Seba.Health
Lines 553–570
even so shall he overtake and butcher me in my cowardice. But what if I leave these to be driven before Achilles, son of Peleus, and with my feet flee from the wall elsewhither, toward the Ilean plain, until I be come to the glens and the spurs of Ida, and hide me in the thickets? Then at even, when I have bathed me in the river and cooled me of my sweat, I might get me back to Ilios. But why doth my heart thus hold converse with me? Let it not be that he mark me as I turn away from the city toward the plain, and darting after me overtake me by his fleetness of foot. Then will it no more be possible to escape death and the fates, for exceeding mighty is he above all mortal men. What then if in front of the city I go forth to meet him? Even his flesh too, I ween, may be pierced with the sharp bronze, and in him is but one life, and mortal do men deem him to be; howbeit Zeus, son of Cronos, giveth him glory.
ὤ μοι ἐγών· εἰ μέν κεν ὑπὸ κρατεροῦ Ἀχιλῆος
φεύγω, τῇ περ οἱ ἄλλοι ἀτυζόμενοι κλονέονται,
αἱρήσει με καὶ ὧς, καὶ ἀνάλκιδα δειροτομήσει.
εἰ δʼ ἂν ἐγὼ τούτους μὲν ὑποκλονέεσθαι ἐάσω
Πηλεΐδῃ Ἀχιλῆϊ, ποσὶν δʼ ἀπὸ τείχεος ἄλλῃ
φεύγω πρὸς πεδίον Ἰλήϊον, ὄφρʼ ἂν ἵκωμαι
Ἴδης τε κνημοὺς κατά τε ῥωπήϊα δύω·
ἑσπέριος δʼ ἂν ἔπειτα λοεσσάμενος ποταμοῖο
ἱδρῶ ἀποψυχθεὶς προτὶ Ἴλιον ἀπονεοίμην·
ἀλλὰ τί ἤ μοι ταῦτα φίλος διελέξατο θυμός;
μή μʼ ἀπαειρόμενον πόλιος πεδίον δὲ νοήσῃ
καί με μεταΐξας μάρψῃ ταχέεσσι πόδεσσιν.
οὐκέτʼ ἔπειτʼ ἔσται θάνατον καὶ κῆρας ἀλύξαι·
λίην γὰρ κρατερὸς περὶ πάντων ἔστʼ ἀνθρώπων.
εἰ δέ κέ οἱ προπάροιθε πόλεος κατεναντίον ἔλθω·
καὶ γάρ θην τούτῳ τρωτὸς χρὼς ὀξέϊ χαλκῷ,
ἐν δὲ ἴα ψυχή, θνητὸν δέ ἕ φασʼ ἄνθρωποι
ἔμμεναι· αὐτάρ οἱ Κρονίδης Ζεὺς κῦδος ὀπάζει.