t yet his camp,
Resentful; but of him small need, I judge, 445
Should here be felt, could once the rest be roused
To mutual aid. Act, then, as I advise.
The best and broadest bucklers of the host,
And brightest helmets put we on, and arm'd
With longest spears, advance; myself will lead; 450
And trust me, furious though he be, the son
Of Priam flies. Ye then who feel your hearts
Undaunted, but are arm'd with smaller shields,
Them give to those who fear, and in exchange
Their stronger shields and broader take yourselves. 455
So he, whom, unreluctant, all obey'd.
Then, wounded as they were, themselves the Kings,
Tydides, Agamemnon and Ulysses
Marshall'd the warriors, and from rank to rank
Made just exchange of arms, giving the best 460
To the best warriors, to the worse, the worst.
And now in brazen armor all array'd
Refulgent on they moved, by Neptune led
With firm hand grasping his long-bladed sword
Keen as Jove's bolt; with him may none contend 465
In dreadful fight; but fear chains every arm.
Opposite, Priameian Hector ranged
His Trojans; then they stretch'd the bloody cord
Of conflict tight, Neptune coerulean-hair'd,
And Hector, pride of Ilium; one, the Greeks 470
Supporting firm, and one, the powers of Troy;
A sea-flood dash'd the galleys, and the hosts
Join'd clamorous. Not so the billows roar
The shores among, when Boreas' roughest blast
Sweeps landward from the main the towering surge; 475
Not so, devouring fire among the trees
That clothe the mountain, when the sheeted flames
Ascending wrap the forest in a blaze;
Nor howl the winds through leafy boughs of oaks
Upgrown aloft (though loudest there they rave) 480
With sounds so awful as were heard of Greeks
And Trojans shouting when the clash began.
At Ajax, first (for face to face they stood)
Illustrious Hector threw a spear well-aim'd,
But smote him where the belts that bore his shield 485
And falchion cross'd each other on his breast.
The double guard preserved him unannoy'd.
Indignant that his spear had bootless flown,
Yet fearing death at hand, the Trojan Chief
Toward the phalanx of his friends retired. 490
But, as he went, huge Ajax with a stone
Of those which propp'd the ships (for numerous