with a stone he strikes the front of Thoas, and has crushed
the bones mixed with gory brain. Halesus had been 25
hidden in the woods by his prophetic sire; when the
old man closed his whitening eyes in death, the Fates
claimed their victim, and devoted him to Evander’s darts.
And now Pallas aims at him, after these words of prayer:
“Grant, Father Tiber, to the flying steel poised in my 30
hand a prosperous passage through Halesus’ hardy breast;
thine oak shall have his arms and his warrior spoils.”
The god gave ear: while Halesus shielded Imaon, he gives