Page 110 - the-iliad

ceived twin sons; these the son of Mecisteus now slew, and
he stripped the armour from their shoulders. Polypoetes
then killed Astyalus, Ulysses Pidytes of Percote, and Teucer
Aretaon. Ablerus fell by the spear of Nestor’s son Antilochus,
and Agamemnon, king of men, killed Elatus who dwelt in
Pedasus by the banks of the river Satnioeis. Leitus killed
Phylacus as he was flying, and Eurypylus slew Melanthus.
Then Menelaus of the loud war-cry took Adrestus alive,
for his horses ran into a tamarisk bush, as they were fly-
ing wildly over the plain, and broke the pole from the car;
they went on towards the city along with the others in full
flight, but Adrestus rolled out, and fell in the dust flat on
his face by the wheel of his chariot; Menelaus came up to
him spear in hand, but Adrestus caught him by the knees
begging for his life. ‘Take me alive,’ he cried, ‘son of Atreus,
and you shall have a full ransom for me: my father is rich
and has much treasure of gold, bronze, and wrought iron
laid by in his house. From this store he will give you a large
ransom should he hear of my being alive and at the ships of
the Achaeans.’
Thus did he plead, and Menelaus was for yielding and
giving him to a squire to take to the ships of the Achae-
ans, but Agamemnon came running up to him and rebuked
him. ‘My good Menelaus,’ said he, ‘this is no time for giving
quarter. Has, then, your house fared so well at the hands of
the Trojans? Let us not spare a single one of them—not even
the child unborn and in its mother’s womb; let not a man of
them be left alive, but let all in Ilius perish, unheeded and
forgotten.’

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