Iliad

With these words of reasonable counsel he persuaded his brother, whereon his squires [therapontes] gladly stripped the armor from off his shoulders. Then Nestor rose and spoke, "For sure," said he, "grief [ penthos ] has befallen the Achaean land. The old horseman Peleus, counselor and orator among the Myrmidons, loved when I was in his house to question me concerning the race and lineage of all the Argives. How would it not grieve him could he hear of them as now quailing before Hektor? Many a time would he lift his hands in prayer that his soul might leave his body and go down within the house of Hades. Would, by father Zeus, Athena, and Apollo, that I were still young and strong as when the Pylians and Arcadians were gathered in fight by the rapid river Keladon under the walls of Pheia , and round about the waters of the river Iardanos. The godlike hero Ereuthalion stood forward as their champion, with the armor of King Areithoos upon his shoulders - Areithoos whom men and women had surnamed ‘the Mace-man,’ because he fought neither with bow nor spear, but broke the battalions of the foe with his iron mace. Lycurgus killed him, not in fair fight, but by entrapping him in a narrow way where his mace served him in no stead; for Lycurgus was too quick for him and speared him through the middle, so he fell to earth on his back. Lycurgus then spoiled him of the armor which Ares had given him, and bore it in battle thenceforward; but when he grew old and stayed at home, he gave it to his faithful squire [ therapôn ] Ereuthalion, who in this same armor challenged the foremost men among us. The others quaked and quailed, but my high spirit bade me fight him though none other would venture; I was the youngest man of them all;

IliadBook 7, Line 120Samuel ButlerEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 7

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