Page 89 - the-iliad

hit clean through the belly; you will not stand out for long,
and the glory of the fight is mine.’
But Diomed all undismayed made answer, ‘You have
missed, not hit, and before you two see the end of this mat-
ter one or other of you shall glut tough-shielded Mars with
his blood.’
With this he hurled his spear, and Minerva guided it on
to Pandarus’s nose near the eye. It went crashing in among
his white teeth; the bronze point cut through the root of
his tongue, coming out under his chin, and his glistening
armour rang rattling round him as he fell heavily to the
ground. The horses started aside for fear, and he was reft of
life and strength.
Aeneas sprang from his chariot armed with shield and
spear, fearing lest the Achaeans should carry off the body.
He bestrode it as a lion in the pride of strength, with shield
and spear before him and a cry of battle on his lips resolute
to kill the first that should dare face him. But the son of Ty-
deus caught up a mighty stone, so huge and great that as
men now are it would take two to lift it; nevertheless he bore
it aloft with ease unaided, and with this he struck Aeneas
on the groin where the hip turns in the joint that is called
the ‘cup-bone.’ The stone crushed this joint, and broke both
the sinews, while its jagged edges tore away all the flesh. The
hero fell on his knees, and propped himself with his hand
resting on the ground till the darkness of night fell upon his
eyes. And now Aeneas, king of men, would have perished
then and there, had not his mother, Jove’s daughter Venus,
who had conceived him by Anchises when he was herding

The Iliad