Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica
unapproachable and unspeakable, longing to seize him: as they trod upon
the pale adamant, the shield rang sharp and clear with a loud clanging.
Two serpents hung down at their girdles with heads curved forward:
their tongues were flickering, and their teeth gnashing with fury, and
their eyes glaring fiercely. And upon the awful heads of the Gorgons
great Fear was quaking.
(ll. 237-270) And beyond these there were men fighting in warlike
harness, some defending their own town and parents from destruction,
and others eager to sack it; many lay dead, but the greater number
still strove and fought. The women on well-built towers of bronze were
crying shrilly and tearing their cheeks like living beings—the work of
famous Hephaestus. And the men who were elders and on whom age had laid
hold were all together outside the gates, and were holding up their
hands to the blessed gods, fearing for their own sons. But these again
were engaged in battle: and behind them the dusky Fates, gnashing their
white fangs, lowering, grim, bloody, and unapproachable, struggled for
those who were falling, for they all were longing to drink dark blood.
So soon as they caught a man overthrown or falling newly wounded, one
of them would clasp her great claws about him, and his soul would go
down to Hades to chilly Tartarus. And when they had satisfied their
souls with human blood, they would cast that one behind them, and rush
back again into the tumult and the fray. Clotho and Lachesis were over
them and Atropos less tall than they, a goddess of no great frame, yet
superior to the others and the eldest of them. And they all made a
fierce fight over one poor wretch, glaring evilly at one another with
furious eyes and fighting equally with claws and hands. By them stood
Darkness of Death, mournful and fearful, pale, shrivelled, shrunk with
hunger, swollen-kneed. Long nails tipped her hands, and she dribbled at
the nose, and from her cheeks blood dripped down to the ground. She
stood leering hideously, and much dust sodden with tears lay upon her
shoulders.
(ll. 270-285) Next, there was a city of men with goodly towers; and
seven gates of gold, fitted to the lintels, guarded it. The men were
making merry with festivities and dances; some were bringing home a
bride to her husband on a well-wheeled car, while the bridal-song
swelled high, and the glow of blazing torches held by handmaidens
rolled in waves afar. And these maidens went before, delighting in the
festival; and after them came frolicsome choirs, the youths singing
soft-mouthed to the sound of shrill pipes, while the echo was shivered
around them, and the girls led on the lovely dance to the sound of
lyres. Then again on the other side was a rout of young men revelling,
with flutes playing; some frolicking with dance and song, and others
were going forward in time with a flute player and laughing. The whole
town was filled with mirth and dance and festivity.
(ll. 285-304) Others again were mounted on horseback and galloping
before the town. And there were ploughmen breaking up the good soil,
clothed in tunics girt up. Also there was a wide cornland and some men
were reaping with sharp hooks the stalks which bended with the weight
of the cars—as if they were reaping Demeter’s grain: others were
binding the sheaves with bands and were spreading the threshing floor.
And some held reaping hooks and were gathering the vintage, while
others were taking from the reapers into baskets white and black
clusters from the long rows of vines which were heavy with leaves and
tendrils of silver. Others again were gathering them into baskets.
Beside them was a row of vines in gold, the splendid work of cunning
Hephaestus: it had shivering leaves and stakes of silver and was laden
with grapes which turned black 1805. And there were men treading out
the grapes and others drawing off liquor. Also there were men boxing
and wrestling, and huntsmen chasing swift hares with a leash of
sharp-toothed dogs before them, they eager to catch the hares, and the
hares eager to escape.
(ll 305-313) Next to them were horsemen hard set, and they contended
and laboured for a prize. The charioteers standing on their well-woven
cars, urged on their swift horses with loose rein; the jointed cars
flew along clattering and the naves of the wheels shrieked loudly. So
they were engaged in an unending toil, and the end with victory came
never to them, and the contest was ever unwon. And there was set out
for them within the course a great tripod of gold, the splendid work of
cunning Hephaestus.
(ll. 314-317) And round the rim Ocean was flowing, with a full stream
as it seemed, and enclosed all the cunning work of the shield. Over it
swans were soaring and calling loudly, and many others were swimming
upon the surface of the water; and near them were shoals of fish.
(ll. 318-326) A wonderful thing the great strong shield was to see—even
for Zeus the loud-thunderer, by whose will Hephaestus made it and
fitted it with his hands. This shield the valiant son of Zeus wielded
masterly, and leaped upon his horse-chariot like the lightning of his
father Zeus who holds the aegis, moving lithely. And his charioteer,
strong Iolaus, standing upon the car, guided the curved chariot.
(ll. 327-337) Then the goddess grey-eyed Athene came near them and
spoke winged words, encouraging them: ‘Hail, offspring of far-famed
Lynceus! Even now Zeus who reigns over the blessed gods gives you power
to slay Cycnus and to strip off his splendid armour. Yet I will tell
you something besides, mightiest of the people. When you have robbed
Cycnus of sweet life, then leave him there and his armour also, and you
yourself watch man-slaying Ares narrowly as he attacks, and wherever
you shall see him uncovered below his cunningly-wrought shield, there
wound him with your sharp spear. Then draw back; for it is not ordained
that you should take his horses or his splendid armour.’
