Snow

And the two Aiantes ranged everywhere along the walls urging men on, and arousing the might of the Achaeans. One man with gentle words, another with harsh would they chide, whomsoever they saw giving ground utterly from the fight: "Friends, whoso is pre-eminent among the Danaans, whoso holds a middle place, or whoso is lesser, for in nowise are all men equal in war, now is there a work for all, and this, I ween, ye know even of yourselves. Let no man turn him back to the ships now that he has heard one that cheers him on; nay, press ye forward, and urge ye one the other, in hope that Olympian Zeus, lord of the lightning, may grant us to thrust back the assault and drive our foes to the city."

So shouted forth the twain, and aroused the battle of the Achaeans. And as flakes of snow fall thick on a winter's day, when Zeus, the counsellor, bestirreth him to snow, shewing forth to men these arrows of his, and he lulleth the winds and sheddeth the flakes continually, until he hath covered the peaks of the lofty mountains and the high headlands, and the grassy plains, and the rich tillage of men; aye, and over the harbours and shores of the grey sea is the snow strewn, albeit the wave as it beateth against it keepeth it off, but all things beside are wrapped therein, when the storm of Zeus driveth it on: even so from both sides their stones flew thick, some upon the Trojans, and some from the Trojans upon the Achaeans, as they cast at one another; and over all the wall the din arose.


- Homer, The Iliad, Book 12 (A. T. Murray translation)


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The two Aiantes, walking up and down the length of the ramparts,
urged the men on, stirring up the warcraft of the Achaians,
and stung them along, using kind words to one, to another
hard ones, whenever they saw a man hang back from the fighting:
“Dear friends, you who are pre-eminent among the Argives, you who
are of middle estate, you who are of low account, since
all of us are not alike in battle, this is work for all now,
and you yourselves can see it. Now let no man let himself
be turned back upon the ships for the sound of their blustering
but keep forever forward calling out courage to each other.
So may Olympian Zeus who grips the thunderbolt grant us
a way to the city, when we beat off the attack of our enemies.”
Such was their far cry, and they stirred the Achaians’ war strength.
And they, as storms of snow descend to the ground incessant
on a winter day, when Zeus of the counsels, showing
before men what shafts he possesses, brings on a snowstorm
and stills the winds asleep in the solid drift, enshrouding
the peaks that tower among the mountains and the shoulders out-jutting,
and the low lands with their grasses, and the prospering work of men’s hands,
and the drift falls along the gray sea, the harbors and beaches,
and the surf that breaks against it is stilled, and all things elsewhere
it shrouds from above, with the burden of Zeus’ rain heavy upon it;
so numerous and incessant were the stones volleyed from both sides,
some thrown on Trojans, others flung against the Achaians
by Trojans, so the whole length of the wall thundered beneath them.


- Homer, The Iliad, Book 12 (Richmond Lattimore translation)