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hung them up aloft in honour of Minerva the goddess of plunder, and
prayed saying, "Accept these, goddess, for we give them to you in
preference to all the gods in Olympus: therefore speed us still further
towards the horses and sleeping-­‐ground of the Thracians."
With these words he took the spoils and set them upon a tamarisk tree,
and they marked the place by pulling up reeds and gathering boughs
of tamarisk that they might not miss it as they came back through
the' flying hours of darkness. The two then went onwards amid the
fallen armour and the blood, and came presently to the company of
Thracian soldiers, who were sleeping, tired out with their day's toil;
their goodly armour was lying on the ground beside them all orderly
in three rows, and each man had his yoke of horses beside him. Rhesus
was sleeping in the middle, and hard by him his horses were made fast
to the topmost rim of his chariot. Ulysses from some way off saw him
and said, "This, Diomed, is the man, and these are the horses about
which Dolon whom we killed told us. Do your very utmost; dally not
about your armour, but loose the horses at once-­‐ or else kill the
men yourself, while I see to the horses."
Thereon Minerva put courage into the heart of Diomed, and he smote
them right and left. They made a hideous groaning as they were being
hacked about, and the earth was red with their blood. As a lion springs
furiously upon a flock of sheep or goats when he finds without their
shepherd, so did the son of Tydeus set upon the Thracian soldiers
till he had killed twelve. As he killed them Ulysses came and drew
them aside by their feet one by one, that the horses might go forward
freely without being frightened as they passed over the dead bodies,