Fight for your country – that is the best, the only omen!
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 12, line 281. Hector shouts this when Zeus sends a bird sign and Polydamas interprets it as a bad omen, suggesting that they should not attack the Greeks beside their ships. But Trojan hero Hector refuses to put his trust in birds and uses love of country to encourage his men in battle. Polydamas’s grim warning turns out to be true and foreshadows that the Trojan charge will turn into a disaster for them.