ὣς ὅρμαινε μένων, ὃ δέ οἱ σχεδὸν ἦλθεν Ἀχιλλεὺς
ἶσος Ἐνυαλίῳ κορυθάϊκι πτολεμιστῇ
σείων Πηλιάδα μελίην κατὰ δεξιὸν ὦμον
δεινήν: ἀμφὶ δὲ χαλκὸς ἐλάμπετο εἴκελος αὐγῇ
ἢ πυρὸς αἰθομένου ἢ ἠελίου ἀνιόντος.135
Ἕκτορα δ᾽, ὡς ἐνόησεν, ἕλε τρόμος: οὐδ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἔτ᾽ ἔτλη
αὖθι μένειν, ὀπίσω δὲ πύλας λίπε, βῆ δὲ φοβηθείς:
Πηλεΐδης δ᾽ ἐπόρουσε ποσὶ κραιπνοῖσι πεποιθώς.
ἠΰτε κίρκος ὄρεσφιν ἐλαφρότατος πετεηνῶν
ῥηϊδίως οἴμησε μετὰ τρήρωνα πέλειαν,140
ἣ δέ θ᾽ ὕπαιθα φοβεῖται, ὃ δ᾽ ἐγγύθεν ὀξὺ λεληκὼς
ταρφέ᾽ ἐπαΐσσει, ἑλέειν τέ ἑ θυμὸς ἀνώγει:
ὣς ἄρ᾽ ὅ γ᾽ ἐμμεμαὼς ἰθὺς πέτετο, τρέσε δ᾽ Ἕκτωρ
τεῖχος ὕπο Τρώων, λαιψηρὰ δὲ γούνατ᾽ ἐνώμα.
οἳ δὲ παρὰ σκοπιὴν καὶ ἐρινεὸν ἠνεμόεντα145
τείχεος αἰὲν ὑπ᾽ ἐκ κατ᾽ ἀμαξιτὸν ἐσσεύοντο,
κρουνὼ δ᾽ ἵκανον καλλιρρόω: ἔνθα δὲ πηγαὶ
δοιαὶ ἀναΐσσουσι Σκαμάνδρου δινήεντος.
ἣ μὲν γάρ θ᾽ ὕδατι λιαρῷ ῥέει, ἀμφὶ δὲ καπνὸς
γίγνεται ἐξ αὐτῆς ὡς εἰ πυρὸς αἰθομένοιο:150
ἣ δ᾽ ἑτέρη θέρεϊ προρέει ἐϊκυῖα χαλάζῃ,
ἢ χιόνι ψυχρῇ ἢ ἐξ ὕδατος κρυστάλλῳ.
ἔνθα δ᾽ ἐπ᾽ αὐτάων πλυνοὶ εὐρέες ἐγγὺς ἔασι
καλοὶ λαΐνεοι, ὅθι εἵματα σιγαλόεντα
πλύνεσκον Τρώων ἄλοχοι καλαί τε θύγατρες155
τὸ πρὶν ἐπ᾽ εἰρήνης πρὶν ἐλθεῖν υἷας Ἀχαιῶν.
τῇ ῥα παραδραμέτην φεύγων ὃ δ᾽ ὄπισθε διώκων:
πρόσθε μὲν ἐσθλὸς ἔφευγε, δίωκε δέ μιν μέγ᾽ ἀμείνων
καρπαλίμως, ἐπεὶ οὐχ ἱερήϊον οὐδὲ βοείην
ἀρνύσθην, ἅ τε ποσσὶν ἀέθλια γίγνεται ἀνδρῶν,160
ἀλλὰ περὶ ψυχῆς θέον Ἕκτορος ἱπποδάμοιο.
