the sons of warlike Antimachus, who once in an assembly of the Trojans, ordered that they should there put to death Menelaus, coming as an embassador along with godlike Ulysses, and not send him back to the Greeks—now surely shall ye pay the penalty of the unmerited insolence of your father."
He said, and hurled Pisander from his horses to the ground, striking him on the breast with his spear; and he was stretched supine upon the soil. But Hippolochus leaped down, whom next he slew upon the ground, having lopped off his hands with his sword, and cut off his neck; and it (the head) like a cylinder, he hurled forward, to be rolled through the crowd. These then he left there; and where very many phalanxes were thrown into confusion, there he rushed, and at the same time other well-greaved Greeks. Infantry slew infantry, flying from necessity, and horse [slew] horse, slaughtering with the brass (while the dust was raised by them from the plain, which the loud-sounding feet of the horses excited); but king Agamemnon, constantly slaying, pursued, cheering on the Greeks. And as when a destructive fire falls upon a woody forest, and the wind whirling carries it on all sides, while the branches fall with the roots, overwhelmed by the violence of the flame; so fell the heads of the flying Trojans, at the hand of Agamemnon, son of Atreus, and many lofty-necked steeds rattled their empty chariots through the ranks[1] of the battle, longing for their faultless charioteers; but they lay upon the earth, far more agreeable to the vultures than to their wives.
But Jove withdrew Hector out of the reach of weapons, of dust, of slaughter, blood and tumult, while Atrides pursued, loudly cheering on the Danai. [The Trojans] meanwhile rushed through the middle of the plain toward the wild fig-tree, near the tomb of Ilus, the descendant of ancient Dardanus, eager to reach the city; but Atrides still followed shouting, and stained his invincible hands with dusty gore. But when now they reached the Scæan gates and the beech-tree, there at length they halted, and awaited each other. Others, however, still fled through the middle of the plain, like oxen which a lion, coming at the depth of
- ↑ Literally, "the bridges." i. e., the open spaces between the lines
