Page 201 - the-iliad

side, like the rainbows which the son of Saturn has set in
heaven as a sign to mortal men. About his shoulders he
threw his sword, studded with bosses of gold; and the scab-
bard was of silver with a chain of gold wherewith to hang
it. He took moreover the richly-dight shield that covered
his body when he was in battle—fair to see, with ten circles
of bronze running all round it. On the body of the shield
there were twenty bosses of white tin, with another of dark
cyanus in the middle: this last was made to show a Gorgon’s
head, fierce and grim, with Rout and Panic on either side.
The band for the arm to go through was of silver, on which
there was a writhing snake of cyanus with three heads that
sprang from a single neck, and went in and out among one
another. On his head Agamemnon set a helmet, with a peak
before and behind, and four plumes of horse-hair that nod-
ded menacingly above it; then he grasped two redoubtable
bronze-shod spears, and the gleam of his armour shot from
him as a flame into the firmament, while Juno and Minerva
thundered in honour of the king of rich Mycene.
Every man now left his horses in charge of his charioteer
to hold them in readiness by the trench, while he went into
battle on foot clad in full armour, and a mighty uproar rose
on high into the dawning. The chiefs were armed and at the
trench before the horses got there, but these came up pres-
ently. The son of Saturn sent a portent of evil sound about
their host, and the dew fell red with blood, for he was about
to send many a brave man hurrying down to Hades.
The Trojans, on the other side upon the rising slope of the
plain, were gathered round great Hector, noble Polydamas,

00 The Iliad