Page 477 - the-iliad

he brought out a woman skilled in all manner of arts, and
they valued her at four oxen. He rose and said among the
Argives, ‘Stand forward, you who will essay this contest.’
Forthwith uprose great Ajax the son of Telamon, and
crafty Ulysses, full of wiles, rose also. The two girded them-
selves and went into the middle of the ring. They gripped
each other in their strong hands like the rafters which some
master-builder frames for the roof of a high house to keep
the wind out. Their backbones cracked as they tugged at
one another with their mighty arms—and sweat rained
from them in torrents. Many a bloody weal sprang up on
their sides and shoulders, but they kept on striving with
might and main for victory and to win the tripod. Ulysses
could not throw Ajax, nor Ajax him; Ulysses was too strong
for him; but when the Achaeans began to tire of watching
them, Ajax said to Ulysses, ‘Ulysses, noble son of Laertes,
you shall either lift me, or I you, and let Jove settle it be-
tween us.’
He lifted him from the ground as he spoke, but Ulysses
did not forget his cunning. He hit Ajax in the hollow at back
of his knee, so that he could not keep his feet, but fell on his
back with Ulysses lying upon his chest, and all who saw it
marvelled. Then Ulysses in turn lifted Ajax and stirred him
a little from the ground but could not lift him right off it, his
knee sank under him, and the two fell side by side on the
ground and were all begrimed with dust. They now sprang
towards one another and were for wrestling yet a third time,
but Achilles rose and stayed them. ‘Put not each other fur-
ther,’ said he, ‘to such cruel suffering; the victory is with

The Iliad