Page 100 - the-iliad

near to one another, and Tlepolemus spoke first. ‘Sarpedon,’
said he, ‘councillor of the Lycians, why should you come
skulking here you who are a man of peace? They lie who call
you son of aegis-bearing Jove, for you are little like those
who were of old his children. Far other was Hercules, my
own brave and lion-hearted father, who came here for the
horses of Laomedon, and though he had six ships only, and
few men to follow him, sacked the city of Ilius and made
a wilderness of her highways. You are a coward, and your
people are falling from you. For all your strength, and all
your coming from Lycia, you will be no help to the Trojans
but will pass the gates of Hades vanquished by my hand.’
And Sarpedon, captain of the Lycians, answered, ‘Tlepol-
emus, your father overthrew Ilius by reason of Laomedon’s
folly in refusing payment to one who had served him well.
He would not give your father the horses which he had
come so far to fetch. As for yourself, you shall meet death
by my spear. You shall yield glory to myself, and your soul
to Hades of the noble steeds.’
Thus spoke Sarpedon, and Tlepolemus upraised his spear.
They threw at the same moment, and Sarpedon struck his
foe in the middle of his throat; the spear went right through,
and the darkness of death fell upon his eyes. Tlepolemus’s
spear struck Sarpedon on the left thigh with such force that
it tore through the flesh and grazed the bone, but his father
as yet warded off destruction from him.
His comrades bore Sarpedon out of the fight, in great
pain by the weight of the spear that was dragging from his
wound. They were in such haste and stress as they bore him