Book XVIII
  
     Thus then did they fight as it were a flaming fire. Meanwhile the
     fleet runner Antilochus, who had been sent as messenger, reached
     Achilles, and found him sitting by his tall ships and boding that
     which was indeed too surely true. "Alas," said he to himself in the
     heaviness of his heart, "why are the Achaeans again scouring the
     plain and flocking towards the ships? Heaven grant the gods be not
     now bringing that sorrow upon me of which my mother Thetis spoke,
     saying that while I was yet alive the bravest of the Myrmidons
     should fall before the Trojans, and see the light of the sun no
     longer. I fear the brave son of Menoetius has fallen through his own
     daring and yet I bade him return to the ships as soon as he had
     driven back those that were bringing fire against them, and not join
     battle with Hector." 
     
     As he was thus pondering, the son of Nestor came up to him and told
     his sad tale, weeping bitterly the while. "Alas," he cried, "son of
     noble Peleus, I bring you bad tidings, would indeed that they were
     untrue. Patroclus has fallen, and a fight is raging about his naked
     body- for Hector holds his armour." 
     
     A dark cloud of grief fell upon Achilles as he listened. He filled
     both hands with dust from off the ground, and poured it over his
     head, disfiguring his comely face, and letting the refuse settle
     over his shirt so fair and new. He flung himself down all huge and
     hugely at full length, and tore his hair with his hands. The
     bondswomen whom Achilles and Patroclus had taken captive screamed
     aloud for grief, beating their breasts, and with their limbs failing
     them for sorrow. Antilochus bent over him the while, weeping and
     holding both his hands as he lay groaning for he feared that he
     might plunge a knife into his own throat. Then Achilles gave a loud
     cry and his mother heard him as she was sitting in the depths of the
     sea by the old man her father, whereon she screamed, and all the
     goddesses daughters of Nereus that dwelt at the bottom of the sea,
     came gathering round her. There were Glauce, Thalia and Cymodoce,
     Nesaia, Speo, thoe and dark-eyed Halie, Cymothoe, Actaea and
     Limnorea, Melite, Iaera, Amphithoe and Agave, Doto and Proto,
     Pherusa and Dynamene, Dexamene, Amphinome and Callianeira, Doris,
     Panope, and the famous sea-nymph Galatea, Nemertes, Apseudes and
     Callianassa. There were also Clymene, Ianeira and Ianassa, Maera,
     Oreithuia and Amatheia of the lovely locks, with other Nereids who
     dwell in the depths of the sea. The crystal cave was filled with
     their multitude and they all beat their breasts while Thetis led
     them in their lament. 
     
     "Listen," she cried, "sisters, daughters of Nereus, that you may
     hear the burden of my sorrows. Alas, woe is me, woe in that I have
     borne the most glorious of offspring. I bore him fair and strong,
     hero among heroes, and he shot up as a sapling; I tended him as a
     plant in a goodly garden, and sent him with his ships to Ilius to
     fight the Trojans, but never shall I welcome him back to the house
     of Peleus. So long as he lives to look upon the light of the sun he
     is in heaviness, and though I go to him I cannot help him.
     Nevertheless I will go, that I may see my dear son and learn what
     sorrow has befallen him though he is still holding aloof from
     battle." 
     
     She left the cave as she spoke, while the others followed weeping
     after, and the waves opened a path before them. When they reached
     the rich plain of Troy, they came up out of the sea in a long line
     on to the sands, at the place where the ships of the Myrmidons were
     drawn up in close order round the tents of Achilles. His mother went
     up to him as he lay groaning; she laid her hand upon his head and
     spoke piteously, saying, "My son, why are you thus weeping? What
     sorrow has now befallen you? Tell me; hide it not from me. Surely
     Jove has granted you the prayer you made him, when you lifted up
     your hands and besought him that the Achaeans might all of them be
     pent up at their ships, and rue it bitterly in that you were no
     longer with them." 
     
