longest spears in our hands; I will lead you on, and Hector
son of Priam, rage as he may, will not dare to hold out against us. If
any good staunch soldier has only a small shield, let him hand it over
to a worse man, and take a larger one for himself."

Thus did he speak, and they did even as he had said. The son of Tydeus,
Ulysses, and Agamemnon, wounded though they were, set the others in
array, and went about everywhere effecting the exchanges of armour; the
most valiant took the best armour, and gave the worse to the worse man.
When they had donned their bronze armour they marched on with Neptune
at their head. In his strong hand he grasped his terrible sword, keen
of edge and flashing like lightning; woe to him who comes across it in
the day of battle; all men quake for fear and keep away from it.

Hector on the other side set the Trojans in array. Thereon Neptune and
Hector waged fierce war on one another--Hector on the Trojan and
Neptune on the Argive side. Mighty was the uproar as the two forces
met; the sea came rolling in towards the ships and tents of the
Achaeans, but waves do not thunder on the shore more loudly when driven
before the blast of Boreas, nor do the flames of a forest fire roar
more fiercely when it is well alight upon the mountains, nor does the
wind bellow with ruder music as it tears on through the tops of when it
is blowing its hardest, than the terrible shout which the Trojans and
Achaeans raised as they sprang upon one another.

Hector first aimed his spear at Ajax, who was turned full towards him,
nor did he miss his aim. The spear struck him where two bands passed
over his chest--the band of his shield and that of his silver-studded
sword--and these protected his body. Hector was angry that his spear
should have been hurled in vain, and withdrew under cover of his men.
As he was thus retreating, Ajax son of Telamon, struck him with a
stone, of which there were many lying about under the men's feet as
they fought--brought there to give support to the ships' sides as they
lay on the shore. Ajax caught up one of them and struck Hector above
the rim of his shield close to his neck; the blow made him spin round
like a top and reel in all directions. As an oak falls headlong when
uprooted by the lightning flash of father Jove, and there is a terrible
smell of brimstone--no man can help being dismayed if he is standing
near it, for a thunderbolt is a very awful thing--even so did Hector
fal