THE SCENE: Odysseus is best known as a wily and cunning tactician, but this passage from the Iliad demonstrates that he was not to be despised when it came to battlefield valor, either.
THE TEXT: Antiphus hurled at Ajax – the son of Priam wearing a gleaming breastplate let fly through the lines but his sharp spear missed and he hit Leucas instead, Odysseus’ loyal comrade, gouging his groin as the man hauled off a corpse – it dropped from his hands and Leucas sprawled across it.
Enraged at his friend’s death Odysseus sprang in fury, helmed in fiery bronze he plowed through the front and charging the enemy, glaring left and right he hurled his spear – a glinting brazen streak – and the Trojans gave ground, scattering back, panicking there before his whirling shaft – a direct hit! Odysseus struck Democon, Priam’s bastard son come down from Abydos, Priam’s racing-stables. Incensed for the dead Odysseus speared him straight through one temple and out the other; punched the sharp bronze point and the dark came swirling thick across his eyes – down he crashed, armor clanging against his chest.
– The Iliad, Homer, 8th Century BC
