Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
because he fought neither with bow nor spear, but broke the
battalions of the foe with his iron mace. Lycurgus killed him, not in
fair fight, but by entrapping him in a narrow way where his mace
served him in no stead; for Lycurgus was too quick for him and
speared him through the middle, so he fell to earth on his back.
Lycurgus then spoiled him of the armour which Mars had given
him, and bore it in battle thenceforward; but when he grew old and
stayed at home, he gave it to his faithful squire Ereuthalion, who in
this same armour challenged the foremost men among us. The
others quaked and quailed, but my high spirit bade me fight him
though none other would venture; I was the youngest man of them
all; but when I fought him Minerva vouchsafed me victory. He was
the biggest and strongest man that ever I killed, and covered much
ground as he lay sprawling upon the earth. Would that I were still
young and strong as I then was, for the son of Priam would then
soon find one who would face him. But you, foremost among the
whole host though you be, have none of you any stomach for
fighting Hector.”
Thus did the old man rebuke them, and forthwith nine men started
to their feet. Foremost of all uprose King Agamemnon, and after
him brave Diomed the son of Tydeus. Next were the two Ajaxes,
men clothed in valour as with a garment, and then Idomeneus, and
Meriones his brother in arms. After these Eurypylus son of
Euaemon, Thoas the son of Andraemon, and Ulysses also rose.
Then Nestor knight of Gerene again spoke, saying: “Cast lots
among you to see who shall be chosen. If he come alive out of this
fight he will have done good service alike to his own soul and to
the Achaeans.”
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