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Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

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<strong>Homer</strong>’s <strong>Iliad</strong><br />

put a waistband round him and then he gave him some well-cut<br />

thongs of ox-hide; the two men being now girt went into the<br />

middle of the ring, and immediately fell to; heavily indeed did<br />

they punish one another and lay about them with their brawny<br />

fists. One could hear the horrid crashing of their jaws, and they<br />

sweated from every pore of their skin. Presently Epeus came on<br />

and gave Euryalus a blow on the jaw as he was looking round;<br />

Euryalus could not keep his legs; they gave way under him in a<br />

moment and he sprang up with a bound, as a fish leaps into the air<br />

near some shore that is all bestrewn with sea-wrack, when Boreas<br />

furs the top of the waves, and then falls back into deep water. But<br />

noble Epeus caught hold of him and raised him up; his comrades<br />

also came round him and led him from the ring, unsteady in his<br />

gait, his head hanging on one side, and spitting great clots of gore.<br />

They set him down in a swoon and then went to fetch the double<br />

cup.<br />

The son of Peleus now brought out the prizes for the third contest<br />

and showed them to the Argives. These were for the painful art of<br />

wrestling. For the winner there was a great tripod ready for setting<br />

upon the fire, and the Achaeans valued it among themselves at<br />

twelve oxen. For the loser he brought out a woman skilled in all<br />

manner of arts, and they valued her at four oxen. He rose and said<br />

among the Argives, “Stand forward, you who will essay this<br />

contest.”<br />

Forthwith uprose great Ajax the son of Telamon, and crafty Ulysses,<br />

full of wiles rose also. The two girded themselves and went into<br />

the middle of the ring. They gripped each other in their strong<br />

hands like the rafters which some master-builder frames for the<br />

464

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