With the clasps thereof, to the ground, and the shepherd’s staff that he bore,
The rugged olive his hand from the windy hill-slope tore.
Then looked they, and chose for the combat a spot that was good in their sight;
And all their companions they bade sit down to left and to right.
Then stood they forth, nor in form nor in stature alike to behold:
But the one might be seed of Typhôeus the fell, or a monster of old,
Ay, even as one of the giant brood of Earth, which she bare
To wreak upon Zeus her wrath: but Tyndareus’ son showed fair {40}
As the star of the heaven, whose loveliest beams through the fading blue
Shine in the eventide, when the wings of the night drop dew.