{"id":3664,"date":"2013-07-13T01:50:19","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3664"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:50:19","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:50:19","slug":"08-the-book-of-the-woman-vol-ilion-an-epic-in-quantitative-hexameters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/ilion-an-epic-in-quantitative-hexameters\/08-the-book-of-the-woman-vol-ilion-an-epic-in-quantitative-hexameters","title":{"rendered":"-08_The Book Of The Woman.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nBook Seven<\/font><\/i> <\/font><\/b>\n<\/p>\n

\nTHE BOOK OF THE WOMAN
\n<\/font><\/b>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSO to the voice of their best they were bowed and obeyed un debating; <\/p>\n

Men whose hearts were burning yet with implacable passion\n\t<\/p>\n

Felt Odysseus’ strength and rose up clay to his counsels.\n\t<\/p>\n

King Agamemnon rose at his word, the wide-ruling monarch,\n\t<\/p>\n

Rose at his word the Cretan and Locrian, Thebes and Epirus,\n\t<\/p>\n

Nestor rose, the time-tired hoary chief of the Pylians.\n\t<\/p>\n

Round Agamemnon the Atreid Europe surged in her chieftains\n\t<\/p>\n

Forth from their tent on the shores of the Troad, splendid in armour,\n\t<\/p>\n

Into the golden blaze of the sun and the race of the sea-winds.\n\t<\/p>\n

Fierce and clear like a flame to the death-gods bright on its altar\n\t<\/p>\n

Shone in their eyes the lust of blood and of earth and of pillage ;\n\t<\/p>\n

For in their hearts those fires replaced the passions of discord,\n\t<\/p>\n

Forging a brittle peace by a common hatred and yearning.\n\t<\/p>\n

Joyous they were of mood ; for their hopes were already in Troya\n\t<\/p>\n

Sating with massacre, plunder and rape and the groans of their foemen\n\t<\/p>\n

Death and Hell in our mortal bosoms seated and shrouded ;\n\t<\/p>\n

There they have altars and seats in mankind in this fair-builded temple\n\t<\/p>\n

Made for purer gods ; but we turn from tender luminous temptings,\n\t<\/p>\n

Vainly the divine whispers seek us ; the heights are rejected.1
\n\t<\/sup><\/p>\n

Man to his earth drawn always prefers the murmurs of her promptings,\n\t<\/p>\n

Man, devouring, devoured who is slayer and slain through the ages\n\t<\/p>\n

Since by the beast he soars held and exceeds not that pedestal’s measure.\n\t<\/p>\n

They now followed close on the steps of the mighty Atrides,\n\t<\/p>\n

Glued like the forest pack to the war-scarred coat of its leader,\n\t<\/p>\n

Glued as the pack when wolves follow their prey like Doom that can turn
\nnot.\n<\/p>\n

Perfect forms and beautiful faces crowded the tent-door,\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t1<\/sup> man rejects them. <\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Page-96<\/p>\n

\n

\n

Brilliant eyes and fierce of souls that remembered the forest,\n\t<\/p>\n

Wild beasts touched by thought and savages lusting for beauty,\n\t<\/p>\n

Dire and fierce and formidable chieftains followed Atrides,\n\t<\/p>\n

Merciless kings of merciless men and the founders of Europe,\n\t<\/p>\n

Sackers of Troy and sires of the Parthenon, Athens and Caesar.\n\t<\/p>\n

Here they had come to destroy the ancient perishing cultures ;\n\t<\/p>\n

For, it is said, from the savage we rose and were born to a wild beast.\n\t<\/p>\n

So when the Eye supreme perceives that we rose up too swiftly,\n\t<\/p>\n

Drawn towards height but fullness contemning, called by the azure,\n\t<\/p>\n

Life when we fail in, poor in our base and forgetting our mother,\n\t<\/p>\n

Back we are hurled to our roots ; we recover our sap from the savage.\n\t<\/p>\n

So were these sent by Zeus to destroy the old that was grandiose,\n\t<\/p>\n

Such were those frames of old as the sons of Heaven might have chosen\n\t<\/p>\n

Who in the dawn of eternity wedded the daughters of Nature,\n\t<\/p>\n

Cultures touched by the morning star, vast, bold and poetic,\n\t<\/p>\n

Titans’ works and joys, but thrust down from their puissance and pleasure\n\t<\/p>\n

