Achilles and the River

Chapter summary

The fleeing Trojans reach the ford of the Xanthus, the river of eddies that Zeus begot, and Achilles splits them: some run to the city, along the same path by which the Achaeans had fled the day before, when Hector was raging, and Hera casts a mist before them to hold them back; the other half falls into the river, amid cries and horses, like grasshoppers fleeing a fire into the water. Achilles leaves his spear on the bank, among the tamarisks, leaps in with his sword and strikes all around, and the water is stained with blood, like fish fleeing a dolphin. When he tires of killing, he takes twelve young men alive from the river as payment for the death of Patroclus, binds their hands with the straps of their own belts and sends them to the ships; then he goes back to killing.

He meets Lycaon, son of Priam, whom he had himself captured one night in his father's orchard, while the young man was cutting fig branches for the rims of a chariot. Achilles had sold him in Lemnos; a guest from Imbros ransomed him and sent him to Arisbe, and he returned home, where he spent eleven days among his own; on the twelfth, a god put him back into Achilles' hands. Achilles sees him without helmet, shield, or spear, thrown to the ground because the sweat and the weariness of fleeing the river overpowered him, and he is astonished: the Trojans he killed will rise from the dark, since this one has come back from Lemnos; he will test his spear on him to see whether the earth holds him too. Lycaon, trembling, comes near to embrace his knees and escape death; Achilles raises the spear, Lycaon ducks, grasps his knees with one hand and with the other the sharp spear. He pleads: he reminds Achilles that it was at his table that he first tasted the grain of Demeter, on the day he was captured in the orchard, that he was sold in Lemnos and that his ransom was a hundred oxen; now he offers three times as much. It is the twelfth day since he returned to Troy, and fate puts him back in his hands. His mother, Laothoe, bore Priam two sons, and Achilles will slaughter both, since he has already killed Polydorus. He asks not to be killed: he is not a full brother of Hector, who killed Achilles' companion. Achilles answers without pity: before Patroclus died, sparing the Trojans was dearer to his spirit, and he took many alive and sold them; now no one escapes the death that a god puts in his hands before Ilium, especially the sons of Priam. Die too, friend, he says: Patroclus, far better than you, died; and he himself, handsome and great, son of a noble father and a goddess mother, also has death and mighty fate awaiting him, at morning, evening, or noon, by spear or arrow. Lycaon faints, and Achilles strikes him at the collarbone with the sword. He throws the body into the river, saying that the fish will lick the blood from the wound, that his mother will not mourn him on the bed, and that the Scamander will carry him to the sea; and he warns the Trojans that the river will not save them, however many bulls are sacrificed to it and however many living horses are cast into it: all will die until they pay for the death of Patroclus and the ruin of the Achaeans by the ships. The river grows furious and considers how to stop Achilles and turn away the ruin of the Trojans.

Achilles, with his long spear, goes against Asteropaeus, leader of the Paeonians, grandson of the river Axius, and the river Xanthus fills his chest with courage, angered by the young men killed without pity. Asteropaeus, who fights with both hands, throws two spears at once: one strikes the shield, and the gold given by the god stops its point; the other grazes Achilles' right elbow and draws blood. Achilles' spear misses and sticks in the high bank. Asteropaeus tries three times to pull it out and three times gives up; on the fourth, he wants to break it, but Achilles kills him first with the sword. He strips him and boasts: it is hard to compete with the sons of the mighty son of Cronus, even if one is descended from a river. Asteropaeus spoke of the river's lineage, but Achilles is of Zeus's lineage, which is stronger than any river, and even Oceanus fears the lightning of Zeus. Eels and fish devour the dead man. Achilles kills other Paeonians, who were still fleeing, and would kill more if the river, taking the form of a man, did not speak from the depths of the whirlpool.

The river tells Achilles that he is the strongest and commits impious deeds, because the gods always help him. If the son of Cronus gave him the power to destroy all the Trojans, let him destroy them on the plain and far from the river, because its lovely streams are full of corpses, and it cannot pour its water into the sea; yet Achilles keeps killing in a destructive way. The river asks him to stop, and grief takes hold of it. Achilles answers that it will be as the river commands, but that he will not stop killing the Trojans before he has penned them in the city and tested Hector face to face, to see whether Hector defeats him or he defeats Hector. He hurls himself at the Trojans, and the river complains to Apollo that he did not obey Zeus, who had ordered him to stay at the Trojans' side until evening. Achilles leaps into the middle of the current; the Xanthus, roaring, raises waves, churns the waters, throws out the corpses that filled its bed and saves the living, hiding them in the eddies. The wave surrounds Achilles and pushes him against his shield; he clings to a great elm, which falls up by its roots, tears the bank, and lies across the stream like a bridge. Achilles climbs out of the eddies and leaps across the plain with the swiftness of a hunting eagle, and the river pursues him like the water that a gardener channels through the gardens and that runs ahead of whoever guides it. The wave always reaches him, because the gods are stronger than men. Each time Achilles tries to stop and see whether all the immortals are making him flee, the wave strikes his shoulders. He groans to heaven: no god wanted to save him from the river, and none of the other celestials is to blame, only his mother, Thetis, who deceived him with lies, saying he would perish beneath the wall of the Trojans by the swift arrows of Apollo. He wishes Hector, the best of the Trojans, had taken his life instead; but he is fated to die dragged down by the river, like a little swineherd whom a torrent carries off as he crosses in winter.

