THE " ILIAD" AND "ODYSSEY" IN "SOHRAB AND RUSTUM" 83 



In gloom they twain were wrapp'd, and they alone; 

 For both the on-looking hosts on either hand 

 Stood in broad daylight, and the sky was pure, 

 And the sun sparkled on the Oxus stream, 

 But in the gloom they fought with bloodshot eyes 

 And labouring breath. 



These lines were evidently suggested by the passage in //. 17:3665.: 

 "Thus strove they as it had been fire, nor wouldst thou have thought there 

 was still sun or moon, for over all the battle where the chiefs stood around 

 the slain son of Menoitios they were shrouded in darkness, while the 

 other Trojans and well-greaved Achaeans fought at ease in the clear air, 

 and piercing sunlight was spread over them, and on all the earth and 



hills there was no cloud seen But they who were in the midst 



endured affliction of darkness and the battle, and all the best men of them 

 were wearied by pitiless weight of their bronze arms." 



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— but this time all the blade, like glass, 

 Sprang in a thousand shivers on the helm, 

 And in the hand the hilt remain'd alone. 



This is a variation of Homer's lines, II. 3:362 f. : "But the sword shat- 

 tered upon it into three, yea, four, and fell from his hand." (Compare 



II. 16:338 f.) 



— his dreadful eyes 

 Glared, and he shook on high his menacing spear. 



This recalls the Homeric picture of Athena, //. 1:200: "And terribly 

 shone her eyes." "Menacing spear" recalls Vergil's "menacing spear" 

 (Aen. 10:877). 

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Sohrab, thou thoughtest in thy mind to kill 



A Persian lord this day, and strip his corpse. 



One may compare for a similar taunting speech of one hero to another, 

 II. 22:279 f- : "Thou hast missed, so no wise yet, godlike Achilles, hast 

 thou known from Zeus the hour of my doom though thou thoughtest it." 

 Compare also II. 22:331; 16:830. 



Dearer to the red jackals shalt thou be 

 Than to thy friends, and to thy father old. 



