But Sarpedon’s loyal comrades laid him down,
a man like a god beneath a fine spreading oak
sacred to Zeus whose shield is banked with clouds.
The veteran Pelagon, one of his closest aides,
pushed the shaft of ashwood out through his wound –
his spirit left him – a mist poured down his eyes…
but he caught his breath again. A gust of the North Wind
blowing round him carried back the life breath
he had gasped away in pain.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 5, lines 794-802. Zeus’s son Sarpedon has suffered a spear wound and is tended to by his comrades. The spear has lodged in his thigh and has to be extracted. The operation and the pain cause him to go unconscious, but he is revived by the North Wind. While he doesn’t die, the scene highlights the fine line between life and death that soldiers in the Trojan War walk – even the sons of gods. Sarpedon is described as being like a god in a simile.