Seba.Health

The Iliad 5.689–703

The Iliad 5.689–703
but hastened by, eager with all speed to thrust back the Argives and take the lives of many. Then his goodly comrades made godlike Sarpedon to sit beneath a beauteous oak of Zeus that beareth the aegis, and forth from his thigh valiant Pelagon, that was his dear comrade, thrust the spear of ash; and his spirit failed him, and down over his eyes a mist was shed. Howbeit he revived, and the breath of the North Wind as it blew upon him made him to live again after in grievous wise he had breathed forth his spirit. But the Argives before the onset of Ares and Hector harnessed in bronze neither turned them to make for the black ships, nor yet could they hold out in fight, but they ever gave ground backward, when they heard that Ares was amid the Trojans. Who then was first to be slain and who last by Hector, Priam's son, and brazen Ares?
ὣς φάτο, τὸν δʼ οὔ τι προσέφη κορυθαίολος Ἕκτωρ, ἀλλὰ παρήϊξεν λελιημένος ὄφρα τάχιστα ὤσαιτʼ Ἀργείους, πολέων δʼ ἀπὸ θυμὸν ἕλοιτο. οἳ μὲν ἄρʼ ἀντίθεον Σαρπηδόνα δῖοι ἑταῖροι εἷσαν ὑπʼ αἰγιόχοιο Διὸς περικαλλέϊ φηγῷ· ἐκ δʼ ἄρα οἱ μηροῦ δόρυ μείλινον ὦσε θύραζε ἴφθιμος Πελάγων, ὅς οἱ φίλος ἦεν ἑταῖρος. τὸν δʼ ἔλιπε ψυχή, κατὰ δʼ ὀφθαλμῶν κέχυτʼ ἀχλύς· αὖτις δʼ ἐμπνύνθη, περὶ δὲ πνοιὴ Βορέαο ζώγρει ἐπιπνείουσα κακῶς κεκαφηότα θυμόν. Ἀργεῖοι δʼ ὑπʼ Ἄρηϊ καὶ Ἕκτορι χαλκοκορυστῇ οὔτε ποτὲ προτρέποντο μελαινάων ἐπὶ νηῶν οὔτε ποτʼ ἀντεφέροντο μάχῃ, ἀλλʼ αἰὲν ὀπίσσω χάζονθʼ, ὡς ἐπύθοντο μετὰ Τρώεσσιν Ἄρηα. ἔνθα τίνα πρῶτον τίνα δʼ ὕστατον ἐξενάριξαν
Lattimore commentary
Of the four scenes of loss of consciousness in the Iliad (5.310; 14.438; 22.466), only here does wind revive a person. The north wind, Boreas, is a divinity with human form (23.195), whose life-giving capacity appears also in his generating divine horses (20.223).
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