Homer, The Iliad
Samuel Butler, Ed.

In this wise did the two heroes strain every nerve to bear the body to the ships out of the fight. The battle raged round them like fierce flames that when once kindled spread like wildfire over a city, and the houses fall in the glare of its burning - even such was the roar and tramp of men and horses that pursued them as they bore Patroklos from the field. Or as mules that put forth all their strength to draw some beam or great piece of ship's timber down a rough mountain-track, and they pant and sweat as they, go even so did Menelaos and pant and sweat as they bore the body of Patroklos. Behind them the two Ajaxes held stoutly out. As some wooded mountain-spur that stretches across a plain will turn water and check the flow even of a great river,

nor is there any stream strong enough to break through it - even so did the two Ajaxes face the Trojans and stern the tide of their fighting though they kept pouring on towards them and foremost among them all was Aeneas son of Anchises with valiant Hektor. As a flock of daws or starlings fall to screaming and chattering when they see a falcon, foe to small birds, come soaring near them, even so did the Achaean youth raise a babel of cries as they fled before Aeneas and Hektor, unmindful of their former prowess. In the rout of the Danaans much goodly armor fell round about the trench, and of fighting there was no end.