ny
as boast ourselves to be the best in the army, take a stand, if indeed,
opposing, we may at the outset interrupt him, upraising our spears; and
I think that he, although raging, will dread in mind to enter the band
of the Greeks."

Thus he spoke; but all heard him attentively, and obeyed. Those around
the Ajaces and king Idomeneus, Teucer, Meriones, and Meges, equal to
Mars, calling the chiefs together, marshalled their lines against Hector
and the Trojans; whilst the multitude in the rear retreated to the ships
of the Greeks. But the Trojans in close array pressed forward; and
Hector, taking long strides, led the way; but before him walked Phoebus
Apollo, clad as to his shoulders with a cloud,[493] and he held the
mighty, dreadful, fringed,[494] dazzling aegis, which the artist Vulcan
had given to Jove, to be borne along for the routing of men. Holding
this in his hands, he led on the people. But the Greeks remained in
close array, and a shrill shout arose on both sides. [Many] arrows
bounded from the strings, and many spears from gallant hands: some were
fixed in the bodies of warlike youths, but many half way, before they
had touched the fair body, stuck in the earth, longing to satiate
themselves with flesh. As long as Phoebus Apollo held the aegis unmoved in
his hands, so long did the weapons reach both sides, and the people
fell. But when, looking full in the faces of the swift-horsed Greeks, he
shook it, and he himself besides shouted very loudly, then he checked
the courage in their breasts, and they became forgetful of impetuous
valour. But they, as when two wild beasts, in the depth of the dark
night,[495] disturb a drove of oxen or a great flock of sheep, coming
suddenly upon them, the keeper not being present--so the enfeebled
Greeks were routed; for amongst them Apollo sent terror, and gave glory
to the Trojans and to Hector. Then indeed man slew man, when the battle
gave way. Hector slew Stichius and Arcesilaus; the one the leader of the
brazen-mailed Boeotians; but the other the faithful companion of
magnanimous Menestheus. But AEneas slew Medon and Iasus: Medon indeed was
the illegitimate son of godlike Oileus, and brother of Ajax; and he
dwelt in Phylace, away from his father-land, having slain a man, the
brother of his stepmother Eriopis, whom Oileus had betrothed. Iasus,
however, was appointed leader of the Athenians, and was called the son
of Sphelus, the son of Bucolus. But Polydamas slew Mecisti