Verse
Iliad
Book 23, Line 850 by Samuel Butler (English)
Achilles next offered a prize of iron for archery - ten double-edged axes and ten with single eddies: he set up a ship's mast, some way off upon the sands, and with a fine string tied a pigeon to it by the foot; this was what they were to aim at. "Whoever," he said, "can hit the pigeon shall have all the axes and take them away with him; he who hits the string without hitting the bird will have taken a worse aim and shall have the single-edged axes."
IliadBook 23, Line 850Samuel ButlerEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 23
HomerProseID iliad-iliad-butler-en-prose-23-850