Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
not be torn when Achilles was dragging him about. Phoebus
Apollo moreover sent a dark cloud from heaven to earth, which
gave shade to the whole place where Hector lay, that the heat of the
sun might not parch his body.
Now the pyre about dead Patroclus would not kindle. Achilles
therefore bethought him of another matter; he went apart and
prayed to the two winds Boreas and Zephyrus vowing them
goodly offerings. He made them many drink-offerings from the
golden cup and besought them to come and help him that the
wood might make haste to kindle and the dead bodies be
consumed. Fleet Iris heard him praying and started off to fetch the
winds. They were holding high feast in the house of boisterous
Zephyrus when Iris came running up to the stone threshold of the
house and stood there, but as soon as they set eyes on her they all
came towards her and each of them called her to him, but Iris
would not sit down. “I cannot stay,” she said, “I must go back to
the streams of Oceanus and the land of the Ethiopians who are
offering hecatombs to the immortals, and I would have my share;
but Achilles prays that Boreas and shrill Zephyrus will come to
him, and he vows them goodly offerings; he would have you blow
upon the pyre of Patroclus for whom all the Achaeans are
lamenting.”
With this she left them, and the two winds rose with a cry that rent
the air and swept the clouds before them. They blew on and on
until they came to the sea, and the waves rose high beneath them,
but when they reached Troy they fell upon the pyre till the mighty
flames roared under the blast that they blew. All night long did
they blow hard and beat upon the fire, and all night long did
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