“On th’ other side, Satan alarm’d
Collecting all his might dilated stood,
Like Teneriff or Atlas unremoved:
His stature reach’d the sky.”—Paradise Lost, iv. 985.
But they, when now meeting, they had reached the same place, at once
joined their ox-hide shields, and their spears, and the might of
brazen-mailed warriors; and the bossy shields met one another, and much
battle-din arose. There at the same time were heard both the groans and
shouts of men slaying and being slain; and the earth flowed with blood.
As when wintry torrents flowing down from the mountains, mix in a basin
the impetuous water from their great springs in a hollow ravine, and
the shepherd in the mountains hears the distant roar—so arose the
shouting and panic of them, mixed together.
Antilochus first killed a Trojan warrior, Echepolus, son of Thalysias,
valiant in the van. Him he first struck on the cone of his horse-plumed
helmet, and the brazen point fixed itself in his forehead, then pierced
the bone, and darkness veiled his eyes; and he fell, like a tower, in
fierce conflict. Him fallen, king Elephenor, the offspring of
Chalcodon, chief of the magnanimous Abantes, seized by the feet, and
was drawing him beyond the reach of darts in haste, that with all haste
he might despoil him of his armour: but that attempt was short; for
magnanimous Agenor having descried him dragging the body, wounded him
with a brazen spear in the side, which, as he stooped, appeared from
beneath the covert of his shield, and he relaxed his limbs [in death].
His soul therefore left him. But over him arose a fierce conflict of
Trojans and of Greeks. But they like wolves rushed on each other, and
man bore down man. Then Telamonian Ajax smote the blooming youth
Simoïsius, son of Anthemion, whom formerly his mother, descending from
Ida, brought forth on the banks of Simois, when, to wit, she followed
her parents to view the flocks; wherefore they called him Simoïsius.
Nor did he repay to his dear parents the price of his early nurture,
for his life was short, he being slain with a spear by magnanimous
Ajax. For him advancing first, he [Ajax] struck on the breast, near the
right pap: and the brazen spear passed out through his shoulder on the
opposite side. He fell on the ground in the dust, like a poplar, winch
has sprung up in the moist grass-land of an extensive marsh,—branches
grow smooth, yet upon the very top, which the chariot-maker lops with
the shining steel, that he might bend [it as] a felloe for a beauteous
chariot. Drying, it lies indeed on the banks of the river. So did the
high-born Ajax spoil Simoïsius, the descendant of Anthemion. But at him
Antiphus, of the varied corslet, the son of Priam, took aim through the
crowd with a sharp spear. From whom, indeed, it erred: but he struck
Leucus, the faithful companion of Ulysses, in the groin, as he was
drawing the body aside; but he fell near it, and the body dropped from
his hand. For him slain, Ulysses was much enraged in mind; and he
rushed through the van, armed in shining brass; and advancing very
near, he stood, and casting his eyes all around him, hurled with his
glittering spear. But the Trojans retired in confusion, as the hero
hurled; he did not, however, hurl the spear in vain, but struck
Democoon, the spurious son of Priam, who came from Abydos, from
[tending] the swift mares. 191 Him Ulysses, enraged for his companion,
struck with his spear in the temple, and the brazen point penetrated
through the other temple, and darkness veiled his eyes. Falling he made
a crash, and his arms resounded upon him. Both the foremost bands and
illustrious Hector fell back. The Argives shouted aloud, and dragged
the bodies away: then they rushed farther forward; and Apollo was
enraged, looking down from Pergamus; and, shouting out, exhorted the
Trojans:
Footnote 191: (return) Priam had a stud at Abydos, on the Asiatic
coast of the Hellespont.—Scholiast.
“Arouse ye, ye horse-breaking Trojans, nor yield the battle to the
Greeks; since their flesh is not of stone, nor of iron, that when they
are struck, it should withstand the flesh-rending brass; neither does
Achilles, the son of fair-haired Thetis, fight, but at the ships he
nourishes his vexatious spleen.”
Thus spoke the dreadful god from the city. But most glorious Tritonian
Pallas, the daughter of Jove, going through the host, roused the Greeks
wherever she saw them relaxing.
Then fate ensnared Diores, son of Amarynceus; for he was struck with a
jagged hand-stone, at the ankle, on the right leg; but Pirus, son of
Imbrasus, who came from Ænos, the leader of the Thracian warriors,
struck him. The reckless stone entirely crushed both tendons and bones;
supine in the dust he fell, stretching forth both hands to his dear
companions, and breathing forth his soul. But Pirus, he who struck him,
ran up, and pierced him in the navel with his spear; and thereupon all
his entrails poured forth upon the ground, and darkness veiled his
eyes.
But him 192 Ætolian Thoas struck, rushing on with his spear, in the
breast over the pap, and the brass was fastened in his lungs: Thoas
came near to him, and drew the mighty spear out of his breast; then he
unsheathed his sharp sword, and with it smote him in the midst of the
belly, and took away his life. But he did not spoil him of his armour,
for his companions stood round him, the hair-tufted Thracians, holding
long spears in their hands, who drove him from them, though being
mighty, and valiant, and glorious; but he, retreating, was repulsed
with force. Thus these two were stretched in the dust near to each
other; Pirus, indeed, the leader of the Thracians, and Diores, the
leader of the brazen-mailed Epeans; and many others also were slain
around.
Then no longer could any man, having come into the field, find fault
with the action, who, even as yet neither wounded from distant blows,
193 nor pierced close at hand with the sharp brass, might be busied in
the midst, and whom spear-brandishing Minerva might lead, taking him by
the hand, and might avert from him the violence of the darts; for many
of the Trojans and of the Greeks on that day were stretched prone in
the dust beside one another.
Footnote 192: (return) Pirus.
Footnote 193: (return) Observe the distinction between ἄϑλητος and
ἀκούτατος. See Anthon; Ammonius, p. 29; Valck. Βεϑλῆσθαι μεν ἐστι τὸ ἐκ
βολης ετρὼσθαί, καἰ ἐκ τῶν ἐναντίων οὐτᾶσθαι δὲ, τὸ ἐκ χειρὸς
τετρῶσθαι.