Verse

Iliad

Book 16, Line 751 by Samuel Butler (English)

As he spoke he flung himself on Kebriones with the spring, as it were, of a lion that while attacking a stockyard is himself struck in the chest, and his courage is his own bane - even so furiously, O Patroklos, did you then spring upon Kebriones. Hektor sprang also from his chariot to the ground. The pair then fought over the body of Kebriones. As two lions fight fiercely on some high mountain over the body of a stag that they have killed, even so did these two mighty warriors, Patroklos son of Menoitios and brave Hektor, hack and hew at one another over the corpse of Kebriones. Hektor would not let him go when he had once got him by the head, while Patroklos kept fast hold of his feet, and a fierce fight raged between the other Danaans and Trojans. As the east and south wind buffet one another when they beat upon some dense forest on the mountains - there is beech and ash and spreading cornel; the to of the trees roar as they beat on one another, and one can hear the boughs cracking and breaking -

IliadBook 16, Line 751Samuel ButlerEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 16

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Samuel Butler's public-domain English prose Iliad via Perseus canonical TEI; prose segments are assigned to their source line span.