Mars, coming amongst them,
would have found fault with, nor Minerva, the confounder of armies; for
the bravest selected awaited the Trojans and noble Hector; knitting
spear with spear, shield with shield,[416] one upon another,[417] so
that shield pressed upon shield, helmet upon helmet, and man upon man.
And the horse-haired helmets of them, nodding, touched each other with
their splendid ridges,[418] so closely stood they to one another; and
spears in the act of being hurled, were brandishing from their daring
hands, whilst they wished [to go] straight [against the enemy], and were
eager to fight. But the combined Trojans first made the attack, and
impetuous Hector first rushed against them: as a destructively-rolling
stone from a rock, which a wintry torrent drives down the brow, having
burst with a mighty shower the stays of the rugged rock, and bounding
along, it rolls, and the forest resounds beneath it: but straightway it
runs on uninterruptedly until it reach the plain, but then it rolls no
longer, though impelled; so Hector for a while threatened that he would
easily come as far as the sea, to the tents and ships of the Greeks,
slaughtering. But when now he met the firm phalanxes, he stopped, being
come into close contact; and the sons of the Greeks, opposing, repulsed
him from them, striking him with their swords and two-edged spears; but
retiring, he was compelled to withdraw; and he cried out shouting
audibly to the Trojans:

"Ye Trojans and Lycians, and close-fighting Dardanians, stand firm. Not
long will the Greeks withstand me, although they have drawn themselves
up in very dense array.[419] But, I conceive, they will retire from my
spear, if in truth the most powerful of the gods, the high-thundering
husband of Juno, hath urged me on."

[Footnote 416: See the learned remarks of Duport, p. 76, sq. To
quote parallel passages would be endless.]

[Footnote 417: Literally, "from the roots." So [Greek:
oichetai--prothelumna], Tryphiodor. 388. Cf. Alberti on Hesych.
t. ii. p. 1029; Apoll. Lex. p. 676.]

[Footnote 418: See Buttm. Lexil. p. 523. The [Greek: phalos]
formed a socket for the plume.]

[Footnote 419: Lit. "tower-wise," forming a solid square.]

So saying, he aroused the might and courage of each. But Deiphobus, the
son of Priam, walked amongst them, high-minded, and he held his shield
equal on all sides before him, proceeding with light step, and advancing
under protect