‘Dear one, I pray thee be not of over-sorrowful heart. No man shall slay me ere the time appointed for my death hath come. Go home and busy thyself with loom and distaff and see to the work of thy maidens. But war is for us men, and of all those who dwell in Troyland, most of all for me.’ So spake Hector, and on his head again he placed his crested helmet. And his wife went home, many times looking back to watch him she loved going forth to battle, with her eyes half blinded by her tears. Not far behind Hector followed Paris, his armour glittering like the sun, and with a laugh on the face that was more full of beauty than that of any other man on earth. Like a noble charger that has broken its bonds and gallops exultingly across the plain, so did Paris stride onward. ‘I fear I have delayed thee,’ he said to his brother when he overtook him. ‘No man can speak lightly of thy courage,’ answered Hector, ‘only thou hast brought shame on thyself by holding back from battle. But now let us go forward, and may the gods give the Greeks into our hands.’ So went Hector and Paris together into battle, and many a Greek fell before them on that day. CHAPTER VI THE FIGHT BETWEEN HECTOR AND AJAX From Olympus did Athene mark with angry heart how Greek after Greek fell dead before the spears of Hector and of Paris. Then did she plot with Apollo, her brother, how best she might discomfit these men of Troy. And into the heart of Hector did they put the wish to make the Trojans and the Greeks cease from battle, while he challenged the bravest Greek of the host to meet him, man to man, in deadly combat. Then did Hector and Agamemnon make the fighting cease, and with gladness did Hector call upon the Greeks to send forth their bravest champion that he might fight with him, hand to hand. ‘If I be slain,’ said Hector, ‘then let the victor despoil me of my armour, but give back my body to my home. And if I slay him who fights with me, then shall his armour be mine. But his body the Greeks shall have, that they may build for him a tomb in their own land, near the sea, so that in the days to come men may look at it as they sail past in their ships and say, “This is the tomb of a man that died in days of old, a champion whom Hector slew.”’ Silent stood the Greeks before him. For they feared to meet him hand to hand, and were ashamed to show their fear. Then up sprang Menelaus, and with scorn of the others he donned his armour. ‘Shame on ye all!’ he cried. ‘I myself will fight with Hector, and the gods will slay that man whom they will to die.’ But Agamemnon would not have it that his brother should fight. ‘This is madness, Menelaus,’ he said. ‘Draw back, though it pains thee, for even Achilles did dread to meet this man in battle, and how much more mighty is Achilles than thou.’