Seba.Health

The Iliad 2.666–680

The Iliad 2.666–680
and upon them was wondrous wealth poured by the son of Cronos. Moreover Nireus led three shapely ships from Syme, Nireus that was son of Aglaïa and Charops the king, Nireus the comeliest man that came beneath Ilios of all the Danaans after the fearless son of Peleus. Howbeit he was a weakling, and but few people followed with him. And they that held Nisyrus and Crapathus and Casus and Cos, the city of Eurypylus, and the Calydnian isles, these again were led by Pheidippus and Antiphus, the two sons of king Thessalus, son of Heracles. And with them were ranged thirty hollow ships. Now all those again that inhabited Pelasgian Argos, and dwelt in Alos and Alope and Trachis, and that held Phthia and Hellas, the land of fair women, and were called Myrmidons and Hellenes and Achaeans—
υἱέες υἱωνοί τε βίης Ἡρακληείης. αὐτὰρ γʼ ἐς Ῥόδον ἷξεν ἀλώμενος ἄλγεα πάσχων· τριχθὰ δὲ ᾤκηθεν καταφυλαδόν, ἠδὲ φίληθεν ἐκ Διός, ὅς τε θεοῖσι καὶ ἀνθρώποισιν ἀνάσσει, καί σφιν θεσπέσιον πλοῦτον κατέχευε Κρονίων. Νιρεὺς αὖ Σύμηθεν ἄγε τρεῖς νῆας ἐΐσας Νιρεὺς Ἀγλαΐης υἱὸς Χαρόποιό τʼ ἄνακτος Νιρεύς, ὃς κάλλιστος ἀνὴρ ὑπὸ Ἴλιον ἦλθε τῶν ἄλλων Δαναῶν μετʼ ἀμύμονα Πηλεΐωνα· ἀλλʼ ἀλαπαδνὸς ἔην, παῦρος δέ οἱ εἵπετο λαός. οἳ δʼ ἄρα Νίσυρόν τʼ εἶχον Κράπαθόν τε Κάσον τε καὶ Κῶν Εὐρυπύλοιο πόλιν νήσους τε Καλύδνας, τῶν αὖ Φείδιππός τε καὶ Ἄντιφος ἡγησάσθην Θεσσαλοῦ υἷε δύω Ἡρακλεΐδαο ἄνακτος· τοῖς δὲ τριήκοντα γλαφυραὶ νέες ἐστιχόωντο.
Lattimore commentary
The shower of wealth on Rhodes was literal: Zeus is reputed to have poured down gold like snow on the island. Nireus, from the insignificant island, is never heard of again in the Iliad. The mention of his beauty, however, allows the poet to slip in a reminder of the otherwise absent Achilleus, to foreground the theme of the relative distribution of gods’ gifts (beauty but not power), and to continue to create the overarching sense that the entire world of Greeks and Trojans came to this war.
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