to assail the ships. His fury was as that of Mars, or as when
a fire is raging in the glades of some dense forest upon the mountains;
he foamed at the mouth, his eyes glared under his terrible eye-brows,
and his helmet quivered on his temples by reason of the fury with which
he fought. Jove from heaven was with him, and though he was but one
against many, vouchsafed him victory and glory; for he was doomed to an
early death, and already Pallas Minerva was hurrying on the hour of his
destruction at the hands of the son of Peleus. Now, however, he kept
trying to break the ranks of the enemy wherever he could see them
thickest, and in the goodliest armour; but do what he might he could
not break through them, for they stood as a tower foursquare, or as
some high cliff rising from the grey sea that braves the anger of the
gale, and of the waves that thunder up against it. He fell upon them
like flames of fire from every quarter. As when a wave, raised mountain
high by wind and storm, breaks over a ship and covers it deep in foam,
the fierce winds roar against the mast, the hearts of the sailors fail
them for fear, and they are saved but by a very little from
destruction--even so were the hearts of the Achaeans fainting within
them. Or as a savage lion attacking a herd of cows while they are
feeding by thousands in the low-lying meadows by some wide-watered
shore--the herdsman is at his wit's end how to protect his herd and
keeps going about now in the van and now in the rear of his cattle,
while the lion springs into the thick of them and fastens on a cow so
that they all tremble for fear--even so were the Achaeans utterly
panic-stricken by Hector and father Jove. Nevertheless Hector only
killed Periphetes of Mycenae; he was son of Copreus who was wont to
take the orders of King Eurystheus to mighty Hercules, but the son was
a far better man than the father in every way; he was fleet of foot, a
valiant warrior, and in understanding ranked among the foremost men of
Mycenae. He it was who then afforded Hector a triumph, for as he was
turning back he stumbled against the rim of his shield which reached
his feet, and served to keep the javelins off him. He tripped against
this and fell face upward, his helmet ringing loudly about his head as
he did so. Hector saw him fall and ran up to him; he then thrust a
spear into his chest, and killed him close to his own comrades. These,
for all their sorrow, could not help him for they we