To younger; me submission most befits
To withering age, who then outshone the best. 
But go.  The funeral of thy friend with games 805
Proceed to celebrate; I accept thy gift
With pleasure; and my heart is also glad
That thou art mindful evermore of one
Who loves thee, and such honor in the sight
Yield’st me of all the Greeks, as is my due. 810
May the Gods bless thee for it more and more! 
He spake, and Peleus’ son, when he had heard
At large his commendation from the lips
Of Nestor, through the assembled Greeks return’d. 
He next proposed, not lightly to be won, 815
The boxer’s prize.  He tether’d down a mule,
Untamed and hard to tame, but strong to toil,
And in her prime of vigor, in the midst;
A goblet to the vanquish’d he assign’d,
Then stood erect and to the Greeks exclaim’d. 820
Atridae! and ye Argives brazen-greaved! 
I call for two bold combatants expert
To wage fierce strife for these, with lifted fists
Smiting each other.  He, who by the aid
Of Phoebus shall o’ertome, and whom the Greeks 825
Shall all pronounce victorious, leads the mule
Hence to his tent; the vanquish’d takes the cup. 
He spake, and at his word a Greek arose
Big, bold, and skillful in the boxer’s art,
Epeues, son of Panopeus; his hand 830
He on the mule imposed, and thus he said. 
Approach the man ambitious of the cup! 
For no Achaian here shall with his fist
Me foiling, win the mule.  I boast myself
To all superior.  May it not suffice 835
That I to no pre-eminence pretend
In battle?  To attain to foremost praise
Alike in every art is not for one. 
But this I promise, and will well perform—­
My blows shall lay him open, split him, crush 840
His bones to splinters, and let all his friends,
Attendant on him, wait to bear him hence,
Vanquish’d by my superior force in fight. 
He ended, and his speech found no reply. 
One godlike Chief alone, Euryalus, 845
Son of the King Mecisteus, who, himself,
Sprang from Talaion, opposite arose. 
He, on the death of Oedipus, at Thebes
Contending in the games held at his tomb,
Had overcome the whole Cadmean race. 850
Him Diomede spear-famed for fight prepared,
Giving him all encouragement, for much
He wish’d him victory.  First then he threw[18]
His cincture to him; next, he gave him thongs[19]
Cut from the hide of a wild buffalo. 855
Both girt around, into the midst they moved. 
Then, lifting high their brawny arms, and fists
Mingling with fists, to furious fight they fell;
Dire was the crash of jaws, and the sweat stream’d
From every limb.  Epeues fierce advanced, 860