Page 143 - the-iliad

When they were got together in one place, shield clashed
with shield, and spear with spear, in the conflict of mail-
clad men. Mighty was the din as the bossed shields pressed
hard on one another—death—cry and shout of triumph of
slain and slayers, and the earth ran red with blood.
Now so long as the day waxed and it was still morning
their weapons beat against one another, and the people fell,
but when the sun had reached mid-heaven, the sire of all
balanced his golden scales, and put two fates of death with-
in them, one for the Trojans and the other for the Achaeans.
He took the balance by the middle, and when he lifted it up
the day of the Achaeans sank; the death-fraught scale of the
Achaeans settled down upon the ground, while that of the
Trojans rose heavenwards. Then he thundered aloud from
Ida, and sent the glare of his lightning upon the Achaeans;
when they saw this, pale fear fell upon them and they were
sore afraid.
Idomeneus dared not stay nor yet Agamemnon, nor did
the two Ajaxes, servants of Mars, hold their ground. Nestor
knight of Gerene alone stood firm, bulwark of the Achaeans,
not of his own will, but one of his horses was disabled. Alex-
andrus husband of lovely Helen had hit it with an arrow just
on the top of its head where the mane begins to grow away
from the skull, a very deadly place. The horse bounded in
his anguish as the arrow pierced his brain, and his struggles
threw others into confusion. The old man instantly began
cutting the traces with his sword, but Hector’s fleet hors-
es bore down upon him through the rout with their bold
charioteer, even Hector himself, and the old man would

1 The Iliad