The poor youth’s heart and knees trembled. He spread out his arms, shut his eyes, and thus received the death stroke. Then Achilles seized him by the feet and flung him far out into the river. “There! Swim among the fish,” he cried. “Many a one shall feed on Lykaon. Thus I shall pursue ye all, until ye have atoned for Patroclus’ death and the woe of the Achaians.” But the river god who heard this blasphemy was angered. Asteropæus, son of Pelegon, was still standing in the water and Scamander breathed courage into him. He was practised in casting with both hands and Achilles saw him advancing with two raised spears. He shouted to him: “Who art thou, rash man? Unhappy are the parents of those who contend with me!” “What wouldst thou know of me, great Pelide?” he answered. “I came from distant Pæonia with a gallant army but eleven days ago. Now let us fight, valiant Achilles.” With these words he let fly both lances at once upon the hero. One of them rebounded harmlessly from the shield, the other brushed his left elbow and buried itself in the sand. And now Achilles swung his bloody staff, but missed aim also, and his lance struck the sandy bank on the other side of the river. Angrily he sprang into the water with drawn sword, and striding powerfully through the waves, he approached the unlucky Asteropæus, who was trying in vain to secure Achilles’ lance. Before he could do so the hero felled him, and he sank down unconscious. “Ah,” he cried joyously, “thou couldst scarcely contend with a man of Jupiter’s divine race, although thy ancestor was a river god.” Achilles drew his spear out of the earth and left the dying man gasping at the water’s edge. He threw himself next upon a troop of Pæonians and drove them into the stream. Those who would not go of their own accord he thrust down into a watery grave. Then from the depths of the stream he heard the voice of the river god: “O Achilles, thou art superhuman in thy fury and the gods are always with thee. But I warn thee, that if Jupiter hath given the Trojans into thy hand this day, murder where thou wilt, but do not pollute my waters, for my stream is already glutted with the dead, and even now I can scarce flow down into the holy sea. Therefore forbear!” Achilles heard the warning unmoved and replied: “It shall be as thou sayest, divine Scamander, but I shall never stop destroying the Trojans until I have fought the last decisive battle with Hector.”