He then took his seat on the top of Pergamus, while murderous
Mars went about among the ranks of the Trojans, cheering them on,
in the likeness of fleet Acamas chief of the Thracians. "Sons of
Priam," said he, "how long will you let your people be thus
slaughtered by the Achaeans? Would you wait till they are at the
walls of Troy? Aeneas the son of Anchises has fallen, he whom we
held in as high honour as Hector himself. Help me, then, to
rescue our brave comrade from the stress of the fight."

With these words he put heart and soul into them all. Then
Sarpedon rebuked Hector very sternly. "Hector," said he, "where
is your prowess now? You used to say that though you had neither
people nor allies you could hold the town alone with your
brothers and brothers-in-law. I see not one of them here; they
cower as hounds before a lion; it is we, your allies, who bear
the brunt of the battle. I have come from afar, even from Lycia
and the banks of the river Xanthus, where I have left my wife, my
infant son, and much wealth to tempt whoever is needy;
nevertheless, I head my Lycian soldiers and stand my ground
against any who would fight me though I have nothing here for the
Achaeans to plunder, while you look on, without even bidding your
men stand firm in defence of their wives. See that you fall not
into the hands of your foes as men caught in the meshes of a net,
and they sack your fair city forthwith. Keep this before your
mind night and day, and beseech the captains of your allies to
hold on without flinching, and thus put away their reproaches
from you."

So spoke Sarpedon, and Hector smarted under his words. He sprang
from his chariot clad in his suit of armour, and went about among
the host brandishing his two spears, exhorting the men to fight
and raising the terrible cry of battle. Then they rallied and
again faced the Achaeans, but the Argives stood compact and firm,
and were not driven back. As the breezes sport with the chaff
upon some goodly threshing-floor, when men are winnowing--while
yellow Ceres blows with the wind to sift the chaff from the
grain, and the chaff-heaps grow whiter and whiter--even so did
the Achaeans whiten in the dust which the horses' hoofs raised to
the firmament of heaven, as their drivers turned them back to
battle, and they bore down with might upon the foe. Fierce Mars,
to help the Trojans, covered them in a veil of darkness, and went
about everywhere among them, inasmuch as Phoebus Apollo had told
him that when he saw Pallas, Minerva leave the fray he was to put
courage into the hearts of the Trojans--for it was she who was
helping the Danaans. Then Apollo sent Aeneas forth from his rich
sanctuary, and filled his heart with valour, whereon he took his
place among his comrades, who were overjoyed at seeing him alive,
sound, and of a good courage; but they could not ask him how it
had all happened, for they were too busy with the turmoil raised
by Mars and by Strife, who raged insatiably in their midst.

The two Ajaxes, Ulysses and Diomed, cheered the Danaans on,
fearless of the fury and onset of the Trojans. They stood as
still as clouds which the son of Saturn has spread upon the
mountain tops when there is no air and fierce Boreas sleeps with
the other boisterous winds whose shrill blasts scatter the clouds
in all directions--even so did the Danaans stand firm and
unflinching against the Trojans. The son of Atreus went about
among them and exhorted them. "My friends," said he, "quit
yourselves like brave men, and shun dishonour in one another's
eyes amid the stress of battle. They that shun dishonour more
often live than get killed, but they that fly save neither life
nor name."

As he spoke he hurled his spear and hit one of those who were in
the front rank, the comrade of Aeneas, Deicoon son of Pergasus,
whom the Trojans held in no less honour than the sons of Priam,
for he was ever quick to place himself among the foremost. The
spear of King Agamemnon struck his shield and went right through
it, for the shield stayed it not. It drove through his belt into
the lower part of his belly, and his armour rang rattling round
him as he fell heavily to the ground.

Then Aeneas killed two champions of the Danaans, Crethon and
Orsilochus. Their father was a rich man who lived in the strong
city of Phere and was descended from the river Alpheus, whose
broad stream flows through the land of the Pylians. The river
begat Orsilochus, who ruled over much people and was father to
Diocles, who in his turn begat twin sons, Crethon and Orsilochus,
well skilled in all the arts of war. These, when they grew up,
went to Ilius with the Argive fleet in the cause of Menelaus and
Agamemnon sons of Atreus, and there they both of them fell. As
two lions whom their dam has reared in the depths of some
mountain forest to plunder homesteads and carry off sheep and
cattle till they get killed by the hand of man, so were these two
vanquished by Aeneas, and fell like high pine-trees to the
ground.

Brave Menelaus pitied them in their fall, and made his way to the
front, clad in gleaming bronze and brandishing his spear, for
Mars egged him on to do so with intent that he should be killed
by Aeneas; but Antilochus the son of Nestor saw him and sprang
forward, fearing that the king might come to harm and thus bring
all their labour to nothing; when, therefore Aeneas and Menelaus
were setting their hands and spears against one another eager to
do battle, Antilochus placed himself by the side of Menelaus.
Aeneas, bold though he was, drew back on seeing the two heroes
side by side in front of him, so they drew the bodies of Crethon
and Orsilochus to the ranks of the Achaeans and committed the two
poor fellows into the hands of their comrades. They then turned


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