By the shifting maze of the draughts beguiled
Sat side by side
Protesilaus and he that was sprung
Of Poseidon's seed,
Palamedes: and there, by the strong arm flung
Of Diomede, 200
Did the discus leap, and he joyed therein;
And hard beside him
Was Meriones of the War-god's kin—
Men wondering eyed him.
And Laertes' son from the isle-hills far
Through the sea-haze gleaming;
And Nireus, of all that host of war
The goodliest-seeming.
There was Achilles, whose feet are as winds for the storm-rush unreined:
Him I beheld who of Thetis was born, who of Cheiron was trained; 210
Clad in his armour he raced, over sand, over shingle he strained,
Matching in contest of swiftness his feet with a chariot of four,
Rounding the sweep of the course for the victory:— rang evermore
Shouts from Pherêtid Eumelus, and aye with the goad that he bore
Smote he his horses most goodly—I saw them, saw gold-glitter deck 220
Richly their bits; and the midmost, the car-yoke who bore on their neck,
