The Iliad of Homer


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Such is the force of more than mortal hands!  
A Dardan youth there was, well known to fame,  
From Panthus sprung, Euphorbus was his name;  
Famed for the manage of the foaming horse,  
Skill'd in the dart, and matchless in the course:  
Full twenty knights he tumbled from the car,  
While yet he learn'd his rudiments of war.  
His venturous spear first drew the hero's gore;  
He struck, he wounded, but he durst no more.  
Nor, though disarm'd, Patroclus' fury stood:  
But swift withdrew the long-protended wood.  
And turn'd him short, and herded in the crowd.  
Thus, by an arm divine, and mortal spear,  
Wounded, at once, Patroclus yields to fear,  
Retires for succour to his social train,  
And flies the fate, which heaven decreed, in vain.  
Stern Hector, as the bleeding chief he views,  
Breaks through the ranks, and his retreat pursues:  
The lance arrests him with a mortal wound;  
He falls, earth thunders, and his arms resound.  
With him all Greece was sunk; that moment all  
Her yet-surviving heroes seem'd to fall.  
So, scorch'd with heat, along the desert score,  
The roaming lion meets a bristly boar,  
Fast by the spring; they both dispute the flood,  
621  


Page
619 620 621 622 623

Quick Jump
1 245 490 735 980