Homer, Iliad (Orange Street).pdf

Homer’s Iliad
him.’ Thus will one of them say, and may the earth then swallow
me.”
But Menelaus reassured him and said, “Take heart, and do not
alarm the people; the arrow has not struck me in a mortal part, for
my outer belt of burnished metal first stayed it, and under this my
cuirass and the belt of mail which the bronze-smiths made me.”
And Agamemnon answered, “I trust, dear Menelaus, that it may be
even so, but the surgeon shall examine your wound and lay herbs
upon it to relieve your pain.”
He then said to Talthybius, “Talthybius, tell Machaon, son to the
great physician, Aesculapius, to come and see Menelaus
immediately. Some Trojan or Lycian archer has wounded him with
an arrow to our dismay, and to his own great glory.”
Talthybius did as he was told, and went about the host trying to
find Machaon. Presently he found standing amid the brave
warriors who had followed him from Tricca; thereon he went up to
him and said, “Son of Aesculapius, King Agamemnon says you are
to come and see Menelaus immediately. Some Trojan or Lycian
archer has wounded him with an arrow to our dismay and to his
own great glory.”
Thus did he speak, and Machaon was moved to go. They passed
through the spreading host of the Achaeans and went on till they
came to the place where Menelaus had been wounded and was
lying with the chieftains gathered in a circle round him. Machaon
passed into the middle of the ring and at once drew the arrow from
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