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Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

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<strong>Homer</strong>’s <strong>Iliad</strong><br />

have been buried in the flesh of warlike youths, but this mad dog I<br />

cannot hit.”<br />

As he spoke he aimed another arrow straight at Hector, for he was<br />

bent on hitting him; nevertheless he missed him, and the arrow hit<br />

Priam’s brave son Gorgythion in the breast. His mother, fair<br />

Castianeira, lovely as a goddess, had been married from Aesyme,<br />

and now he bowed his head as a garden poppy in full bloom when<br />

it is weighed down <strong>by</strong> showers in spring- even thus heavy bowed<br />

his head beneath the weight of his helmet.<br />

Again he aimed at Hector, for he was longing to hit him, and again<br />

his arrow missed, for Apollo turned it aside; but he hit Hector’s<br />

brave charioteer Archeptolemus in the breast, <strong>by</strong> the nipple, as he<br />

was driving furiously into the fight. The horses swerved aside as<br />

he fell headlong from the chariot, and there was no life left in him.<br />

Hector was greatly grieved at the loss of his charioteer, but for all<br />

his sorrow he let him lie where he fell, and bade his brother<br />

Cebriones, who was hard <strong>by</strong>, take the reins. Cebriones did as he<br />

had said. Hector thereon with a loud cry sprang from his chariot to<br />

the ground, and seizing a great stone made straight for Teucer with<br />

intent kill him. Teucer had just taken an arrow from his quiver and<br />

had laid it upon the bow-string, but Hector struck him with the<br />

jagged stone as he was taking aim and drawing the string to his<br />

shoulder; he hit him just where the collar-bone divides the neck<br />

from the chest, a very deadly place, and broke the sinew of his arm<br />

so that his wrist was less, and the bow dropped from his hand as<br />

he fell forward on his knees. Ajax saw that his brother had fallen,<br />

and running towards him bestrode him and sheltered him with his<br />

shield. Meanwhile his two trusty squires, Mecisteus son of Echius,<br />

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