Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
up, and speared Apisaon son of Hippasus shepherd of his people
in the liver under the midriff, so that he died; he had come from
fertile Paeonia and was the best man of them all after Asteropaeus.
Asteropaeus flew forward to avenge him and attack the Danaans,
but this might no longer be, inasmuch as those about Patroclus
were well covered by their shields, and held their spears in front of
them, for Ajax had given them strict orders that no man was either
to give ground, or to stand out before the others, but all were to
hold well together about the body and fight hand to hand. Thus
did huge Ajax bid them, and the earth ran red with blood as the
corpses fell thick on one another alike on the side of the Trojans
and allies, and on that of the Danaans; for these last, too, fought no
bloodless fight though many fewer of them perished, through the
care they took to defend and stand by one another.
Thus did they fight as it were a flaming fire; it seemed as though it
had gone hard even with the sun and moon, for they were hidden
over all that part where the bravest heroes were fighting about the
dead son of Menoetius, whereas the other Danaans and Achaeans
fought at their ease in full daylight with brilliant sunshine all
round them, and there was not a cloud to be seen neither on plain
nor mountain. These last moreover would rest for a while and
leave off fighting, for they were some distance apart and beyond
the range of one another’s weapons, whereas those who were in the
thick of the fray suffered both from battle and darkness. All the best
of them were being worn out by the great weight of their armour,
but the two valiant heroes, Thrasymedes and Antilochus, had not
yet heard of the death of Patroclus, and believed him to be still
alive and leading the van against the Trojans; they were keeping
themselves in reserve against the death or rout of their own
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