Page 205 - the-iliad

foe in rout before them, and slew them; horsemen did the
like by horsemen, and the thundering tramp of the horses
raised a cloud of dust from off the plain. King Agamemnon
followed after, ever slaying them and cheering on the Achae-
ans. As when some mighty forest is all ablaze—the eddying
gusts whirl fire in all directions till the thickets shrivel and
are consumed before the blast of the flame—even so fell the
heads of the flying Trojans before Agamemnon son of Atre-
us, and many a noble pair of steeds drew an empty chariot
along the highways of war, for lack of drivers who were ly-
ing on the plain, more useful now to vultures than to their
wives.
Jove drew Hector away from the darts and dust, with
the carnage and din of battle; but the son of Atreus sped
onwards, calling out lustily to the Danaans. They flew on
by the tomb of old Ilus, son of Dardanus, in the middle of
the plain, and past the place of the wild fig-tree making al-
ways for the city—the son of Atreus still shouting, and with
hands all bedrabbled in gore; but when they had reached the
Scaean gates and the oak tree, there they halted and wait-
ed for the others to come up. Meanwhile the Trojans kept
on flying over the middle of the plain like a herd of cows
maddened with fright when a lion has attacked them in the
dead of night—he springs on one of them, seizes her neck
in the grip of his strong teeth and then laps up her blood
and gorges himself upon her entrails—even so did King
Agamemnon son of Atreus pursue the foe, ever slaughter-
ing the hindmost as they fled pell-mell before him. Many a
man was flung headlong from his chariot by the hand of the

0 The Iliad