The Iliad 6.145–211 — Glaucus (lycian) speaking to Diomedes | The Lexicon

The Iliad 6.145–211

Great-souled son of Tydeus, wherefore inquirest thou of my lineage? Even as are the generations of leaves, such are those also of men. As for the leaves, the wind scattereth some upon the earth, but the forest, as it bourgeons, putteth forth others when the season of spring is come; even so of men one generation springeth up and another passeth away.Howbeit, if thou wilt, hear this also, that thou mayest know well my lineage; and many there be that know it. There is a city Ephyre in the heart of Argos, pasture-land of horses, and there dwelt Sisyphus that was craftiest of men, Sisyphus, son of Aeolus; and he begat a son Glaucus;and Glaucus begat peerless Bellerophon. Howbeit, if thou wilt, hear this also, that thou mayest know well my lineage; and many there be that know it. There is a city Ephyre in the heart of Argos, pasture-land of horses, and there dwelt Sisyphus that was craftiest of men, Sisyphus, son of Aeolus; and he begat a son Glaucus; and Glaucus begat peerless Bellerophon. Now the wife of Proetus, fair Anteia, lusted madly for Bellerophon, to lie with him in secret love, but could in no wise prevail upon wise-hearted Bellerophon, for that his heart was upright. So she made a tale of lies, and spake to king Proetus: Either die thyself, Proetus, or slay Bellerophon,seeing he was minded to lie with me in love against my will. So she spake, and wrath gat hold upon the king to hear that word. To slay him he forbare, for his soul had awe of that; but he sent him to Lycia, and gave him baneful tokens, graving in a folded tablet many signs and deadly,275.1 seeing he was minded to lie with me in love against my will. and bade him show these to his own wife's father, that he might be slain. So he went his way to Lycia under the blameless escort of the gods. And when he was come to Lycia and the stream of Xanthus, then with a ready heart did the king of wide Lycia do him honour: for nine days' space he shewed him entertainment, and slew nine oxen. Howbeit when the tenth rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, then at length he questioned him and asked to see whatever token he bare from his daughter's husband, Proetus. But when he had received from him the evil token of his daughter's husband, first he bade him slay the raging Chimaera. She was of divine stock, not of men, in the fore part a lion, in the hinder a serpent, and in the midst a goat, breathing forth in terrible wise the might of blazing fire. And Bellerophon slew her, trusting in the signs of the gods. Next fought he with the glorious Solymi, and this, said he was the mightest battle of warriors that ever he entered; and thirdly he slew the Amazons, women the peers of men. And against him, as he journeyed back therefrom, the king wove another cunning wile; he chose out of wide Lycia the bravest men and set an ambush; but these returned not home in any wise, for peerless Bellerophon slew them one and all. a fair tract of orchard and of plough-land, to possess it. And the lady bare to wise-hearted Bellerophon three children, Isander and Hippolochus and Laodameia. With Laodameia lay Zeus the counsellor, and she bare godlike Sarpedon, the warrior harnessed in bronze. But when even Bellerophon came to be hated of all the gods, then verily he wandered alone over the Aleian plain, devouring his own soul, and shunning the paths of men; and Isander his son was slain by Ares, insatiate of battle, as he fought against the glorious Solymi; and his daughter was slain in wrath by Artemis of the golden reins. But Hippolochus begat me and of him do I declare that I am sprung; and he sent me to Troy and straitly charged me ever to be bravest and pre-eminent above all, and not bring shame upon the race of my fathers, that were far the noblest in Ephyre and in wide Lycia. This is the lineage and the blood whereof I avow me sprung.