ὡς δ᾽ ὅτ᾽ ἀεθλοφόροι περὶ τέρματα μώνυχες ἵπποι
ῥίμφα μάλα τρωχῶσι: τὸ δὲ μέγα κεῖται ἄεθλον
ἢ τρίπος ἠὲ γυνὴ ἀνδρὸς κατατεθνηῶτος:
ὣς τὼ τρὶς Πριάμοιο πόλιν πέρι δινηθήτην165
καρπαλίμοισι πόδεσσι: θεοὶ δ᾽ ἐς πάντες ὁρῶντο:
τοῖσι δὲ μύθων ἦρχε πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε:
ὢ πόποι ἦ φίλον ἄνδρα διωκόμενον περὶ τεῖχος
ὀφθαλμοῖσιν ὁρῶμαι: ἐμὸν δ᾽ ὀλοφύρεται ἦτορ
Ἕκτορος, ὅς μοι πολλὰ βοῶν ἐπὶ μηρί᾽ ἔκηεν170
Ἴδης ἐν κορυφῇσι πολυπτύχου, ἄλλοτε δ᾽ αὖτε
ἐν πόλει ἀκροτάτῃ: νῦν αὖτέ ἑ δῖος Ἀχιλλεὺς
ἄστυ πέρι Πριάμοιο ποσὶν ταχέεσσι διώκει.
ἀλλ᾽ ἄγετε φράζεσθε θεοὶ καὶ μητιάασθε
ἠέ μιν ἐκ θανάτοιο σαώσομεν, ἦέ μιν ἤδη175
Πηλεΐδῃ Ἀχιλῆϊ δαμάσσομεν ἐσθλὸν ἐόντα.
notes
As Achilles approches, Hector runs away along a wagon track around the city. Achilles pursues, and they pass the site of a pair of hot and cold springs beneath the walls. As they complete a third circuit around the city Zeus expresses concern for Hector and asks the other gods to think about rescuing him.
Finally, Hector’s time has come. He is going to die soon. He knows it and we know it. Achilles has been looming on the edge of our vision while Hector pondered and now arrives as the elemental force that Priam first saw from the walls of Troy:
read full essay
Those were his thoughts as he waited, and Achilles drew near,
like the god of battle, helmeted and ready for war,
shaking the Pelian ash spear over his right shoulder,
menacing; and the bronze blazed around him
like a burning fire or the sun rising.
Iliad 22.131–35
The pathos that has been building around Hector since Book 6, around his heroism and its terrible price, come to a climax in this moment. He chooses to die nobly, as we expect.
But then he runs. To have this enormously sympathetic character lose his nerve at this moment seems a huge risk for the poet. Don’t we admire Hector precisely because he is willing to die to preserve the heroic principles that have cost him so much?
The artistic vision that produced this turnabout defies easy explanation, and the risk of oversimplifying is great. We might condemn Hector as a coward. After all, Odysseus stood his ground when surrounded by Trojans in Book 11, and even Agenor seemed ready to wait for Achilles (21.550–80). Menelaus did give way while trying to guard the corpse of Patroclus (17.89–113), but help was close by, and his decision seems both plausible and in character. Understanding Hector’s choice is much harder precisely because Homer’s portrait of him is so much richer and more intimate than that of any other warrior in the Iliad. We have seen into Hector’s heart, in his frustration with Paris, his struggle to honor his parents, and especially his wrenching encounter with Andromache and their son in Book 6. All these charged moments come to fruition in his monologue, as we hear his innermost thoughts and fantasies of escape. So, while we may condemn him for his failure to stand and face certain death, we may also find that running only makes him more accessible to us. We see behind the heroic gestures a fully-formed, complicated human being.
