[98]. Preller, Griechische Mythologie, Bd. ii. p. 405, 3te Auflage.
[99]. Iliad, x. 261-71.
It was pitch dark as the adventurers traversed the marshy land about the Simoeis; but the rise, with heavy wing-flappings, of a startled heron on their right, dispelled their misgivings, and evoked their pious rejoicings at the assurance it afforded of Athene’s protection. Their next encounter was with Hector’s emissary, the luckless Dolon, a poor creature beyond doubt, vain, feather-headed, unstable, pusillanimous, yet piteous to us even now in the sanguine loquacity that merged into a death-shriek as the fierce blade of Diomed severed the tendons of his throat. He had served his purpose, and was contemptuously, nay treacherously, dismissed from life. But the temptation suggested by him was irresistible. Instincts of cupidity, keen in both heroes, had been fully roused by his account of the splendid and unguarded equipment of the newly-arrived leader of a Thracian contingent to the Trojan army. As he told them:
King Rhesus, Eionëus’ son, commands them, who hath steeds,
More white than snow, huge, and well shaped; their fiery pace exceeds
The winds in swiftness; these I saw, his chariot is with gold
And pallid silver richly framed, and wondrous to behold;
His great and golden armour is not fit a man should wear,
But for immortal shoulders framed.[[100]]
[100]. Iliad, x. 435-41 (Chapman’s trans.).