Patroclus, on the other side, when he beheld him, sprang from his
car. Then they, as bent-taloned, crook-beaked vultures, loudly
screaming, fight upon a lofty rock, so they, shouting, rushed against
each other. But the son of the wily Saturn, beholding them, felt
compassion, and addressed Juno, his sister and wife: 529
“O woe is me, because it is fated that Sarpedon, most dear to me of
men, shall be subdued by Patroclus, the son of Menœtius. But to me,
revolving it in my mind, my heart is impelled with a twofold anxiety,
530 either that having snatched him alive from the mournful battle, I
may place him among the rich people of Lycia, or now subdue him beneath
the hands of the son of Menœtius.”
Footnote 527: (return) Τοὺς μὴ ὑποζωννυμένους μίτρας τοῖς
χιτῶσιν.—Eustath.
Footnote 528: (return) Tzetzes on Hesiod, Opp. 184, reads ἐστόν,
observing that it is τὸ δυϊκὸν ἀντὶ τοῦ πληθυντικοῦ.
Footnote 529: (return) Virg. Æn. i. 50: “Jovisque et soror et conjux.”
Hor. Od. iii. 3, 64: “Conjuge me Jovis et sorore.” Aθson. 343, 4: “Et
soror et conjux fratris regina dearum.”