Page 195 - the-iliad

On this Dolon would have caught him by the beard to
beseech him further, but Diomed struck him in the middle
of his neck with his sword and cut through both sinews so
that his head fell rolling in the dust while he was yet speak-
ing. They took the ferret-skin cap from his head, and also
the wolf-skin, the bow, and his long spear. Ulysses hung
them up aloft in honour of Minerva the goddess of plunder,
and prayed saying, ‘Accept these, goddess, for we give them
to you in preference to all the gods in Olympus: therefore
speed us still further towards the horses and sleeping-
ground of the Thracians.’
With these words he took the spoils and set them upon
a tamarisk tree, and they marked the place by pulling up
reeds and gathering boughs of tamarisk that they might not
miss it as they came back through the’ flying hours of dark-
ness. The two then went onwards amid the fallen armour
and the blood, and came presently to the company of Thra-
cian soldiers, who were sleeping, tired out with their day’s
toil; their goodly armour was lying on the ground beside
them all orderly in three rows, and each man had his yoke
of horses beside him. Rhesus was sleeping in the middle,
and hard by him his horses were made fast to the topmost
rim of his chariot. Ulysses from some way off saw him and
said, ‘This, Diomed, is the man, and these are the horses
about which Dolon whom we killed told us. Do your very
utmost; dally not about your armour, but loose the hors-
es at once—or else kill the men yourself, while I see to the
horses.’
Thereon Minerva put courage into the heart of Diomed,

1 The Iliad