Next stands a goblet, massive, large, and round.
Achilles, rising, thus: ‘Let Greece excite
Two heroes equal to this hardy fight;
Who dares the foe with lifted arms provoke,
And rush beneath the swift descending stroke,
On whom Apollo shall the palm bestow,
And whom the Greeks supreme by conquest know,
This mule his dauntless labours shall repay:
The vanquished bear the massy bowl away.’
This dreadful combat great Epeus chose.