this we all know. Night is now approaching, and it is good to obey night."[1]
But him Telamonian Ajax answering addressed: Idæus, order Hector to speak these words, for he challenged all the bravest [of our side] to battle. Let him begin, and I will entirely obey, if indeed he does so."
But him crest-tossing Hector addressed in turn: "Ajax, since some god has given thee size, and might, and prudence, and thou art the most excellent of the Greeks at the spear, let us now cease from battle and contest for this day; hereafter will we fight again, till the Deity shall separate us, and give the victory to either. Now night is approaching, and it is good to obey night, that thou mayest gladden all the Greeks at the ships, and chiefly those friends and companions which are thine; but I will gladden the Trojans and the train-bearing Trojan matrons, through the great city of king Priam, the dames who, praying for me, are entering the deities' temple.[2] But come, let us both mutually give very glorious gifts, that some one of the Greeks and Trojans may say thus: 'They certainly fought in a soul-gnawing strife, but then again being reconciled, they parted in friendship.' "
Thus then having spoken, he gave him a silver-studded sword, presenting it with the sheath and the well-wrought belt. But Ajax gave [to him] a belt, splendid with purple. Then they twain being separated, the one went to the people of the Greeks, and the other to the crowd of the Trojans: and they rejoiced when they saw him coming alive and safe, having escaped the strength and the invincible hands of Ajax; and led him to the city, not having had any hopes that he was safe. But the well-greaved Greeks, on the other hand, led away Ajax, rejoicing in victory, to divine Agamemnon. When now they were in the tents of the son of Atreus, then Agamemnon, king of men, sacrificed for them an ox, a male, five years old, to the most powerful son of Saturn This
- ↑ Cf. Æn. ii. 8:—
———"et jam nox humida cœlo
Præcipitat, suadentque cadentia sidera somnos." - ↑ Ἀγών is defined by Apollonius, p. 26, ὁ τόπος εἰς ὃν συνάγονται. Hesychius, p. 79, makes it equivalent to ἄθροισμα, and also calls it the place where combatants fight. Porphyry, Quæst. Hom. p. cvii. ed. Barnes, τὸν ταόν ἤτοι θεῖον τόπον ὄντα, ἢ θεῖον ἄθροισμα περιέχοντα. So, also, the Scholiast.