Fainting now fell from the paces of Time or were left by his ages.\n\t<\/p>\n

So were these born from Zeus to found the new that should flower\n\t<\/p>\n

Lucid and slender and perfectly little as fit for this mortal\n\t<\/p>\n

Ever who sinks back fatigued from immortality’s stature ;\n\t<\/p>\n

Man, repelled by the gulfs within him and shrinking from vastness,\n\t<\/p>\n

Form of the earth accepts and is glad of the lap of his mother.\n\t<\/p>\n

Safe through the infinite seas could his soul self-piloted voyage\n\t<\/p>\n

Chasing the dawns and the wondrous horizons, eternity’s secrets\n\t<\/p>\n

Drawn from her luminous gulfs ! But he journeys rudderless, helmless,\n\t<\/p>\n

Driven and led by the breath of God who meets him with tempest,\n\t<\/p>\n

Hurls at him Night. The earth is safer, warmer its sunbeams ;\n\t<\/p>\n

Death and limits are known ; so he clings to them hating the summons.\n\t<\/p>\n

So might one dwell who has come to take joy in a fair-lighted prison ;\n\t<\/p>\n

Amorous grown of its marble walls and its noble adornments,\n\t<\/p>\n

Lost to mightier cares and the spaces boundlessly calling,\n\t<\/p>\n

Lust of the infinite skies he forgets and the kiss of the storm-winds,\n\t<\/p>\n

So might one live who inured to his days of the field and the farm-yard\n\t<\/p>\n

Shrinks from the grandiose mountain-tops ; shut up in lanes and in hedges\n\t<\/p>\n

Only his furrows he leads and only orders his gardens,\n\t<\/p>\n

Only his fleeces weaves and drinks of the yield of his vine-rows :\n\t<\/p>\n

Lost to his ear is the song of the waterfall, wind in the forests.\n\t<\/p>\n

Now to our earth we are bent and we study the skies for its image.\n\t<\/p>\n

That was Greece and its shining, that now is France and its keenness,\n\t<\/p>\n

That still is Europe though by the Christ-touch troubled and tortured,
\n\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Page-97<\/p>\n

\n

\n

Seized by the East but clasping her chains and resisting our freedom.\n\t<\/p>\n

Then was all founded, on Phrygia’s coasts, round Ilion’s ramparts,\n\t<\/p>\n

Then by the spear of Achilles, then in the Trojan death-cry ;\n\t<\/p>\n

Bearers mute of a future world were those armoured Achaians.\n\t<\/p>\n

So they arrived from Zeus, an army led by the death-god.\n\t<\/p>\n

So one can see them still who has sight from the gods in the trance-sleep\n\t<\/p>\n

Out from the tent emerging on Phrygia’s coasts in their armour ;\n\t<\/p>\n

Those of the early seed Pelasgian slighter in stature,\n\t<\/p>\n

Dark-haired, hyacinth-curled from the isles of the sea and the southron\n\t<\/p>\n

Soft-eyed men with pitiless hearts ; bright-haired the Achaians\n\t<\/p>\n

Hordes of the Arctic Dawn who had fled from the ice and the death-blasts ;\n\t<\/p>\n

Children of conquerors lured to the coasts and the breezes and olives,\n\t<\/p>\n

Noons of Mediterranean suns and the kiss of the south-wind\n\t<\/p>\n

Mingled their brilliant force with the plastic warmth of the Hamite.\n\t<\/p>\n

There they shall rule and their children long till Fate and the Dorian\n\t<\/p>\n

