tree, that he might avert the heavy hands of death; but he was overshadowed by much darkness. But he, when he perceived Achilles, the destroyer of cities, stood still, and much his heart was darkened[1] as he remained; and sighing, he thus addressed his own great-hearted soul:
"Alas, me! if indeed I fly from terrible Achilles, in the way by which the others, routed, are flying, even thus will he seize me, and will slay me unwarlike; but if I suffer these to be thrown into confusion by Achilles, the son of Peleus, and fly in another direction on my feet from the wall through the Ilian plain, until I reach the lawns of Ida, and enter its thickets; then indeed, having bathed myself at evening in the river, I may return back to Troy, cleansed from sweat. But why does my mind commune these things? Truly he may observe me departing from the city toward the plain, and, quickly pursuing, may overtake me on his swift feet; then will it no longer be possible to escape Death and Fate: for he is very powerful beyond all men. But if I go against him in front of the city—for his body also is without doubt vulnerable by the sharp brass, there is one soul in it, and men say that he is mortal; although Jove, the son of Saturn, affords him glory."
So saying, gathering himself up,[2] he awaited Achilles; and his valiant heart within him burned to combat and to fight. As a panther advances from a deep thicket against a huntsman,[3] nor is aught troubled in mind, nor put to flight, although it hears the yelling; and although anticipating it, he may have wounded, or stricken it, nevertheless, although pierced with a spear, it desists not from the combat, till either it be engaged in close fight, or be subdued. Thus noble Agenor, the son of renowned Antenor, would not fly till he had made trial of Achilles; but, on the contrary, held before him his shield, equal on all sides, and took aim at him with his spear, and shouted aloud:
- ↑ Cf. Donalson on Soph. Antig. 20, where there is a similar use of καλχαίνειν. The present metaphor is taken from the troubled and darkling aspect of the sea before a storm.
- ↑ Cf. xvi. 403, 714.
- ↑ This pleonasm of ἀνὴρ is very common; ii. 474, ἄνδρες αἴπολοι; iv 187, ἄνδρες χαλκῆες. Cf. iii. 170; xii. 41. So ἄνδρες πολῖται, Phlegon. Trall. p. 26. Ἄνδρες δημόται, Aristoph. Plut. 254. Ἀνὴρ βασιλεὺς, Palæphatus, 39. Ἀνὴρ οἰκονόμος, Manetho, iv. 610.
