Achilles (Mythological character); Classical literature; Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Trojan War
The others continued fighting, and the cry of battle rose up into
the heavens. Teucer son of Telamon was the first to kill his man,
to wit, the warrior Imbrius, son of Mentor, rich in horses. Until
the Achaeans came he had lived in Pedaeum, and had married
Medesicaste, a bastard daughter of Priam; but on the arrival of
the Danaan fleet he had gone back to Ilius, and was a great man
among the Trojans, dwelling near Priam himself, who gave him like
honour with his own sons. The son of Telamon now struck him under
the ear with a spear which he then drew back again, and Imbrius
fell headlong as an ash-tree when it is felled on the crest of
some high mountain beacon, and its delicate green foliage comes
toppling down to the ground. Thus did he fall with his
bronze-dight armour ringing harshly round him, and Teucer sprang
forward with intent to strip him of his armour; but as he was
doing so, Hector took aim at him with a spear. Teucer saw the
spear coming and swerved aside, whereon it hit Amphimachus, son
of Cteatus son of Actor, in the chest as he was coming into
battle, and his armour rang rattling round him as he fell heavily
to the ground. Hector sprang forward to take Amphimachus’s helmet
from off his temples, and in a moment Ajax threw a spear at him,
but did not wound him, for he was encased all over in his
terrible armour; nevertheless the spear struck the boss of his
shield with such force as to drive him back from the two corpses,
which the Achaeans then drew off. Stichius and Menestheus,
captains of the Athenians, bore away Amphimachus to the host of
the Achaeans, while the two brave and impetuous Ajaxes did the
like by Imbrius. As two lions snatch a goat from the hounds that
have it in their fangs, and bear it through thick brushwood high
above the ground in their jaws, thus did the Ajaxes bear aloft
the body of Imbrius, and strip it of its armour. Then the son of
Oileus severed the head from the neck in revenge for the death of
Amphimachus, and sent it whirling over the crowd as though it had
been a ball, till it fell in the dust at Hector’s feet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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