(ll. 338-349) So said the bright-eyed goddess and swiftly got up into
the car with victory and renown in her hands. Then heaven-nurtured
Iolaus called terribly to the horses, and at his cry they swiftly
whirled the fleet chariot along, raising dust from the plain; for the
goddess bright-eyed Athene put mettle into them by shaking her aegis.
And the earth groaned all round them.
And they, horse-taming Cycnus and Ares, insatiable in war, came on
together like fire or whirlwind. Then their horses neighed shrilly,
face to face; and the echo was shivered all round them. And mighty
Heracles spoke first and said to that other:
(ll. 350-367) ‘Cycnus, good sir! Why, pray, do you set your swift
horses at us, men who are tried in labour and pain? Nay, guide your
fleet car aside and yield and go out of the path. It is to Trachis I am
driving on, to Ceyx the king, who is the first in Trachis for power and
for honour, and that you yourself know well, for you have his daughter
dark-eyed Themistinoe to wife. Fool! For Ares shall not deliver you
from the end of death, if we two meet together in battle. Another time
ere this I declare he has made trial of my spear, when he defended
sandy Pylos and stood against me, fiercely longing for fight. Thrice
was he stricken by my spear and dashed to earth, and his shield was
pierced; but the fourth time I struck his thigh, laying on with all my
strength, and tare deep into his flesh. And he fell headlong in the
dust upon the ground through the force of my spear-thrust; then truly
he would have been disgraced among the deathless gods, if by my hands
he had left behind his bloody spoils.’
(ll. 368-385) So said he. But Cycnus the stout spearman cared not to
obey him and to pull up the horses that drew his chariot. Then it was
that from their well-woven cars they both leaped straight to the
ground, the son of Zeus and the son of the Lord of War. The charioteers
drove near by their horses with beautiful manes, and the wide earth
rang with the beat of their hoofs as they rushed along. As when rocks
leap forth from the high peak of a great mountain, and fall on one
another, and many towering oaks and pines and long-rooted poplars are
broken by them as they whirl swiftly down until they reach the plain;
so did they fall on one another with a great shout: and all the town of
the Myrmidons, and famous Iolcus, and Arne, and Helice, and grassy
Anthea echoed loudly at the voice of the two. With an awful cry they
closed: and wise Zeus thundered loudly and rained down drops of blood,
giving the signal for battle to his dauntless son.
(ll. 386-401) As a tusked boar, that is fearful for a man to see before
him in the glens of a mountain, resolves to fight with the huntsmen and
white tusks, turning sideways, while foam flows all round his mouth as
he gnashes, and his eyes are like glowing fire, and he bristles the
hair on his mane and around his neck—like him the son of Zeus leaped
from his horse-chariot. And when the dark-winged whirring grasshopper,
perched on a green shoot, begins to sing of summer to men—his food and
drink is the dainty dew—and all day long from dawn pours forth his
voice in the deadliest heat, when Sirius scorches the flesh (then the
beard grows upon the millet which men sow in summer), when the crude
grapes which Dionysus gave to men—a joy and a sorrow both—begin to
colour, in that season they fought and loud rose the clamour.
(ll. 402-412) As two lions 1806 on either side of a slain deer spring
at one another in fury, and there is a fearful snarling and a clashing
also of teeth—like vultures with crooked talons and hooked beak that
fight and scream aloud on a high rock over a mountain goat or fat
wild-deer which some active man has shot with an arrow from the string,
and himself has wandered away elsewhere, not knowing the place; but
they quickly mark it and vehemently do keen battle about it—like these
they two rushed upon one another with a shout.
(ll. 413-423) Then Cycnus, eager to kill the son of almighty Zeus,
struck upon his shield with a brazen spear, but did not break the
bronze; and the gift of the god saved his foe. But the son of
Amphitryon, mighty Heracles, with his long spear struck Cycnus
violently in the neck beneath the chin, where it was unguarded between
helm and shield. And the deadly spear cut through the two sinews; for
the hero’s full strength lighted on his foe. And Cycnus fell as an oak
falls or a lofty pine that is stricken by the lurid thunderbolt of
Zeus; even so he fell, and his armour adorned with bronze clashed about
him.
(ll. 424-442) Then the stout hearted son of Zeus let him be, and
himself watched for the onset of manslaying Ares: fiercely he stared,
like a lion who has come upon a body and full eagerly rips the hide
with his strong claws and takes away the sweet life with all speed: his
dark heart is filled with rage and his eyes glare fiercely, while he
tears up the earth with his paws and lashes his flanks and shoulders
with his tail so that no one dares to face him and go near to give
battle. Even so, the son of Amphitryon, unsated of battle, stood
eagerly face to face with Ares, nursing courage in his heart. And Ares
drew near him with grief in his heart; and they both sprang at one
another with a cry. As it is when a rock shoots out from a great cliff
and whirls down with long bounds, careering eagerly with a roar, and a
high crag clashes with it and keeps it there where they strike
together; with no less clamour did deadly Ares, the chariot-borne, rush
shouting at Heracles. And he quickly received the attack.
(ll. 443-449) But Athene the daughter of aegis-bearing Zeus came to
meet Ares, wearing the dark aegis, and she looked at him with an angry
frown and spoke winged words to him. ‘Ares, check your fierce anger and