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THE ILIAD: BOOK 5. THE RALLY by HOMER

First Line: SARPEDON'S WORDS BIT DEEP IN HECTOR'S HEART
Last Line: JOINED, AND THE CHARIOT-DRIVERS SWUNG THEM ROUND.
Subject(s): MYTHOLOGY - CLASSICAL; TROJAN WAR;

SARPEDON'S words bit deep in Hector's heart.
He flung himself in armour from the car
And shaking two keen spears he scoured the host
Calling to war, and raised the wild war-cry.
They rallied and they stood to face the Achaeans,
While in a mass the Argives paused for them
And did not break. Just as the wind blows husks
Across the sacred threshing-floor where men
Are winnowing, when fair-haired Demeter sifts
With puff and puff of wind the grain and chaff,
And the chaff-heaps grow white; so now the Greeks
Grew white all over with the cloud of dust
Which in their midst the horses' hoofs beat up
To brazen heaven, as once again the fight
Joined, and the chariot-drivers swung them round.



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