Page 127 - the-iliad

of the Danaans? Let me persuade you—for it will be better
thus—stay the combat for to-day, but let them renew the
fight hereafter till they compass the doom of Ilius, since you
goddesses have made up your minds to destroy the city.’
And Minerva answered, ‘So be it, Far-Darter; it was in
this mind that I came down from Olympus to the Trojans
and Achaeans. Tell me, then, how do you propose to end
this present fighting?’
Apollo, son of Jove, replied, ‘Let us incite great Hector
to challenge some one of the Danaans in single combat; on
this the Achaeans will be shamed into finding a man who
will fight him.’
Minerva assented, and Helenus son of Priam divined the
counsel of the gods; he therefore went up to Hector and said,
‘Hector son of Priam, peer of gods in counsel, I am your
brother, let me then persuade you. Bid the other Trojans
and Achaeans all of them take their seats, and challenge the
best man among the Achaeans to meet you in single com-
bat. I have heard the voice of the ever-living gods, and the
hour of your doom is not yet come.’
Hector was glad when he heard this saying, and went
in among the Trojans, grasping his spear by the middle to
hold them back, and they all sat down. Agamemnon also
bade the Achaeans be seated. But Minerva and Apollo, in
the likeness of vultures, perched on father Jove’s high oak
tree, proud of their men; and the ranks sat close ranged to-
gether, bristling with shield and helmet and spear. As when
the rising west wind furs the face of the sea and the waters
grow dark beneath it, so sat the companies of Trojans and

1 The Iliad