Page 470 - the-iliad

of Atreus shall decide whose horses are first. You will then
know to your cost.’
Ajax son of Oileus was for making him an angry answer,
and there would have been yet further brawling between
them, had not Achilles risen in his place and said, ‘Cease
your railing, Ajax and Idomeneus; is it not you would be
scandalised if you saw any one else do the like: sit down and
keep your eyes on the horses; they are speeding towards the
winning-post and will be bere directly. You will then both
of you know whose horses are first, and whose come after.’
As he was speaking, the son of Tydeus came driving in,
plying his whip lustily from his shoulder, and his horses
stepping high as they flew over the course. The sand and
grit rained thick on the driver, and the chariot inlaid with
gold and tin ran close behind his fleet horses. There was
little trace of wheel-marks in the fine dust, and the horses
came flying in at their utmost speed. Diomed stayed them
in the middle of the crowd, and the sweat from their manes
and chests fell in streams on to the ground. Forthwith he
sprang from his goodly chariot, and leaned his whip against
his horses’ yoke; brave Sthenelus now lost no time, but at
once brought on the prize, and gave the woman and the
ear-handled cauldron to his comrades to take away. Then
he unyoked the horses.
Next after him came in Antilochus of the race of Neleus,
who had passed Menelaus by a trick and not by the fleetness
of his horses; but even so Menelaus came in as close behind
him as the wheel is to the horse that draws both the chariot
and its master. The end hairs of a horse’s tail touch the tyre