and sped on more swiftly.  But Antilochus noted a narrow gully, where the rain had collected and had carried away a part of the course.  There Menelaus was driving, when Antilochus turned his horses out of the way, and followed him at one side.  Then Menelaus, fearing a collision, shouted loudly to the son of Nestor:  “Antilochus, hold in thy horses! and drive not so recklessly! close ahead there is a wider space, where we can pass one another!” But Antilochus, as if he heard him not, drove on more madly than ever and plied the lash; and the golden-haired son of Atreus called again to him, reproving him:  “Antilochus, there is no man more spiteful than thou; away with thee! wrongly have we called thee wise!” Then he called on his horses, and they increased their speed, fearing the anger of their lord, and quickly overtook the others.

Now the Argive chiefs sat together, watching the race as the chariots flew along the course.  The first to see them coming was Idomeneus, the Cretan prince, the son of Deucalion; he was sitting apart from the rest on the highest place, and he could distinguish the voices of the drivers.  He noticed a chestnut horse, with a white star on his forehead, round like the full moon; and he stood up and spake:  “Friends and Counselors of the Argives! can ye see the horses as I do?  To me, there appeareth a new chariot and horses; and the mares which led at the start I can no longer see.”

Then the son of Oileus, Ajax, rebuked him in boorish fashion:  “Idomeneus, why chatterest thou before the time?  Thou art not one of the youngest, nor are thine eyes of the sharpest.  The same mares of Eumelus are still leading, and he is standing up in the chariot.”

And the great chief, Idomeneus, answered in great wrath, “Ajax, ever ready to abuse, inconsiderate slanderer! thou art in all respects inferior to the other Argives, for thy mind is rude.”

Thus spoke the Cretan hero.  And the son of Oileus rose again, to reply with scornful words; but Achilles himself stood forward and said, “No longer, Idomeneus and Ajax, bandy insulting words with one another; for it is not meet!  Sit ye still, and watch; and soon will ye know which horses are leading.”  He spake; and straightway Tydides came driving up in his fair chariot, overlaid with gold and tin, which ran lightly behind the horses, and scarcely left a trace in the fine dust of the plain.  Checking his horses in the middle of the crowd, he leapt to the ground and claimed the splendid prize; and the gallant Sthenelus made no delay, but gave to his victorious comrade the woman and the tripod to bear away.

Next to Diomedes came the son of Nestor, Antilochus, who had passed by Menelaus by a clever stratagem, though his horses were inferior; but even so, Menelaus had pressed him hard, and was behind him only so far as a horse is from the wheel of the chariot which he draweth.