Then Hector, leaping with a dreadful shout From his resplendent chariot, grasp’d a stone, And rush’d on Teucer, vengeance in his heart.370 Teucer had newly fitted to the nerve An arrow keen selected from the rest, And warlike Hector, while he stood the cord Retracting, smote him with that rugged rock Just where the key-bone interposed divides375 The neck and bosom, a most mortal part. It snapp’d the bow-string, and with numbing force Struck dead his hand; low on his knees he dropp’d, And from his opening grasp let fall the bow. Then not unmindful of a brother fallen380 Was Ajax, but, advancing rapid, stalk’d Around him, and his broad shield interposed, Till brave Alaster and Mecisteus, son Of Echius, friends of Teucer, from the earth Upraised and bore him groaning to the fleet.385 And now again fresh force Olympian Jove Gave to the Trojans; right toward the foss They drove the Greeks, while Hector in the van Advanced, death menacing in every look. As some fleet hound close-threatening flank or haunch390 Of boar or lion, oft as he his head Turns flying, marks him with a steadfast eye, So Hector chased the Grecians, slaying still The hindmost of the scatter’d multitude. But when, at length, both piles and hollow foss395 They had surmounted, and no few had fallen By Trojan hands, within their fleet they stood Imprison’d, calling each to each, and prayer With lifted hands, loud offering to the Gods. With Gorgon looks, meantime, and eyes of Mars,400 Hector impetuous his mane-tossing steeds From side to side before the rampart drove, When white-arm’d Juno pitying the Greeks, In accents wing’d her speech to Pallas turn’d. Alas, Jove’s daughter! shall not we at least405 In this extremity of their distress Care for the Grecians by the fatal force Of this one Chief destroy’d? I can endure The rage of Priameïan Hector now No longer; such dire mischiefs he hath wrought.410 Whom answer’d thus Pallas, cærulean-eyed. —And Hector had himself long since his life Resign’d and rage together, by the Greeks Slain under Ilium’s walls, but Jove, my sire, Mad counsels executing and perverse,415 Me counterworks in all that I attempt, Nor aught remembers how I saved ofttimes His son enjoin’d full many a task severe By King Eurystheus; to the Gods he wept, And me Jove sent in haste to his relief.420 But had I then foreseen what now I know, When through the adamantine gates he pass’d To bind the dog of hell, by the deep floods Hemm’d in of Styx, he had return’d no more. But Thetis wins him now; her will prevails,425 And mine he hates; for she hath kiss’d his knees And grasp’d his beard, and him in prayer implored That he would honor her heroic son Achilles, city-waster prince renown’d. ’Tis well—the day shall come when Jove again430 Shall call me darling, and his blue-eyed maid As heretofore;—but thou thy steeds prepare, While I, my father’s mansion entering, arm For battle. I would learn by trial sure, If Hector, Priam’s offspring famed in fight435