183At this a happy hope was kindled in the last two, Sergestus and Mnestheus, of passing Gyas as he lagged. 185Sergestus takes the lead and draws near the rock, yet he is not ahead by a whole keel's length; 187he is ahead by part, and the rival Pristis presses on part with her beak. 188But Mnestheus, striding amidships among his comrades themselves, urges them on: 'Now, now rise to the oars, comrades of Hector, whom I chose as companions in Troy's last hour; 191now bring out that strength, now that courage, which you used in the Gaetulian Syrtes, on the Ionian sea and in the pursuing waves of Malea. 194I, Mnestheus, no longer seek first place, nor strive to win; 195and yet, oh!—but let those win to whom you, Neptune, have granted this; 196let it be shameful to come back last; 196win this at least, fellow citizens, and prevent the disgrace.' 197They bend forward with the utmost effort; 198the bronze stern trembles at their mighty strokes, and the sea-floor slips away beneath; 199then quick panting shakes their limbs and parched mouths, and sweat flows everywhere in streams.
201Chance itself brought the men the honour they longed for. 202For while Sergestus, wild at heart, drives his prow on towards the rocks on the inside and enters the dangerous space, unlucky, he stuck fast on the jutting rocks. 205The crags were shaken, the oars, straining against the sharp reef, cracked, and the prow, dashed upon it, hung there. 207The sailors leap up and with loud shouts come to a halt, and get out iron-shod poles and sharp-pointed boathooks, and gather up the broken oars in the flood. 210But Mnestheus, glad and keener for his very success, with a swift sweep of oars and calling on the winds, makes for the sloping waters and runs down the open sea.
213As a dove, suddenly startled from a cave, whose home and sweet nest are in the hollows of the rock, flies off towards the fields and, terrified, gives a loud clapping of wings in her dwelling, then, gliding through the quiet air, skims her liquid path and does not move her swift wings: so Mnestheus, so the Pristis herself cuts through the last stretch of water in her flight, so her very momentum carries her flying. 220And first he leaves behind Sergestus, struggling on the high rock and in the shallows, calling vainly for help and learning to race with broken oars. Then he overtakes Gyas and the Chimaera herself with her huge bulk; 224she gives way, since she is robbed of her helmsman.