     Achilles groaned and answered, "Mother, Olympian Jove has indeed
     vouchsafed me the fulfilment of my prayer, but what boots it to me,
     seeing that my dear comrade Patroclus has fallen- he whom I valued
     more than all others, and loved as dearly as my own life? I have
     lost him; aye, and Hector when he had killed him stripped the
     wondrous armour, so glorious to behold, which the gods gave to
     Peleus when they laid you in the couch of a mortal man. Would that
     you were still dwelling among the immortal sea-nymphs, and that
     Peleus had taken to himself some mortal bride. For now you shall
     have grief infinite by reason of the death of that son whom you can
     never welcome home- nay, I will not live nor go about among mankind
     unless Hector fall by my spear, and thus pay me for having slain
     Patroclus son of Menoetius." 
     
     Thetis wept and answered, "Then, my son, is your end near at hand-
     for your own death awaits you full soon after that of Hector." 
     
     Then said Achilles in his great grief, "I would die here and now, in
     that I could not save my comrade. He has fallen far from home, and
     in his hour of need my hand was not there to help him. What is there
     for me? Return to my own land I shall not, and I have brought no
     saving neither to Patroclus nor to my other comrades of whom so many
     have been slain by mighty Hector; I stay here by my ships a bootless
     burden upon the earth, I, who in fight have no peer among the
     Achaeans, though in council there are better than I. Therefore,
     perish strife both from among gods and men, and anger, wherein even
     a righteous man will harden his heart- which rises up in the soul of
     a man like smoke, and the taste thereof is sweeter than drops of
     honey. Even so has Agamemnon angered me. And yet- so be it, for it
     is over; I will force my soul into subjection as I needs must; I
     will go; I will pursue Hector who has slain him whom I loved so
     dearly, and will then abide my doom when it may please Jove and the
     other gods to send it. Even Hercules, the best beloved of Jove- even
     he could not escape the hand of death, but fate and Juno's fierce
     anger laid him low, as I too shall lie when I am dead if a like doom
     awaits me. Till then I will win fame, and will bid Trojan and
     Dardanian women wring tears from their tender cheeks with both their
     hands in the grievousness of their great sorrow; thus shall they
     know that he who has held aloof so long will hold aloof no longer.
     Hold me not back, therefore, in the love you bear me, for you shall
     not move me." 
     
     Then silver-footed Thetis answered, "My son, what you have said is
     true. It is well to save your comrades from destruction, but your
     armour is in the hands of the Trojans; Hector bears it in triumph
     upon his own shoulders. Full well I know that his vaunt shall not be
     lasting, for his end is close at hand; go not, however, into the
     press of battle till you see me return hither; to-morrow at break of
     day I shall be here, and will bring you goodly armour from King
     Vulcan." 
     
     On this she left her brave son, and as she turned away she said to
     the sea-nymphs her sisters, "Dive into the bosom of the sea and go
     to the house of the old sea-god my father. Tell him everything; as
     for me, I will go to the cunning workman Vulcan on high Olympus, and
     ask him to provide my son with a suit of splendid armour." 
     
     When she had so said, they dived forthwith beneath the waves, while
     silver-footed Thetis went her way that she might bring the armour
     for her son. 
     
     Thus, then, did her feet bear the goddess to Olympus, and meanwhile
     the Achaeans were flying with loud cries before murderous Hector
     till they reached the ships and the Hellespont, and they could not
     draw the body of Mars's servant Patroclus out of reach of the
     weapons that were showered upon him, for Hector son of Priam with
     his host and horsemen had again caught up to him like the flame of a
     fiery furnace; thrice did brave Hector seize him by the feet,
     striving with might and main to draw him away and calling loudly on
     the Trojans, and thrice did the two Ajaxes, clothed in valour as
     with a garment, beat him from off the body; but all undaunted he
     would now charge into the thick of the fight, and now again he would
     stand still and cry aloud, but he would give no ground. As upland
     shepherds that cannot chase some famished lion from a carcase, even
     so could not the two Ajaxes scare Hector son of Priam from the body
     of Patroclus. 
     
