[who are] fresh, will, with fighting, easily drive back men wearied, toward the city, from the ships and tents."
Thus he spake, and he aroused the spirit within his breast; and he hastened to run to the ships to Achilles, the grandson of Æacus. But when now Patroclus, running, arrived at the ships of godlike Ulysses, where were their forum and seat of justice, and there the altars of their gods also were erected, there Eurypylus, the noble son of Evæmon, wounded with an arrow in the thigh, limping from the battle, met him. Down his back ran the copious sweat from his shoulders and head, and from the grievous wound oozed the black blood; nevertheless his mind was firm. Seeing him, the gallant son of Menœtius pitied him, and, grieving, spoke winged words:
"Alas! unhappy men, leaders and rulers over the Greeks, are ye then thus destined, far away from your friends and native land, to satiate the swift dogs at Troy with your white fat? But come, tell me this, O Jove-nurtured hero, Eurypylus, will the Greeks still at all sustain mighty Hector, or will they now be destroyed, subdued by his spear?"
But him prudent Eurypylus in turn addressed: "No longer, Jove-nurtured Patroclus, will there be aid for the Greeks, but they will fall back upon the black ships. For already all, as many as were once bravest, lie at the ships, stricken or wounded by the hands of the Trojans, whose strength ever increases. But do thou now, indeed, save me, leading me to my black ship; and cut out the arrow from my thigh, and wash the black blood[1] from it with warm water; then sprinkle upon it mild drugs, salubrious, which they say thou wert taught by Achilles, whom Chiron instructed, the most just of the Centaurs. For the physicians, Podalirius and Machaon, the one, I think, having a wound, lies at the tents, and himself in want of a faultless physician,
- ↑ Cf. Virg. Æn. x. 834: "Vulnera siccabat lymphis." The manner in which this was done is described by Celsius, v. 26: "Si profusionem timemus, siccis lineamentis vulnus implendum est, supraque imponenda spongia ex aqua frigida expressa, ac manu cuper comprimenda." Cf. Athen. ii. 4.
war." 3. "A cessation, or breathing-time, from war, although short, will be agreeable." 4. "Supply 'may be,' and translate, 'and that there may be a short breathing-time from the battle;' although this last involves some tautology with the preceding line."—Ed. Dubl.