The contrast with Achilles is instructive. Achilles is the principal hero of the Iliad. His story forms the backbone of the poem’s plot. His decisions and actions are the vehicle for the artistic resolution of the poem that occurs in Book 24. But he is always apart from other heroes by virtue of his semi-divine heritage and the extreme nature of his response to its challenges. In the last third of the poem, we see him ranging further and further away from ordinary human experience, at once more divine and more bestial. There is something mysterious, even repellent about Achilles. Hector, on the other hand, becomes more accessibly human to us as the story progresses, and this contrast holds the key to understanding how the poet is using these two characters to tell his story. Achilles, as powerful and vivid as he is, plays a role that parallels protagonists in other versions of the common Mediterranean myth of the hero’s separation and return: Gilgamesh, Odysseus, Orpheus, Aeneas (see Introduction, “The Second Self Motif”). The shape of that narrative pattern allows exploration of important questions about the place of human experience in the larger cosmic order. Hector, on the other hand, must be Homer’s invention, the character whose presence draws us in and makes the story so emotionally involving.
Now the chase begins. Having Hector run allows Homer to stretch out the final moments before the duel, to hold the dramatic climax a little longer. At the same time, scale usually marks importance in the Iliad, so the poet expands the chase in various ways. Elsewhere, as in the case of Aeneas’s lengthy genealogy in Book 20, we may feel that we are being teased, but not here. Every element of the narrative from now until Hector’s death is charged with meaning, drawing on what we know of both heroes, who they are and what they’ve done. First, a simile: Achilles as a hawk, swift and deadly, preying on Hector, the trembling dove. Then the focus shifts, pulling back so we can see the two men racing under the walls, by the look-out point and the wild fig tree, surely the same one that Andromache urged Hector to make a stand beside in Book 6 (433). Again, as at the end of his monologue, when things look darkest for Hector the poet draws our thoughts back to those last bittersweet moments of peace by the Skaian Gates.
Following the wagon path the two arrive at two “sweet-running well springs” (147) fed by the river Skamandros. Homer pauses to let us see more of the springs. One spouts hot water and steam, the other runs cold, like hail, snow, or ice. Next to them are the stone basins where Trojan women used to wash clothes, “before when there was peace, before the sons of the Achaeans came” (155–56). In these fleeting images, we might recognize a familiar element in Homer’s battle narratives, the poignant biography of the loser, with vignettes from the life about to be ended. The difference here, apart from scale, is that the impending death will not be of one man only, but an entire city. The connection between Hector’s fate and Troy’s, already established by Book 6, will continue through the rest of the poem.
Homer’s narrative style can be leisurely, sometimes frustratingly so, as he pauses along the way to contemplate all kinds of details that might seem trivial. But a closer look often shows a thread of meaning connected to the poet’s larger purposes. So we note that the hot spring sends up steam, as if from a “blazing fire,” πυρὸς αἰθομένοιο (150), the same phrase used just fifteen verses earlier to describe the flash from Achilles’ armor, with one small change in the form of the case ending of the adjective to accommodate the meter (πυρὸς αἰθομένου, 135). Once the fire of Achilles is in our minds, the cold death coming for Hector rises from the other spring. Nothing is wasted.
Next come two more similes, of a foot race and a horse race, foreshadowing the extended description of athletics as denatured warfare that will take up much of Book 23. Here the similes serve to pull us back again from the idyllic setting by the springs to a position like Priam’s earlier, watching Achilles and Hector from afar. Then Homer zooms yet further away, to Olympus, where Zeus and the other gods look down at the desperate foot race. The “divine audience” is a recurring motif in the poem (see 4.1–72, 16.431–61, 20.288–320), inviting us to take a more detached view of the events below. This change in perspective has multiple effects here. Our sense of time changes, as the two figures shrink, and their progress looks slower, something like what happens when a film goes into slow motion. As the action slows, we can stand back from the furious immediacy of the moment and ponder its meaning. And as we assume a divine perspective, the drama of human life and death becomes less charged. In the world of the gods, nothing can change, and no harm is permanent. To a divine audience, there is in one sense no difference between athletic games and Hector’s race for his life.
