Book XXI

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Achilles answered that he would not cease to slay the treaty-breaking Trojans until they were punished as they deserved. At this the river god was so enraged that he sent his waters with tremendous force against the hero. The waves now surged around Achilles, beating upon his shield, and buffeting him so violently that he was in danger of being overwhelmed. He saved himself only by grasping the bough of an elm tree which grew on the river's edge, and so gaining the bank. Then the angry god, rising in greater fury, swept his mighty billows out upon the plain. The Greek hero bravely attempted to fight this new enemy, but his valor and his weapons were powerless against such an attack.

As often as the noble son Of Peleus made a stand in hope to know Whether the deathless gods of the great heaven Conspired to make him flee, so often came A mighty billow of the Jove-born stream And drenched his shoulders. Then again he sprang Away; the rapid torrent made his knees To tremble, while it swept, where'er he trod, The earth from underneath his feet.

BRYANT, _Iliad_,