Page 96 - the-iliad

them back to battle, and they bore down with might upon
the foe. Fierce Mars, to help the Trojans, covered them in a
veil of darkness, and went about everywhere among them,
inasmuch as Phoebus Apollo had told him that when he saw
Pallas, Minerva leave the fray he was to put courage into
the hearts of the Trojans—for it was she who was helping
the Danaans. Then Apollo sent Aeneas forth from his rich
sanctuary, and filled his heart with valour, whereon he took
his place among his comrades, who were overjoyed at see-
ing him alive, sound, and of a good courage; but they could
not ask him how it had all happened, for they were too busy
with the turmoil raised by Mars and by Strife, who raged
insatiably in their midst.
The two Ajaxes, Ulysses and Diomed, cheered the Dan-
aans on, fearless of the fury and onset of the Trojans. They
stood as still as clouds which the son of Saturn has spread
upon the mountain tops when there is no air and fierce
Boreas sleeps with the other boisterous winds whose shrill
blasts scatter the clouds in all directions—even so did the
Danaans stand firm and unflinching against the Trojans.
The son of Atreus went about among them and exhorted
them. ‘My friends,’ said he, ‘quit yourselves like brave men,
and shun dishonour in one another’s eyes amid the stress
of battle. They that shun dishonour more often live than get
killed, but they that fly save neither life nor name.’
As he spoke he hurled his spear and hit one of those who
were in the front rank, the comrade of Aeneas, Deicoon son
of Pergasus, whom the Trojans held in no less honour than
the sons of Priam, for he was ever quick to place himself