Break down Hellene doors and trample stern through the passes.\n\t<\/p>\n

Mixed in a glittering rout on the Ocean beaches one sees them,\n\t<\/p>\n

Perfect and beautiful figures and fronts, not as now are we mortals\n\t<\/p>\n

Marred and crushed by our burden long of thought and of labour ;\n\t<\/p>\n

Perfect were these as our race bright-imaged was first by the Thinker\n\t<\/p>\n

Seen who in golden lustres shapes all the glories we tarnish,\n\t<\/p>\n

Rich from the moulds of Gods and unmarred in their splendour and swiftness\n\t<\/p>\n

Many and mighty they came o’er the beaches loud of the Aegean,\n\t<\/p>\n

Roots of an infant world and the morning stars of this Europe,\n\t<\/p>\n

Great Agamemnon’s kingly port and the bright Menelaus,\n\t<\/p>\n

Tall Idomeneus, Nestor, Odysseus Atlas-shouldered,\n\t<\/p>\n

Helmeted Ajax, his chin of the beast and his eyes of the dreamer.\n\t<\/p>\n

Over the sands they dispersed to their armies ranked by the Ocean.\n\t<\/p>\n

But from the Argive front Acirrous loosed by Tydides\n\t<\/p>\n

Parted as hastens a shaft from the string and he sped on intently\n\t<\/p>\n

Swift where the beaches were bare or threading the gaps of the nations ;\n\t<\/p>\n

Crossing Thebes and Epirus he passed through the Lemnian archers,\n\t<\/p>\n

Ancient Gnossus’ hosts and Meriones’ leaderless legions.\n\t<\/p>\n

Heedless of cry and of laughter and calling over the sea-sands\n\t<\/p>\n

Swiftly he laboured, wind in his hair and the sea to him crying,\n\t<\/p>\n

Straight he ran to the Myrmidon hosts and the tents of Achilles.\n\t<\/p>\n

There he beheld at his tent-door the Pthian gleaming in armour,\n\t<\/p>\n

Glittering-helmed with the sun that climbed now the cusp of Cronion,\n\t<\/p>\n

Nobly tall, excelling humanity, planned like Apollo.\n\t<\/p>\n

Proud at his side like a pillar upreared of snow or of marble,
\n\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Page-98<\/p>\n

\n

\n

Golden-haired, hard and white was the boy Neoptolemus, fire-eyed.\n\t<\/p>\n

New were his feet to the Trojan sands from the ships and from Scyros :\n\t<\/p>\n

Led to this latest of all his father’s fights in the Troad\n\t<\/p>\n

He for his earliest battle waited, the son of Achilles.\n\t<\/p>\n

So in her mood had Fate brought them together, the son and the father,\n\t<\/p>\n

Even as our souls travelling different paths have met in the ages\n\t<\/p>\n

Each for its work and they cling for an hour to the names of affection,\n\t<\/p>\n

Then Time’s long waves bear them apart for new forms we shall know not,\n\t<\/p>\n

So these two long severed had met in the shadow of parting.\n\t<\/p>\n

Often he smote his hand on the thigh-piece for sound of the armour,\n\t<\/p>\n

Bent his ear to the plains or restless moved like a war-horse\n\t<\/p>\n

Curbed by his master’s will, when he stands new-saddled for battle\n\t<\/p>\n

Hearing the voice of the trumpets afar and pawing the meadows.\n\t<\/p>\n

Over the sands Acirrous came to them running and toiling,\n\t<\/p>\n

Known from far-off for he ran unhelmeted. High on the hero\n\t<\/p>\n

Sunlike smiled the golden Achilles and into the tent-space\n\t<\/p>\n

Seized by the hand and brought him and seated. "War-shaft of Troezen,\n\t<\/p>\n

Whence was thy speed, Acirrous ? Com’st thou, O friend, to my tent-side\n\t<\/p>\n

Spurred by the eager will or the trusted stern Diomedes ?\n\t<\/p>\n

Or from the Greeks like the voice still loud from a heart that is hollow ?\n\t<\/p>\n

