As when a forest on the mountaintop Is in a blaze with the devouring flame And shines afar, so, while the warriors marched, The brightness of their burnished weapons flashed On every side and upward to the sky.

And as when water-fowl of many tribes⁠— Geese, cranes, and long-necked swans⁠—disport themselves In Asia’s fields beside Cayster’s streams, And to and fro they fly with screams, and light, Flock after flock, and all the fields resound; So poured, from ships and tents, the swarming tribes Into Scamander’s plain, where fearful’y Earth echoed to the tramp of steeds and men; And there they mustered on the river’s side, Numberless as the flowers and leaves of spring, And as when flies in swarming myriads haunt The herdsman’s stalls in spring-time, when new milk Has filled the pails⁠—in such vast multitudes Mustered the long-haired Greeks upon the plain, Impatient to destroy the Trojan race.