Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
to take back to the ships. Then he sprang into the river, thirsting for
still further blood.
There he found Lycaon, son of Priam seed of Dardanus, as he was
escaping out of the water; he it was whom he had once taken
prisoner when he was in his father’s vineyard, having set upon him
by night, as he was cutting young shoots from a wild fig-tree to
make the wicker sides of a chariot. Achilles then caught him to his
sorrow unawares, and sent him by sea to Lemnos, where the son of
Jason bought him. But a guest-friend, Eetion of Imbros, freed him
with a great sum, and sent him to Arisbe, whence he had escaped
and returned to his father’s house. He had spent eleven days
happily with his friends after he had come from Lemnos, but on the
twelfth heaven again delivered him into the hands of Achilles, who
was to send him to the house of Hades sorely against his will. He
was unarmed when Achilles caught sight of him, and had neither
helmet nor shield; nor yet had he any spear, for he had thrown all
his armour from him on to the bank, and was sweating with his
struggles to get out of the river, so that his strength was now failing
him.
Then Achilles said to himself in his surprise, “What marvel do I see
here? If this man can come back alive after having been sold over
into Lemnos, I shall have the Trojans also whom I have slain rising
from the world below. Could not even the waters of the grey sea
imprison him, as they do many another whether he will or no? This
time let him taste my spear, that I may know for certain whether
mother earth who can keep even a strong man down, will be able
to hold him, or whether thence too he will return.”
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