Verse
Iliad
Book 8, Line 78 by Samuel Butler (English)
Idomeneus dared not stay nor yet Agamemnon, nor did the two Ajaxes, squires [therapontes] of Ares, hold their ground. Nestor horseman of Gerene alone stood firm, bulwark of the Achaeans, not of his own will, but one of his horses was disabled. Alexander husband of lovely Helen had hit it with an arrow just on the top of its head where the mane begins to grow away from the skull, a very deadly place. The horse bounded in his anguish as the arrow pierced his brain, and his struggles threw others into confusion. The old man instantly began cutting the traces with his sword, but Hektor's fleet horses bore down upon him through the rout with their bold charioteer, even Hektor himself, and the old man would have perished there and then had not Diomedes been quick to mark, and with a loud cry called Odysseus to help him.
IliadBook 8, Line 78Samuel ButlerEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 8
HomerProseID iliad-iliad-butler-en-prose-8-78