Iliad

The others continued fighting, and the cry of battle rose up into the heavens. Teucer son of Telamon was the first to kill his man, to wit, the warrior Imbrios son of Mentor rich in horses. Until the Achaeans came he had lived in Pedaeum, and had married Medesikaste a bastard daughter of Priam; but on the arrival of the Danaan fleet he had gone back to Ilion , and was a great man among the Trojans, dwelling near Priam himself, who gave him like honor with his own sons. The son of Telamon now struck him under the ear with a spear which he then drew back again, and Imbrios fell headlong as an ash-tree when it is felled on the crest of some high mountain beacon, and its delicate green foliage comes toppling down to the ground. Thus did he fall with his bronze-equipped armor ringing harshly round him, and Teucer sprang forward with intent to strip him of his armor; but as he was doing so, Hektor took aim at him with a spear. Teucer saw the spear coming and swerved aside, whereon it hit Amphimakhos, son of Kteatos son of Aktor, in the chest as he was coming into battle, and his armor rang rattling round him as he fell heavily to the ground. Hektor sprang forward to take Amphimakhos' helmet from off his temples, and in a moment Ajax threw a spear at him, but did not wound him, for he was encased all over in his terrible armor; nevertheless the spear struck the boss of his shield with such force as to drive him back from the two corpses, which the Achaeans then drew off. Stichios and Menestheus, leaders of the Athenians, bore away Amphimakhos to the host of the Achaeans, while the two brave and impetuous Ajaxes did the like by Imbrios. As two lions snatch a goat from the hounds that have it in their fangs, and bear it through thick brushwood high above the ground in their jaws, thus did the Ajaxes bear aloft the body of Imbrios, and strip it of its armor. Then the son of Oileus severed the head from the neck in revenge for the death of Amphimakhos, and sent it whirling over the crowd as though it had been a ball, till fell in the dust at Hektor's feet.

IliadBook 13, Line 169Samuel ButlerEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 13

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