Page 68 - the-iliad

and Priam’s people, when the son of Saturn from his high
throne shall overshadow them with his awful aegis in pun-
ishment of their present treachery. This shall surely be; but
how, Menelaus, shall I mourn you, if it be your lot now to
die? I should return to Argos as a by-word, for the Achaeans
will at once go home. We shall leave Priam and the Trojans
the glory of still keeping Helen, and the earth will rot your
bones as you lie here at Troy with your purpose not fulfilled.
Then shall some braggart Trojan leap upon your tomb and
say, ‘Ever thus may Agamemnon wreak his vengeance; he
brought his army in vain; he is gone home to his own land
with empty ships, and has left Menelaus behind him.’ Thus
will one of them say, and may the earth then swallow me.’
But Menelaus reassured him and said, ‘Take heart, and
do not alarm the people; the arrow has not struck me in
a mortal part, for my outer belt of burnished metal first
stayed it, and under this my cuirass and the belt of mail
which the bronze-smiths made me.’
And Agamemnon answered, ‘I trust, dear Menelaus,
that it may be even so, but the surgeon shall examine your
wound and lay herbs upon it to relieve your pain.’
He then said to Talthybius, ‘Talthybius, tell Machaon,
son to the great physician, Aesculapius, to come and see
Menelaus immediately. Some Trojan or Lycian archer has
wounded him with an arrow to our dismay, and to his own
great glory.’
Talthybius did as he was told, and went about the host
trying to find Machaon. Presently he found standing amid
the brave warriors who had followed him from Tricca;