and the companions of brave Polypoetes, rising up, bore away the
prize of the king to the hollow ships.

Next, for the archers, he staked iron fit for making arrows,[772] and
laid down ten battle-axes, and also ten demi-axes. He also set upright
the mast of an azure-prowed vessel, afar upon the sands; from [this] he
fastened a timid dove by a slender cord, by the foot, at which he
ordered [them] to shoot:

[Footnote 772: _I.e._ well-tempered.]

"Whosoever indeed shall strike the timid dove, taking up all the
battle-axes, may bear [them] to his tent; but whosoever shall hit the
cord, missing the bird (for he is inferior), let him bear off the
demi-axes."

Thus he spoke; but then up rose the might of king Teucer, and up rose
Meriones, the active attendant of Idomeneus; and taking the lots, they
shook them in a brazen helmet. But Teucer was appointed first by lot;
and straightway he shot an arrow strenuously, nor did he vow to
sacrifice a celebrated hecatomb of firstling lambs to king [Apollo]. He
missed the bird indeed, because Apollo envied him this, but he hit the
string with which the bird was fastened, close to its foot; and the
bitter arrow cut the cord quite through. Then indeed the bird ascended
towards heaven, but the cord was sent down towards the earth: and the
Greeks shouted applause. But Meriones, hastening, snatched the bow from
his hand; and now held the arrow for a long time, as he had directed it;
and immediately vowed to sacrifice to far-darting Apollo a noble
hecatomb of firstling lambs. But he saw the timid dove on high beneath
the clouds, which, as she was turning round, he hit in the middle under
the wing, and the arrow pierced quite through. And it indeed again was
fixed in the ground at the foot of Meriones: but the bird, alighting
upon the mast of the azure-beaked galley, drooped its neck, and its
close wings were at the same time expanded. And swift its soul flitted
from its members, and it fell far from [the mast]; but the people
wondering, beheld, and were stupified. Then Meriones took up all the ten
battle-axes, and Teucer carried off the demi-axes to the hollow barks.

Then the son of Peleus indeed, bearing it into the circus, staked a long
spear, and also a caldron, untouched by fire, worth an ox, adorned with
flowers; and immediately the spearmen arose. The son of Atreus rose up,
wide-ruling Agamemnon, and Meriones, the expert attendant of Idomeneus;
whom also swift-footed, noble Ach