Homer, Iliad (Orange Street).pdf

Homer’s Iliad
close to him and said, “Fear not, Diomed, to do battle with the
Trojans, for I have set in your heart the spirit of your knightly father
Tydeus. Moreover, I have withdrawn the veil from your eyes, that
you know gods and men apart. If, then, any other god comes here
and offers you battle, do not fight him; but should Jove’s daughter
Venus come, strike her with your spear and wound her.”
When she had said this Minerva went away, and the son of Tydeus
again took his place among the foremost fighters, three times more
fierce even than he had been before. He was like a lion that some
mountain shepherd has wounded, but not killed, as he is springing
over the wall of a sheep-yard to attack the sheep. The shepherd has
roused the brute to fury but cannot defend his flock, so he takes
shelter under cover of the buildings, while the sheep, panicstricken
on being deserted, are smothered in heaps one on top of
the other, and the angry lion leaps out over the sheep-yard wall.
Even thus did Diomed go furiously about among the Trojans.
He killed Astynous, and shepherd of his people, the one with a
thrust of his spear, which struck him above the nipple, the other
with a sword- cut on the collar-bone, that severed his shoulder
from his neck and back. He let both of them lie, and went in pursuit
of Abas and Polyidus, sons of the old reader of dreams Eurydamas:
they never came back for him to read them any more dreams, for
mighty Diomed made an end of them. He then gave chase to
Xanthus and Thoon, the two sons of Phaenops, both of them very
dear to him, for he was now worn out with age, and begat no more
sons to inherit his possessions. But Diomed took both their lives
and left their father sorrowing bitterly, for he nevermore saw them
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