Page 212 - the-iliad

Phoebus Apollo, to whom I ween you pray ere you go into
battle, has again saved you, nevertheless I will meet you and
make an end of you hereafter, if there is any god who will
stand by me too and be my helper. For the present I must
pursue those I can lay hands on.’
As he spoke he began stripping the spoils from the son
of Paeon, but Alexandrus husband of lovely Helen aimed
an arrow at him, leaning against a pillar of the monument
which men had raised to Ilus son of Dardanus, a ruler in
days of old. Diomed had taken the cuirass from off the
breast of Agastrophus, his heavy helmet also, and the shield
from off his shoulders, when Paris drew his bow and let fly
an arrow that sped not from his hand in vain, but pierced
the flat of Diomed’s right foot, going right through it and
fixing itself in the ground. Thereon Paris with a hearty
laugh sprang forward from his hiding-place, and taunted
him saying, ‘You are wounded—my arrow has not been
shot in vain; would that it had hit you in the belly and killed
you, for thus the Trojans, who fear you as goats fear a lion,
would have had a truce from evil.’
Diomed all undaunted answered, ‘Archer, you who with-
out your bow are nothing, slanderer and seducer, if you
were to be tried in single combat fighting in full armour,
your bow and your arrows would serve you in little stead.
Vain is your boast in that you have scratched the sole of my
foot. I care no more than if a girl or some silly boy had hit
me. A worthless coward can inflict but a light wound; when
I wound a man though I but graze his skin it is another mat-
ter, for my weapon will lay him low. His wife will tear her

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