utterly deceitful; for I did not expect that the Grecian heroes would abide our strength and invincible hands. But they, as wasps flexible[1] in the middle, and bees, [which] make their dwellings in a rugged path, nor quit their hollow mansion; but awaiting the huntsmen, fight for their offspring; so are these unwilling to retire from the gates, though being only two, until they be either killed or taken."
Thus he spake, nor did he persuade the mind of Jove, saying these things: for his soul designed to bestow glory upon Hector. In the mean time others were waging the battle at other gates; but difficult would it be for me, as if I were a god, to enumerate all these things; for around the wall in every direction a furiously-raging fire of stones was aroused,[2] and the Greeks, although grieving, fought from necessity for their ships; and all the gods were sorrowful in their minds; as many as were allies to the Greeks in battle.
But the Lapithæ began the battle and contest. Then the son of Pirithous, brave Polypœtes, smote Damasus with his spear, through his brazen-cheeked helmet; nor did the brazen casque withstand, but the brazen blade burst quite through the bone, and all the brain within was shattered. Thus he subdued him, rushing on, and afterward he slew Pylon and Ormenus. And Leonteus, a branch of Mars, wounded Hippomachus, the son of Antimachus, with his spear, striking him at the belt. Next, drawing his sharp sword from the sheath, he, rushing through the crowd, smote Antiphates first, hand to hand, and he was dashed on his back to the ground; then Menon and Iämenus, and Orestes, all one over another he brought to the fertile earth.
While they were stripping off their glittering armor, those youths, meantime, who were most numerous and most brave, and who were most eager to break down the wall, and burn the ships with fire, followed Polydamas and Hector, and they anxiously deliberated, standing at the trench. For an augury had appeared on the left to them while eager to
- ↑ Or "streaked." See Porphyr. Quæst. iii. But Buttmann, Lexil. p. 64, dwells much upon the force of μέσον, observing, "in no insect is flexibility more evident than in the wasp, where the lower part of its body is joined as it were by a point with the upper."
- ↑
"Through the long walls the stony showers were heard,
The blaze of flames, the flash of arms appeared."—Pope.
