Thus having spoken, they withdrew and joined The immortals, while Achilles hastened on, Encouraged by the mandate of the gods, Across the plain. The plain was overflowed With water; sumptuous arms were floating round, And bodies of slain youths. Achilles leaped, And stemmed with powerful limbs the stream, and still Went forward; for Minerva mightily Had strengthened him. Nor did Scamander fail To put forth all his power, enraged the more Against the son of Peleus; higher still His torrent swelled and tossed with all its waves, And thus he called to Simoïs with a shout:—
“O brother, join with me to hold in check This man, who threatens soon to overthrow King Priam’s noble city; for no more The Trojan host resist him. Come at once And aid me; fill thy channel from its springs, And summon all thy brooks, and lift on high A mighty wave, and roll along thy bed, Mingled in one great torrent, trees and stones, That we may tame this savage man, who now In triumph walks the field, and bears himself As if he were a god. His strength, I deem, Will not avail him, nor his noble form, Nor those resplendent arms, which yet shall lie Scattered along the bottom of my gulfs, And foul with ooze. Himself too I shall wrap In sand, and pile the rubbish of my bed In heaps around him. Never shall the Greeks Know where to gather up his bones, o’erspread By me with river-slime, for there shall be His burial-place; no other tomb the Greeks Will need when they perform his funeral rites.”
He spake, and wrathfully he rose against Achilles—rose with turbid waves, and noise, And foam, and blood and bodies of the dead. One purple billow of the Jove-born stream Swelled high and whelmed Achilles. Juno saw, And trembled lest the hero should be whirled Downward by the great river, and in haste She called to Vulcan, her beloved son:—