What say the banded princes of Greece to the single Achilles?\n\t<\/p>\n

Bringst thou flattery pale or an empty and futureless menace ?"\n\t<\/p>\n

But to the strength of Pelides the hero Acirrous answered :\n\t<\/p>\n

"Response none send1<\/sup> the Greeks to thy high-voiced message and challenge ;\n\t<\/p>\n

Only their shout at thy side will reply when thou leapst into Troya.\n\t<\/p>\n

So have their chieftains willed and the wisdom calm of Odysseus."\n\t<\/p>\n

But with a haughty scorn made answer the high-crested Hellene :\n\t<\/p>\n

"Wise is Odysseus, wise are the hearts of Achaia’s chieftains.\n\t<\/p>\n

Ilion’s chiefs are enough for their strength and life is too brittle\n\t<\/p>\n

Hurrying Fate to advance on the spear of the Pthian Achilles."\n\t<\/p>\n

"Not from the Greeks have I sped to thy tents, their friendship or quarrel\n\t<\/p>\n

Urged not my feet ; but Tiryn’s chieftain strong Diomedes\n\t<\/p>\n

Sent me claiming a word long old that first by his war-car\n\t<\/p>\n

Young Neoptolemus come from island Scyros should enter\n\t<\/p>\n

Far-crashing into the fight that has lacked this shoot of Achilles,\n\t<\/p>\n

Pressing in front with his father’s strength in the playground of Ares,\n\t<\/p>\n

Shouting his father’s cry as he clashed to his earliest battle.\n\t<\/p>\n

So let Achilles’ son twin-cared fight close by Tydides,\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t1<\/font><\/sup> Alternatives          
\n\t\t2<\/sup> give
\n\t\t<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t                                       make
\n\t\t<\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Page-99<\/p>\n

\n

\n

Seal of the ancient friendship new-sworn twixt your sires in their boyhood\n\t<\/p>\n

Then when they learned the spear to guide and strove in the wrestle."\n\t<\/p>\n

So he spoke recalling other times and regretted\n\t<\/p>\n

And to the Argive’s word consented the strength of Pelides.\n\t<\/p>\n

He on the shoulder white of his son with a gesture of parting\n\t<\/p>\n

Laid his fateful hand and spoke from his prescient spirit :\n\t<\/p>\n

"Pyrrhus, go. No mightier guide couldst thou hope into battle\n\t<\/p>\n

Opening the foemen’s ranks than the hero stern Diomedes.\n\t<\/p>\n

Noble that rugged heart, thy father’s friend and his father’s.\n\t<\/p>\n

Journey through all wide Greece, seek her prytanies, schools and palaestras,\n\t<\/p>\n

Traverse Ocean’s rocks and the cities that dream on his margin,\n\t<\/p>\n

Phocian dales, Aetolia’s cliffs and Arcady’s pastures,\n\t<\/p>\n

Never a second man wilt thou find, but alone Diomedes.\n\t<\/p>\n

Pyrrhus, follow his counsels always losing thy father,\n\t<\/p>\n

If in this battle I fall and Fate has denied to me Troya.\n\t<\/p>\n

Pyrrhus, be like thy father in virtue, thou canst not excel him ;\n\t<\/p>\n

Noble be in peace, invincible, brave in the battle,\n\t<\/p>\n

Stern and calm to thy foe, to the suppliant merciful. Mortal\n\t<\/p>\n

Favour and wrath as thou walkst heed never, son of Achilles.\n\t<\/p>\n

Always thy will and the right impose on thy friend and thy foeman.\n\t<\/p>\n

Count not life nor death, defeat nor triumph, Pyrrhus.\n\t<\/p>\n

Only thy soul regard and the gods in thy joy or thy labour."\n\t<\/p>\n

Pyrrhus heard and erect with a stride that was rigid and stately\n\t<\/p>\n

Forth with Acirrous went from his sire to the joy of the battle.\n\t<\/p>\n

Little he heeded the word of death that the god in our bosom\n\t<\/p>\n

Spoke from the lips of Achilles, but deemed at sunset returning,\n\t<\/p>\n

Slaying Halamus, Paris or dangerous mighty Aeneas,\n\t<\/p>\n

Proudly to lay at his father’s feet the spoils of the foeman.\n\t<\/p>\n

But in his lair alone the godlike doomed Pelides\n\t<\/p>\n

Turned to the door of his tent and was striding forth to the battle,\n\t<\/p>\n

When from her inner chamber Briseis parting the curtain,\u2014\n\t<\/p>\n

Long had she stood there spying and waiting her lonely occasion,\u2014\n\t<\/p>\n

