Page 349 - the-iliad

the Danaans with their spears held out before them, and
the hopes of each ran high that he should force Ajax son
of Telamon to yield up the body—fools that they were, for
he was about to take the lives of many. Then Ajax said to
Menelaus, ‘My good friend Menelaus, you and I shall hardly
come out of this fight alive. I am less concerned for the body
of Patroclus, who will shortly become meat for the dogs and
vultures of Troy, than for the safety of my own head and
yours. Hector has wrapped us round in a storm of battle
from every quarter, and our destruction seems now certain.
Call then upon the princes of the Danaans if there is any
who can hear us.’
Menelaus did as he said, and shouted to the Danaans for
help at the top of his voice. ‘My friends,’ he cried, ‘princes
and counsellors of the Argives, all you who with Agamem-
non and Menelaus drink at the public cost, and give orders
each to his own people as Jove vouchsafes him power and
glory, the fight is so thick about me that I cannot distinguish
you severally; come on, therefore, every man unbidden, and
think it shame that Patroclus should become meat and mor-
sel for Trojan hounds.’
Fleet Ajax son of Oileus heard him and was first to force
his way through the fight and run to help him. Next came
Idomeneus and Meriones his esquire, peer of murderous
Mars. As for the others that came into the fight after these,
who of his own self could name them?
The Trojans with Hector at their head charged in a body.
As a great wave that comes thundering in at the mouth of
some heaven-born river, and the rocks that jut into the

The Iliad