Irische Texte : mit ersetzungen und Wterbuch

Literal Translation. 121
smiting. Then Alexander ordered Achilles' body to be cast
under dogs and birds and wild beasts. That would have been
done had not Helena 1 forbidden it. So Achilles' body was
given to the Greeks. Great, in sooth, the grief and the la-
mentation that were on that night in the leaguer of the Greeks.
That unto them was not a grief without cause, because their
valiant battle-soldier had fallen, and their hurdle (?) of contest
against their foes, and he that had repelled from them Hector
and Troilus, and the Trojan leaders, besides, who had laid
low many thousands of their hosts. Repentance seized them
for having come at all on the expedition, for their leaders
and their champions and their kings had fallen. Harder than
anything they deemed it that Achilles was slain; for if Achilles
were at their head, they would endure every hurt of battle
and conflict and combat 2 that would befall them.
1628. On that night the kings of the Greeks held a
council in order to see unto whom they should give the suc-
cession to Achilles. This was their advice, to give it to Ajax
son of Telamon, for he was nearest in friendship unto him.
Then said Ajax son of Telamon that it was meeter for them
to send to Pyrrhus, to his (Achilles') own son, who was biding in
the isle of Scyros with Lycomedes, with his grandfather, that is,
his mother's father. That was the will of all the Greeks. And
they sent Menelaus on that embassy to Pyrrhus. Then Lycomedes
on their behalf 3 allowed Pyrrhus to take his father's armour.
1637. Now when the end of the time came, Agamemnon
arrayed his battalion and encouraged the soldiers. Then the
Trojans come from the other side. A cruel battle is fought
there and many thousands fall of the host on either side. A
great 4 cry was uttered there on this side and on that. Then
was Ajax biding stark -naked in the battle -line. Alexander
1 Recté Helenus: but cf. 1926.
- achomlamd seems a mistake for comlaind.
3 leosum: or 'in favour of them', la here seems to have the mea-
ning of secundum in such a phrase as decernere secundum aliquem.
4 móir a scribe's mistake for mór.
PC