flowing from Jove, lave his shoulders from above; while he leaped up with his feet, sad in mind, and the rapid stream subdued his knees under him, and withdrew the sand from beneath his feet. But Pelides groaned, looking toward the wide heaven:
"O father Jove, how does none of the gods undertake to save me, miserable, from the river! Hereafter, indeed, I would suffer any thing.[1] But no other of the heavenly inhabitants is so culpable to me as my mother, who soothed me with falsehoods, and said that I should perish by the fleet arrows of Apollo, under the wall of the armed Trojans. Would that Hector had slain me, who here was nurtured the bravest; then a brave man would he have slain, and have despoiled a brave man. But now it is decreed that I be destroyed by an inglorious death, overwhelmed in a mighty river, like a swineherd's boy, whom, as he is fording it, the torrent overwhelms in wintery weather."
Thus he spoke; but Neptune and Minerva, very quickly advancing, stood near him (but in body they had likened themselves to men), and, taking his hand in their hands, strengthened him with words. But to them earth-shaking Neptune began discourse:
"O son of Peleus, neither now greatly fear, nor yet be at all dismayed; so great allies from among the gods are we to thee, Jove approving it, I and Pallas Minerva, so that it is not decreed that thou shouldst be overcome by a river. It, indeed, shall soon cease, and thou thyself shalt see it. But let us prudently suggest, if thou be obedient, not to stop thy hands from equally destructive war, before thou shalt have inclosed the Trojan army within the renowned walls of Troy, whoever, indeed, can escape; but do thou, having taken away the life of Hector, return again to the ships: for we grant to thee to bear away glory."
They indeed having thus spoken, departed to the immortals. But he proceeded toward the plain (for the command of the gods strongly impelled him, and it was all filled with the overflowed water. Much beautiful armor and
- ↑ i. e., grant that I may but escape a disgraceful death by drowning, and I care not how I perish afterward. The Scholiast compares the prayer of Ajax in ρ. 647: Ἐν δὲ φάει καὶ ὄλεσσον. Cf. Æn. i. 100, sqq.; Æsch. Choeph. 340; Eur. Andr. 1184.
