The Preliminaries Were Over…

And so that couple lay, body by body,
dead, in the dirt, together, leaders both,
one of the Thracians, one of the armored Epeians.
And others—many others—were bleeding and dying nearby.
The preliminaries were over; nobody now
could underestimate the mission, no
embedded guest, who toured the scene of combat
untouched, untorn by tools of sharpened bronze,
under official escort of Pallas Athena,
who served as guide, held his hand, deflected
deadly missiles that darted around his head.
For that day many Trojans and many Greeks
stretched in the dirt together, face down, dead.

 [Iliad 4.536-544]