Page 300 - the-iliad

dogs shall tear him in pieces in front of our city.’
As he spoke he laid his whip about his horses’ shoul-
ders and called to the Trojans throughout their ranks; the
Trojans shouted with a cry that rent the air, and kept their
horses neck and neck with his own. Phoebus Apollo went
before, and kicked down the banks of the deep trench into
its middle so as to make a great broad bridge, as broad as
the throw of a spear when a man is trying his strength. The
Trojan battalions poured over the bridge, and Apollo with
his redoubtable aegis led the way. He kicked down the wall
of the Achaeans as easily as a child who playing on the sea-
shore has built a house of sand and then kicks it down again
and destroys it—even so did you, O Apollo, shed toil and
trouble upon the Argives, filling them with panic and con-
fusion.
Thus then were the Achaeans hemmed in at their ships,
calling out to one another and raising their hands with
loud cries every man to heaven. Nestor of Gerene, tower of
strength to the Achaeans, lifted up his hands to the starry
firmament of heaven, and prayed more fervently than any of
them. ‘Father Jove,’ said he, ‘if ever any one in wheat-grow-
ing Argos burned you fat thigh-bones of sheep or heifer
and prayed that he might return safely home, whereon you
bowed your head to him in assent, bear it in mind now, and
suffer not the Trojans to triumph thus over the Achaeans.’
All-counselling Jove thundered loudly in answer to the
prayer of the aged son of Neleus. When they heard Jove thun-
der they flung themselves yet more fiercely on the Achaeans.
As a wave breaking over the bulwarks of a ship when the sea