Τυδεΐδη μεγάθυμε τί ἢ γενεὴν ἐρεείνεις; οἵη περ φύλλων γενεὴ τοίη δὲ καὶ ἀνδρῶν. φύλλα τὰ μέν τʼ ἄνεμος χαμάδις χέει, ἄλλα δέ θʼ ὕλη τηλεθόωσα φύει, ἔαρος δʼ ἐπιγίγνεται ὥρη· ὣς ἀνδρῶν γενεὴ ἣ μὲν φύει ἣ δʼ ἀπολήγει. εἰ δʼ ἐθέλεις καὶ ταῦτα δαήμεναι ὄφρʼ ἐῢ εἰδῇς ἡμετέρην γενεήν, πολλοὶ δέ μιν ἄνδρες ἴσασιν· ἔστι πόλις Ἐφύρη μυχῷ Ἄργεος ἱπποβότοιο, ἔνθα δὲ Σίσυφος ἔσκεν, ὃ κέρδιστος γένετʼ ἀνδρῶν, Σίσυφος Αἰολίδης· ὃ δʼ ἄρα Γλαῦκον τέκεθʼ υἱόν, αὐτὰρ Γλαῦκος τίκτεν ἀμύμονα Βελλεροφόντην· τῷ δὲ θεοὶ κάλλός τε καὶ ἠνορέην ἐρατεινὴν ὤπασαν· αὐτάρ οἱ Προῖτος κακὰ μήσατο θυμῷ, ὅς ῥʼ ἐκ δήμου ἔλασσεν, ἐπεὶ πολὺ φέρτερος ἦεν, Ἀργείων· Ζεὺς γάρ οἱ ὑπὸ σκήπτρῳ ἐδάμασσε. τῷ δὲ γυνὴ Προίτου ἐπεμήνατο δῖʼ Ἄντεια κρυπταδίῃ φιλότητι μιγήμεναι· ἀλλὰ τὸν οὔ τι πεῖθʼ ἀγαθὰ φρονέοντα δαΐφρονα Βελλεροφόντην. ἣ δὲ ψευσαμένη Προῖτον βασιλῆα προσηύδα· τεθναίης ὦ Προῖτʼ, ἢ κάκτανε Βελλεροφόντην, ὅς μʼ ἔθελεν φιλότητι μιγήμεναι οὐκ ἐθελούσῃ. ὣς φάτο, τὸν δὲ ἄνακτα χόλος λάβεν οἷον ἄκουσε· κτεῖναι μέν ῥʼ ἀλέεινε, σεβάσσατο γὰρ τό γε θυμῷ, πέμπε δέ μιν Λυκίην δέ, πόρεν δʼ ὅ γε σήματα λυγρὰ γράψας ἐν πίνακι πτυκτῷ θυμοφθόρα πολλά, δεῖξαι δʼ ἠνώγειν ᾧ πενθερῷ ὄφρʼ ἀπόλοιτο. αὐτὰρ ὁ βῆ Λυκίην δὲ θεῶν ὑπʼ ἀμύμονι πομπῇ. ἀλλʼ ὅτε δὴ Λυκίην ἷξε Ξάνθόν τε ῥέοντα, προφρονέως μιν τῖεν ἄναξ Λυκίης εὐρείης· ἐννῆμαρ ξείνισσε καὶ ἐννέα βοῦς ἱέρευσεν. ἀλλʼ ὅτε δὴ δεκάτη ἐφάνη ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠὼς καὶ τότε μιν ἐρέεινε καὶ ᾔτεε σῆμα ἰδέσθαι ὅττί ῥά οἱ γαμβροῖο πάρα Προίτοιο φέροιτο. αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ δὴ σῆμα κακὸν παρεδέξατο γαμβροῦ, πρῶτον μέν ῥα Χίμαιραν ἀμαιμακέτην ἐκέλευσε πεφνέμεν· ἣ δʼ ἄρʼ ἔην θεῖον γένος οὐδʼ ἀνθρώπων, πρόσθε λέων, ὄπιθεν δὲ δράκων, μέσση δὲ χίμαιρα, δεινὸν ἀποπνείουσα πυρὸς μένος αἰθομένοιο, καὶ τὴν μὲν κατέπεφνε θεῶν τεράεσσι πιθήσας. δεύτερον αὖ Σολύμοισι μαχέσσατο κυδαλίμοισι· καρτίστην δὴ τήν γε μάχην φάτο δύμεναι ἀνδρῶν. τὸ τρίτον αὖ κατέπεφνεν Ἀμαζόνας ἀντιανείρας. τῷ δʼ ἄρʼ ἀνερχομένῳ πυκινὸν δόλον ἄλλον ὕφαινε· κρίνας ἐκ Λυκίης εὐρείης φῶτας ἀρίστους εἷσε λόχον· τοὶ δʼ οὔ τι πάλιν οἶκον δὲ νέοντο· πάντας γὰρ κατέπεφνεν ἀμύμων Βελλεροφόντης. ἀλλʼ ὅτε δὴ γίγνωσκε θεοῦ γόνον ἠῢν ἐόντα αὐτοῦ μιν κατέρυκε, δίδου δʼ ὅ γε θυγατέρα ἥν, δῶκε δέ οἱ τιμῆς βασιληΐδος ἥμισυ πάσης· καὶ μέν οἱ Λύκιοι τέμενος τάμον ἔξοχον ἄλλων καλὸν φυταλιῆς καὶ ἀρούρης, ὄφρα νέμοιτο. ἣ δʼ ἔτεκε τρία τέκνα δαΐφρονι Βελλεροφόντῃ Ἴσανδρόν τε καὶ Ἱππόλοχον καὶ Λαοδάμειαν. Λαοδαμείῃ μὲν παρελέξατο μητίετα Ζεύς, ἣ δʼ ἔτεκʼ ἀντίθεον Σαρπηδόνα χαλκοκορυστήν. ἀλλʼ ὅτε δὴ καὶ κεῖνος ἀπήχθετο πᾶσι θεοῖσιν, ἤτοι ὃ κὰπ πεδίον τὸ Ἀλήϊον οἶος ἀλᾶτο ὃν θυμὸν κατέδων, πάτον ἀνθρώπων ἀλεείνων· Ἴσανδρον δέ οἱ υἱὸν Ἄρης ἆτος πολέμοιο μαρνάμενον Σολύμοισι κατέκτανε κυδαλίμοισι· τὴν δὲ χολωσαμένη χρυσήνιος Ἄρτεμις ἔκτα. Ἱππόλοχος δέ μʼ ἔτικτε, καὶ ἐκ τοῦ φημι γενέσθαι· πέμπε δέ μʼ ἐς Τροίην, καί μοι μάλα πόλλʼ ἐπέτελλεν αἰὲν ἀριστεύειν καὶ ὑπείροχον ἔμμεναι ἄλλων, μηδὲ γένος πατέρων αἰσχυνέμεν, οἳ μέγʼ ἄριστοι ἔν τʼ Ἐφύρῃ ἐγένοντο καὶ ἐν Λυκίῃ εὐρείῃ. ταύτης τοι γενεῆς τε καὶ αἵματος εὔχομαι εἶναι.

