Achilles (Mythological character) -- Juvenile literature; Trojan War -- Juvenile literature
Then there rose up against him Euryalus. King Diomed stood by him,
wishing much that he might prevail, and brought him his girdle that
he might gird himself, and gave him the great gloves of bull's hide.
Then the two stood together in the midst. Many blows did they deal
to each other, so that the noise was dreadful to hear, and the sweat
ran down from them. But after awhile Epeius sprang forward and smote
Euryalus on the jaw, even through his guard, and Euryalus could not
stand against him; but even as a fish is dashed by the north wind
against the shore, so was he dashed to the earth. But Epeius raised
him up, and his companions led him away, sorely wounded and amazed.
Eu-ry'-a-lus.
After this Achilles would have a match of wrestling, saying that the
conqueror should have a great kettle of bronze, of twelve oxen's
worth, and the vanquished a woman-slave, skilful at the loom, worth
four oxen. Then stood up Ajax the Greater and Ulysses, and took hold
of one another with their hands, and strove together for the mastery.
But after a while, when neither could prevail, and the people were
weary with looking, Ajax spake, saying: "Come, Ulysses; thou shalt
lift me from the ground if thou canst, and I thee. So shall we
finish this matter." Then Ajax laid hold of Ulysses to lift him; and
this he had done, but Ulysses used craft, as was his wont, and put
forth his leg and smote Ajax on the sinew behind the knee, so that he
fell, and Ulysses also above him. Then Ulysses would have lifted
Ajax from the ground; a little space he moved him, but lifted him
not, and his knee yielded beneath him, and they fell to the ground,
both of them. But when they would have striven the third time,
Achilles hindered them, saying: "Hold! it is enough. Ye are
conquerors both, and your prizes shall be equal."
Next to this was a trial of racers on foot, in which three contended,
Ajax the Less, and Ulysses, and Antilochus. In a short space Ajax
the Less was foremost, with Ulysses close upon him, close as is the
shuttle to the breast of a woman who stands at the loom and weaves.
Hard behind him he ran, treading in his steps before the dust could
rise from them. And when they were now drawing to the end of the
course Ulysses prayed to Athene that she should help him, and Athene
heard him, and made his knees and feet right nimble, and even at the
very end she caused that Ajax slipped in the filth where certain oxen
had been slain, so that his mouth and nostrils were filled with it.
So Ulysses gained the mixing-bowl; but Ajax stood and spat the filth
from his mouth, and laid his hand on the head of the ox, and cried,
"Surely the goddess caused my feet to slip, for she ever standeth by
Ulysses, and helpeth him as a mother helpeth a child."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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