Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
imploring every man by his parents, and beseeching him to stand
firm.
“Be men, my friends,” he cried, “and respect one another’s good
opinion. Think, all of you, on your children, your wives, your
property, and your parents whether these be alive or dead. On their
behalf though they are not here, I implore you to stand firm, and
not to turn in flight.”
With these words he put heart and soul into them all. Minerva
lifted the thick veil of darkness from their eyes, and much light fell
upon them, alike on the side of the ships and on that where the
fight was raging. They could see Hector and all his men, both those
in the rear who were taking no part in the battle, and those who
were fighting by the ships.
Ajax could not bring himself to retreat along with the rest, but
strode from deck to deck with a great sea-pike in his hands twelve
cubits long and jointed with rings. As a man skilled in feats of
horsemanship couples four horses together and comes tearing full
speed along the public way from the country into some large townmany
both men and women marvel as they see him for he keeps all
the time changing his horse, springing from one to another without
ever missing his feet while the horses are at a gallop- even so did
Ajax go striding from one ship’s deck to another, and his voice
went up into the heavens. He kept on shouting his orders to the
Danaans and exhorting them to defend their ships and tents;
neither did Hector remain within the main body of the Trojan
warriors, but as a dun eagle swoops down upon a flock of wildfowl
feeding near a river-geese, it may be, or cranes, or long-
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