Came and caught and held his hand like a creeper detaining\n\t<\/p>\n

Vainly a moment the deathward stride of the kings of the forest.\n\t<\/p>\n

"Tarry awhile, Achilles ; not yet have the war-horns clamoured.\n\t<\/p>\n

Nor have the scouts streamed yet from Xanthus fierily running.\n\t<\/p>\n

Lose a moment for her who has only thee under heaven.\n\t<\/p>\n

Nay, had war sounded, thou yet wouldst squander that moment, Achilles,\n\t<\/p>\n

Hearkening a woman’s fears and the voice of a dream in the midnight.\n\t<\/p>\n

Art thou not gentle, even as terrible, lion of Hellas ?\n\t<\/p>\n

Page-100<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n

Others have whispered the deeds of thy wrath ; we have heard, but not
\nseen it ;\n<\/p>\n

Marvelling much at their pallor and awe we have listened and wondered.\n\t<\/p>\n

Never with thrall or slave-girl or captive saw I thee angered,\n\t<\/p>\n

Hero, nor any humble heart ever trembled to near thee.\n\t<\/p>\n

Pardoning rather our many faults and our failures in service\n\t<\/p>\n

Lightly thou layest thy yoke on us, kind as the clasp of a lover\n\t<\/p>\n

Sparing the weak as thou
\n\tbleakest the mighty, O godlike Achilles. <\/p>\n

Only thy equals have felt all the dread of the death-god within thee ;\n\t<\/p>\n

We have presumed and played with the strength at which nations have
\ntrembled.\n<\/p>\n

Lo, thou hast leaned thy mane to the clutch of the boys and the maidens."\n\t<\/p>\n

But to Briseis white-armed made answer smiling Achilles :\n\t<\/p>\n

"Something surely thou
\n\tneeds, for thou flatters long, O Briseis. <\/p>\n

Tell me, O woman, thy fear or thy dream that my touch may dispel it,\n\t<\/p>\n

White-armed net of bliss slipped down from the gold Aphrodite."\n\t<\/p>\n

And to Achilles answered the captive white Briseis :\n\t<\/p>\n

"Long have they vexed my soul in the tents of the Greeks, O Achilles,\n\t<\/p>\n

Telling of Thetis thy mother who bore thee in caves of the Ocean\n\t<\/p>\n

Clasped by a mortal and of her fear from the threats of the Ancients,\n\t<\/p>\n

Weavers of doom who play with our hopes and smile at our passions\n\t<\/p>\n

Painting Time with the red of our hearts on the web they have woven,\n\t<\/p>\n

How on the Ocean’s bosom she hid thee in vine-tangled Scyros\n\t<\/p>\n

Clothed like a girl among girls with the daughters of King
\n\tLocoweeds,\u2014 <\/p>\n

Art thou not fairer than woman’s beauty, yet great as Apollo ?\u2014\n\t<\/p>\n

Fearing Paris’ shafts and the anger of Delian Phoebus.\n\t<\/p>\n

Now in the night has a vision three times besieged me from heaven.\n\t<\/p>\n

Over the sea in my dream an argent bow was extended ;\n\t<\/p>\n

Nearing I saw a terror august over moonlit waters,\n\t<\/p>\n

Cloud and a fear and a face that was young and lovely and hostile.\n\t<\/p>\n

Then three times I heard arise in the grandiose silence,\u2014\n\t<\/p>\n

Still was the sky and still was the land and still were the waters,\u2014\n\t<\/p>\n

