stripped away from above, and he
formed a way for many. Then Ajax and Teucer aiming at him together, the
one smote him with an arrow in the splendid belt of his mortal-girding
shield, around his breast; but Jove averted the fate from his son, that
he might not be slain at the sterns of the ships. But Ajax, springing
upon him, struck his shield, and pierced him quite through with his
spear, and forcibly checked him eager. And then he fell back for a
little from the buttress, but did not altogether retreat, because his
spirit hoped to bear off glory. And turning round, he encouraged the
godlike Lycians:

"O Lycians, why are ye thus remiss in your impetuous force? It is
difficult for me, although being brave, having alone burst through, to
form a way to the ships. But follow along with me; for the labour of the
greater number is better."

Thus he spake; and they, reverencing the exhortation of their king,
pressed on with more alacrity round their counsel-giving king. And the
Greeks, on the other side, strengthened their phalanxes within the wall,
because a great work presented itself to them. For neither could the
gallant Lycians, bursting through the wall of the Greeks, make their way
to the ships, nor could the warlike Greeks repulse the Lycians from the
wall, since first they approached it. But as two men, holding measures
in their hands, dispute, in a common field,[407] concerning their
boundaries, who in a small space contend for their equitable right; thus
did the buttresses separate these [warriors], and, for them, each smote
the well-rounded ox-hide shields around each other's breasts, and the
light bucklers of each other. And many were wounded upon the body with
the merciless brass, whether the back of any combatant, averted, was
laid bare, and many right through the shield itself. Everywhere the
towers and buttresses were sprinkled, on both sides, with the blood of
heroes, from the Trojans and the Greeks. Yet not even thus could they
cause a flight of the Greeks, but they held themselves, as a just woman,
who labours with her hands, does the scales,[408] who, poising both the
weight and the wool, draws them on either side to equalize them, that
she may procure a scanty pittance for the support of her children. Thus
equally was their battle and war extended, before the time when Jove
gave superior glory to Hector, the son of Priam, who first leaped within
the wall of the Greeks, and shouted with a penetrating voi