xing of sorrow
with even hand between them.
When they were got together in one place shield clashed with shield and
spear with spear in the rage of battle. The bossed shields beat one
upon another, and there was a tramp as of a great multitude--death-cry
and shout of triumph of slain and slayers, and the earth ran red with
blood. As torrents swollen with rain course madly down their deep
channels till the angry floods meet in some gorge, and the shepherd on
the hillside hears their roaring from afar--even such was the toil and
uproar of the hosts as they joined in battle.
First Antilochus slew an armed warrior of the Trojans, Echepolus, son
of Thalysius, fighting in the foremost ranks. He struck at the
projecting part of his helmet and drove the spear into his brow; the
point of bronze pierced the bone, and darkness veiled his eyes;
headlong as a tower he fell amid the press of the fight, and as he
dropped King Elephenor, son of Chalcodon and captain of the proud
Abantes began dragging him out of reach of the darts that were falling
around him, in haste to strip him of his armour. But his purpose was
not for long; Agenor saw him haling the body away, and smote him in the
side with his bronze-shod spear--for as he stooped his side was left
unprotected by his shield--and thus he perished. Then the fight between
Trojans and Achaeans grew furious over his body, and they flew upon
each other like wolves, man and man crushing one upon the other.
Forthwith Ajax, son of Telamon, slew the fair youth Simoeisius, son of
Anthemion, whom his mother bore by the banks of the Simois, as she was
coming down from Mt. Ida, where she had been with her parents to see
their flocks. Therefore he was named Simoeisius, but he did not live to
pay his parents for his rearing, for he was cut off untimely by the
spear of mighty Ajax, who struck him in the breast by the right nipple
as he was coming on among the foremost fighters; the spear went right
through his shoulder, and he fell as a poplar that has grown straight
and tall in a meadow by some mere, and its top is thick with branches.
Then the wheelwright lays his axe to its roots that he may fashion a
felloe for the wheel of some goodly chariot, and it lies seasoning by
the waterside. In such wise did Ajax fell to earth Simoeisius, son of
Anthemion. Thereon Antiphus of the gleaming corslet, son of Priam,
hurled a spear at Ajax from amid the crowd and missed him, but he hit
Leucus, the br
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