Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
Laomedon, and though he had six ships only, and few men to
follow him, sacked the city of Ilius and made a wilderness of her
highways. You are a coward, and your people are falling from you.
For all your strength, and all your coming from Lycia, you will be
no help to the Trojans but will pass the gates of Hades vanquished
by my hand.”
And Sarpedon, captain of the Lycians, answered, “Tlepolemus,
your father overthrew Ilius by reason of Laomedon’s folly in
refusing payment to one who had served him well. He would not
give your father the horses which he had come so far to fetch. As for
yourself, you shall meet death by my spear. You shall yield glory
to myself, and your soul to Hades of the noble steeds.”
Thus spoke Sarpedon, and Tlepolemus upraised his spear. They
threw at the same moment, and Sarpedon struck his foe in the
middle of his throat; the spear went right through, and the
darkness of death fell upon his eyes. Tlepolemus’s spear struck
Sarpedon on the left thigh with such force that it tore through the
flesh and grazed the bone, but his father as yet warded off
destruction from him.
His comrades bore Sarpedon out of the fight, in great pain by the
weight of the spear that was dragging from his wound. They were
in such haste and stress as they bore him that no one thought of
drawing the spear from his thigh so as to let him walk uprightly.
Meanwhile the Achaeans carried off the body of Tlepolemus,
whereon Ulysses was moved to pity, and panted for the fray as he
beheld them. He doubted whether to pursue the son of Jove, or to
make slaughter of the Lycian rank and file; it was not decreed,
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