Page 263 - the-iliad

for very long, till Meriones came up and drew the spear out
of his body, and his eyes were veiled in darkness.
Helenus then struck Deipyrus with a great Thracian
sword, hitting him on the temple in close combat and tear-
ing the helmet from his head; the helmet fell to the ground,
and one of those who were fighting on the Achaean side
took charge of it as it rolled at his feet, but the eyes of Dei-
pyrus were closed in the darkness of death.
On this Menelaus was grieved, and made menacingly to-
wards Helenus, brandishing his spear; but Helenus drew his
bow, and the two attacked one another at one and the same
moment, the one with his spear, and the other with his bow
and arrow. The son of Priam hit the breastplate of Mene-
laus’s corslet, but the arrow glanced from off it. As black
beans or pulse come pattering down on to a threshing-floor
from the broad winnowing-shovel, blown by shrill winds
and shaken by the shovel—even so did the arrow glance
off and recoil from the shield of Menelaus, who in his turn
wounded the hand with which Helenus carried his bow; the
spear went right through his hand and stuck in the bow it-
self, so that to his life he retreated under cover of his men,
with his hand dragging by his side—for the spear weighed it
down till Agenor drew it out and bound the hand carefully
up in a woollen sling which his esquire had with him.
Pisander then made straight at Menelaus—his evil des-
tiny luring him on to his doom, for he was to fall in fight
with you, O Menelaus. When the two were hard by one an-
other the spear of the son of Atreus turned aside and he
missed his aim; Pisander then struck the shield of brave

The Iliad