Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
the belt, bending its barbs back through the force with which he
pulled it out. He undid the burnished belt, and beneath this the
cuirass and the belt of mail which the bronze-smiths had made;
then, when he had seen the wound, he wiped away the blood and
applied some soothing drugs which Chiron had given to
Aesculapius out of the good will he bore him.
While they were thus busy about Menelaus, the Trojans came
forward against them, for they had put on their armour, and now
renewed the fight.
You would not have then found Agamemnon asleep nor cowardly
and unwilling to fight, but eager rather for the fray. He left his
chariot rich with bronze and his panting steeds in charge of
Eurymedon, son of Ptolemaeus the son of Peiraeus, and bade him
hold them in readiness against the time his limbs should weary of
going about and giving orders to so many, for he went among the
ranks on foot. When he saw men hasting to the front he stood by
them and cheered them on. “Argives,” said he, “slacken not one
whit in your onset; father Jove will be no helper of liars; the Trojans
have been the first to break their oaths and to attack us; therefore
they shall be devoured of vultures; we shall take their city and
carry off their wives and children in our ships.”
But he angrily rebuked those whom he saw shirking and
disinclined to fight. “Argives,” he cried, “cowardly miserable
creatures, have you no shame to stand here like frightened fawns
who, when they can no longer scud over the plain, huddle together,
but show no fight? You are as dazed and spiritless as deer. Would
you wait till the Trojans reach the sterns of our ships as they lie on
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