But precisely because the gods are invulnerable to permanent change the poet can also use them to explore human relationships from a detached position. Here Zeus contemplates saving Hector, since he has always provided the gods with excellent sacrifices. Athena replies firmly: You can do it if you want, but if you do, none of the other gods will approve of you. The dynamics of this exchange appear in two other places in the Iliad, at 16.431–61, when Sarpedon faces his fated death at the hands of Patroclus and Zeus ponders whether to intervene and change fate and save his mortal son; and 20.288–308, when Poseidon considers saving Aeneas from what looks like certain death at Achilles’ hands.
We seem to have examples of another Homeric type scene, “god ponders whether to rescue a favorite mortal,” like the besieged-warrior scenes we discussed earlier. The outcomes are different—Sarpedon is allowed to die, Aeneas is saved, and Hector will be left to his fated death—but the central dynamic is consistent: an all-powerful being contemplates changing fate to please himself. While we might look in these passages for some definitive answer to the question of the relationship between divine will and fate in the poem, in each case, the god is dissuaded by an argument with a distinctly human resonance. In the case of Sarpedon, as here, Hera admits that Zeus can change fate and save his son, but he will risk disapproval from the other gods. In Book 20, Hera says that she and Athena have been forbidden by Zeus from intervening in the battle, but Poseidon is free to act as he pleases. Instead of stepping downstage to clarify a large metaphysical question, Homer shows us the omnipotent gods entangled in the same messy interpersonal dilemmas that face humans.
There is a crucial difference, since, however annoyed the gods may be about the interference of other deities, finally nothing can change their perfected existence. They cannot grow old, get sick, or die. The stakes for mortals are much higher, and so the moral import of their decisions is much greater. To put it simply, the gods in their own world are necessarily trivial. But when they intervene in the mortal world, their actions can be devastating. So, when Homer creates a situation where a god is contemplating whether to cross the boundary between divine and mortal existence, he prompts us to think about the question that lies behind all Greek tragic literature: What does it mean to be human?
Further Reading
Edwards, M. 1987. Homer: Poet of the Iliad, 292–294. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Griffin, J. 1980. Homer on Life and Death, 112; 179–204. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Owen, E. T. 1946. The Story of the Iliad, 222–227. Toronto: Clark and Irwin.
Schein, S. 1984. The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to Homer’s Iliad, 180–186. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Van Nortwick, T. 2008. Imagining Men: Ideals of Masculinity in Ancient Greek Culture, 2–14. Westport, CT: Praeger.
131: ὣς: “thus,” closing Hector’s interior monologue. ὃ δέ … Ἀχιλλεὺς: “but this one, Achilles.” οἱ: “to him,” dat. obj. of σχεδόν (Monro 98).
133 Πηλιάδα: “of Mount Pelion.” Achilles’ spear is called “Pelian” because the centaur Chiron made it of wood from Mt. Pelion in Thessaly and gave it to Peleus at the occasion of his marriage to Thetis, just as the gods gave him armor (de Jong; see Iliad 16.140–144). κατὰ: “over” (Goodell 212.4).
134: ἀμφὶ δὲ: “around about,” adverbial.
135: ἢ … ἢ: “either … or.” πυρὸς … ἀνιόντος: gen. qualifying αὐγῇ. ἀνιόντος: pres. ptc. > ἄν-ειμι.
136: ὡς: “as,” “when.” ἕλε: unaugmented aor. > αἱρέω. οὐδ᾽… ἔτ᾽: “and no longer,” “not still.” ἔτλη: "endured," aor. > τλάω (Goodell 366).
137: βῆ φοβηθείς: “he set off in flight.” In Homer the verb φοβέω means “to put to flight” (act.), “flee” (middle/passive), with the connotation of fear. βῆ: unaugmented root aor. > βαίνω (Goodell 366). φοβηθείς: nom. sg. aor. pass. ptc.
138: πεποιθώς: “trusting completely in,” intensive perfect > πείθω (Monro 61).
139: ὄρεσφιν: “in the mountains,” -φι, the dative suffix, is here locative in force (Goodell 157). Mountains are associated with danger in Homer: this is the place where wild animals live, fire rages, and herdsmen fight in a continuous battle against predators (de Jong).
