Page 67 - the-iliad

tightly round him. It went right through this and through
the cuirass of cunning workmanship; it also pierced the belt
beneath it, which he wore next his skin to keep out darts or
arrows; it was this that served him in the best stead, never-
theless the arrow went through it and grazed the top of the
skin, so that blood began flowing from the wound.
As when some woman of Meonia or Caria strains purple
dye on to a piece of ivory that is to be the cheek-piece of
a horse, and is to be laid up in a treasure house—many a
knight is fain to bear it, but the king keeps it as an ornament
of which both horse and driver may be proud—even so, O
Menelaus, were your shapely thighs and your legs down to
your fair ancles stained with blood.
When King Agamemnon saw the blood flowing from
the wound he was afraid, and so was brave Menelaus him-
self till he saw that the barbs of the arrow and the thread
that bound the arrow-head to the shaft were still outside the
wound. Then he took heart, but Agamemnon heaved a deep
sigh as he held Menelaus’s hand in his own, and his com-
rades made moan in concert. ‘Dear brother,’ he cried, ‘I have
been the death of you in pledging this covenant and letting
you come forward as our champion. The Trojans have tram-
pled on their oaths and have wounded you; nevertheless the
oath, the blood of lambs, the drink-offerings and the right
hands of fellowship in which we have put our trust shall not
be vain. If he that rules Olympus fulfil it not here and now,
he will yet fulfil it hereafter, and they shall pay dearly with
their lives and with their wives and children. The day will
surely come when mighty Ilius shall be laid low, with Priam

The Iliad