but on they came, assaulting the rear, two in the lead, Aeneas the son of Anchises flanking glorious Hector. Flying before them now like clouds of crows or starlings screaming murder, seeing a falcon dive in for the kill, the hawk that wings grim death at smaller birds - so pursued by Aeneas and Hector Argive fighters raced, screaming death-cries, lust for battle lost and masses of fine armor littered both sides of the trench as the Argives fled in fear.

but on they came, assaulting the rear, two in the lead,
Aeneas the son of Anchises flanking glorious Hector.
Flying before them now like clouds of crows or starlings
screaming murder, seeing a falcon dive in for the kill,
the hawk that wings grim death at smaller birds –
so pursued by Aeneas and Hector Argive fighters
raced, screaming death-cries, lust for battle lost
and masses of fine armor littered both sides of the trench
as the Argives fled in fear.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 844-852. Aeneas and Hector lead the Trojan assault from the rear, as Menelaus and Meriones rescue Patroclus’s body from the battlefield. The scene is compared in an epic simile to a hawk diving in for the kill, and clouds of small birds flying off screaming murder.

Homer Quotes