140: οἴμησε: “pounces,” gnomic aor. (Smyth 1931), as often in similes (Monro 78.2). “Swoops down” (Monro). μετὰ: “after,” “behind,” (Monro 195.1).
141: ἣ δέ θ᾽: = ἣ δέ τε, “and that one…,” the dove. φοβεῖται: see 22.137. ὃ δ᾽: “and this one,” the hawk. ὀξὺ λεληκὼς: “with a shrill cry.” ὀξὺ: neut. sg. adverbial acc. λεληκὼς: intensive perfect participle > λάσκω (Monro 61).
142: ταρφέ᾽: = ταρφέα, neut. pl. ἑλέειν: uncontracted 2nd aor. inf. > αἱρέω (Monro 85.2). τέ: “and.”
143: ὣς: “so,” closing the simile from 22.139. ὅ γ᾽: “this one,” Achilles. πέτετο: “began to fly,” unaugmented inchoative impf. (Monro 70).
144: τεῖχος ὕπο: = ὑπὸ τεῖχος.
145: οἳ δὲ: “and these,” demonstrative pronoun (Monro 256). σκοπιήν: “the lookout place,” not that of 2.792 ff., which was some way from the city (Monro).
146: τείχεος … ὑπ᾽ ἐκ: “a little way out from the wall,” gen. place from which. The road was not close enough for arrows to strike Achilles (de Jong). ὑπ’ ἐκ: “away from under,” getting further out as he went on (Monro). ἀμαξιτόν: “the wagon-track” leading to the washing place. ἐσσεύοντο: impf. mid. > σεύω, with σ duplicated after the augment. They ran along the wagon-road along the city wall; yet the road seems to have been somewhat distant from the wall (Benner).
147: κρουνὼ … καλλιρρόω: dual acc., acc. of direction without preposition. ἵκανον: 3rd pl. impf. > ἱκάνω (= ἵκω, = ἱκνέομαι).
148: Σκαμάνδρου: with πηγαί, two springs of the Scamander, i.e., two of the sources from which it fed (Monro).
149: ἣ μὲν … ἣ δ᾽: “one (spring) … other (spring)”. ὕδατι λιαρῷ: “with warm water,” specifying dative (Goodell 527.b). ἀμφὶ δὲ: “and round about it,” adverbial.
150: ἐξ αὐτῆς: “from it,” the spring. ὡς εἰ: “as if.” πυρὸς: supply ἐξ, gen. place from which.
151: ἣ δ᾽ ἑτέρη: “the other (spring).” θέρεϊ: “in summer,” dat. of time when (Goodell 527.c).
152: ἢ … ἢ: “or … or.”
153: ἔνθα δ᾽: “and there.” ἐπ᾽αὐτάων … ἐγγὺς: “near by them,” uncontracted gen. pl. > αὐτός. ἔασι: “there are,” 3rd pl. pres. epic > εἰμί, Att. εἰσίν. πλυνοί: “washing troughs,” cp. the description in the Odyssey, 7.85 ff. (Monro).
155: πλύνεσκον: “were accustomed to wash,” -σκ- indicates iterative impf. (Monro 48–9). τε: “and.”
156: τὸ πρὶν: “formerly,” adverb. ἐπ᾽εἰρήνης: “in peacetime,” gen. of time within which (Monro 200.4). υἷας: acc. pl. subject of infin.
157–166: παραδραμέτην … δινηθήτην: wedged in between two aorists, a series of imperfects (ἔφευγε, δίωκε, ἀρνύσθην, θέον) scenically paints the footrace.
157: τῇ: “in this (place),” “there,” dat. of place where with the fem. dat. sg. personal pronoun (Goodell 527.a). παραδραμέτην: dual 3rd pers. aor. > παρα-τρέχω. (ὃ μὲν) φεύγων, ὁ δ᾽: “(the one) fleeing, the other…”
158: μέγ᾽: = μέγα, “far,” “by far,” adverbial acc. adj. with ἀμείνων. μιν: “him,” Hector.
