Homer, Iliad (Orange Street).pdf

Homer’s Iliad
king keeps it as an ornament of which both horse and driver may
be proud- even so, O Menelaus, were your shapely thighs and
your legs down to your fair ancles stained with blood.
When King Agamemnon saw the blood flowing from the wound he
was afraid, and so was brave Menelaus himself till he saw that the
barbs of the arrow and the thread that bound the arrow-head to the
shaft were still outside the wound. Then he took heart, but
Agamemnon heaved a deep sigh as he held Menelaus’s hand in his
own, and his comrades made moan in concert. “Dear brother, “he
cried, “I have been the death of you in pledging this covenant and
letting you come forward as our champion. The Trojans have
trampled on their oaths and have wounded you; nevertheless the
oath, the blood of lambs, the drink-offerings and the right hands of
fellowship in which have put our trust shall not be vain. If he that
rules Olympus fulfil it not here and now, he. will yet fulfil it
hereafter, and they shall pay dearly with their lives and with their
wives and children. The day will surely come when mighty Ilius
shall be laid low, with Priam and Priam’s people, when the son of
Saturn from his high throne shall overshadow them with his awful
aegis in punishment of their present treachery. This shall surely be;
but how, Menelaus, shall I mourn you, if it be your lot now to die?
I should return to Argos as a by-word, for the Achaeans will at once
go home. We shall leave Priam and the Trojans the glory of still
keeping Helen, and the earth will rot your bones as you lie here at
Troy with your purpose not fulfilled. Then shall some braggart
Trojan leap upon your tomb and say, ‘Ever thus may Agamemnon
wreak his vengeance; he brought his army in vain; he is gone home
to his own land with empty ships, and has left Menelaus behind
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