     And now he would even have dragged it off and have won imperishable
     glory, had not Iris fleet as the wind, winged her way as messenger
     from Olympus to the son of Peleus and bidden him arm. She came
     secretly without the knowledge of Jove and of the other gods, for
     Juno sent her, and when she had got close to him she said, "Up, son
     of Peleus, mightiest of all mankind; rescue Patroclus about whom
     this fearful fight is now raging by the ships. Men are killing one
     another, the Danaans in defence of the dead body, while the Trojans
     are trying to hale it away, and take it to wind Ilius: Hector is the
     most furious of them all; he is for cutting the head from the body
     and fixing it on the stakes of the wall. Up, then, and bide here no
     longer; shrink from the thought that Patroclus may become meat for
     the dogs of Troy. Shame on you, should his body suffer any kind of
     outrage." 
     
     And Achilles said, "Iris, which of the gods was it that sent you to
     me?" 
     
     Iris answered, "It was Juno the royal spouse of Jove, but the son of
     Saturn does not know of my coming, nor yet does any other of the
     immortals who dwell on the snowy summits of Olympus." 
     
     Then fleet Achilles answered her saying, "How can I go up into the
     battle? They have my armour. My mother forbade me to arm till I
     should see her come, for she promised to bring me goodly armour from
     Vulcan; I know no man whose arms I can put on, save only the shield
     of Ajax son of Telamon, and he surely must be fighting in the front
     rank and wielding his spear about the body of dead Patroclus." 
     
     Iris said, 'We know that your armour has been taken, but go as you
     are; go to the deep trench and show yourelf before the Trojans, that
     they may fear you and cease fighting. Thus will the fainting sons of
     the Achaeans gain some brief breathing-time, which in battle may
     hardly be." 
     
     Iris left him when she had so spoken. But Achilles dear to Jove
     arose, and Minerva flung her tasselled aegis round his strong
     shoulders; she crowned his head with a halo of golden cloud from
     which she kindled a glow of gleaming fire. As the smoke that goes up
     into heaven from some city that is being beleaguered on an island
     far out at sea- all day long do men sally from the city and fight
     their hardest, and at the going down of the sun the line of
     beacon-fires blazes forth, flaring high for those that dwell near
     them to behold, if so be that they may come with their ships and
     succour them- even so did the light flare from the head of Achilles,
     as he stood by the trench, going beyond the wall- but he aid not
     join the Achaeans for he heeded the charge which his mother laid
     upon him. 
     
     There did he stand and shout aloud. Minerva also raised her voice
     from afar, and spread terror unspeakable among the Trojans. Ringing
     as the note of a trumpet that sounds alarm then the foe is at the
     gates of a city, even so brazen was the voice of the son of Aeacus,
     and when the Trojans heard its clarion tones they were dismayed; the
     horses turned back with their chariots for they boded mischief, and
     their drivers were awe-struck by the steady flame which the
     grey-eyed goddess had kindled above the head of the great son of
     Peleus. 
     
     Thrice did Achilles raise his loud cry as he stood by the trench,
     and thrice were the Trojans and their brave allies thrown into
     confusion; whereon twelve of their noblest champions fell beneath
     the wheels of their chariots and perished by their own spears. The
     Achaeans to their great joy then drew Patroclus out of reach of the
     weapons, and laid him on a litter: his comrades stood mourning round
     him, and among them fleet Achilles who wept bitterly as he saw his
     true comrade lying dead upon his bier. He had sent him out with
     horses and chariots into battle, but his return he was not to
     welcome. 
     
     Then Juno sent the busy sun, loth though he was, into the waters of
     Oceanus; so he set, and the Achaeans had rest from the tug and
     turmoil of war. 
     
     Now the Trojans when they had come out of the fight, unyoked their
     horses and gathered in assembly before preparing their supper. They
     kept their feet, nor would any dare to sit down, for fear had fallen
     upon them all because Achilles had shown himself after having held
     aloof so long from battle. Polydamas son of Panthous was first to
     speak, a man of judgement, who alone among them could look both
     before and after. He was comrade to Hector, and they had been born
     upon the same night; with all sincerity and goodwill, therefore, he
     addressed them thus:- 
     