159: ἱερήιον: beast for sacrifice, “festal ox” (Monro).
160: ἀρνύσθην: “were trying to win,” dual 3rd pers. mid. conative impf. (Goodell 459.a). ἅ τε … ἀέθλια: “which are the prizes,” relative pronoun with an epic τε in generalizing statement (Monro 332.b). ποσσὶν ἀνδρῶν: “by the feet of men,” specifying dative (Goodell 527.b). ποσσὶν: “in the foot-race” (Benner); “for speed of foot” (Monro).
161: περὶ ψυχῆς: “for the life,” “about the life,” i.e., the prize for this race is Hector's life. θέον: unaugmented 3rd pl. impf. > θέω.
162: ὡς δ᾽ ὅτ᾽: “just as when,” begins the second of four similes in the context of the chase (de Jong). περὶ τέρματα: “round the turning posts,” likely boundary stones or landmarks such as trees (de Jong). μώνυχες ἵπποι: “one-nailed hourses,” i.e. “with unified hoof” (as opposed to cloven-hoofed animals) (de Jong).
163–164: τὸ δὲ μέγα κεῖται ἄεθλον / ἀνδρὸς κατατεθνηῶτος: “and it, a big prize, is set for (i.e. in honor of) a man who has died.” The allusion is to funeral games (Benner). κεῖται: “is set out,” supplies the perfect passive of τιθήμι (Goodell 387.c).
164: ἢ … ἠὲ: “either … or,” in apposition to ἄεθλον. κατατεθνηῶτος: gen. sg. pf. act. ptc.
165: ὣς: “so,” closing the simile from 162. τὼ: “these (two),” dual nom. demonstrative pronoun. δινηθήτην: “whirled about,” “circled,” 3rd pers. dual aor. pass. epic > δίννημι (= δινεύω = δινέω). Τhe aorist ending -θητην is intransitive rather than passive.
166: πόδεσσι: dat. pl. > πούς (= ποσίν = ποσσὶν) (Goodell 526.a). δ᾽ ἐς … ὁρῶντο: tmesis, “looked and at (them),” i.e. at the two men. ὁρῶντο: unaugmented 3rd pl. impf. mid. > ὁράω, the middle is used instead of the active, because the perception strongly affects the viewer (de Jong).
167: τοῖσι δὲ: “and to these (gods),” dat. ind. object with verb of speaking. τε … τε: “both … and.”
169: ὀφθαλμοῖσιν: dat. of means. ὁρῶμαι: = ὁράομαι, pres. indicative.
169–170: ὀλοφύρεται ... Ἕκτορος: “feel pity for” + gen. (Monro 151.c).
170: ὅς: “who…,” relative. ἐπὶ … ἔκηεν: “burnt (on an altar),” aor. > ἐπικαίω, an abbreviated version of the full expression ἔκηε ἐπὶ βωμοῖς (de Jong). μοι: “for me,” dative of interest (Goodell 523). βοῶν: gen. pl. > βοῦς, partitive (Monro 147.2). μηρί᾽: = μηρία, neut. pl.
171: for the altar of Zeus on Mt. Ida, see 8.48 (Monro).
173: ἄστυ πέρι: = περὶ ἄστυ. ποσὶν: dat. pl. of means (Goodell 526.a).
174: ἄγετε φράζεσθε: “but come consider,” ἄγετε, originally an imperative, is used as an exhoratory particle that lends weight to the two pres. mid. pl. imperatives that follow it (de Jong).
175: ἠέ … ἦέ: “whether…or,” alternative indirect questions (Goodell 655). σαώσομεν … δαμάσσομεν: “we are to save… we are to bring him low…,” deliberative aorist subjunctives > σαόω (= σῴζω), > δαμάζω (= δάμνημι).
