Page 229 - the-iliad

might wash it sooner into the sea. Neptune himself, tri-
dent in hand, surveyed the work and threw into the sea all
the foundations of beams and stones which the Achaeans
had laid with so much toil; he made all level by the mighty
stream of the Hellespont, and then when he had swept the
wall away he spread a great beach of sand over the place
where it had been. This done he turned the rivers back into
their old courses.
This was what Neptune and Apollo were to do in after
time; but as yet battle and turmoil were still raging round
the wall till its timbers rang under the blows that rained
upon them. The Argives, cowed by the scourge of Jove, were
hemmed in at their ships in fear of Hector the mighty min-
ister of Rout, who as heretofore fought with the force and
fury of a whirlwind. As a lion or wild boar turns fiercely on
the dogs and men that attack him, while these form solid
wall and shower their javelins as they face him—his cour-
age is all undaunted, but his high spirit will be the death of
him; many a time does he charge at his pursuers to scatter
them, and they fall back as often as he does so—even so did
Hector go about among the host exhorting his men, and
cheering them on to cross the trench.
But the horses dared not do so, and stood neighing upon
its brink, for the width frightened them. They could neither
jump it nor cross it, for it had overhanging banks all round
upon either side, above which there were the sharp stakes
that the sons of the Achaeans had planted so close and
strong as a defence against all who would assail it; a horse,
therefore, could not get into it and draw his chariot after

The Iliad