Page 250 - the-iliad

ter of Priam; but on the arrival of the Danaan fleet he had
gone back to Ilius, and was a great man among the Trojans,
dwelling near Priam himself, who gave him like honour
with his own sons. The son of Telamon now struck him
under the ear with a spear which he then drew back again,
and Imbrius fell headlong as an ash-tree when it is felled
on the crest of some high mountain beacon, and its deli-
cate green foliage comes toppling down to the ground. Thus
did he fall with his bronze-dight armour ringing harshly
round him, and Teucer sprang forward with intent to strip
him of his armour; but as he was doing so, Hector took
aim at him with a spear. Teucer saw the spear coming and
swerved aside, whereon it hit Amphimachus, son of Ctea-
tus son of Actor, in the chest as he was coming into battle,
and his armour rang rattling round him as he fell heavily to
the ground. Hector sprang forward to take Amphimachus’s
helmet from off his temples, and in a moment Ajax threw
a spear at him, but did not wound him, for he was encased
all over in his terrible armour; nevertheless the spear struck
the boss of his shield with such force as to drive him back
from the two corpses, which the Achaeans then drew off.
Stichius and Menestheus, captains of the Athenians, bore
away Amphimachus to the host of the Achaeans, while the
two brave and impetuous Ajaxes did the like by Imbrius. As
two lions snatch a goat from the hounds that have it in their
fangs, and bear it through thick brushwood high above the
ground in their jaws, thus did the Ajaxes bear aloft the body
of Imbrius, and strip it of its armour. Then the son of Oi-
leus severed the head from the neck in revenge for the death