Page 102 - the-iliad

but kept their faces still turned towards the foe. Who, then,
was first and who last to be slain by Mars and Hector? They
were valiant Teuthras, and Orestes the renowned charioteer,
Trechus the Aetolian warrior, Oenomaus, Helenus the son
of Oenops, and Oresbius of the gleaming girdle, who was
possessed of great wealth, and dwelt by the Cephisian lake
with the other Boeotians who lived near him, owners of a
fertile country.
Now when the goddess Juno saw the Argives thus fall-
ing, she said to Minerva, ‘Alas, daughter of aegis-bearing
Jove, unweariable, the promise we made Menelaus that he
should not return till he had sacked the city of Ilius will be
of no effect if we let Mars rage thus furiously. Let us go into
the fray at once.’
Minerva did not gainsay her. Thereon the august goddess,
daughter of great Saturn, began to harness her gold-bedi-
zened steeds. Hebe with all speed fitted on the eight-spoked
wheels of bronze that were on either side of the iron axle-
tree. The felloes of the wheels were of gold, imperishable,
and over these there was a tire of bronze, wondrous to be-
hold. The naves of the wheels were silver, turning round the
axle upon either side. The car itself was made with plaited
bands of gold and silver, and it had a double top-rail run-
ning all round it. From the body of the car there went a pole
of silver, on to the end of which she bound the golden yoke,
with the bands of gold that were to go under the necks of the
horses Then Juno put her steeds under the yoke, eager for
battle and the war-cry.
Meanwhile Minerva flung her richly embroidered ves-

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