A place beside thee; urge thy firm-paced steeds Rapidly toward the fleet; a leech like him, Who cuts the arrow from the wound and soothes The pain with balms, is worth a host to us.”
He spake; and the Gerenian knight obeyed, And climbed the car in haste. Machaon, son Of Aesculapius the peerless leech, Mounted beside him; Nestor lashed the steeds, And toward the roomy ships, which well they knew, And longed to reach, they flew with eager speed.
Meantime Cebriones, who had his seat By Hector in the chariot, saw the ranks Of Troy disordered, and addressed the chief:—
“While we, O Hector, here are mid the Greeks Just in the skirts of the tumultuous fray, The other Trojans, men and steeds, are thrown Into confusion where the warriors throng, For Telamonian Ajax puts their ranks To rout; I know him well by that broad shield Borne on his shoulders. Thither let us drive Our steeds and chariot, where in desperate strife Meet horse and foot and hew each other down, And a perpetual clamor fills the air.”