Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
whom the Trojans held in no less honour than the sons of Priam, for
he was ever quick to place himself among the foremost. The spear
of King Agamemnon struck his shield and went right through it, for
the shield stayed it not. It drove through his belt into the lower part
of his belly, and his armour rang rattling round him as he fell
heavily to the ground.
Then Aeneas killed two champions of the Danaans, Crethon and
Orsilochus. Their father was a rich man who lived in the strong city
of Phere and was descended from the river Alpheus, whose broad
stream flows through the land of the Pylians. The river begat
Orsilochus, who ruled over much people and was father to
Diocles, who in his turn begat twin sons, Crethon and Orsilochus,
well skilled in all the arts of war. These, when they grew up, went
to Ilius with the Argive fleet in the cause of Menelaus and
Agamemnon sons of Atreus, and there they both of them fell. As
two lions whom their dam has reared in the depths of some
mountain forest to plunder homesteads and carry off sheep and
cattle till they get killed by the hand of man, so were these two
vanquished by Aeneas, and fell like high pine-trees to the ground.
Brave Menelaus pitied them in their fall, and made his way to the
front, clad in gleaming bronze and brandishing his spear, for Mars
egged him on to do so with intent that he should be killed by
Aeneas; but Antilochus the son of Nestor saw him and sprang
forward, fearing that the king might come to harm and thus bring
all their labour to nothing; when, therefore Aeneas and Menelaus
were setting their hands and spears against one another eager to do
battle, Antilochus placed himself by the side of Menelaus. Aeneas,
bold though he was, drew back on seeing the two heroes side by
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