had done so, he
cried aloud to the Trojans, "Up, Trojans, break the wall of the
Argives, and fling fire upon their ships."

Thus did he hound them on, and in one body they rushed straight at the
wall as he had bidden them, and scaled the battlements with sharp
spears in their hands. Hector laid hold of a stone that lay just
outside the gates and was thick at one end but pointed at the other;
two of the best men in a town, as men now are, could hardly raise it
from the ground and put it on to a waggon, but Hector lifted it quite
easily by himself, for the son of scheming Saturn made it light for
him. As a shepherd picks up a ram's fleece with one hand and finds it
no burden, so easily did Hector lift the great stone and drive it right
at the doors that closed the gates so strong and so firmly set. These
doors were double and high, and were kept closed by two cross-bars to
which there was but one key. When he had got close up to them, Hector
strode towards them that his blow might gain in force and struck them
in the middle, leaning his whole weight against them. He broke both
hinges, and the stone fell inside by reason of its great weight. The
portals re-echoed with the sound, the bars held no longer, and the
doors flew open, one one way, and the other the other, through the
force of the blow. Then brave Hector leaped inside with a face as dark
as that of flying night. The gleaming bronze flashed fiercely about his
body and he had two spears in his hand. None but a god could have
withstood him as he flung himself into the gateway, and his eyes glared
like fire. Then he turned round towards the Trojans and called on them
to scale the wall, and they did as he bade them--some of them at once
climbing over the wall, while others passed through the gates. The
Danaans then fled panic-stricken towards their ships, and all was
uproar and confusion.

BOOK XIII

Neptune helps the Achaeans--The feats of Idomeneus--Hector at
the ships.

NOW when Jove had thus brought Hector and the Trojans to the ships, he
left them to their never-ending toil, and turned his keen eyes away,
looking elsewhither towards the horse-breeders of Thrace, the Mysians,
fighters at close quarters, the noble Hippemolgi, who live on milk, and
the Abians, justest of mankind. He no longer turned so much as a glance
towards Troy, for he did not think that any of the immortals would go
and help either Trojans or Danaans.

But King Neptune had kept no