l me now ye Muses that dwell in the mansions of Olympus, who,
whether of the Trojans or of their allies, was first to face Agamemnon?
It was Iphidamas son of Antenor, a man both brave and of great stature,
who was brought up in fertile Thrace, the mother of sheep. Cisses, his
mother's father, brought him up in his own house when he was a
child--Cisses, father to fair Theano. When he reached manhood, Cisses
would have kept him there, and was for giving him his daughter in
marriage, but as soon as he had married he set out to fight the
Achaeans with twelve ships that followed him: these he had left at
Percote and had come on by land to Ilius. He it was that now met
Agamemnon son of Atreus. When they were close up with one another, the
son of Atreus missed his aim, and Iphidamas hit him on the girdle below
the cuirass and then flung himself upon him, trusting to his strength
of arm; the girdle, however, was not pierced, nor nearly so, for the
point of the spear struck against the silver and was turned aside as
though it had been lead: King Agamemnon caught it from his hand, and
drew it towards him with the fury of a lion; he then drew his sword,
and killed Iphidamas by striking him on the neck. So there the poor
fellow lay, sleeping a sleep as it were of bronze, killed in the
defence of his fellow-citizens, far from his wedded wife, of whom he
had had no joy though he had given much for her: he had given a
hundred-head of cattle down, and had promised later on to give a
thousand sheep and goats mixed, from the countless flocks of which he
was possessed. Agamemnon son of Atreus then despoiled him, and carried
off his armour into the host of the Achaeans.

When noble Coon, Antenor's eldest son, saw this, sore indeed were his
eyes at the sight of his fallen brother. Unseen by Agamemnon he got
beside him, spear in hand, and wounded him in the middle of his arm
below the elbow, the point of the spear going right through the arm.
Agamemnon was convulsed with pain, but still not even for this did he
leave off struggling and fighting, but grasped his spear that flew as
fleet as the wind, and sprang upon Coon who was trying to drag off the
body of his brother--his father's son--by the foot, and was crying for
help to all the bravest of his comrades; but Agamemnon struck him with
a bronze-shod spear and killed him as he was dragging the dead body
through the press of men under cover of his shield: he then cut off his
head, standing