“Quit ye like men, dear friends; and think it shame To forfeit now the praise of other men; Let each man now his children and his wife, His fortunes and his parents, bear in mind; And not the living only, but the dead; For them, the absent, I, your suppliant, pray, That firm ye stand, and scorn disgraceful flight.” His words fresh courage rous’d in ev’ry breast; And from their eyeballs Pallas purg’d away The film of darkness; and on ev’ry side, Both tow’rd the ships and tow’rd the level fight, Clear light diffus’d; there Hector they discern’d, And all his comrades, those who stood aloof, And those who near the ships maintain’d the war. Then was not Ajax’ mighty soul content To stand where stood the other sons of Greece; Along the vessels’ lofty decks he mov’d With haughty stride; a pond’rous boarding-pike, Well polish’d, and with rivets well secur’d, Of two and twenty cubits’ length, he bore, As one well-skill’d in feats of horsemanship, Who from a troop of horses on the plain Has parted four, and down the crowded road, While men and women all in wonder gaze, Drives tow’rd the city; and with force untir’d From one to other springs, as on they fly; O’er many a vessel’s deck so Ajax pass’d With lofty stride, and voice that reach’d to Heav’n, As loudly shouting on the Greeks he call’d To save their ships and tents: nor Hector stay’d Amid the closely buckler’d Trojan ranks; But, as upon a flock of birds, that feed Beside a river’s bank, or geese, or cranes, Or long-neck’d swans, a fiery eagle swoops; So on the dark-prow’d ship with furious rush Swept Hector down; him Jove with mighty hand Sustain’d, and with him forward urg’d the crowd. Fierce round the ships again the battle rag’d; Well might ye deem no previous toil had worn Their strength, who in that dread encounter met; With edge so keen, and stubborn will they fought. But varying far their hopes and fears: the Greeks Of safety and escape from death despair’d; While high the hopes in ev’ry Trojan’s breast, To burn the ships, and slay the warlike Greeks; So minded each, oppos’d in arms they stood. On a swift-sailing vessel’s stern, that bore Protesilaus to the coast of Troy, But to his native country bore not thence, Hector had laid his hand; around that ship Trojans and Greeks in mutual slaughter join’d. The arrow’s or the jav’lin’s distant flight They waited not, but, fir’d with equal rage, Fought hand to hand, with axe and hatchet keen, And mighty swords, and double-pointed spears. Many a fair-hilted blade, with iron bound, Dropp’d from the hands, or from the sever’d arms, Of warrior chiefs; the dark earth ran with blood: Yet loos’d not Hector of the stern his hold, But grasp’d the poop, and on the Trojans call’d;