In Book 7 of the Iliad, the Achaeans and Trojans agree to a pause in the war. The respite allows each side to collect and cremate the bodies of its dead fighters. The armies converge on the plain at daybreak to carry out the unhappy work:
Homer, Iliad.7.421-432.
When the sun had only just struck the fields on its skyward climb
from Ocean’s deep and gentle streams, the armies met on the plain.
Out there, it was hard to tell if a dead man were Trojan
or Achaean. But, after washing bloody gore from each one,
the men, shedding hot tears, hoisted their dead onto wagons.
Great Priam did not permit wailing. So, it was in silence
Trojans piled their dead on the pyre, as they grieved in their hearts.
When the corpses were burned, these men went back to Ilium.
Things were much the same on the Achaean side:
they piled their dead on the pyre, as they grieved in their hearts.
And when the corpses were burned, these men went back to their ships.
Ἠέλιος μὲν ἔπειτα νέον προσέβαλλεν ἀρούρας
ἐξ ἀκαλαρρείταο βαθυρρόου Ὠκεανοῖο
οὐρανὸν εἰσανιών· οἳ δʼ ἤντεον ἀλλήλοισιν.
ἔνθα διαγνῶναι χαλεπῶς ἦν ἄνδρα ἕκαστον·
ἀλλʼ ὕδατι νίζοντες ἄπο βρότον αἱματόεντα
δάκρυα θερμὰ χέοντες ἀμαξάων ἐπάειραν.
οὐδʼ εἴα κλαίειν Πρίαμος μέγας· οἳ δὲ σιωπῇ
νεκροὺς πυρκαϊῆς ἐπινήνεον ἀχνύμενοι κῆρ,
ἐν δὲ πυρὶ πρήσαντες ἔβαν προτὶ Ἴλιον ἱρήν.
ὣς δʼ αὔτως ἑτέρωθεν ἐϋκνήμιδες Ἀχαιοὶ
νεκροὺς πυρκαϊῆς ἐπινήνεον ἀχνύμενοι κῆρ,
ἐν δὲ πυρὶ πρήσαντες ἔβαν κοίλας ἐπὶ νῆας.
fallen comrades from the battlefield.
Larry Benn has a B.A. in English Literature from Harvard College, an M.Phil in English Literature from Oxford University, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Making amends for a working life misspent in finance, he’s now a hobbyist in ancient languages and blogs at featsofgreek.blogspot.com.