     "Look to it well, my friends; I would urge you to go back now to
     your city and not wait here by the ships till morning, for we are
     far from our walls. So long as this man was at enmity with Agamemnon
     the Achaeans were easier to deal with, and I would have gladly
     camped by the ships in the hope of taking them; but now I go in
     great fear of the fleet son of Peleus; he is so daring that he will
     never bide here on the plain whereon the Trojans and Achaeans fight
     with equal valour, but he will try to storm our city and carry off
     our women. Do then as I say, and let us retreat. For this is what
     will happen. The darkness of night will for a time stay the son of
     Peleus, but if he find us here in the morning when he sallies forth
     in full armour, we shall have knowledge of him in good earnest. Glad
     indeed will he be who can escape and get back to Ilius, and many a
     Trojan will become meat for dogs and vultures may I never live to
     hear it. If we do as I say, little though we may like it, we shall
     have strength in counsel during the night, and the great gates with
     the doors that close them will protect the city. At dawn we can arm
     and take our stand on the walls; he will then rue it if he sallies
     from the ships to fight us. He will go back when he has given his
     horses their fill of being driven all whithers under our walls, and
     will be in no mind to try and force his way into the city. Neither
     will he ever sack it, dogs shall devour him ere he do so." 
     
     Hector looked fiercely at him and answered, "Polydamas, your words
     are not to my liking in that you bid us go back and be pent within
     the city. Have you not had enough of being cooped up behind walls?
     In the old-days the city of Priam was famous the whole world over
     for its wealth of gold and bronze, but our treasures are wasted out
     of our houses, and much goods have been sold away to Phrygia and
     fair Meonia, for the hand of Jove has been laid heavily upon us.
     Now, therefore, that the son of scheming Saturn has vouchsafed me to
     win glory here and to hem the Achaeans in at their ships, prate no
     more in this fool's wise among the people. You will have no man with
     you; it shall not be; do all of you as I now say;- take your suppers
     in your companies throughout the host, and keep your watches and be
     wakeful every man of you. If any Trojan is uneasy about his
     possessions, let him gather them and give them out among the people.
     Better let these, rather than the Achaeans, have them. At daybreak
     we will arm and fight about the ships; granted that Achilles has
     again come forward to defend them, let it be as he will, but it
     shall go hard with him. I shall not shun him, but will fight him, to
     fall or conquer. The god of war deals out like measure to all, and
     the slayer may yet be slain." 
     
     Thus spoke Hector; and the Trojans, fools that they were, shouted in
     applause, for Pallas Minerva had robbed them of their understanding.
     They gave ear to Hector with his evil counsel, but the wise words of
     Polydamas no man would heed. They took their supper throughout the
     host, and meanwhile through the whole night the Achaeans mourned
     Patroclus, and the son of Peleus led them in their lament. He laid
     his murderous hands upon the breast of his comrade, groaning again
     and again as a bearded lion when a man who was chasing deer has
     robbed him of his young in some dense forest; when the lion comes
     back he is furious, and searches dingle and dell to track the hunter
     if he can find him, for he is mad with rage- even so with many a
     sigh did Achilles speak among the Myrmidons saying, "Alas! vain were
     the words with which I cheered the hero Menoetius in his own house;
     I said that I would bring his brave son back again to Opoeis after
     he had sacked Ilius and taken his share of the spoils- but Jove does
     not give all men their heart's desire. The same soil shall be
     reddened here at Troy by the blood of us both, for I too shall never
     be welcomed home by the old knight Peleus, nor by my mother Thetis,
     but even in this place shall the earth cover me. Nevertheless, O
     Patroclus, now that I am left behind you, I will not bury you, till
     I have brought hither the head and armour of mighty Hector who has
     slain you. Twelve noble sons of Trojans will I behead before your
     bier to avenge you; till I have done so you shall lie as you are by
     the ships, and fair women of Troy and Dardanus, whom we have taken
     with spear and strength of arm when we sacked men's goodly cities,
     shall weep over you both night and day." 
     
     Then Achilles told his men to set a large tripod upon the fire that
     they might wash the clotted gore from off Patroclus. Thereon they
     set a tripod full of bath water on to a clear fire: they threw
     sticks on to it to make it blaze, and the water became hot as the
     flame played about the belly of the tripod. When the water in the
     cauldron was boiling they washed the body, anointed it with oil, and
     closed its wounds with ointment that had been kept nine years. Then
     they laid it on a bier and covered it with a linen cloth from head
     to foot, and over this they laid a fair white robe. Thus all night
     long did the Myrmidons gather round Achilles to mourn Patroclus. 
     
