re themselves
terribly afraid of Hector.

They had now reached the ships and the prows of those that had been
drawn up first were on every side of them, but the Trojans came pouring
after them. The Argives were driven back from the first row of ships,
but they made a stand by their tents without being broken up and
scattered; shame and fear restrained them. They kept shouting
incessantly to one another, and Nestor of Gerene, tower of strength to
the Achaeans, was loudest in imploring every man by his parents, and
beseeching him to stand firm.

"Be men, my friends," he cried, "and respect one another's good
opinion. Think, all of you, on your children, your wives, your
property, and your parents whether these be alive or dead. On their
behalf though they are not here, I implore you to stand firm, and not
to turn in flight."

With these words he put heart and soul into them all. Minerva lifted
the thick veil of darkness from their eyes, and much light fell upon
them, alike on the side of the ships and on that where the fight was
raging. They could see Hector and all his men, both those in the rear
who were taking no part in the battle, and those who were fighting by
the ships.

Ajax could not bring himself to retreat along with the rest, but strode
from deck to deck with a great sea-pike in his hands twelve cubits long
and jointed with rings. As a man skilled in feats of horsemanship
couples four horses together and comes tearing full speed along the
public way from the country into some large town--many both men and
women marvel as they see him for he keeps all the time changing his
horse, springing from one to another without ever missing his feet
while the horses are at a gallop--even so did Ajax go striding from one
ship's deck to another, and his voice went up into the heavens. He kept
on shouting his orders to the Danaans and exhorting them to defend
their ships and tents; neither did Hector remain within the main body
of the Trojan warriors, but as a dun eagle swoops down upon a flock of
wild-fowl feeding near a river--geese, it may be, or cranes, or
long-necked swans--even so did Hector make straight for a dark-prowed
ship, rushing right towards it; for Jove with his mighty hand impelled
him forward, and roused his people to follow him.

And now the battle again raged furiously at the ships. You would have
thought the men were coming on fresh and unwearied, so fiercely did
they fight; and this was the mind