Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
The others still kept on charging one another round the body with
their pointed spears and killing each other. Then would one say,
“My friends, we can never again show our faces at the ships- better,
and greatly better, that earth should open and swallow us here in
this place, than that we should let the Trojans have the triumph of
bearing off Patroclus to their city.”
The Trojans also on their part spoke to one another saying,
“Friends, though we fall to a man beside this body, let none shrink
from fighting.” With such words did they exhort each other. They
fought and fought, and an iron clank rose through the void air to
the brazen vault of heaven. The horses of the descendant of Aeacus
stood out of the fight and wept when they heard that their driver
had been laid low by the hand of murderous Hector. Automedon,
valiant son of Diores, lashed them again and again; many a time
did he speak kindly to them, and many a time did he upbraid
them, but they would neither go back to the ships by the waters of
the broad Hellespont, nor yet into battle among the Achaeans; they
stood with their chariot stock still, as a pillar set over the tomb of
some dead man or woman, and bowed their heads to the ground.
Hot tears fell from their eyes as they mourned the loss of their
charioteer, and their noble manes drooped all wet from under the
yokestraps on either side the yoke.
The son of Saturn saw them and took pity upon their sorrow. He
wagged his head, and muttered to himself, saying, “Poor things,
why did we give you to King Peleus who is a mortal, while you
are yourselves ageless and immortal? Was it that you might share
the sorrows that befall mankind? for of all creatures that live and
move upon the earth there is none so pitiable as he is- still, Hector
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