Seba.Health

The Iliad 13.432–445

The Iliad 13.432–445
for he cast a spell upon his bright eyes and ensnared his glorious limbs that he might nowise flee backwards nor avoid the spear; but as he stood fixed, even as a pillar or a tree, high and leafy, the warrior Idomeneus smote him with a thrust of his spear full upon the breast, and clave his coat of bronze round about him, that aforetime ever warded death from his body, but now it rang harshly as it was cloven about the spear. And he fell with a thud, and the spear was fixed in his heart, that still beating made the butt thereof to quiver; howbeit, there at length did mighty Ares stay its fury. But Idomeneus exulted over him in terrible wise, and cried aloud: Deïphobus, shall we now deem perchance that due requital hath been made—three men slain for one—seeing thou boasteth thus? Nay, good sir, but stand forth thyself and face me, that thou mayest know what manner of son of Zeus am I that am come hither.For Zeus at the first begat Minos to be a watcher over Crete, and Minos again got him a son, even the peerless Deucalion, and Deucalion begat me, a lord over many men in wide Crete; and now have the ships brought me hither a bane to thee and thy father and the other Trojans.
κάλλεϊ καὶ ἔργοισιν ἰδὲ φρεσί· τοὔνεκα καί μιν γῆμεν ἀνὴρ ὤριστος ἐνὶ Τροίῃ εὐρείῃ· τὸν τόθʼ ὑπʼ Ἰδομενῆϊ Ποσειδάων ἐδάμασσε θέλξας ὄσσε φαεινά, πέδησε δὲ φαίδιμα γυῖα· οὔτε γὰρ ἐξοπίσω φυγέειν δύνατʼ οὔτʼ ἀλέασθαι, ἀλλʼ ὥς τε στήλην δένδρεον ὑψιπέτηλον ἀτρέμας ἑσταότα στῆθος μέσον οὔτασε δουρὶ ἥρως Ἰδομενεύς, ῥῆξεν δέ οἱ ἀμφὶ χιτῶνα χάλκεον, ὅς οἱ πρόσθεν ἀπὸ χροὸς ἤρκει ὄλεθρον· δὴ τότε γʼ αὖον ἄϋσεν ἐρεικόμενος περὶ δουρί. δούπησεν δὲ πεσών, δόρυ δʼ ἐν κραδίῃ ἐπεπήγει, ῥά οἱ ἀσπαίρουσα καὶ οὐρίαχον πελέμιζεν ἔγχεος· ἔνθα δʼ ἔπειτʼ ἀφίει μένος ὄβριμος Ἄρης· Ἰδομενεὺς δʼ ἔκπαγλον ἐπεύξατο μακρὸν ἀΰσας
Lattimore commentary
Poseidon’s spell is unparalleled as a form of divine intervention in the battle thus far. The closest scene to this is 16.791 (Apollo strikes Patroklos), but only here is there the sense that the god puts his victim in a paralyzed trance by visual contact. The ensuing death ends with the equally bizarre image of Alkathoös’ heartbeat causing the spear butt to pulsate (443).
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