The javelin entered underneath the ear, By the jaw-bone, where, forcing out the teeth, It cleft the tongue in twain. He fell to earth, And dropped the reins. Meriones stooped down And took them from the dust in his own hands, And thus bespake Idomeneus: “Ply well The lash, until thy coursers reach the fleet, For thou mayst clearly see that victory Today is not upon the Grecian side.”

He spake: Idomeneus, fear-smitten, lashed The long-maned steeds that hurried toward the fleet. Nor now did Menelaus nor his friend, The valiant Ajax, fail to see that Jove Had changed the vantage to the side of Troy. And thus the son of Telamon began:⁠—