Athena and Poseidon, in the form of men, clasp his hand and reassure him: he is not fated to be overcome by the river, which will soon calm down. They advise him not to stop fighting before he has penned the Trojans within their walls, and that after taking Hector's life he should return to the ships; and they grant him glory. Achilles heads for the plain, covered with water, weapons, and corpses; Athena gives him great strength, and the broad current does not hold him back. The Scamander, more furious, calls his brother Simoeis: together they must restrain the savage man, who thinks himself equal to the gods. He promises to cover him with sand and mud, so that the Achaeans will not find his bones or need a tomb. The wave rises, purple with foam, blood, and corpses. Hera, afraid, cries out to Hephaestus to rise with fire against the Xanthus, and she herself will bring from the sea the Zephyrus and the Notus to burn the Trojans. Hephaestus first lights the fire on the plain, where it burns the dead, and then in the trees along the banks; the fish writhe. The river, scorched, speaks to Hephaestus: no god can compete with him; let him stop; let Achilles drive the Trojans from the city, for he wants nothing of the dispute. Then he complains to Hera: why does her son pursue him more than the other allies of the Trojans? He swears never to defend the Trojans, not even when Troy burns. Hera orders Hephaestus to stop, since it is not fitting to mistreat an immortal god like this on account of mortals; the fire goes out, and the water returns to its bed.

With the river settled, discord falls upon the other gods, who clash with a great din; Zeus, on Olympus, laughs with joy to see them. Ares begins, advancing against Athena and insulting her: he recalls that she guided Diomedes to wound him, and he strikes her aegis, which not even Zeus's lightning can overcome. Athena steps back, picks up a black, rough stone, which men of the past set as a boundary marker in the field, and throws it at Ares' neck; he falls and sprawls over seven plethra. Athena laughs and rebukes him: even now he has not realized how much superior she is. Thus he will pay the price to the Erinys of his mother, who is angry because he abandoned the Achaeans. Aphrodite leads him away by the hand, groaning; Hera notices and sends Athena after her; Athena knocks her down with a blow to the chest, and the two lie stretched out. Athena boasts: if all the allies of the Trojans were like that, the city would already have fallen. Hera smiles. Poseidon asks Apollo why they are still standing apart: it would be shameful to return to Olympus without fighting, and Apollo, the younger, should begin. Poseidon recalls the year when both served Laomedon, he building the wall of Troy and Apollo tending cattle on Ida, and how the king refused them their wages and threatened to sell them as slaves and cut off their ears; he reproaches Apollo for favoring that people now. Apollo refuses to fight for the sake of mortals, who are like leaves, and withdraws, also because he is ashamed to face his father's brother. Artemis insults him; Hera seizes her wrists and strikes her ears with her own bow; she flees weeping, like a dove pursued by a hawk, leaving her arrows scattered. Hermes refuses to fight against Leto, who gathers up the bow and arrows. Artemis, tearful, sits on Zeus's knees, and Zeus, laughing, asks who mistreated her; she answers that it was Hera. Apollo enters Ilium, because he is worried about the wall: he does not want the Danaans to take it that day, beyond what fate allows. The other gods return to Olympus, some angry, others exultant.

Achilles keeps killing Trojans and horses, like the smoke of a city that the gods have set on fire. Priam, on the tower, sees Achilles and the flight of the Trojans, comes down groaning, and orders the guards to open the gates until the fugitives are inside, and to close them afterward, fearing that Achilles will leap in with them. The gates open; Apollo leaps out to ward off ruin from the Trojans. They run into the city, thirsty and covered with dust, with Achilles furious behind them, thirsting for glory. Troy would have fallen if Apollo had not urged on Agenor, son of Antenor, putting courage in his chest and standing beside him, leaning against a beech and wrapped in mist. Agenor hesitates: to flee with the others is to be overtaken; to flee across the plain to Ida and come back in the evening is impossible, because Achilles would run faster; the only option is to face him, for his body can be wounded by bronze, he has a single soul, they say he is mortal, and Zeus gives him glory. He stands like a panther that does not retreat at the barking of dogs. He tells Achilles not to expect to take Troy that day: there are many strong men inside, who will fight for their parents, wives, and children. He throws his spear, which strikes Achilles' leg below the knee; the tin greave made by the god repels it. Achilles advances, but Apollo snatches Agenor away in a mist and sends him safely out of the fight; then the god takes on Agenor's form and stands before Achilles, who chases him across the wheat field to the Scamander, always a short distance away and always hoping to reach him. Meanwhile the other Trojans run to the city, which fills with them; none dares to wait outside the wall to learn who escaped and who died.