Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
Teucer then aimed another arrow at Hector, and there would have
been no more fighting at the ships if he had hit him and killed him
then and there: Jove, however, who kept watch over Hector, had his
eyes on Teucer, and deprived him of his triumph, by breaking his
bowstring for him just as he was drawing it and about to take his
aim; on this the arrow went astray and the bow fell from his hands.
Teucer shook with anger and said to his brother, “Alas, see how
heaven thwarts us in all we do; it has broken my bowstring and
snatched the bow from my hand, though I strung it this selfsame
morning that it might serve me for many an arrow.”
Ajax son of Telamon answered, “My good fellow, let your bow and
your arrows be, for Jove has made them useless in order to spite
the Danaans. Take your spear, lay your shield upon your shoulder,
and both fight the Trojans yourself and urge others to do so. They
may be successful for the moment but if we fight as we ought they
will find it a hard matter to take the ships.”
Teucer then took his bow and put it by in his tent. He hung a shield
four hides thick about his shoulders, and on his comely head he set
his helmet well wrought with a crest of horse-hair that nodded
menacingly above it; he grasped his redoubtable bronze-shod
spear, and forthwith he was by the side of Ajax.
When Hector saw that Teucer’s bow was of no more use to him, he
shouted out to the Trojans and Lycians, “Trojans, Lycians, and
Dardanians good in close fight, be men, my friends, and show your
mettle here at the ships, for I see the weapon of one of their
chieftains made useless by the hand of Jove. It is easy to see when
Jove is helping people and means to help them still further, or
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