Stir Sea

So spake he and took the well-wrought shield of his son, horse-taming Thrasymedes, that was lying in the hut, all gleaming with bronze; but the son had the shield of his father. And he grasped a valorous spear, tipped with sharp bronze, and took his stand outside the hut, and forthwith saw a deed of shame, even the Achaeans in rout and the Trojans high of heart driving them; and the wall of the Achaeans was broken down. And as when the great sea heaveth darkly with a soundless swell, and forebodeth the swift paths of the shrill winds, albeit but vaguely, nor do its waves roll forward to this side or to that until some settled gale cometh down from Zeus; even so the old man pondered, his mind divided this way and that, whether he should haste into the throng of the Danaans of swift steeds, or go after Agamemnon, son of Atreus, shepherd of the host. And as he pondered, this thing seemed to him the better—to go after the son of Atreus. But the others meanwhile were fighting on and slaying one another, and about their bodies rang the stubborn bronze, as they thrust one at the other with swords and two-edged spears.


- Homer, The Iliad, Book 14 (A. T. Murray translation)


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So he spoke, and took up the wrought shield of his son
Thrasymedes, breaker of horses. It lay in the shelter
all shining in bronze. Thrasymedes carried the shield of his father.
Then he caught up a powerful spear edged in sharp bronze
and stood outside the shelter, and at once saw a shameful action,
men driven to flight, and others harrying them in confusion,
the great-hearted Trojans, and the wall of the Achaians overthrown.
As when the open sea is deeply stirred to the ground-swell
but stays in one place and waits the rapid onset of tearing
gusts, nor rolls its surf onward in either direction
until from Zeus the wind is driven down to decide it;
so the aged man pondered, his mind caught between two courses,
whether to go among the throng of fast-mounted Danaäns
or in search of Atreus’ son Agamemnon, shepherd of the people.
And in the division of his heart this way seemed best to him,
to go after the son of Atreus, while the rest went on with the murderous
battle, and the weariless bronze about their bodies was clashing
as the men were stabbing with swords and leaf-headed spears.


- Homer, The Iliad, Book 14 (Richmond Lattimore translation)