
“… for the shield may be as important for victory, as the sword or spear.”
Source: The Origin of Species
XIII, 130–131 (tr. R. Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)
Φράξαντες δόρυ δουρί, σάκος σάκεϊ προθελύμνῳ· ἀσπὶς ἄρ' ἀσπίδ' ἔρειδε, κόρυς κόρυν, ἀνέρα δ' ἀνήρ.
“… for the shield may be as important for victory, as the sword or spear.”
Source: The Origin of Species
“Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;
They took the spear, but left the shield.”
To the Memory of the Americans who fell at Eutaw. Compare: "When Prussia hurried to the field, And snatched the spear, but left the shield", Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Introduction to canto iii.
“When Prussia hurried to the field,
And snatch'd the spear, but left the shield.”
Canto III, introduction.
Marmion (1808)
“No war, or battle's sound
Was heard the world around.
The idle spear and shield were high up hung.”
Hymn, stanza 4, line 53
On the Morning of Christ's Nativity (1629)
Source: Al-Tabari, Vol. 8, p. 138
Source: Seven Against Thebes (467 BC), lines 397–399 (tr. E. D. A. Morshead)
“She gave way under the sudden weight, the sea rushed in, and the Io sank beneath the wave. Shields and helmets float on the water, images of tutelary gods and javelins with useless points.”
Subito cum pondere victus,
insiliente mari, summergitur alveus undis.
scuta virum cristaeque et inerti spicula ferro
tutelaeque deum fluitant.
Book XIV, lines 540–543
Punica
Book I
The Poems of Ossian, Fingal, an ancient Epic Poem
299
Leaves of Morya’s Garden: Book One (The Call) (1924)
Odes, XXIV.
Variant: The bull by nature hath his horns, The horse his hoofs, to daunt their foes; The light-foot hare the hunter scorns; The lion's teeth his strength disclose.The fish, by swimming, 'scapes the weel; The bird, by flight, the fowler's net; With wisdom man is arm'd as steel; Poor women none of these can get. What have they then?—fair Beauty's grace, A two-edged sword, a trusty shield; No force resists a lovely face, Both fire and sword to Beauty yield.