Myths, Gods, and Men
Fall 2006 Readings - Week 6
Death of Achilles
Ovid's Metamorphoses 12.580 - 12.628
Read October 10, 2006 by Bill Bailey
| At deus, aequoreas qui cuspide temperat undas, [580] in volucrem corpus nati Phaethontida versum mente dolet patria saevumque perosus Achillem exercet memores plus quam civiliter iras, iamque fere tracto duo per quinquennia bello talibus intonsum conpellat Sminthea dictis: [585] |
But Neptune, who commands the ocean waves, lamented with a father's grief his son, whose person he had changed into a bird-- the swan of Phaethon, and towards Achilles, grim victor in the fight, his lasting hate made him pursue resentment far beyond the ordinary manner of the gods. After nine years of war he spoke these words, addressing long haired Sminthean Apollo: |
| "O mihi de fratris longe gratissime natis, inrita qui mecum posuisti moenia Troiae, ecquid, ubi has iamiam casuras adspicis arces, ingemis? Aut ecquid tot defendentia muros milia caesa doles? Ecquid, ne persequar omnes, [590] Hectoris umbra subit circum sua Pergama tracti? cum tamen ille ferox belloque cruentior ipso vivit adhuc, operis nostri populator, Achilles. Det mihi se! faxo, triplici quid cuspide possim, sentiat; at quoniam concurrere comminus hosti [595] non datur, occulta necopinum perde sagitta!" |
"O nephew the most dear to me of all my brother's sons, with me you built in vain the walls of Troy: you must be lost in grief, when you look on those towers so soon to fall? Or do you not lament the multitudes slain in defence of them--To name but one: "Does not the ghost of Hector, dragged around his Pergama, appear to you? And yet the fierce Achilles, who is bloodstained more than slaughtering war, lives on this earth, for the destruction of our toil. Let him once get into my power, and I will make him feel the action of my triple spear. But, since I may not meet him face to face, do you with sudden arrow give him death." |
| Adnuit atque animo pariter patruique suoque Delius indulgens nebula velatus in agmen pervenit Iliacum mediaque in caede virorum rara per ignotos spargentem cernit Achivos [600] tela Parim fassusque deum "Quid spicula perdis sanguine plebis?" ait. "Siqua est tibi cura tuorum, vertere in Aeaciden caesosque ulciscere fratres!" Dixit et ostendens sternentem Troica ferro corpora Peliden, arcus obvertit in illum [605] certaque letifera direxit spicula dextra. Quod Priamus gaudere senex post Hectora posset, hoc fuit: ille igitur tantorum victor, Achille, victus es a timido Graiae raptore maritae! At si femineo fuerat tibi Marte cadendum, [610] Thermodontiaca malles cecidisse bipenni! |
The Delian god, Apollo, gave assent, both for his own hate and his uncle's rage. Veiled in a cloud, he found the Trojan host and, there, while bloody strife went on, he saw the hero Paris shoot at intervals his arrows at the nameless host of Greeks. Revealing his divinity, he said: "Why spend your arrows on the common men if you would serve your people, take good aim at great Achilles and at last avenge your hapless brothers whom he gave to death." He pointed out Achilles--laying low the Trojan warriors with his mighty spear. On him he turned the Trojan's willing bow and guided with his hand the fatal shaft. It was the first joy that old Priam knew since Hector's death. So then Achilles you, who overcame the mighty, were subdued by a coward who seduced a Grecian wife! Ah, if you could not die by manly hands, your choice had been the axe. |
| Iam timor ille Phrygum, decus et tutela Pelasgi nominis, Aeacides, caput insuperabile bello, arserat: armarat deus idem idemque cremabat; iam cinis est, et de tam magno restat Achille [615] nescio quid parvam, quod non bene conpleat urnam: at vivit totum quae gloria conpleat orbem! Haec illi mensura viro respondet, et hac est par sibi Pelides nec inania Tartara sentit. |
Now that great terror of the Trojan race, the glory and defence of the Pelasgians, Achilles, first in war, lay on the pyre. The god of Fire first armed, then burned, his limbs. And now he is but ashes; and of him, so great, renowned and mighty, but a pitiful handful of small dust insufficient for a little urn! But all his glory lives enough to fill the world--a great reward. And in that glory is his real life: in a true sense he will never know the void of Tartarus. |
| Ipse etiam, ut, cuius fuerit, cognoscere posses [620] bella movet clipeus, deque armis arma feruntur. Non ea Tydides, non audet Oileos Aiax, non minor Atrides, non bello maior et aevo poscere, non alii: solis Telamone creato Laerteque fuit tantae fiducia laudis. [625] A se Tantalides onus invidiamque removit Argolicosque duces mediis considere castris iussit et arbitrium litis traiecit in omnes. |
But soon his very shield-- that men might know to whom it had belonged-- brings war, and arms are taken for his arms. Neither Diomed nor Ajax called the less ventured to claim the hero's mighty shield. Menelaus and other warlike chiefs, even Agamemnon, all withdrew their claims. Only the greater Ajax and Ulysses had such assurance that they dared contest for that great prize. Then Agamemnon chose to avoid the odium of preferring one. He bade the Argolic chieftains take their seats within the camp and left to all of them the hearing and decision of the cause. |
Source Information
Latin: Ovid. Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892.
[Via Perseus]
English: Ovid. Metamorphoses. Brookes More. Boston. Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922.
[Via Perseus]