Page 260 - the-iliad

same age as he is and in my present mind, either he or I
should soon bear away the prize of victory.’
On this, all of them as one man stood near him, shield
on shoulder. Aeneas on the other side called to his com-
rades, looking towards Deiphobus, Paris, and Agenor, who
were leaders of the Trojans along with himself, and the peo-
ple followed them as sheep follow the ram when they go
down to drink after they have been feeding, and the heart of
the shepherd is glad—even so was the heart of Aeneas glad-
dened when he saw his people follow him.
Then they fought furiously in close combat about the body
of Alcathous, wielding their long spears; and the bronze ar-
mour about their bodies rang fearfully as they took aim at
one another in the press of the fight, while the two heroes
Aeneas and Idomeneus, peers of Mars, outvied everyone in
their desire to hack at each other with sword and spear. Ae-
neas took aim first, but Idomeneus was on the lookout and
avoided the spear, so that it sped from Aeneas’ strong hand
in vain, and fell quivering in the ground. Idomeneus mean-
while smote Oenomaus in the middle of his belly, and broke
the plate of his corslet, whereon his bowels came gushing
out and he clutched the earth in the palms of his hands as
he fell sprawling in the dust. Idomeneus drew his spear out
of the body, but could not strip him of the rest of his armour
for the rain of darts that were showered upon him: more-
over his strength was now beginning to fail him so that he
could no longer charge, and could neither spring forward
to recover his own weapon nor swerve aside to avoid one
that was aimed at him; therefore, though he still defend-