The bravest mares did bring by much; Eumelus managed these,
Swift of their feet as birds of wings, both of one hair did shine,
Both of an age, both of a height, as measured by a line,
Whom silver-bowed Apollo bred in the Pierian mead,
Both slick and dainty, yet were both in war of wondrous dread.[[117]]
[114]. Georg. iii. 115-17.
[115]. Geddes, Problem of the Homeric Poems, p. 247.
[116]. Dodwell, Tour in Greece, vol. i. p. 339.
[117]. Iliad, ii. 764-67 (Chapman’s trans.).
Only, indeed, a fraud on the part of Athene prevented the mares of Eumelus from winning the chariot-race against the heaven-descended ‘Trojan’ horses of Diomed; and the Muse, solemnly invoked as arbitress of equine excellence, declared them the goodliest of all ‘the steeds that followed the sons of Atreus to war,’ save, of course, the incomparable Pelidean pair.