Protesilaos

these had fifty ships, over which Achilles was in command. But they now took no part in the war, inasmuch as there was no one to marshal them; for Achilles stayed by his ships, furious about the loss of the girl Briseis, whom he had taken from Lyrnessos at his own great peril, when he had sacked Lyrnessos and Thebe, and had overthrown Mynes and Epistrophos, sons of king Euenor, son of Selepus. For her sake Achilles was still in grief [ akhos ], but ere long he was again to join them. And those that held Phylake and the flowery meadows of Pyrasus, sanctuary of Demeter ; Iton , the mother of sheep; Antrum upon the sea, and Pteleum that lies upon the grass lands. Of these brave Protesilaos had been leader while he was yet alive, but he was now lying under the earth. He had left a wife behind him in Phylake to tear her cheeks in sorrow, and his house was only half finished, for he was slain by a Dardanian warrior while leaping foremost of the Achaeans upon the soil of Troy . Still, though his people mourned their chieftain, they were not without a leader, for Podarkes, of the race of Ares, marshaled them; he was son of Iphiklos, rich in sheep, who was the son of Phylakos, and he was own brother to Protesilaos, only younger, Protesilaos being at once the elder and the more valiant. So the people were not without a leader, though they mourned him whom they had lost.

İlyada ·Kitap 2 ·681-700 ·machine translation (native)

Thus were the two sides minded. Then Hektor seized the stern of the good ship that had brought Protesilaos to Troy , but never bore him back to his native land. Round this ship there raged a close hand-to-hand fight between Danaans and Trojans. They did not fight at a distance with bows and javelins, but with one mind hacked at one another in close combat with their mighty swords and spears pointed at both ends; they fought moreover with keen battle-axes and with hatchets. Many a good stout blade hilted and scabbarded with iron, fell from hand or shoulder as they fought, and the earth ran red with blood. Hektor, when he had seized the ship, would not loose his hold but held on to its curved stern and shouted to the Trojans, "Bring fire, and raise the battle-cry all of you with a single voice. Now has Zeus granted us a day that will pay us for all the rest; this day we shall take the ships which came hither against heaven's will, and which have caused us such infinite suffering through the cowardice of our councilors, who when I would have done battle at the ships held me back and forbade the host to follow me; if Zeus did then indeed warp our judgments, himself now commands me and cheers me on."

İlyada ·Kitap 15 ·701-720 ·machine translation (native)

he was son of Iphiklos, rich in sheep, who was the son of Phylakos, and he was own brother to Protesilaos, only younger, Protesilaos being at once the elder and the more valiant. So the people were not without a leader, though they mourned him whom they had lost. With him there came forty ships. And those that held Pherai by the Boebean lake, with Boebe, Glaphyrae, and the populous city of Iolkos, these with their eleven ships were led by Eumelos, son of Admetos, whom Alcestis bore to him, loveliest of the daughters of Pelias. And those that held Methone and Thaumacia, with Meliboia and rugged Olizon , these were led by the skillful archer Philoctetes, and they had seven ships, each with fifty oarsmen all of them good archers; but Philoctetes was lying in great pain in the Island of Lemnos , where the sons of the Achaeans left him, for he had been bitten by a poisonous water snake. There he lay sick and in grief [ akhos ], and full soon did the Argives come to miss him. But his people, though they felt his loss were not leaderless, for Medon, the bastard son of Oileus by Rhene, set them in array. Those, again, of Tricca and the stony region of Ithome ,

İlyada ·Kitap 2 ·701-720 ·machine translation (native)

Ajax son of Oileus never for a moment left the side of Ajax son of Telamon, but as two swart oxen both strain their utmost at the plough which they are drawing in a fallow field, and the sweat steams upwards from about the roots of their horns - nothing but the yoke divides them as they break up the ground till they reach the end of the field - even so did the two Ajaxes stand shoulder to shoulder by one another. Many and brave comrades followed the son of Telamon, to relieve him of his shield when he was overcome with sweat and toil, but the Locrians did not follow so close after the son of Oileus, for they could not hold their own in a hand-to-hand fight. They had no bronze helmets with plumes of horse-hair, neither had they shields nor ashen spears, but they had come to Troy armed with bows, and with slings of twisted wool from which they showered their missiles to break the ranks of the Trojans. The others, therefore, with their heavy armor bore the brunt of the fight with the Trojans and with Hektor, while the Locrians shot from behind, under their cover; and thus the Trojans began to lose heart, for the arrows threw them into confusion.

İlyada ·Kitap 13 ·681-700 ·machine translation (native)

Patroklos first aimed a spear into the middle of the press where men were packed most closely, by the stern of the ship of Protesilaos. He hit Pyraikhmes who had led his Paeonian horsemen from the Amydon and the broad waters of the river Axios ; the spear struck him on the right shoulder, and with a groan he fell backwards in the dust; on this his men were thrown into confusion, for by killing their leader, who was the finest warrior among them, Patroklos struck panic into them all. He thus drove them from the ship and quenched the fire that was then blazing - leaving the half-burnt ship to lie where it was. The Trojans were now driven back with a shout that rent the skies, while the Danaans poured after them from their ships, shouting also without ceasing. As when Zeus, gatherer of the thunder-cloud, spreads a dense canopy on the top of some lofty mountain, and all the peaks, the jutting headlands, and forest glades show out in the great light that flashes from the bursting heavens, even so when the Danaans had now driven back the fire from their ships, they took breath for a little while; but the fury of the fight was not yet over, for the Trojans were not driven back in utter rout, but still gave battle, and were ousted from their ground only by sheer fighting.

İlyada ·Kitap 16 ·281-300 ·machine translation (native)