Echoing a mighty voice, ‘Take back, O King, what thou
\n\tgravest ; <\/p>\n

Strength, take thy strong man, sea, take thy wave, till the warfare eternal\n\t<\/p>\n

Need him again to thunder through Asia’s plains to the Ganges.’\n\t<\/p>\n

That fell silent, but nearer the beautiful Terror approached me,\n\t<\/p>\n

Clang I heard of the argent bow and I gazed on Apollo.\n\t<\/p>\n

Shrilly I cried, for ’twas1<\/sup> thee that the shaft of the heavens had yearned for,\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t1<\/font><\/sup> Alternative to "for ’twas" : it was
\n\t\t<\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Page-101<\/p>\n

\n

\n

Thee that it sought like a wild thing in anger straight at its quarry,\n\t<\/p>\n

Quivering into thy heel. I awoke and found myself trembling,\n\t<\/p>\n

Held thee safe in my arms, yet hardly believed that thou livest.\n\t<\/p>\n

Lo, in the night came this dream ; on the morn thou
\n\tarises for battle." <\/p>\n

But to Briseis white-armed made answer the golden Achilles:\n\t<\/p>\n

"This was a dream indeed, O princess, daughter of Brises !\n\t<\/p>\n

Will it restrain Achilles from fight, the lion from preying ?\n\t<\/p>\n

Come, thou hast heard of my prowess and knowest what man is Achilles.\n\t<\/p>\n

Deemst thou so near my end ? or does Polyxena vex thee,\n\t<\/p>\n

Jealousy shaping thy dreams to frighten me back from her capture ?"\n\t<\/p>\n

Passionate, vexed Briseis, smiting his arm with her fingers,\n\t<\/p>\n

Yet with a smile half-pleased made answer to mighty Achilles:\n\t<\/p>\n

"Thinkest thou I fear thee at all? I am brave and will chide thee and
\nthreaten.\n<\/p>\n

See that thou recklessly throw not, Achilles, thy life into battle\n\t<\/p>\n

Hurting this body, my world, nor venture sole midst thy foemen,\n\t<\/p>\n

Leaving thy
\n\tshielder behind as oft thou art wont in thy war-rage <\/p>\n

Lured by thy tempting gods who seek their advantage to slay thee.\n\t<\/p>\n

Fighting divinely, careless of all but thy spear and thy foeman.\n\t<\/p>\n

Cover thy limbs with thy shield, speed slowly restraining thy coursers.\n\t<\/p>\n

Dost thou not know all the terrible void and cold desolation\n\t<\/p>\n

Once again my life must become if I lose thee, Achilles?\n\t<\/p>\n

Twice then thus wilt thou smite me, O hero, a desolate woman ?\n\t<\/p>\n

I will not stay behind on an earth that is empty and kingless.\n\t<\/p>\n

Into the grave I will leap, through the fire I will burn, I will follow\n\t<\/p>\n

Down into Hades’ depths or wherever thy footsteps go clanging,\n\t<\/p>\n

Hunting thee always,\u2014didst thou not seize me here for thy pleasure?\u2014\n\t<\/p>\n

Stronger there by my love as thou than I here, O Achilles.\n\t<\/p>\n

Thou shalt not dally alone with Polyxena safe in the shadows."\n\t<\/p>\n

But to Briseis answered the hero, mighty Pelides,\n\t<\/p>\n

Holding her delicate hands like gathered flowers in his bosom,\n\t<\/p>\n

Pressing her passionate mouth like a rose that trembles with beauty:\n\t<\/p>\n

"There then follow me even as I would have drawn thee, O woman,\n\t<\/p>\n

Voice that chimes with my soul and hands that are eager for service,\n\t<\/p>\n

Beautiful spoil beloved of my foemen, perfect Briseis.\n\t<\/p>\n

But for the dreams that come to us mortals sleeping or waking,\n\t<\/p>\n

Shadows are these from our souls and who shall discern what they figure?\n\t<\/p>\n

