Page 259 - the-iliad

Thus did he speak, and Deiphobus was in two minds,
whether to go back and fetch some other Trojan to help
him, or to take up the challenge single-handed. In the end,
he deemed it best to go and fetch Aeneas, whom he found
standing in the rear, for he had long been aggrieved with
Priam because in spite of his brave deeds he did not give
him his due share of honour. Deiphobus went up to him
and said, ‘Aeneas, prince among the Trojans, if you know
any ties of kinship, help me now to defend the body of your
sister’s husband; come with me to the rescue of Alcathous,
who being husband to your sister brought you up when you
were a child in his house, and now Idomeneus has slain
him.’
With these words he moved the heart of Aeneas, and he
went in pursuit of Idomeneus, big with great deeds of valour;
but Idomeneus was not to be thus daunted as though he were
a mere child; he held his ground as a wild boar at bay upon
the mountains, who abides the coming of a great crowd of
men in some lonely place—the bristles stand upright on his
back, his eyes flash fire, and he whets his tusks in his eager-
ness to defend himself against hounds and men—even so
did famed Idomeneus hold his ground and budge not at the
coming of Aeneas. He cried aloud to his comrades looking
towards Ascalaphus, Aphareus, Deipyrus, Meriones, and
Antilochus, all of them brave soldiers—‘Hither my friends,’
he cried, ‘and leave me not single-handed—I go in great fear
by fleet Aeneas, who is coming against me, and is a redoubt-
able dispenser of death battle. Moreover he is in the flower
of youth when a man’s strength is greatest; if I was of the

The Iliad