Seba.Health

The Iliad 23.797–801

The Iliad 23.797–801
the battlegear of Sarpedon, that Patroclus stripped from him; and he stood up, and spake among the Argives, saying: To win these prizes invite we warriors twain, the best there are, to clothe them in their armour and take bronze that cleaveth the flesh, and so make trial each of the other before the host.Whoso of the twain shall first reach the other's fair flesh, and touch the inward parts through armour and dark blood, to him will I give this silver-studded sword—a goodly Thracian sword which I took from Asteropaeus; and these arms let the twain bear away to hold in common;and a goodly banquet shall we set before them in our huts. So spake he, and thereat arose great Telamonian Aias, and up rose the son of Tydeus, stalwart Diomedes. So when they had armed them on either side of the throng, into the midst strode the twain, eager for battle,
ὣς εἰπὼν ἐν χερσὶ τίθει, δʼ ἐδέξατο χαίρων. αὐτὰρ Πηλεΐδης κατὰ μὲν δολιχόσκιον ἔγχος θῆκʼ ἐς ἀγῶνα φέρων, κατὰ δʼ ἀσπίδα καὶ τρυφάλειαν τεύχεα Σαρπήδοντος, μιν Πάτροκλος ἀπηύρα. στῆ δʼ ὀρθὸς καὶ μῦθον ἐν Ἀργείοισιν ἔειπεν·
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