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Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

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

snow and fleeter than any wind that blows. His chariot is bedight<br />

with silver and gold, and he has brought his marvellous golden<br />

armour, of the rarest workmanship- too splendid for any mortal<br />

man to carry, and meet only for the gods. Now, therefore, take me<br />

to the ships or bind me securely here, until you come back and<br />

have proved my words whether they be false or true.”<br />

Diomed looked sternly at him and answered, “Think not, Dolon,<br />

for all the good information you have given us, that you shall<br />

escape now you are in our hands, for if we ransom you or let you<br />

go, you will come some second time to the ships of the Achaeans<br />

either as a spy or as an open enemy, but if I kill you and an end of<br />

you, you will give no more trouble.”<br />

On this Dolon would have caught him <strong>by</strong> the beard to beseech him<br />

further, but Diomed struck him in the middle of his neck with his<br />

sword and cut through both sinews so that his head fell rolling in<br />

the dust while he was yet speaking. They took the ferret-skin cap<br />

from his head, and also the wolf-skin, the bow, and his long spear.<br />

Ulysses hung them up aloft in honour of Minerva the goddess of<br />

plunder, and prayed saying, “Accept these, goddess, for we give<br />

them to you in preference to all the gods in Olympus: therefore<br />

speed us still further towards the horses and sleeping-ground of<br />

the Thracians.”<br />

With these words he took the spoils and set them upon a tamarisk<br />

tree, and they marked the place <strong>by</strong> pulling up reeds and gathering<br />

boughs of tamarisk that they might not miss it as they came back<br />

through the’ flying hours of darkness. The two then went onwards<br />

amid the fallen armour and the blood, and came presently to the<br />

192

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