Seba.Health
The Iliad 12.428–439
Yea, everywhere the walls and battlements were spattered with blood of men from both sides, from Trojans and Achaeams alike. Howbeit even so they could not put the Achaeans to rout, but they held their ground, as a careful woman that laboureth with her hands at spinning, holdeth the balance and raiseth the weight and the wool in either scale, making them equal, that she may win a meagre wage for her children; so evenly was strained their war and battle, until Zeus vouchsafed the glory of victory to Hector, son of Priam, that was first to leap within the wall of the Achaeans he uttered a piercing shout, calling aloud to the Trojans:
ἠμὲν ὅτεῳ στρεφθέντι μετάφρενα γυμνωθείη
μαρναμένων, πολλοὶ δὲ διαμπερὲς ἀσπίδος αὐτῆς.
πάντῃ δὴ πύργοι καὶ ἐπάλξιες αἵματι φωτῶν
ἐρράδατʼ ἀμφοτέρωθεν ἀπὸ Τρώων καὶ Ἀχαιῶν.
ἀλλʼ οὐδʼ ὧς ἐδύναντο φόβον ποιῆσαι Ἀχαιῶν,
ἀλλʼ ἔχον ὥς τε τάλαντα γυνὴ χερνῆτις ἀληθής,
ἥ τε σταθμὸν ἔχουσα καὶ εἴριον ἀμφὶς ἀνέλκει
ἰσάζουσʼ, ἵνα παισὶν ἀεικέα μισθὸν ἄρηται·
ὣς μὲν τῶν ἐπὶ ἶσα μάχη τέτατο πτόλεμός τε,
πρίν γʼ ὅτε δὴ Ζεὺς κῦδος ὑπέρτερον Ἕκτορι δῶκε
Πριαμίδῃ, ὃς πρῶτος ἐσήλατο τεῖχος Ἀχαιῶν.
ἤϋσεν δὲ διαπρύσιον Τρώεσσι γεγωνώς·