485At once Aeneas invites any who might wish to compete with the swift arrow, and sets out prizes, and with his mighty hand raises the mast from Serestus' ship, and from the top of the mast hangs a fluttering dove on a cord passed through, as a target for their iron. 490The men gathered, and a bronze helmet received the lots thrown in; 491and first of all, to favouring shouts, comes out the lot of Hippocoon, son of Hyrtacus; 493whom Mnestheus follows, just now victor in the ship contest, Mnestheus wreathed with green olive. 495Third Eurytion, your brother, most famous Pandarus, you who once, ordered to break the truce, were the first to hurl a spear into the midst of the Achaeans.
498Last, at the bottom of the helmet, sank Acestes, he too daring to try his hand at the young men's task. 500Then with powerful strength the men bend their curving bows, each for himself, and take arrows from their quivers. 502First through the sky, the string whistling, the arrow of the young son of Hyrtacus cleaves the fleeting air; 504and it arrives, and lodges in the wood of the mast opposite. 505The mast quivered, the bird fluttered its wings in terror, and everything resounded with loud applause. 507Next keen Mnestheus stood with bow drawn, aiming high, and levelled eye and arrow together. 509But, poor man, he could not strike the bird itself with the iron: he broke the knots and the linen cords by which she hung, tied by the foot, from the high mast: she flew off towards the south winds and the high clouds.
513Then swiftly Eurytion, who had long been holding his arrow ready on the drawn bow, called upon his brother in prayer, and, spotting the dove now rejoicing in the empty sky, as she clapped her wings, pierces her beneath a black cloud. 517She fell down lifeless, left her life among the stars of heaven, and, falling, brings back the arrow that pierced her.