They swept in like hounds that fling themselves
at a wounded boar before young hunters reach him,
darting in for a moment, keen to rip the’ boar apart
till he wheels at bay, ramping into the pack with all his power
and the hounds cringe and bolt and scatter left and right,
And so the Trojans kept on pressing, squad on squad,
stabbing away with swords and two-edged spears
till the two called Ajax wheeled against them hard
to make a stand – and they turned white, none had nerve
to charge forth now and fight it out for the corpse.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 17, lines 816-825. Trojans chase and stab at Menelaus and Meriones as they carry Patroclus’s body away, but when confronted by Great Ajax, they turn pale and lose their nerve to fight for the corpse. The Trojans are compared in Homer’s epic simile to hounds flinging themselves at a wounded boar.