176: Ἀχιλῆϊ: “by means of Achilles,” “via Achilles” dat. of means (Goodell 526.a). ἐόντα: “though,” concessive ptc. > εἰμί.
vocabulary
ὁρμαίνω, impf. ὥρμαινε: to ponder, consider
οἱ (enclitic, dat. 3rd pers. pron.): (to) him, (to) her
σχεδόν: close, near
Ἀχιλλεύς -έως or -ῆος ὁ: Achilles, son of Peleus and Thetis, leader of the Myrmidons and Hellenes in Thessaly, the mightiest warrior before Troy, and the principal hero of the Iliad.
Ἐνυάλιος: Enyalius, a name of Ares
κορυθάιξ: helmet-shaking
πολεμιστής: a warrior, fighter
σείω: to shake, brandish
Πηλιάς: of mount Pelion, Pelian
μελίη: ash, ashen spear
δεξιός –ά –όν: right
ὦμος ὤμου ὁ: shoulder (with the upper arm)
χαλκός –οῦ ὁ: bronze
λάμπω: to give light, shine, beam, be bright, brilliant, radiant
εἴκελος: like
αὐγή: bright light, radiance, beam
αἴθω: to light up, kindle; (mid., pass.) to blaze, be consumed, be inflamed135
ἄνειμι, pres. partic. ἀνιόντα: to come back, return
νοέω, aor. ἐνόησε: to perceive, observe, look, devise, plan
τρόμος: a trembling, quaking, quivering
ἄρα, ῥά (enclit.), ἄρ, ῥ᾿: so, then, as you know, you know, it seems. Very often it marks an action as natural, or reminds of something recently said. It also marks transitions.
τλῆναι: to bear, endure, dare
αὖθι: on the spot, here, there, immediately, at once
ὀπίσω or ὀπίσσω: backwards, in the future
πύλη –ης ἡ: one wing of a pair of double gates; (pl.) gate
Πηλεΐδης: son of Peleus
ἐπορούω, aor. ἐπόρουσε: to rush against, leap toward, spring at
κραιπνός: swift
ἠύτε: as, like as
κίρκος: hawk
ὄρος ὄρεος τό: mountain, hill
ἐλαφρός: light, agile, quick
πετεηνός: winged
οἰμάω, aor. οἴμησε(ν): to swoop, rush on140
τρήρων: timid
πέλεια: wild-pigeon, dove
ὕπαιθα: adv. away from beneath; before
ἐγγύθεν: from near, nearby
λάσκω: to sound, crackle; perf. partic. λεληκώς (w. ὀξύ), with a shrill cry
ταρφέες: frequent; ταρφέα adv. often, again and again
ἐπαΐσσω, aor. partic. ἐπαΐξας, aor. iterat. ἐπαΐξασκε: to rush upon, rush after, dash
ἄνωγα (perf. as pres.), impf. ἄνωγον, plpf. as impf. ἠνώγει or ἀνώγειν: to command, order, bid
ἐμμεμαώς: in eager haste
ἰθύς: straight, direct
πέτομαι, 2nd aor. ἔπτατο, aor. partic. πταμένη: to fly, speed on
τρέω, aor. τρέσε, ἔτρεσαν: to flee
Τρῶες: Trojans
λαιψηρός: nimble, swift
γόνυ, gen. γόνατος or γούνατος: knee
νωμάω, impf. (ἐ)νώμα, aor. νώμησαν: to distribute; to direct this way and that, wield, move, ply
σκοπιή: look-out place, watch tower145
ἐρινεός: the wild fig-tree
ἠνεμόεις: windy, wind-swept
ἀμαξιτός: traversed by wagons; ἀμαξιτόν, wagon-road
σεύω, aor. ἔσσευα, σεῦε or σεύατο, perf. ἔσσυμαι, ἐσσύμενον, plpf. as aor. ἔσσυτο: to drive, pursue, start; (pass.) hasten, hurry, rush
κρουνός: a spring
