with the jagged stone as he was
taking aim and drawing the string to his shoulder; he hit him just
where the collar-bone divides the neck from the chest, a very deadly
place, and broke the sinew of his arm so that his wrist was less, and
the bow dropped from his hand as he fell forward on his knees. Ajax saw
that his brother had fallen, and running towards him bestrode him and
sheltered him with his shield. Meanwhile his two trusty squires,
Mecisteus son of Echius, and Alastor, came up and bore him to the ships
groaning in his great pain.

Jove now again put heart into the Trojans, and they drove the Achaeans
to their deep trench with Hector in all his glory at their head. As a
hound grips a wild boar or lion in flank or buttock when he gives him
chase, and watches warily for his wheeling, even so did Hector follow
close upon the Achaeans, ever killing the hindmost as they rushed
panic-stricken onwards. When they had fled through the set stakes and
trench and many Achaeans had been laid low at the hands of the Trojans,
they halted at their ships, calling upon one another and praying every
man instantly as they lifted up their hands to the gods; but Hector
wheeled his horses this way and that, his eyes glaring like those of
Gorgo or murderous Mars.

Juno when she saw them had pity upon them, and at once said to Minerva,
"Alas, child of aegis-bearing Jove, shall you and I take no more
thought for the dying Danaans, though it be the last time we ever do
so? See how they perish and come to a bad end before the onset of but a
single man. Hector the son of Priam rages with intolerable fury, and
has already done great mischief."

Minerva answered, "Would, indeed, this fellow might die in his own
land, and fall by the hands of the Achaeans; but my father Jove is mad
with spleen, ever foiling me, ever headstrong and unjust. He forgets
how often I saved his son when he was worn out by the labours
Eurystheus had laid on him. He would weep till his cry came up to
heaven, and then Jove would send me down to help him; if I had had the
sense to foresee all this, when Eurystheus sent him to the house of
Hades, to fetch the hell-hound from Erebus, he would never have come
back alive out of the deep waters of the river Styx. And now Jove hates
me, while he lets Thetis have her way because she kissed his knees and
took hold of his beard, when she was begging him to do honour to
Achilles. I shall know what to do next time he begins cal