n the leg, which
he runs through, and is contented with his flight. Nor, indeed, does
Ethemon give him time, but fiercely attacks him; and, desirous to
inflict a wound deep in his neck, he breaks his sword, wielded with
incautious force; and against the extremity of a column which he has
struck, the blade flies to pieces, and sticks in the throat of its
owner; yet that blow has not power sufficient to {effect} his death.
Perseus stabs him with his Cyllenian[20] falchion, trembling, and vainly
extending his unarmed hands.

But when Perseus saw his valor {likely} to yield to such numbers, he
said, "Since you yourselves force me to do it, I will seek assistance
from an enemy: turn away your faces, if any of my friends are here;" and
{then} he produced the head of the Gorgon. "{Go}, seek some one else,"
said Thescelus, "for thy miracles to affect;" and, as he was preparing
to hurl his deadly javelin with his hand, he stood fast in that posture,
a statue of marble. Ampyx, being next him, made a pass with his sword at
the breast of Lyncidas, full of daring spirit, and, while making it, his
right hand became stiff, moving neither to one side nor the other. But
Nileus, who had falsely boasted that he was begotten by the
seven-mouthed Nile, and who had engraved on his shield its seven
channels, partly in silver, partly in gold, said, "Behold, Perseus, the
origin of my race; thou shalt carry to the silent shades a great
consolation for thy death, that thou wast killed by one so great." The
last part of his address was suppressed in the midst of the utterance;
and you would think his half-open mouth was attempting to speak, but it
gave no passage for his words. Eryx rebuked them,[21] and said, "Ye are
benumbed by the cowardice of your minds, not by the locks of the Gorgon;
rush on with me, and strike to the ground {this} youth that wields his
magic arms." He was about to rush on, {when} the earth arrested his
steps, and he remained an immovable stone, and an armed statue. But all
these met with the punishment they had deserved: there was one man,
however, Aconteus {by name}, a soldier of Perseus, for whom while he was
fighting, on beholding the Gorgon, he grew hard with stone rising upon
him. Astyages, thinking him still alive, struck him with his long sword;
the sword resounded with a shrill ringing. While Astyages was in
amazement, he took on himself the same nature: and the look of one in
surprise remained on his marble feature