Lattimore commentary

The line offers the oldest surviving quotation from Homer, in a poem by Simonides who flourished circa 500 BC and attributes it to “the man of Chios.” The image of leaves is used to make a different point by Apollo (21.464), that ephemeral humans should not disturb divine harmony. Sisyphos tricked Death once, and another time Hades, in order to return to his life, but was finally tasked with constantly rolling an eternally returning boulder up a hill in the underworld. The story of Bellerophontes combines the motifs of a Jung hero driven from his kingdom (Jason, Perseus) with the “Potiphar’s wife” plot (Genesis 39:1–20; cf. the ancient Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers, from the thirteenth century BC). The “murderous symbols” may be a vague recollection of an early form of writing (perhaps Linear B or a script of Asia Minor) by a poet whose audience does not know letters, or an archaizing touch, for a literate public, focalizing the imagined viewpoint of the Bronze Age hero. Folding writing tablets dating to the fourteenth century BC were recovered in the 1980s from the Uluburun shipwreck off the coast of Turkey, close to what was ancient Lykia. The Chimaira (“she-goat”) is one of the few monsters mentioned by Homer, a type more at home in the poetry of Hesiod, whose Theogony (325) refers also to the role of Pegasos, the famous winged horse of Bellerophontes, in the story of his conquest of the beast. The Iliad version omits Pegasos just as it avoids mention of the hero’s unwise attempt to fly to Olympos, only vaguely referring to his unhappy end. Herodotus (1.173) reports that the Solymoi, original inhabitants of Lykia, were driven out by invaders from Crete. The Amazons, a famous race of women warriors, fought against the Trojans in Priam’s youth (3.189) and will reappear later in the saga, when Penthesileia, daughter of Ares, leads them to aid Troy (a story told in the Cyclic epic sequel to the Iliad, the Aithiopis).

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