Fears from the heart speak voiced like Zeus, take shape as Apollo.\n\t<\/p>\n

But were they truer than Delphi’s cavern voice or
\n\tDuodena’s <\/p>\n

Moan that seems wind in his oaks immemorable, how should they alter
\n\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Page-102<\/p>\n

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\n

Fate that the stern gods have planned from the first when the earth was
\n\tunfathomed,\n<\/p>\n

Shapeless the gyre of the sun ? For dream or for oracle adverse\n\t<\/p>\n

Why should man swerve from the path of his feet? The gods have invented\n\t<\/p>\n

Only one way for a man through the world, O my slave-girl Briseis,\n\t<\/p>\n

Valiant to be and noble and truthful and just to the humble.\n\t<\/p>\n

Only one way for a woman, to love and serve and be faithful.\n\t<\/p>\n

This observe, thy task in thy destiny noble or fallen;\n\t<\/p>\n

Time and result are the gods’; with these things be not thou troubled."\n\t<\/p>\n

So he spoke and kissed her lips and released her and parted.\n\t<\/p>\n

Out from the tent he strode and into his chariot leaping\n\t<\/p>\n

Seized the reins and shouted his cry and drove with a far-borne\n\t<\/p>\n

Sound of wheels mid the clamour of hooves and neigh of the war-steeds\n\t<\/p>\n

Swift through the line of the tents and forth from the heart of the leaguer.\n\t<\/p>\n

Over the causeway
\n\tTroy ward thundered the wheels of Achilles. <\/p>\n

After him crashing loud with a fierce and resonant rumour\n\t<\/p>\n

Chieftains impetuous prone to the mellay and swift at the war-cry\n\t<\/p>\n

Came, who long held from the lust of the spear and the joy of the war-din\n\t<\/p>\n

Rushed over earth like hawks released through the air; a shouting\n\t<\/p>\n

Limitless rolled behind, for nations followed each war-cry.\n\t<\/p>\n

Lords renowned of the northern hills and the plains and the coast-lands,\n\t<\/p>\n

Many a Dorian, many a Pthian, many a Hellene,\n\t<\/p>\n

Names now lost to the ear though then reputed immortal !\n\t<\/p>\n

Night has swallowed them, Zeus has devoured the light of his children;\n\t<\/p>\n

Drawn are they back to his bosom vast whence they came in their fierceness\n\t<\/p>\n

Thinking to conquer the earth and dominate Time and his ages\n\t<\/p>\n

Nor on their left less thick came numerous even as the sea-sands\n\t<\/p>\n

Forth from the line of the leaguer that skirted the far-sounding waters,\n\t<\/p>\n

Ranked behind Tydeus’ son and the Spartan, bright Menelaus,\n\t<\/p>\n

Ithaca’s chief and Epeus, Idomeneus lord of the Cretans,\n\t<\/p>\n

Acamos, Nestor, Neleus’ son, and the brave Ephialtus,\n\t<\/p>\n

Prothous, Meges, Leitus the bold and the king
\n\tProtho\u00ebnor, <\/p>\n

Wise Alceste’s son and the Lemnian, stern
\n\tPhiloctetes, <\/p>\n

These and unnumbered warlike captains marching the Argives.\n\t<\/p>\n

Last in his spacious car drove shaping the tread of his armies,\n\t<\/p>\n

Even as a shepherd who follows his flock to the green of the pastures,\n\t<\/p>\n

Atreus’ far-famed son, the monarch great Agamemnon.\n\t<\/p>\n

They on the plain moved out and gazing far over the pastures\n\t<\/p>\n

Saw behind Xanthus rolling with dust like a cloud full of thunder,\n\t<\/p>\n

Ominous, steadily nearing, shouting their war-cry the Trojans.
\n\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Page-103<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Book Seven THE BOOK OF THE WOMAN SO to the voice of their best they were bowed and obeyed un debating; Men whose hearts were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ilion-an-epic-in-quantitative-hexameters","wpcat-91-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}