Augustus Taber Murray

“ With you are the chieftains of the whole host of the Achaeans; of these let now that man whose heart soever biddeth him fight with me, come hither from among you all to be your champion against goodly Hector. And thus do I declare my word, and be Zeus our witness thereto: if so be he shall slay me with the long-edged bronze, let him spoil me of my armour and bear it to the hollow ships, but my body let him give back to my home, that the Trojans and the Trojan wives may give me my due meed of fire in my death. ”

“ Surely shall this be a disgrace dread and dire, if no man of the Danaans shall now go to meet Hector. Nay, may ye one and all turn to earth and water, ye that sit there each man with no heart in him, utterly inglorious. Against this man will I myself arm me; but from on high are the issues of victory holden of the immortal gods."
[103] So spake he, and did on his fair armour. And now Menelaus, would the end of life have appeared for thee at the hands of Hector, seeing he was mightier far, had not the kings of the Achaeans sprung up and laid hold of thee. ”

“ Then to Idaeus spake lord Agamemnon: "Idaeus, verily of thyself thou hearest the word of the Achaeans, how they make answer to thee; and mine own pleasure is even as theirs. But as touching the dead I in no wise grudge that ye burn them; for to dead corpses should no man grudge, when once they are dead, the speedy consolation of fire. But to our oaths let Zeus be witness, the loud-thundering lord of Hera."
[412] So saying, he lifted up his staff before the face of all the gods, and Idaeus went his way back to sacred Ilios. ”

“ My friends, of a surety the lot is mine, and mine own heart rejoiceth, for I deem that I shall vanquish goodly Hector. But come now, while I am doing on me my battle gear, make ye prayer the while to king Zeus, son of Cronos, in silence by yourselves, that the Trojans learn naught thereof—nay, or openly, if ye will, since in any case we fear no man. For by force shall no man drive me in flight of his own will and in despite of mine, nor yet by skill ”

“ Son of Atreus and ye other princes of the hosts of Achaea, lo, full many long-haired Achaeans are dead, whose dark blood keen Ares hath now spilt about fair-flowing Scamander, and their souls have gone down to the house of Hades; therefore were it well that thou make the battle of the Achaeans to cease at daybreak, and we will gather to hale hither on carts the corpses with oxen and mules; and we will burn them a little way from the ships that each man may bear their bones home to their children, whenso we return again to our native land. ”

“ Then spake unto him great Hector of the flashing helm: "Aias, seeing God gave thee stature and might, aye, and wisdom, and with thy spear thou art pre-eminent above all the Achaeans, let us now cease from battle and strife for this day; hereafter shall we fight again until God judge between us, and give victory to one side or the other. Howbeit night is now upon us, and it is well to yield obedience to night's behest, that thou mayest make glad all the Achaeans beside their ships, and most of all the kinsfolk and comrades that are thine ”

“ And as a god giveth to longing seamen a fair wind when they have grown weary of beating the sea with polished oars of fir, and with weariness are their limbs fordone; even so appeared these twain to the longing Trojans.
[8] Then the one of them slew the son of king Areithous, Menesthius, that dwelt in Arne, who was born of the mace-man Areithous and ox-eyed Phylomedusa; and Hector with his sharp spear smote Eioneus on the neck beneath the well-wrought helmet of bronze, and loosed his limbs. ”

“ So Aias drew near, bearing his shield that was like a city wall, a shield of bronze with sevenfold bull's-hide, the which Tychius had wrought with toil, he that was far best of workers in hide, having his home in Hyle, who had made him his flashing shield of seven hides of sturdy bulls, and thereover had wrought an eighth layer of bronze. ”