Seba.Health

The Iliad 7.67–91

The Iliad 7.67–91
but with ill intent ordaineth a time for both hosts, until either ye take well-walled Troy or yourselves be vanquished beside your sea-faring ships. With you are the chieftains of the whole host of the Achaeans; of these let now that man whose heart soever biddeth him fight with me, come hither from among you all to be your champion against goodly Hector. And thus do I declare my word, and be Zeus our witness thereto: if so be he shall slay me with the long-edged bronze, let him spoil me of my armour and bear it to the hollow ships, but my body let him give back to my home, that the Trojans and the Trojan wives may give me my due meed of fire in my death. But if so be I slay him, and Apollo give me glory, I will spoil him of his armour and bear it to sacred Ilios and hang it upon the temple of Apollo, the god that smiteth afar, but his corpse will I render back to the well-benched ships, that the long-haired Achaeans may give him burial, and heap up for him a barrow by the wide Hellespont. And some one shall some day say even of men that are yet to be, as he saileth in his many-benched ship over the wine-dark sea: ‘This is a barrow of a man that died in olden days, whom on a time in the midst of his prowess glorious Hector slew.’ So shall some man say, and my glory shall never die.
κέκλυτέ μευ Τρῶες καὶ ἐϋκνήμιδες Ἀχαιοὶ ὄφρʼ εἴπω τά με θυμὸς ἐνὶ στήθεσσι κελεύει. ὅρκια μὲν Κρονίδης ὑψίζυγος οὐκ ἐτέλεσσεν, ἀλλὰ κακὰ φρονέων τεκμαίρεται ἀμφοτέροισιν εἰς κεν ὑμεῖς Τροίην εὔπυργον ἕλητε αὐτοὶ παρὰ νηυσὶ δαμείετε ποντοπόροισιν. ὑμῖν δʼ ἐν γὰρ ἔασιν ἀριστῆες Παναχαιῶν· τῶν νῦν ὅν τινα θυμὸς ἐμοὶ μαχέσασθαι ἀνώγει δεῦρʼ ἴτω ἐκ πάντων πρόμος ἔμμεναι Ἕκτορι δίῳ. ὧδε δὲ μυθέομαι, Ζεὺς δʼ ἄμμʼ ἐπιμάρτυρος ἔστω· εἰ μέν κεν ἐμὲ κεῖνος ἕλῃ ταναήκεϊ χαλκῷ, τεύχεα συλήσας φερέτω κοίλας ἐπὶ νῆας, σῶμα δὲ οἴκαδʼ ἐμὸν δόμεναι πάλιν, ὄφρα πυρός με Τρῶες καὶ Τρώων ἄλοχοι λελάχωσι θανόντα. εἰ δέ κʼ ἐγὼ τὸν ἕλω, δώῃ δέ μοι εὖχος Ἀπόλλων, τεύχεα σύλησας οἴσω προτὶ Ἴλιον ἱρήν, καὶ κρεμόω προτὶ νηὸν Ἀπόλλωνος ἑκάτοιο, τὸν δὲ νέκυν ἐπὶ νῆας ἐϋσσέλμους ἀποδώσω, ὄφρά ταρχύσωσι κάρη κομόωντες Ἀχαιοί, σῆμά τέ οἱ χεύωσιν ἐπὶ πλατεῖ Ἑλλησπόντῳ. καί ποτέ τις εἴπῃσι καὶ ὀψιγόνων ἀνθρώπων νηῒ πολυκλήϊδι πλέων ἐπὶ οἴνοπα πόντον· ἀνδρὸς μὲν τόδε σῆμα πάλαι κατατεθνηῶτος, ὅν ποτʼ ἀριστεύοντα κατέκτανε φαίδιμος Ἕκτωρ. ὥς ποτέ τις ἐρέει· τὸ δʼ ἐμὸν κλέος οὔ ποτʼ ὀλεῖται.
Lattimore commentary
Hektor’s instructions and promise foreshadow the major crisis of the end of the poem, the treatment of his corpse (an ongoing anxiety while he is alive: cf. 22.259 and 22.338). Characteristically, he adds a vivid example of what people will say in the future (cf. 6.460) when glorifying him as they view his foe’s tomb.
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