Note 12 — Chapter XLV · THE DAY OF EPAMINONDAS
Reading edition
[These are Hector’s words in the Iliad, XII, 243. The omens having been unfavourable, Polydamas warns him not to fight, but the “crest-tossing Hector” answers scornfully as above, “The best omen of all is to defend the fatherland,” and so saying he assailed the Greeks with more than common success.]