Page 224 - the-iliad

the front ranks. The Epeans fled in all directions when they
saw the captain of their horsemen (the best man they had)
laid low, and I swept down on them like a whirlwind, tak-
ing fifty chariots—and in each of them two men bit the dust,
slain by my spear. I should have even killed the two Molion-
es, sons of Actor, unless their real father, Neptune lord of
the earthquake, had hidden them in a thick mist and borne
them out of the fight. Thereon Jove vouchsafed the Pylians a
great victory, for we chased them far over the plain, killing
the men and bringing in their armour, till we had brought
our horses to Buprasium, rich in wheat, and to the Olenian
rock, with the hill that is called Alision, at which point Mi-
nerva turned the people back. There I slew the last man and
left him; then the Achaeans drove their horses back from
Buprasium to Pylos and gave thanks to Jove among the
gods, and among mortal men to Nestor.
‘Such was I among my peers, as surely as ever was, but
Achilles is for keeping all his valour for himself; bitterly will
he rue it hereafter when the host is being cut to pieces. My
good friend, did not Menoetius charge you thus, on the day
when he sent you from Phthia to Agamemnon? Ulysses and
I were in the house, inside, and heard all that he said to you;
for we came to the fair house of Peleus while beating up
recruits throughout all Achaea, and when we got there we
found Menoetius and yourself, and Achilles with you. The
old knight Peleus was in the outer court, roasting the fat
thigh-bones of a heifer to Jove the lord of thunder; and he
held a gold chalice in his hand from which he poured drink-
offerings of wine over the burning sacrifice. You two were