The Iliad 12.292–306
a fair shield of hammered bronze,—that the bronze-smith had hammered out, and had stitched the many bull's-hides within with stitches565.2 of gold that ran all about its circuit. This he held before him, and brandished two spears, and so went his way like a mountain-nurtured lion that hath long lacked meat, and his proud spirit biddeth him go even into the close-built fold to make an attack upon the flocks. For even though he find thereby the herdsmen with dogs and spears keeping watch over the sheep, yet is he not minded to be driven from the steading ere he maketh essay; but either he leapeth amid the flock and seizeth one, or is himself smitten as a foremost champion by a javelin from a swift hand: even so did his spirit then urge godlike Sarpedon to rush upon the wall, and break-down the battlements. Straightway then he spake to Glaucus, son of Hippolochus:
εἰ μὴ ἄρʼ υἱὸν ἑὸν Σαρπηδόνα μητίετα Ζεὺς
ὦρσεν ἐπʼ Ἀργείοισι λέονθʼ ὣς βουσὶν ἕλιξιν.
αὐτίκα δʼ ἀσπίδα μὲν πρόσθʼ ἔσχετο πάντοσʼ ἐΐσην
καλὴν χαλκείην ἐξήλατον, ἣν ἄρα χαλκεὺς
ἤλασεν, ἔντοσθεν δὲ βοείας ῥάψε θαμειὰς
χρυσείῃς ῥάβδοισι διηνεκέσιν περὶ κύκλον.
τὴν ἄρʼ ὅ γε πρόσθε σχόμενος δύο δοῦρε τινάσσων
βῆ ῥʼ ἴμεν ὥς τε λέων ὀρεσίτροφος, ὅς τʼ ἐπιδευὴς
δηρὸν ἔῃ κρειῶν, κέλεται δέ ἑ θυμὸς ἀγήνωρ
μήλων πειρήσοντα καὶ ἐς πυκινὸν δόμον ἐλθεῖν·
εἴ περ γάρ χʼ εὕρῃσι παρʼ αὐτόφι βώτορας ἄνδρας
σὺν κυσὶ καὶ δούρεσσι φυλάσσοντας περὶ μῆλα,
οὔ ῥά τʼ ἀπείρητος μέμονε σταθμοῖο δίεσθαι,
ἀλλʼ ὅ γʼ ἄρʼ ἢ ἥρπαξε μετάλμενος, ἠὲ καὶ αὐτὸς
ἔβλητʼ ἐν πρώτοισι θοῆς ἀπὸ χειρὸς ἄκοντι·