Page 334 - the-iliad

On this the son of Menoetius rebuked him and said,
‘Meriones, hero though you be, you should not speak thus;
taunting speeches, my good friend, will not make the Tro-
jans draw away from the dead body; some of them must go
under ground first; blows for battle, and words for council;
fight, therefore, and say nothing.’
He led the way as he spoke and the hero went forward
with him. As the sound of woodcutters in some forest glade
upon the mountains—and the thud of their axes is heard
afar—even such a din now rose from earth-clash of bronze
armour and of good ox-hide shields, as men smote each
other with their swords and spears pointed at both ends.
A man had need of good eyesight now to know Sarpedon,
so covered was he from head to foot with spears and blood
and dust. Men swarmed about the body, as flies that buzz
round the full milk-pails in spring when they are brimming
with milk—even so did they gather round Sarpedon; nor
did Jove turn his keen eyes away for one moment from the
fight, but kept looking at it all the time, for he was settling
how best to kill Patroclus, and considering whether Hector
should be allowed to end him now in the fight round the
body of Sarpedon, and strip him of his armour, or whether
he should let him give yet further trouble to the Trojans. In
the end, he deemed it best that the brave squire of Achilles
son of Peleus should drive Hector and the Trojans back to-
wards the city and take the lives of many. First, therefore, he
made Hector turn fainthearted, whereon he mounted his
chariot and fled, bidding the other Trojans fly also, for he
saw that the scales of Jove had turned against him. Neither