immediately hurled with his shining spear at him departing. Polydamas himself indeed avoided black fate, springing off obliquely; but Archilochus, son of Antenor, received [the blow], for to him the gods had doomed destruction. Him then he struck upon the last vertebra, in the joining of the head and neck, and he disjoined both tendons; but the head, the mouth, and the nostrils of him falling, met the ground much sooner than his legs and knees. Then Ajax in turn cried out to blameless Polydamas:
"Reflect, O Polydamas, and tell me the truth; is not this man worthy to be slain in exchange of Prothoënor? He appears not to me indeed a coward, nor [sprung] from cowards, but [to be] the brother or the son of horse-breaking Antenor, for he seems most like him as to his race."
Thus he spoke, well knowing [him], but grief possessed the mind of the Trojans. Then Acamas, stalking round his brother, wounded with his spear Promachus, the Bœotian; while he was dragging him off by the feet. But over him Acamas greatly boasted, calling out aloud:
"Ye Argive archers,[1] insatiable in threats, assuredly not to us alone will toil and sorrow accrue, but thus thou also wilt at some time be slain. Consider how your Promachus sleeps, subdued by my spear, that a requital for my brother might not be long unpaid. Therefore should a man wish a brother to be left in his family, as an avenger of his death."
Thus he spoke; but grief arose among the Greeks as he boasted, and he particularly agitated the mind of warlike Peneleus. Accordingly he rushed upon Acamas, who awaited not the charge of king Peneleus; but he wounded Ilioneus, son of Phorbas, rich in flocks, whom Mercury loved most of all the Trojans, and had presented with possessions; and to whom his mother bore Ilioneus alone. Him then he wounded below the brow, in the socket of the eye, and he forced out the pupil: but the spear went forward through the eye, and through the back of the head; and he sat down, stretching out both his hands. But Peneleus, drawing his sharp sword, smote him upon the middle of the neck, and lopped off his head with its helmet to the ground, and the strong spear still remained in his eye. But he (Peneleus),
- ↑ See note on iv. 242.