     Then Jove said to Juno his sister-wife, "So, Queen Juno, you have
     gained your end, and have roused fleet Achilles. One would think
     that the Achaeans were of your own flesh and blood." 
     
     And Juno answered, "Dread son of Saturn, why should you say this
     thing? May not a man though he be only mortal and knows less than we
     do, do what he can for another person? And shall not I- foremost of
     all goddesses both by descent and as wife to you who reign in
     heaven- devise evil for the Trojans if I am angry with them?" 
     
     Thus did they converse. Meanwhile Thetis came to the house of
     Vulcan, imperishable, star-bespangled, fairest of the abodes in
     heaven, a house of bronze wrought by the lame god's own hands. She
     found him busy with his bellows, sweating and hard at work, for he
     was making twenty tripods that were to stand by the wall of his
     house, and he set wheels of gold under them all that they might go
     of their own selves to the assemblies of the gods, and come back
     again- marvels indeed to see. They were finished all but the ears of
     cunning workmanship which yet remained to be fixed to them: these he
     was now fixing, and he was hammering at the rivets. While he was
     thus at work silver-footed Thetis came to the house. Charis, of
     graceful head-dress, wife to the far-famed lame god, came towards
     her as soon as she saw her, and took her hand in her own, saying,
     "Why have you come to our house, Thetis, honoured and ever welcome-
     for you do not visit us often? Come inside and let me set
     refreshment before you." 
     
     The goddess led the way as she spoke, and bade Thetis sit on a
     richly decorated seat inlaid with silver; there was a footstool also
     under her feet. Then she called Vulcan and said, "Vulcan, come here,
     Thetis wants you"; and the far-famed lame god answered, "Then it is
     indeed an august and honoured goddess who has come here; she it was
     that took care of me when I was suffering from the heavy fall which
     I had through my cruel mother's anger- for she would have got rid of
     me because I was lame. It would have gone hardly with me had not
     Eurynome, daughter of the ever-encircling waters of Oceanus, and
     Thetis, taken me to their bosom. Nine years did I stay with them,
     and many beautiful works in bronze, brooches, spiral armlets, cups,
     and chains, did I make for them in their cave, with the roaring
     waters of Oceanus foaming as they rushed ever past it; and no one
     knew, neither of gods nor men, save only Thetis and Eurynome who
     took care of me. If, then, Thetis has come to my house I must make
     her due requital for having saved me; entertain her, therefore, with
     all hospitality, while I put by my bellows and all my tools." 
     
     On this the mighty monster hobbled off from his anvil, his thin legs
     plying lustily under him. He set the bellows away from the fire, and
     gathered his tools into a silver chest. Then he took a sponge and
     washed his face and hands, his shaggy chest and brawny neck; he
     donned his shirt, grasped his strong staff, and limped towards the
     door. There were golden handmaids also who worked for him, and were
     like real young women, with sense and reason, voice also and
     strength, and all the learning of the immortals; these busied
     themselves as the king bade them, while he drew near to Thetis,
     seated her upon a goodly seat, and took her hand in his own, saying,
     "Why have you come to our house, Thetis honoured and ever welcome-
     for you do not visit us often? Say what you want, and I will do it
     for you at once if I can, and if it can be done at all." 
     
