Page 426 - the-iliad

he will sack the mighty city of King Priam, and the Tro-
jans will not hold out against him. Help me at once; fill your
streams with water from their sources, rouse all your tor-
rents to a fury; raise your wave on high, and let snags and
stones come thundering down you that we may make an
end of this savage creature who is now lording it as though
he were a god. Nothing shall serve him longer, not strength
nor comeliness, nor his fine armour, which forsooth shall
soon be lying low in the deep waters covered over with mud.
I will wrap him in sand, and pour tons of shingle round
him, so that the Achaeans shall not know how to gather
his bones for the silt in which I shall have hidden him, and
when they celebrate his funeral they need build no barrow.’
On this he upraised his tumultuous flood high against
Achilles, seething as it was with foam and blood and the
bodies of the dead. The dark waters of the river stood up-
right and would have overwhelmed the son of Peleus, but
Juno, trembling lest Achilles should be swept away in the
mighty torrent, lifted her voice on high and called out to
Vulcan her son. ‘Crook-foot,’ she cried, ‘my child, be up and
doing, for I deem it is with you that Xanthus is fain to fight;
help us at once, kindle a fierce fire; I will then bring up the
west and the white south wind in a mighty hurricane from
the sea, that shall bear the flames against the heads and ar-
mour of the Trojans and consume them, while you go along
the banks of Xanthus burning his trees and wrapping him
round with fire. Let him not turn you back neither by fair
words nor foul, and slacken not till I shout and tell you.
Then you may stay your flames.’