Thus he; the Greeks with pain his vaunting heard; But chief it rous’d the spirit within the breast Of Peneleus; on Acamas he sprang, Who waited not th’ encounter; next he slew Ilioneus, the son of Phorbas, Lord Of num’rous flocks, of all the Trojans most Belov’d of Hermes, who his wealth increas’d. To him Ilioneus, an only son, His mother bore; who now, beneath the brow And through the socket of the eye was struck, Thrusting the eyeball out; for through the eye, And backward through the head, the spear was driv’n: With hands extended, down to earth he sank; But Peneleus his weighty sword let fall Full on his neck; the sever’d head and helm Together fell, remaining still infix’d The sturdy spear; then he, the gory head Uplifting, to the Trojans vaunting cried: “Go now, ye Trojans! bid that in the house Of brave Ilioneus his parents raise The voice of wailing for their gallant son; As neither shall the wife of Promachus, The son of Alegenor, with glad smile Her husband’s coming hail, when home from Troy We sons of Greece, with vict’ry crown’d, return.” Thus as he spoke, pale fear possess’d them all, Each looking round to seek escape from death. Say now, ye Nine, who on Olympus dwell, Who, when th’ Earth-shaker turn’d the tide of war, First bore away his foeman’s bloody spoils? Great Ajax Telamon first Hyrtius smote, The son of Gyrtius, who to battle led The warlike Mysians; next Antilochus From Mermerus and Phalces stripp’d their arms; Meriones Hippotion gave to death, And Morys; Teucer Periphetes slew, And Prothoon; Menelaus, through the flank Smote Hyperenor; as the grinding spear Drain’d all his vitals, through the gaping wound His spirit escap’d, and darkness clos’d his eyes. But chiefest slaughter of the Trojans wrought Oileus’ active son; of all the Greeks No foot so swift as his, when Jove had fill’d Their souls with fear, to chase the flying foe. ARGUMENT. THE FIFTH BATTLE, AT THE SHIPS; AND THE ACTS OF AJAX. Jupiter, awaking, sees the Trojans repulsed from the trenches, Hector in a swoon, and Neptune at the head of the Greeks; he is highly incensed at the artifice of Juno, who appeases him by her submissions; she is then sent to Iris and Apollo. Juno, repairing to the assembly of the gods, attempts with extraordinary address to incense them against Jupiter; in particular she touches Mars with a violent resentment; he is ready to take arms, but is prevented by Minerva. Iris and Apollo obey the orders of Jupiter; Iris commands Neptune to leave the battle, to which, after much reluctance and passion, he consents. Apollo reinspires Hector with vigour, brings him back to the battle, marches before him with his aegis, and turns the fortune of the fight. He breaks down the first part of the Grecian wall; the Trojans rush in, and attempt to fire the first line of the fleet, but are yet repelled by the greater Ajax with a prodigious slaughter. BOOK XV.