     Thetis wept and answered, "Vulcan, is there another goddess in
     Olympus whom the son of Saturn has been pleased to try with so much
     affliction as he has me? Me alone of the marine goddesses did he
     make subject to a mortal husband, Peleus son of Aeacus, and sorely
     against my will did I submit to the embraces of one who was but
     mortal, and who now stays at home worn out with age. Neither is this
     all. Heaven vouchsafed me a son, hero among heroes, and he shot up
     as a sapling. I tended him as a plant in a goodly garden and sent
     him with his ships to Ilius to fight the Trojans, but never shall I
     welcome him back to the house of Peleus. So long as he lives to look
     upon the light of the sun, he is in heaviness, and though I go to
     him I cannot help him; King Agamemnon has made him give up the
     maiden whom the sons of the Achaeans had awarded him, and he wastes
     with sorrow for her sake. Then the Trojans hemmed the Achaeans in at
     their ships' sterns and would not let them come forth; the elders,
     therefore, of the Argives besought Achilles and offered him great
     treasure, whereon he refused to bring deliverance to them himself,
     but put his own armour on Patroclus and sent him into the fight with
     much people after him. All day long they fought by the Scaean gates
     and would have taken the city there and then, had not Apollo
     vouchsafed glory to Hector and slain the valiant son of Menoetius
     after he had done the Trojans much evil. Therefore I am suppliant at
     your knees if haply you may be pleased to provide my son, whose end
     is near at hand, with helmet and shield, with goodly greaves fitted
     with ancle-clasps, and with a breastplate, for he lost his own when
     his true comrade fell at the hands of the Trojans, and he now lies
     stretched on earth in the bitterness of his soul." 
     
     And Vulcan answered, "Take heart, and be no more disquieted about
     this matter; would that I could hide him from death's sight when his
     hour is come, so surely as I can find him armour that shall amaze
     the eyes of all who behold it." 
     
     When he had so said he left her and went to his bellows, turning
     them towards the fire and bidding them do their office. Twenty
     bellows blew upon the melting-pots, and they blew blasts of every
     kind, some fierce to help him when he had need of them, and others
     less strong as Vulcan willed it in the course of his work. He threw
     tough copper into the fire, and tin, with silver and gold; he set
     his great anvil on its block, and with one hand grasped his mighty
     hammer while he took the tongs in the other. 
     
     First he shaped the shield so great and strong, adorning it all over
     and binding it round with a gleaming circuit in three layers; and
     the baldric was made of silver. He made the shield in five
     thicknesses, and with many a wonder did his cunning hand enrich it. 
     
     He wrought the earth, the heavens, and the sea; the moon also at her
     full and the untiring sun, with all the signs that glorify the face
     of heaven- the Pleiads, the Hyads, huge Orion, and the Bear, which
     men also call the Wain and which turns round ever in one place,
     facing. Orion, and alone never dips into the stream of Oceanus. 
     
     He wrought also two cities, fair to see and busy with the hum of
     men. In the one were weddings and wedding-feasts, and they were
     going about the city with brides whom they were escorting by
     torchlight from their chambers. Loud rose the cry of Hymen, and the
     youths danced to the music of flute and lyre, while the women stood
     each at her house door to see them. 
     
     Meanwhile the people were gathered in assembly, for there was a
     quarrel, and two men were wrangling about the blood-money for a man
     who had been killed, the one saying before the people that he had
     paid damages in full, and the other that he had not been paid. Each
     was trying to make his own case good, and the people took sides,
     each man backing the side that he had taken; but the heralds kept
     them back, and the elders sate on their seats of stone in a solemn
     circle, holding the staves which the heralds had put into their
     hands. Then they rose and each in his turn gave judgement, and there
     were two talents laid down, to be given to him whose judgement
     should be deemed the fairest. 
     
     About the other city there lay encamped two hosts in gleaming
     armour, and they were divided whether to sack it, or to spare it and
     accept the half of what it contained. But the men of the city would
     not yet consent, and armed themselves for a surprise; their wives
     and little children kept guard upon the walls, and with them were
     the men who were past fighting through age; but the others sallied
     forth with Mars and Pallas Minerva at their head- both of them
     wrought in gold and clad in golden raiment, great and fair with
     their armour as befitting gods, while they that followed were
     smaller. When they reached the place where they would lay their
     ambush, it was on a riverbed to which live stock of all kinds would
     come from far and near to water; here, then, they lay concealed,
     clad in full armour. Some way off them there were two scouts who
     were on the look-out for the coming of sheep or cattle, which
     presently came, followed by two shepherds who were playing on their
     pipes, and had not so much as a thought of danger. When those who
     were in ambush saw this, they cut off the flocks and herds and
     killed the shepherds. Meanwhile the besiegers, when they heard much
     noise among the cattle as they sat in council, sprang to their
     horses, and made with all speed towards them; when they reached them
     they set battle in array by the banks of the river, and the hosts
     aimed their bronze-shod spears at one another. With them were Strife
     and Riot, and fell Fate who was dragging three men after her, one
     with a fresh wound, and the other unwounded, while the third was
     dead, and she was dragging him along by his heel: and her robe was
     bedrabbled in men's blood. They went in and out with one another and
     fought as though they were living people haling away one another's
     dead. 
     
