Now the Trojans had rest from war for a while, and
Priam, with a heavy heart, bade men take his chief
treasure, the great golden vine, with leaves and clusters
of gold, and carry it to the mother of Eurypylus, the
king of the people who dwell where the wide marshlands
of the river Cayster clang with the cries of the cranes
and herons and wild swans. For the mother of
Eurypylus had sworn that never would she let her son
go to the war unless Priam sent her the vine of gold,
a gift of the gods to an ancient King of Troy.
With a heavy heart, then, Priam sent the golden vine,
but Eurypylus was glad when he saw it, and bade all
his men arm, and harness the horses to the chariots,
and glad were the Trojans when the long line of the
new army wound along the road and into the town.
Then Paris welcomed Eurypylus who was his nephew,
son of his sister Astyoche, a daughter of Priam; but
the grandfather of Eurypylus was the famous Heracles,
the strongest man who ever lived on earth. So
Paris brought Eurypylus to his house, where Helen
sat working at her embroideries with her four bower
maidens, and Eurypylus marvelled when he saw her, she
was so beautiful. But the Khita, the people of
Eurypylus, feasted in the open air among the Trojans,
by the light of great fires burning, and to the music
of pipes and flutes. The Greeks saw the fires,
and heard the merry music, and they watched all night
lest the Trojans should attack the ships before the
dawn. But in the dawn Eurypylus rose from sleep
and put on his armour, and hung from his neck by the
belt the great shield on which were fashioned, in
gold of many colours and in silver, the Twelve Adventures
of Heracles, his grandfather; strange deeds that he
did, fighting with monsters and giants and with the
Hound of Hades, who guards the dwellings of the dead.
Then Eurypylus led on his whole army, and with the
brothers of Hector he charged against the Greeks,
who were led by Agamemnon.
In that battle Eurypylus first smote Nireus, who was
the most beautiful of the Greeks now that Achilles
had fallen. There lay Nireus, like an apple
tree, all covered with blossoms red and white, that
the wind has overthrown in a rich man’s orchard.
Then Eurypylus would have stripped off his armour,
but Machaon rushed in, Machaon who had been wounded
and taken to the tent of Nestor, on the day of the
Valour of Hector, when he brought fire against the
ships. Machaon drove his spear through the left
shoulder of Eurypylus, but Eurypylus struck at his
shoulder with his sword, and the blood flowed; nevertheless,
Machaon stooped, and grasped a great stone, and sent
it against the helmet of Eurypylus. He was shaken,
but he did not fall, he drove his spear through breastplate
and breast of Machaon, who fell and died. With
his last breath he said, “Thou, too, shalt fall,”
but Eurypylus made answer, “So let it be!
Men cannot live for ever, and such is the fortune
of war.”
