ent through two layers, but the god had made the shield in
five, two of bronze, the two innermost ones of tin, and one of gold; it
was in this that the spear was stayed.

Achilles in his turn threw, and struck the round shield of Aeneas at
the very edge, where the bronze was thinnest; the spear of Pelian ash
went clean through, and the shield rang under the blow; Aeneas was
afraid, and crouched backwards, holding the shield away from him; the
spear, however, flew over his back, and stuck quivering in the ground,
after having gone through both circles of the sheltering shield. Aeneas
though he had avoided the spear, stood still, blinded with fear and
grief because the weapon had gone so near him; then Achilles sprang
furiously upon him, with a cry as of death and with his keen blade
drawn, and Aeneas seized a great stone, so huge that two men, as men
now are, would be unable to lift it, but Aeneas wielded it quite easily.

Aeneas would then have struck Achilles as he was springing towards him,
either on the helmet, or on the shield that covered him, and Achilles
would have closed with him and despatched him with his sword, had not
Neptune lord of the earthquake been quick to mark, and said forthwith
to the immortals, "Alas, I am sorry for great Aeneas, who will now go
down to the house of Hades, vanquished by the son of Peleus. Fool that
he was to give ear to the counsel of Apollo. Apollo will never save him
from destruction. Why should this man suffer when he is guiltless, to
no purpose, and in another's quarrel? Has he not at all times offered
acceptable sacrifice to the gods that dwell in heaven? Let us then
snatch him from death's jaws, lest the son of Saturn be angry should
Achilles slay him. It is fated, moreover, that he should escape, and
that the race of Dardanus, whom Jove loved above all the sons born to
him of mortal women, shall not perish utterly without seed or sign. For
now indeed has Jove hated the blood of Priam, while Aeneas shall reign
over the Trojans, he and his children's children that shall be born
hereafter."

Then answered Juno, "Earth-shaker, look to this matter yourself, and
consider concerning Aeneas, whether you will save him, or suffer him,
brave though he be, to fall by the hand of Achilles son of Peleus. For
of a truth we two, I and Pallas Minerva, have sworn full many a time
before all the immortals, that never would we shield Trojans from
destruction, not even when all Troy is burning