     He wrought also a fair fallow field, large and thrice ploughed
     already. Many men were working at the plough within it, turning
     their oxen to and fro, furrow after furrow. Each time that they
     turned on reaching the headland a man would come up to them and give
     them a cup of wine, and they would go back to their furrows looking
     forward to the time when they should again reach the headland. The
     part that they had ploughed was dark behind them, so that the field,
     though it was of gold, still looked as if it were being ploughed-
     very curious to behold. 
     
     He wrought also a field of harvest corn, and the reapers were
     reaping with sharp sickles in their hands. Swathe after swathe fell
     to the ground in a straight line behind them, and the binders bound
     them in bands of twisted straw. There were three binders, and behind
     them there were boys who gathered the cut corn in armfuls and kept
     on bringing them to be bound: among them all the owner of the land
     stood by in silence and was glad. The servants were getting a meal
     ready under an oak, for they had sacrificed a great ox, and were
     busy cutting him up, while the women were making a porridge of much
     white barley for the labourers' dinner. 
     
     He wrought also a vineyard, golden and fair to see, and the vines
     were loaded with grapes. The bunches overhead were black, but the
     vines were trained on poles of silver. He ran a ditch of dark metal
     all round it, and fenced it with a fence of tin; there was only one
     path to it, and by this the vintagers went when they would gather
     the vintage. Youths and maidens all blithe and full of glee, carried
     the luscious fruit in plaited baskets; and with them there went a
     boy who made sweet music with his lyre, and sang the Linus-song with
     his clear boyish voice. 
     
     He wrought also a herd of homed cattle. He made the cows of gold and
     tin, and they lowed as they came full speed out of the yards to go
     and feed among the waving reeds that grow by the banks of the river.
     Along with the cattle there went four shepherds, all of them in
     gold, and their nine fleet dogs went with them. Two terrible lions
     had fastened on a bellowing bull that was with the foremost cows,
     and bellow as he might they haled him, while the dogs and men gave
     chase: the lions tore through the bull's thick hide and were gorging
     on his blood and bowels, but the herdsmen were afraid to do
     anything, and only hounded on their dogs; the dogs dared not fasten
     on the lions but stood by barking and keeping out of harm's way. 
     
     The god wrought also a pasture in a fair mountain dell, and large
     flock of sheep, with a homestead and huts, and sheltered sheepfolds.
     
     
     Furthermore he wrought a green, like that which Daedalus once made
     in Cnossus for lovely Ariadne. Hereon there danced youths and
     maidens whom all would woo, with their hands on one another's
     wrists. The maidens wore robes of light linen, and the youths well
     woven shirts that were slightly oiled. The girls were crowned with
     garlands, while the young men had daggers of gold that hung by
     silver baldrics; sometimes they would dance deftly in a ring with
     merry twinkling feet, as it were a potter sitting at his work and
     making trial of his wheel to see whether it will run, and sometimes
     they would go all in line with one another, and much people was
     gathered joyously about the green. There was a bard also to sing to
     them and play his lyre, while two tumblers went about performing in
     the midst of them when the man struck up with his tune. 
     
     All round the outermost rim of the shield he set the mighty stream
     of the river Oceanus. 
     
     Then when he had fashioned the shield so great and strong, he made a
     breastplate also that shone brighter than fire. He made helmet,
     close fitting to the brow, and richly worked, with a golden plume
     overhanging it; and he made greaves also of beaten tin. 
     
     Lastly, when the famed lame god had made all the armour, he took it
     and set it before the mother of Achilles; whereon she darted like a
     falcon from the snowy summits of Olympus and bore away the gleaming
     armour from the house of Vulcan.