While those who were eager to grant a triumph to the Trojans

Held Apollo in honor, exulting in their hearts,

But out of Hera’s sight, since all the heavenly beings

Were awed by her anger.

Meanwhile Achilles remembered still

His fighting spirit. Still in his invincible limbs

The crimson blood was seething with eagerness for the fight.

Not a single Trojan had courage to approach him,

Struck though he was. They stood well back, as from a lion

Rustics in a wood draw back afraid when a hunter

Has struck it; though a shaft has pierced its heart, it remembers

Still its courage; as it rolls its glaring eyes

It utters a terrible roar from its savage jaws.

So anger and his painful wound inflamed the spirit

Of Peleus’ son, though dying from Apollo’s arrow.

In spite of all he sprang and fell upon his foes,

His huge spear poised. He killed the noble Orythaon,

Hektor’s brave comrade, with a blow below the temple.

His helmet failed to stop the long lance as intended.

It shot straight through both metal and bone, to penetrate

The nerves of his brain and so to spill his vital force.

He slew Hipponoos with a spear thrust under the brow

Into the roots of his eye. His eyeball fell from its socket

Onto the ground and his spirit flew away to Hades.

Next he penetrated the jaw of Alkithoos

And severed all of his tongue. He slumped upon the ground

Breathing his last, the spearpoint sticking out of his ear.

All these were slain by the hero as they hurried forth

To face him, while he took the lives of many others

In flight, for still the blood was seething in his heart.

When his limbs grew cold and his spirit ebbed away,

He stopped to lean on his spear. The Trojans continued their flight

In general panic, leaving him to rebuke them thus:

‘You cowardly Trojans, Dardanians, even when I’m dead

You won’t escape my merciless spear; the lot of you

Will pay the price of death to my avenging spirits.”

They shuddered when they heard him speak, as in the mountains

Fawns will tremble at the sound of a roaring lion,

Making their timid escape from the beast. Likewise the army

Of the Trojan horsemen and their foreign allies

Trembled in terror of Achilles’ final threat,

Supposing him unwounded still. But with the weight

Of doom upon his gallant spirit and sturdy frame,

He fell among the dead with the fall of a lofty mountain.

The earth resounded with the mighty crash of armor

At the fall of Peleus’ peerless son. Yet abject terror

Shook the hearts of those who saw their fallen foe.

Just as when a savage beast is killed by herdsmen;

The sight of it fallen beside the fold so fills the flock

With fear that they haven’t even the heart to approach it;