21.06.2013 Views

Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

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

in which the king’s armour was lying, and draw it out <strong>by</strong> the pole,<br />

or to lift the armour out and carry it off; or whether again, he<br />

should not kill some more Thracians. While he was thus hesitating<br />

Minerva came up to him and said, “Get back, Diomed, to the ships<br />

or you may be driven thither, should some other god rouse the<br />

Trojans.”<br />

Diomed knew that it was the goddess, and at once sprang upon the<br />

horses. Ulysses beat them with his bow and they flew onward to<br />

the ships of the Achaeans.<br />

But Apollo kept no blind look-out when he saw Minerva with the<br />

son of Tydeus. He was angry with her, and coming to the host of<br />

the Trojans he roused Hippocoon, a counsellor of the Thracians<br />

and a noble kinsman of Rhesus. He started up out of his sleep and<br />

saw that the horses were no longer in their place, and that the men<br />

were gasping in their death-agony; on this he groaned aloud, and<br />

called upon his friend <strong>by</strong> name. Then the whole Trojan camp was<br />

in an uproar as the people kept hurrying together, and they<br />

marvelled at the deeds of the heroes who had now got away<br />

towards the ships.<br />

When they reached the place where they had killed Hector’s scout,<br />

Ulysses stayed his horses, and the son of Tydeus, leaping to the<br />

ground, placed the blood-stained spoils in the hands of Ulysses<br />

and remounted: then he lashed the horses onwards, and they flew<br />

forward nothing loth towards the ships as though of their own free<br />

will. Nestor was first to hear the tramp of their feet. “My friends,”<br />

said he, “princes and counsellors of the Argives, shall I guess right<br />

or wrong?- but I must say what I think: there is a sound in my ears<br />

194

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!