HOMER'S ILIAD COMPLETE

Rhapsody 14

Literally Translated, with Explanatory Notes, by Theodore Alois Buckley

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Page 4

But among them Diomede, valiant in the din of battle, also spoke: "The man is near, we need not seek far, if indeed ye are willing to be persuaded; and do not find fault each through wrath, because I am by birth the youngest amongst you; for I boast that my race is from a noble sire, Tydeus, whom the heaped-up earth[457] covers at Thebes. For to Portheus were born three distinguished sons, and they dwelt in Pleuron and lofty Calydon: Agrius and Melas, but the third was the knight oeneus, the father of my father, who was conspicuous among them for valour. He indeed remained there, but my father, as an exile, dwelt at Argos, for so Jove willed and the other gods. But he married [one] of the daughters[458] of Adrastus, and he inhabited a mansion opulent in resources, and corn-bearing fields were his in abundance, and there were many rows[459] of plants around him. Numerous were his herds, and he surpassed the Greeks in the use of the spear; but these things ye ought to know, since it is a truth. Do not, therefore, dispute the opinion freely delivered, which I give advisedly, deeming that I am base by birth, and unwarlike. Come, then, let us go to battle, wounded as we are, from necessity. There, then, let us ourselves approach the combat, out [of the reach] of weapons, lest any one receive wound upon wound; and, encouraging others, we will urge them on, who hitherto, gratifying their souls, have stood apart, nor fought."

[Footnote 456: For this use of the dative, cf. Plato Phaedon, Sec. 24. So Tacit. Agric. "Quibus bellum volentibus erat."—Kennedy. Cf. Aesch. Prom. s.i., [Greek: asmeno de soi E poikileimon nuz apokrypei phaos].]

[Footnote 457: See my note on Od. ii. p. 21, n. 35, ed. Bohn, and an admirable dissertation on these classic barrow-tombs in Stephen's notes on Saxo-Grammaticus, pp. 90-92.]

[Footnote 458: Deipyle. See Scholiast.]

[Footnote 459: Not "gardens." Schol. Theocrit. i. 48. [Greek: Orchaton ten epistichon phyteian ... kai Aristophanes to metaxy ton phyton metorchyon ekalesen en tois georgois' kai Esiodos archon legeis ten epistichon ton ampelon phuteian]. Cf. Schol. on Lycophr. 857; Hesych. t. ii. p. 792.]

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