deed Minerva infused strength into
Tydides, that none of the brazen-mailed Greeks might be beforehand in
boasting that he had wounded him, but he himself come second; then
gallant Diomede, rushing on him with his spear, addressed him:

"Either stop, or I will overtake thee with my spear; nor do I think that
thou wilt long escape certain destruction from my hand."

[Footnote 352: See the Scholiast, and Kennedy's note.]

He said, and hurled his spear, but intentionally missed the man. Over
the right shoulder the point of the well-polished spear stuck in the
ground. Then indeed he stood still, and trembled, stammering (and there
arose a chattering of the teeth in his mouth), pale through fear.
Panting they overtook him, and seized his hands; but he weeping, spoke
thus:

"Take me alive, and I will ransom myself; for within [my house] I have
brass, and gold, and well-wrought iron; from which my father will bestow
upon you countless ransoms, if he shall hear that I am alive at the
ships of the Greeks."

But him much-planning Ulysses answering addressed: "Take courage, nor
suffer death at all to enter thy mind; but come, tell me this, and state
it correctly: Why comest thou thus alone from the camp towards the
fleet, through the gloomy night, when other mortals sleep? Whether that
thou mightst plunder any of the dead bodies, or did Hector send thee
forth to reconnoitre everything at the hollow ships? Or did thy mind
urge thee on?"

But him Dolon then answered, and his limbs trembled under him: "Contrary
to my wish, Hector hath brought me into great detriment, who promised
that he would give me the solid-hoofed steeds of the illustrious son of
Peleus, and his chariot adorned with brass. And he enjoined me, going
through the dark and dangerous[353] night, to approach the enemy, and
learn accurately whether the swift ships be guarded as before, or
whether, already subdued by our hands, ye plan flight with yourselves,
nor choose to keep watch during the night, overcome by severe toil."

[Footnote 353: Buttm. Lexil. p. 369: "I translate [Greek: thon
nyx] by _the quick and fearful_ night; and if this be once
admitted as the established meaning of the Homeric epithet, it
will certainly be always intelligible to the hearer and full of
expression. 'Night,' says a German proverb, 'is no man's friend;'
the dangers which threaten the nightly wanderer are formed into a
quick, irritable, hostile goddess. Even