Page 95 - the-iliad

he, ‘where is your prowess now? You used to say that though
you had neither people nor allies you could hold the town
alone with your brothers and brothers-in-law. I see not one
of them here; they cower as hounds before a lion; it is we,
your allies, who bear the brunt of the battle. I have come
from afar, even from Lycia and the banks of the river Xan-
thus, where I have left my wife, my infant son, and much
wealth to tempt whoever is needy; nevertheless, I head my
Lycian soldiers and stand my ground against any who would
fight me though I have nothing here for the Achaeans to
plunder, while you look on, without even bidding your men
stand firm in defence of their wives. See that you fall not
into the hands of your foes as men caught in the meshes of a
net, and they sack your fair city forthwith. Keep this before
your mind night and day, and beseech the captains of your
allies to hold on without flinching, and thus put away their
reproaches from you.’
So spoke Sarpedon, and Hector smarted under his
words. He sprang from his chariot clad in his suit of ar-
mour, and went about among the host brandishing his two
spears, exhorting the men to fight and raising the terrible
cry of battle. Then they rallied and again faced the Achae-
ans, but the Argives stood compact and firm, and were not
driven back. As the breezes sport with the chaff upon some
goodly threshing-floor, when men are winnowing—while
yellow Ceres blows with the wind to sift the chaff from the
grain, and the chaff-heaps grow whiter and whiter—even so
did the Achaeans whiten in the dust which the horses’ hoofs
raised to the firmament of heaven, as their drivers turned

The Iliad