[11,85] —ταῦτα γὰρ οὐ βουλόμενος εἰπεῖν οὕτως ἐναργῶς, ὅμως ἐπεὶ ἀληθῆ ἦν, ἀρξάμενος αὐτῶν οὐ δύναται ἀποστῆναι—τήν τε νύκτα ἐκείνην τὴν χαλεπὴν καὶ τὴν ἐν τῷ στρατοπέδῳ κατήφειαν καὶ τὴν τοῦ Ἀγαμέμνονος ἔκπληξιν καὶ τὰς οἰμωγάς, ἔτι δὲ τὴν νυκτερινὴν ἐκκλησίαν βουλευομένων ὅπως φύγοιεν, καὶ τὰς δεήσεις τὰς τοῦ Ἀχιλλέως, εἴ τι δύναιτο ἐκεῖνος ἄρα ὠφελῆσαι. (86) τῇ δ´ ὑστεραίᾳ τῷ μὲν Ἀγμέμνονι χαρίζεταί τινα ἀριστείαν ἀνόνητον καὶ τῷ Διομήδει καὶ τῷ Ὀδυσσεῖ {καὶ Εὐρυπύλῳ}, καὶ τὸν Αἴαντά φησι μάχεσθαι προθύμως, εὐθὺς δὲ τοὺς Τρῶας ἐπικρατῆσαι καὶ τὸν Ἕκτορα ἐλαύνειν ἐπὶ τὸ τεῖχος τῶν Ἀχαιῶν καὶ τὰς ναῦς. καὶ ταῦτα μὲν λέγων δῆλός ἐστιν ὅτι ἀληθῆ λέγει καὶ τὰ γενόμενα ὑπ´ αὐτῶν τῶν πραγμάτων προαγόμενος· ὅταν δὲ αὔξῃ τοὺς Ἀχαιούς, πολλῆς ἀπορίας μεστός ἐστι καὶ πᾶσι φανερὸς ὅτι ψεύδεται· τὸν μὲν Αἴαντα δὶς κρατῆσαι τοῦ Ἕκτορος μάτην, ὁτὲ μὲν τῇ μονομαχίᾳ, πάλιν δὲ τῷ λίθῳ, τὸν δὲ Διομήδην τοῦ Αἰνείου, μηδὲ τούτου μηδὲν πράξαντος, ἀλλὰ τοὺς ἵππους μόνον λαβόντος, ὅπερ ἦν ἀνεξέλεγκτον. (87) οὐκ ἔχων δὲ ὅ,τι αὐτοῖς χαρίσηται τὸν Ἄρην καὶ τὴν Ἀφροδίτην φησὶ τρωθῆναι ὑπὸ τοῦ Διομήδους. ἐν οἷς ἅπασι δῆλός ἐστιν εὔνους μὲν ὢν ἐκείνοις καὶ βουλόμενος αὐτοὺς θαυμάζειν, οὐκ ἔχων δὲ ὅ,τι εἴπῃ ἀληθές, διὰ τὴν ἀπορίαν εἰς ἀδύνατα ἐμπίπτων καὶ ἀσεβῆ πράγματα, ὃ πάσχουσιν ὡς τὸ πολὺ πάντες ὅσοι τῇ ἀληθείᾳ μάχονται. (88) ἀλλ´ οὐ περὶ τοῦ Ἕκτορος ὁμοίως ἀπορεῖ ὅ,τι εἴπῃ μέγα καὶ θαυμαστόν, ὥς γε οἶμαι τὰ γενόμενα διηγούμενος· ἀλλὰ φεύγοντας μὲν προτροπάδην ἅπαντας καὶ κατ´ ὄνομα τοὺς ἀρίστους, ὅταν φῇ μήτε Ἰδομενέα μένειν μήτε Ἀγαμέμνονα μήτε τοὺς δύο Αἴαντας, ἀλλὰ Νέστορα μόνον ὑπ´ ἀνάγκης, καὶ τοῦτον ἁλῶναι παρ´ ὀλίγον· ἐπιβοηθήσαντα δὲ τὸν Διομήδην καὶ πρὸς ὀλίγον θρασυνόμενον, ἔπειτα εὐθὺς ἀποστραφέντα φεύγειν, ὡς κεραυνῶν δῆθεν εἰργόντων αὐτόν· (89) τέλος δὲ τὴν τάφρον διαβαινομένην καὶ τὸ ναύσταθμον πολιορκούμενον καὶ ῥηγνυμένας ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἕκτορος τὰς πύλας καὶ τοὺς Ἀχαιοὺς εἰς τὰς ναῦς ἤδη κατειλημένους καὶ περὶ τὰς σκηνὰς πάντα τὸν πόλεμον καὶ τὸν Αἴαντα ἄνωθεν μαχόμενον ἀπὸ τῶν νεῶν καὶ τέλος ἐκβληθέντα ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἕκτορος καὶ ἀναχωρήσαντα καὶ τῶν νεῶν τινας ἐμπρησθείσας.

[11,85] Homer is reluctant to state these things so frankly, yet since they are true, he cannot refrain when once he has started. Then there is that dreadful night of discouragement in the camp, Agamenmon's panic fear and lamentation, that midnight council, too, at which they deliberated on the method of flight, and that appeal to Achilles in hope that he might find it possible after all to give them some aid. (86) «For the following day Homer does grant some ineffectual display of prowess to Agamemnon, and to Diomede, Odysseus, and Eurypylus, and he says that Ajax did fight stoutly, but that the Trojans straightway gained the upper hand and Hector pursued them to the Achaean rampart and. the ships. In this part of his narrative he is also evidently telling the truth and what really occurred, carried away as he is by the facts themselves. But when he glorifies the Achaeans, he is terribly embarrassed, and anyone can see that he is dealing in fiction : when, for instance, he has Ajax conquer Hector twice, but both times without result, once in the single combat and once again with the stone ; again when Diomede conquers Aeneas, this time too without any result beyond merely capturing his horses, a statement that could not be disproved. So not knowing what to credit the Achaeans with, he tells how Ares and Aphrodite were wounded by Diomede. In all such accounts it is clear that he is partial to the Achaeans and eager to extol them, but that, not knowing of anything to say that is true, he is led in his embarrassment to mention impossible and impious deeds — the usual experience of all who oppose the truth. (88) "In the case of Hector, however, he shows no such a loss for something great and splendid to say — because, I believe, he is telling of actual events. Nay, he says that all fled pell-mell, even the bravest, whose names he gives, that neither Idomeneus stood his ground, nor Agamemnon, nor the two Ajaxes, but only Nestor, and he because he was forced to do so, and that he was almost captured ; but that Diomede came to his relief, put on a bold front for a short time, then straightway wheeled about and fled—because, forsooth, some thunderbolts deterred him ! Finally; Homer tells how the trench was crossed, the ship-station besieged and the gates broken down by Hector, how the Achaeans were now crowded into their ships and all the war centred around the huts, how Ajax fights above on the ships and is finally dislodged by Hector and retires, while some of the ships are set on fire.