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Now so long as the day waxed and it was still morning their weapons
beat against one another, and the people fell, but when the sun had
reached mid-­‐heaven, the sire of all balanced his golden scales, and
put two fates of death within them, one for the Trojans and the other
for the Achaeans. He took the balance by the middle, and when he lifted
it up the day of the Achaeans sank; the death-­‐fraught scale of the
Achaeans settled down upon the ground, while that of the Trojans rose
heavenwards. Then he thundered aloud from Ida, and sent the glare
of his lightning upon the Achaeans; when they saw this, pale fear
fell upon them and they were sore afraid.
Idomeneus dared not stay nor yet Agamemnon, nor did the two Ajaxes,
servants of Mars, hold their ground. Nestor knight of Gerene alone
stood firm, bulwark of the Achaeans, not of his own will, but one
of his horses was disabled. Alexandrus husband of lovely Helen had
hit it with an arrow just on the top of its head where the mane begins
to grow away from the skull, a very deadly place. The horse bounded
in his anguish as the arrow pierced his brain, and his struggles threw
others into confusion. The old man instantly began cutting the traces
with his sword, but Hector's fleet horses bore down upon him through
the rout with their bold charioteer, even Hector himself, and the
old man would have perished there and then had not Diomed been quick
to mark, and with a loud cry called Ulysses to help him.
"Ulysses," he cried, "noble son of Laertes where are you flying to,
with your back turned like a coward? See that you are not struck with
a spear between the shoulders. Stay here and help me to defend Nestor