friend, and with an old man, Phoenix, to advise him; and his mother gave
him the glorious armour that the God had made for his father, and the
heavy ashen spear that none but he could wield, and he sailed to join
the host of the Achaeans, who all praised and thanked Ulysses that had
found for them such a prince. For Achilles was the fiercest fighter of
them all, and the swiftest-footed man, and the most courteous prince,
and the gentlest with women and children, but he was proud and high of
heart, and when he was angered his anger was terrible.

The Trojans would have had no chance against the Greeks if only the men
of the city of Troy had fought to keep Helen of the fair hands. But they
had allies, who spoke different languages, and came to fight for them
both from Europe and from Asia. On the Trojan as well as on the Greek
side were people called Pelasgians, who seem to have lived on both
shores of the sea. There were Thracians, too, who dwelt much further
north than Achilles, in Europe and beside the strait of Hellespont,
where the narrow sea runs like a river. There were warriors of Lycia,
led by Sarpedon and Glaucus; there were Carians, who spoke in a strange
tongue; there were Mysians and men from Alybe, which was called 'the
birthplace of silver,' and many other peoples sent their armies, so that
the war was between Eastern Europe, on one side, and Western Asia Minor
on the other. The people of Egypt took no part in the war: the Greeks
and Islesmen used to come down in their ships and attack the Egyptians
as the Danes used to invade England. You may see the warriors from the
islands, with their horned helmets, in old Egyptian pictures.

The commander-in-chief, as we say now, of the Trojans was Hector, the
son of Priam. He was thought a match for any one of the Greeks, and was
brave and good. His brothers also were leaders, but Paris preferred to
fight from a distance with bow and arrows. He and Pandarus, who dwelt on
the slopes of Mount Ida, were the best archers in the Trojan army. The
princes usually fought with heavy spears, which they threw at each
other, and with swords, leaving archery to the common soldiers who had
no armour of bronze. But Teucer, Meriones, and Ulysses were the best
archers of the Achaeans. People called Dardanians were led by Aeneas,
who was said to be the son of the most beautiful of the goddesses.
These, with Sarpedon and Glaucus, were the most famous of the men who
fought for Troy.