Homer: The Iliad; The Odyssey. W. Lucas Collins

Num’rous and brave, a cloud of infantry,

       Compactly massed, to stem the tide of war.

       Between the two he placed th’ inferior troops,

       That e’en against their will they needs must fight.

       The horsemen first he charged, and bade them keep

       Their horses well in hand, nor wildly rush

       Amid the tumult: ‘See,’ he said, ‘that none,

       In skill or valour over-confident,

       Advance before his comrades, nor alone

       Retire; for so your lines were easier forced;

       But ranging each beside a hostile car,

       Thrust with your spears; for such the better way;

       By men so disciplined, in elder days,

       Were lofty walls and fencèd towers destroyed.’” (D.)

CHAPTER IV.

       THE FIRST DAY’S BATTLE.

       Table of Contents

      As before, while the Greek line advances in perfect silence, the Trojans make their onset with loud shouts and a clamour of discordant war-cries in many tongues. Mars animates the Trojans, Minerva the Greeks; while Fear and Panic hover over the two armies, and Strife—whom the poet describes in words which are the very echo of Solomon’s proverb—“The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water”—