Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
After him came Agamemnon and Menelaus, sons of Atreus, the two
Ajaxes clothed in valour as with a garment, Idomeneus and his
companion in arms Meriones, peer of murderous Mars, and
Eurypylus the brave son of Euaemon. Ninth came Teucer with his
bow, and took his place under cover of the shield of Ajax son of
Telamon. When Ajax lifted his shield Teucer would peer round,
and when he had hit any one in the throng, the man would fall
dead; then Teucer would hie back to Ajax as a child to its mother,
and again duck down under his shield.
Which of the Trojans did brave Teucer first kill? Orsilochus, and
then Ormenus and Ophelestes, Daetor, Chromius, and godlike
Lycophontes, Amopaon son of Polyaemon, and Melanippus. these
in turn did he lay low upon the earth, and King Agamemnon was
glad when he saw him making havoc of the Trojans with his mighty
bow. He went up to him and said, “Teucer, man after my own
heart, son of Telamon, captain among the host, shoot on, and be at
once the saving of the Danaans and the glory of your father
Telamon, who brought you up and took care of you in his own
house when you were a child, bastard though you were. Cover him
with glory though he is far off; I will promise and I will assuredly
perform; if aegis-bearing Jove and Minerva grant me to sack the
city of Ilius, you shall have the next best meed of honour after my
own- a tripod, or two horses with their chariot, or a woman who
shall go up into your bed.”
And Teucer answered, “Most noble son of Atreus, you need not
urge me; from the moment we began to drive them back to Ilius, I
have never ceased so far as in me lies to look out for men whom I
can shoot and kill; I have shot eight barbed shafts, and all of them
149