Page:The Story of the Iliad.djvu/333

Rh race they ran, and 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 Athené that she should help him, and Athené 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." So he spake, and all men laughed to hear him; and last of all came Antilochus, taking the third prize. And he said: "Ye know well, my friends, that the immortal gods ever help the aged. As for Ajax, he is but a little older than I, but Ulysses is of another generation.