| They reached for the good things that lay outspread |
|
| and when they'd put aside desire for food and drink, |
|
Odysseus, master of many exploits, praised the singer:
|
|
| "I respect you, Demodocus, more than any man alive-- |
|
| surely the Muse has taught you, Zeus's daughter, |
|
| or god Apollo himself. How true to life, |
|
| all too true . . . you sing the Achaeans' fate, |
|
| all they did and suffered, all they soldiered through, | 550 |
| as if you were there yourself or heard from one who was. |
|
| But come now, shift your ground. Sing of the wooden horse |
|
| Epeus built with Athena's help, the cunning trap that |
|
| good Odysseus brought one day to the heights of Troy, |
|
| filled with fighting men who laid the city waste. |
|
| Sing that for me--true to life as it deserves-- |
|
| and I will tell the world at once how freely |
|
| the Muse gave you the gods' own gift of song." |
|
|
|
| Stirred now by the Muse, the bard launched out |
|
| in a fine blaze of song, starting at just the point | 560 |
| where the main Achaean force, setting their camps afire, |
|
| had boarded the oarswept ships and sailed for home |
|
| but famed Odysseus' men already crouched in hiding-- |
|
| in the heart of Troy's assembly--dark in that horse |
|
| the Trojans dragged themselves to the city heights. |
|
| Now it stood there, looming . . . |
|
| and round its bulk the Trojans sat debating, |
|
| clashing, days on end. Three plans split their ranks: |
|
| either to hack open the hollow vault with ruthless bronze |
|
| or haul it up to the highest ridge and pitch it down the cliffs | 570 |
| or let it stand--a glorious offering made to pacify the gods-- |
|
| and that, that final plan, was bound to win the day. |
|
| For Troy was fated to perish once the city lodged |
|
| inside her walls the monstrous wooden horse |
|
| where the prime of Argive power lay in wait |
|
with death and slaughter bearing down on Troy.
|
|
| And he sang how troops of Achaeans broke from cover, |
|
| streaming out of the horse's hollow flanks to plunder Troy-- |
|
| he sang how left and right they ravaged the steep city, |
|
| sang how Odysseus marched right up to Deiphobus' house | 580 |
| like the god of war on attack with diehard Menelaus. |
|
| There, he sang, Odysseus fought the grimmest fight |
|
| he had ever braved but he won through at last, |
|
thanks to Athena's superhuman power.
|
|