ἱκάνω: to come, arrive
καλλίρροος: beautiful-flowing
πηγή: spring, source
δοιοί: two
ἀναΐσσω, aor. opt. ἀναΐξειεν, aor. partic. ἀναΐξας: to dart, spring, leap up
Σκάμανδρος: the Scamander
δινήεις: eddying
λιαρός: warm
ῥέω, impf. ἔρρεεν or ῥέεν: to flow
καπνός: smoke, steam
θέρος –εος τό: summer, summertime151
προρέω: to flow forth
χάλαζα: hail
χιών: snow
ψυχρός –ά –όν: cold
κρύσταλλος: ice
πλυνός: a trough, tank, washing pit
εὐρύς –εῖα –ύ: wide, broad
ἐγγύς: near, nigh, at hand
λάϊνος: of stone
ὅθι: where, there; poet. for οὗ
εἷμα –ατος τό: a garment, clothing
σιγαλόεις: gleaming
πλύνω, iterat. impf. πλύνεσκον: to wash, clean155
ἄλοχος -ου ἡ: wife
Ἀχαιός: Achaian
τῇ: there
παρατρέχω, 2nd aor. παραδραμέτην: to run past
ὄπισθε: from behind, behind, afterward, hereafter
πρόσθεν: before, in front
ἐσθλός –ή –όν: good, decent, honorable, noble, generous; capable, able; (of things) good, useful; (of words) wise, sensible
μιν: him, her, it
καρπάλιμος: swift, nimble
ἱερήιρον –ου τό: a victim for sacrifice
βοείη: an ox-hide
ἄρνυμαι, aor. opt. ἄροιο: to strive to win, gain160
ἄεθλον –ου τό: the prize of a contest
θέω θεύσομαι: to run
ἱππόδαμος -ον: tamer of horses, epithet of heroes
ἀθλοφόρος or ἀεθλοφόρος –ον: prize-winning
τέρμα –ατος τό: goal, around which horses turn in a race
μῶνυξ: solid-footed, epithet of horses
ῥίμφα: swiftly, fleetly
τρωχάω: to run, gallop
τρίπους or τρίπος τρίποδος ὁ: a tripod
καταθνῄσκω, 2nd aor. κάτθανε, perf. κατατεθνήκασιν: to die
τρίς: thrice, three times165
Πρίαμος: Priam, son of Laomedon. King of Troy.
δινεύω, impf. ἐδίνευον: to whirl
μῦθος –ου ὁ: word, utterance, saying, proposition, plan, thought, injunction
πόποι: alas!
φίλος –η –ον: friend; loved, beloved, dear
ὀλοφύρομαι: to lament, pity (+gen)
ἦτορ -ορος τό: the heart
μηρία τά: thigh-pieces, pieces of flesh which, wrapped in fat, were burnt as a sacrifice to the gods170
καίω καύσω ἔκαυσα κέκαυκα κέκαυμαι ἐκαύθην: to light, kindle, burn
Ἴδη: Ida, a mountain range extending from Phrygia through Mysia into the Troad. One of its peaks is "topmost Gargarus."
κορυφή: crown, top, peak of a mountain
πολύπτυχος: with many folds; (mountains) with many valleys
ἄλλοτε: at another time, at other times
αὖτε: again, on the other hand, however, but
ἄκρος –α –ον: uttermost, topmost, highest, at the top, end, edge, or surface of; πόλις ἄκρη, ἄκρη πόλις, 'upper city' (=ἀκρόπολις)
δῖος –α –ον: divine, noble, illustrious; marvelous, magnificent
ἄστυ ἄστεος τό: a city, town
ἄγε: come! come on! well!
μητιάω: to meditate, deliberate, debate
Πηλεύς gen. –ῆος and έος : Peleus, king of the Myrmidons. He was the son of Aeacus, husband of Thetis, and father of Achilles.176
δαμάζω: to overpower, tame, conquer, subdue