Page 223 - the-iliad

This they would destroy, and pitched their camp about
it, but when they had crossed their whole plain, Minerva
darted down by night from Olympus and bade us set our-
selves in array; and she found willing soldiers in Pylos, for
the men meant fighting. Neleus would not let me arm, and
hid my horses, for he said that as yet I could know nothing
about war; nevertheless Minerva so ordered the fight that,
all on foot as I was, I fought among our mounted forces and
vied with the foremost of them. There is a river Minyeius
that falls into the sea near Arene, and there they that were
mounted (and I with them) waited till morning, when the
companies of foot soldiers came up with us in force. Thence
in full panoply and equipment we came towards noon to
the sacred waters of the Alpheus, and there we offered vic-
tims to almighty Jove, with a bull to Alpheus, another to
Neptune, and a herd-heifer to Minerva. After this we took
supper in our companies, and laid us down to rest each in
his armour by the river.
‘The Epeans were beleaguering the city and were deter-
mined to take it, but ere this might be there was a desperate
fight in store for them. When the sun’s rays began to fall
upon the earth we joined battle, praying to Jove and to Mi-
nerva, and when the fight had begun, I was the first to kill
my man and take his horses—to wit the warrior Mulius. He
was son-in-law to Augeas, having married his eldest daugh-
ter, golden-haired Agamede, who knew the virtues of every
herb which grows upon the face of the earth. I speared him
as he was coming towards me, and when he fell headlong
in the dust, I sprang upon his chariot and took my place in

The Iliad