Page:Homer The Iliad.djvu/115

Rh "High as heaven in all men's mouths Should be his praise, and ample his reward; For every captain of a ship should give A coal-black ewe, and at her foot a lamb, A prize beyond compare: and high should be His place at banquets and at solemn feasts."

Diomed straightway volunteers for the adventure, and out of the many chiefs who offer themselves as his comrade, he chooses Ulysses. So—not. without due prayer to Heaven—valour and subtlety go forth together on their perilous errand. Meanwhile the same idea has occurred to Hector; he too would learn the counsels of his enemies. One Dolon—a young warrior who has a fine taste for horses, but is otherwise of somewhat feminine type (Homer tells us he was the only brother of five sisters), and whose main qualification is fleetness of foot—is tempted to undertake the enterprise on a somewhat singular condition—that he shall have as his prize the more than mortal horses of Achilles, when, as he doubts not will be soon the case, the spoils of the conquered Greeks shall come to be divided. And Hector, with equal confidence, swears "by his sceptre" that they shall be his and none other's. "Wrapped in a cloak of wolfskin, and wearing a cap of marten's fur instead of a helmet, he too steals out into the night. He does not escape the keen vision of Ulysses. The Greek spies crouch behind some dead bodies, and allow him to pass them, when they rise and cut off his retreat to the Trojan camp. At first he thinks they are Trojans, sent after him by Hector;

"But when they came a spear-cast off, or less, He knew them for his foes, and slipt away With lithe knees flying: and they behind him press. As when with jagged teeth two dogs of prey