will acco,nplish a grand sacrifice of lambs fi rst b

t.at yotl me home again to the city of sacred Z 1 . orn

tP votl co e eia."
whell i
Achene, and persuaded the fool,s h .
oke .[l. d h' ean m him
50 sP y he unwrappe 1s bow, of the polish d h ·
5,ra1·ghtWa •Id goat he h'1mself had shot in the he orn fr om
piflg w1 . c est once 105

art1Il ·c for the goat 1n a covert as it stepped d ,

. inwat . . . own
1y1J1g ck and hit 1t 1n the chest so it sprawl d
the ro , e on the b ld
froJll chat grew from the goaes head were sixt ou ers.
,11. horns een palms, 1 h
1•le working on the horn then hound them t h engt ·
,. bowyer . oget er,
J} h' g chem to a fau surface, and put on a gold . 110
smoot 11l • d . . en string hook
trung his bow an put it 1n position bra . . ·
pandaro S S , cmg it
. che ground, and his brave friends held their h. ld .
against . f h . . s ie s m front of him
c r che warlike sons o t e Acha1ans might rise up d
for rea . an rus h him
.
c e he had struck warlike Menelaos, the son of Atre
beror . •. us. 115
J:-{e stripped away the lid of the quiver, and took out an arrow
feathered, and never shot before, transmitter of dark pain.
Swiftly he arranged the bitter arrow along the bowstring,
and made his prayer to Apollo the light-born, the glorious archer,
that he would accomplish a grand sacrifice oflambs first born 120
when he came home again to the city of sacred Zeleia.
He drew, holding at once the grooves and the ox-hide bowstring
and brought the string against his nipple, iron to the bowstave.
But when he had pulled the great weapon till it made a circle,
the bow groaned, and the string sang high, and the arrow, sharp-pointed, 125
leapt away, furious, to fly through the throng before it. "iI
Still the blessed gods immortal did not forget you,
Menelaos, and first among them Zeus' daughter, the spoiler,
who standing in front of you fended aside the tearing arrow.
She brushed it away from his skin as lightly as when a mother 130

brushes a fly away from her child who is lying in sweet sleep,
steering herself the arrow's course straight to where the golden
belt buckles joined and the halves of his corselet were fitted together.
The hitter arrow was driven against the joining of the war belt
135
~nd passed clean through the war belt elaborately woven;
into the elaborately wrought corselet the shaft was driven
and the guard which he wore to protect his skin and keep th e spears off,
which guarded h·1m best, yet the arrow plunge d even through this also

[i33] B OO K F O U R