Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
Thus did he speak, and they did even as he had said. Those who
were about Ajax and King Idomeneus, the followers moreover of
Teucer, Meriones, and Meges peer of Mars called all their best men
about them and sustained the fight against Hector and the Trojans,
but the main body fell back upon the ships of the Achaeans.
The Trojans pressed forward in a dense body, with Hector striding
on at their head. Before him went Phoebus Apollo shrouded in
cloud about his shoulders. He bore aloft the terrible aegis with its
shaggy fringe, which Vulcan the smith had given Jove to strike
terror into the hearts of men. With this in his hand he led on the
Trojans.
The Argives held together and stood their ground. The cry of battle
rose high from either side, and the arrows flew from the
bowstrings. Many a spear sped from strong hands and fastened in
the bodies of many a valiant warrior, while others fell to earth
midway, before they could taste of man’s fair flesh and glut
themselves with blood. So long as Phoebus Apollo held his aegis
quietly and without shaking it, the weapons on either side took
effect and the people fell, but when he shook it straight in the face
of the Danaans and raised his mighty battle-cry their hearts fainted
within them and they forgot their former prowess. As when two
wild beasts spring in the dead of night on a herd of cattle or a large
flock of sheep when the herdsman is not there- even so were the
Danaans struck helpless, for Apollo filled them with panic and
gave victory to Hector and the Trojans.
The fight then became more scattered and they killed one another
where they best could. Hector killed Stichius and Arcesilaus, the
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