it, which made Glaucus leave off fighting. Thereon he sprang
covertly down for fear some of the Achaeans might see that he was
wounded and taunt him. Sarpedon was stung with grief when he saw
Glaucus leave him, still he did not leave off fighting, but aimed
his spear at Alcmaon the son of Thestor and hit him. He drew his
spear back again and Alcmaon came down headlong after it with his
bronzed armour rattling round him. Then Sarpedon seized the
battlement in his strong hands, and tugged at it till it all gave
way together, and a breach was made through which many might
pass.

Ajax and Teucer then both of them attacked him. Teucer hit him
with an arrow on the band that bore the shield which covered his
body, but Jove saved his son from destruction that he might not
fall by the ships' sterns. Meanwhile Ajax sprang on him and
pierced his shield, but the spear did not go clean through,
though it hustled him back that he could come on no further. He
therefore retired a little space from the battlement, yet without
losing all his ground, for he still thought to cover himself with
glory. Then he turned round and shouted to the brave Lycians
saying, "Lycians, why do you thus fail me? For all my prowess I
cannot break through the wall and open a way to the ships
single-handed. Come close on behind me, for the more there are of
us the better."

The Lycians, shamed by his rebuke, pressed closer round him who
was their counsellor and their king. The Argives on their part
got their men in fighting order within the wall, and there was a
deadly struggle between them. The Lycians could not break through
the wall and force their way to the ships, nor could the Danaans
drive the Lycians from the wall now that they had once reached
it. As two men, measuring-rods in hand, quarrel about their
boundaries in a field that they own in common, and stickle for
their rights though they be but in a mere strip, even so did the
battlements now serve as a bone of contention, and they beat one
another's round shields for their possession. Many a man's body
was wounded with the pitiless bronze, as he turned round and
bared his back to the foe, and many were struck clean through
their shields; the wall and battlements were everywhere deluged
with the blood alike of Trojans and of Achaeans. But even so the
Trojans could not rout the Achaeans, who still held on; and as
some honest hard-working woman weighs wool in her balance and
sees that the scales be true, for she would gain some pitiful
earnings for her little ones, even so was the fight balanced
evenly between them till the time came when Jove gave the greater
glory to Hector son of Priam, who was first to spring towards the
wall of the Achaeans. When he had done so, he cried aloud to the
Trojans, "Up, Trojans, break the wall of the Argives, and fling
fire upon their ships."

Thus did he hound them on, and in one body they rushed straight
at the wall as he had bidden them, and scaled the battlements
with sharp spears in their hands. Hector laid hold of a stone
that lay just outside the gates and was thick at one end but
pointed at the other; two of the best men in a town, as men now
are, could hardly raise it from the ground and put it on to a
waggon, but Hector lifted it quite easily by himself, for the son
of scheming Saturn made it light for him. As a shepherd picks up
a ram's fleece with one hand and finds it no burden, so easily
did Hector lift the great stone and drive it right at the doors
that closed the gates so strong and so firmly set. These doors
were double and high, and were kept closed by two cross-bars to
which there was but one key. When he had got close up to them,
Hector strode towards them that his blow might gain in force and
struck them in the middle, leaning his whole weight against them.
He broke both hinges, and the stone fell inside by reason of its
great weight. The portals re-echoed with the sound, the bars held
no longer, and the doors flew open, one one way, and the other
the other, through the force of the blow. Then brave Hector
leaped inside with a face as dark as that of flying night. The
gleaming bronze flashed fiercely about his body and he had two
spears in his hand. None but a god could have withstood him as he
flung himself into the gateway, and his eyes glared like fire.
Then he turned round towards the Trojans and called on them to
scale the wall, and they did as he bade them--some of them at
once climbing over the wall, while others passed through the
gates. The Danaans then fled panic-stricken towards their ships,
and all was uproar and confusion.



BOOK XIII

Neptune helps the Achaeans--The feats of Idomeneus--
Hector at the ships.

NOW when Jove had thus brought Hector and the Trojans to the
ships, he left them to their never-ending toil, and turned his
keen eyes away, looking elsewhither towards the horse-breeders of
Thrace, the Mysians, fighters at close quarters, the noble
Hippemolgi, who live on milk, and the Abians, justest of mankind.
He no longer turned so much as a glance towards Troy, for he did
not think that any of the immortals would go and help either
Trojans or Danaans.

But King Neptune had kept no blind look-out; he had been looking
admiringly on the battle from his seat on the topmost crests of
wooded Samothrace, whence he could see all Ida, with the city of
Priam and the ships of the Achaeans. He had come from under the
sea and taken his place here, for he pitied the Achaeans who were


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